Almost Silence - Ice & Stone 4 on Rattlesnake Creek, Greenough Park, Missoula, Montana

“He didn't hear anything except flakes settling on pine and hemlock needles, a sound that was almost, but not quite, silence.”

-from Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Spring Of A Poem, Perhaps - Missoula, Montana

"The silence - for the sound of birds and sea adds up to silence as beautifully as we ever know if in the noisy world of today - together with the sweetly moving air, and the scents of thyme and bell-heather and sun-warmed bracken, all combined to distill something very potent. It was the sort of time and place where one might have expected an idea, the spring of a poem, to well up from the quiet and the beauty."
- From The Stormy Petrel, p 102, by Mary Stewart (1916-2014)

Tree Song - Missoula, Montana

"A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. 
But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent,
 their songs never cease."

- John Muir (1838-1914)

Amid Noise And Haste - Missoula, Montana

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence."

- from Desiderata by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945)


A worthwhile reminder for a new year. 
Happy 2017.

Sweet Words - Missoula, Montana

"Silence, a silence that breathed kindness, the silence of a woman wrapping herself in a man's kind words as if in an expensive fur. And at last, very sweetly, very courageously for someone as formalistic as her, she said, 'I wanted to hear your voice, too.' - From Traitors To All, p 139-140,  by Giorgio Scerbanenco (1911-1969), The Godfather of Italian Noir

(In case you hadn't noticed, Valentine's Day candy is already out in stores. And I must say, some of the new candy heart messages are rather odd. But sweet words are never out of season.)

Majestic Silence, Glacier National Park, Montana

“How could there be so much silence? How could the invisible ligaments that bound the sky to the earth not creak in intense effort as least once in a while?”
- Ivan Doig, “Dancing At the Rascal Fair”, p. 334