Focus Further - Kootenai Creek, Stevensville, Montana

“It is never quite safe to think we have done with life. When we imagine we have finished our story, fate has a trick of turning the page and showing us yet another chapter.” - L. M. Montgomery (1874-1942), Rainbow Valley, chapter 13

Rushing Stream - Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

“The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.”

- George Eliot (1819-1880) from Janet’s Repentance, chapter 5, in collection Scenes Of Clerical Life, free at this Gutenberg Project link

Small Things - Missoula, Montana

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."

-Mother Theresa (aka Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, 1910-1997)

Tempting Sunbeams - Missoula, Montana

“Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.”  Robert Orben


(I'm lately tempted by glimmers of sunshine glimpsed through the sliver of window near my workspace - or backlighting miniature, mossy worlds, as pictured here. 
Definitely want this temptation to stay in touch.)

Delicious Autumn! - Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

Seeing as it's technically not yet winter...

"Delicious autumn! 

My very soul is wedded to it, 

and if I were a bird 

I would fly about the earth 

seeking the successive autumns."

-George Eliot (1819-1880)

Moss And Timber - Garnet Ghost Town, Montana

"...Well quit of the world,
I framed a house of moss and timber,
called it a home,
and sat in the warm evenings
singing to myself as a man sings
when he knows there is
no one to hear..."

- from Poem of the Forgotten by John Haines (1924-2011)

A big "thank you" to word-weaver Will Nixon for sharing this cabin poem - and two others, including one of his own crafting - at his site.

Small World Garden - Missoula, Montana

"The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit - this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden." 

- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832)

Stonefly Molt - Missoula, Montana

"Stoneflies aren’t pretty… until the trout start eating them with abandon..."  - Tom Chandler

Distant Bridge - Missoula, Montana

"Eons ago, the creative genius of God foresaw that it would take the shattered pieces of my ‘yesterday’ to construct the sturdy portal to my ‘tomorrow." 

- Craig D. Lounsbrough, from 

Flecks of Gold on a Path of Stone: Simple Truths for Profound Living

Riverbank Moss Sprouts - Turah, Montana

"Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing." - Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, Ch.1

Existing Moss - Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

“It is enough that things exist for God to be unavoidable. Let us but grant to a bit of moss or the smallest ant its due nature as an ontological reality, and we can no longer escape the terrifying hand that made us.” - Jacques Maritain (1882-1973)

Mossy Rockness - Superior, Montana

Happy Canada Day!  
(Just a freebie - nothing to do with today's photo.)

In case yesterday's hammock deliciousness didn't paint you green as this river rock moss (or maybe it's river weed?), here's a post-hammock view that required my feet to be in the cool, clear water - and almost my phone for the camera angle! (Did I mention that western Montana is a great summer vacation destination?)

Softly Singing - Missoula, Montana

"A good river is nature's life work in song." - Mark Helprin, Freddy and Fredericka

Greening Patches - Missoula, Montana

"Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience." - C.S. Lewis, Letters To Malcolm

Quietly Mossy - Missoula, Montana

"The rolling stone rolls echoing from rock to rock; but the rolling stone is dead. The moss is silent because the moss is alive."-Gilbert Keith Chesterton 

Moss Centred Heart - Missoula, Montana

"We spend this life looking for a centre, a place where we can suspend without a wobble. The specific coordinates are elusive, scalable only by the heart." - Michael Perry, Population:485, p. 202 

And that wraps up this week's serendipitous nature hearts series!

Lichen Love - Missoula, Montana

"...lichen (tiny but relentless!)..."
Quote from A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson
 
Another wee nature heart, this one found with a lacey collar.
 
In case you didn't notice, I've got a theme going towards Valentine's Day.  Tune in tomorrow for the next installation!
 

Geared Down - Missoula, Montana

If you're gearing up for a romantic Valentine's Day (this Saturday, people), check out the luscious love poetry Janet's posted this week at Another Porch. 

A small sample to whet your appetite: 

"Surge of something sacred and sweet

Stuns her; spills summer-slow, sigh-soft

Whispers wake wellsprings where want wafts

Wild within to a boom-boom beat..."

-  from "Ah, Love" by Janet Martin

Just like chocolate, you'll want more. 

Click here to keep feeding.