Light Wind Water Stones - Bitterroot River, Blodgett Rotary Park, Hamilton, Montana

“... I take what is: 

The light beats on the stones, 

the wind over water shines 

Like long grass through the trees...”

- from “The Words” by David Wagoner (1926-2021)

Bitterroot River Dusk - Blodgett Rotary Park, Hamilton, Montana

Yesterday evening's Bitterroot River ramble conjured fond thoughts of Ratty and Mole.

"Then they got out their boat from the boat-house, sculled down the river home, and at a very late hour sat down to supper in their own cosy riverside parlour, to the Rat's great joy and contentment." - The Wind in the Willows, Ch 2, 

by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)

Tansy At Twilight - Maclay Flat, Missoula, Montana

Pack in a lawn chair and sit awhile, cool your dusty, summer-hot feet in the Bitterroot River, maybe even at this same perfect spot on Maclay Flat just south of Missoula, Montana. 

“The mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it. “ — Chinese philosopher

Twilight Reflections - Placid Lake, Montana

 "It seemed to her in her solitude that she had always sat on this step, in this twilight, with this contentment."  -from A Prairie Heritage: The Early Years by Vikki Kestell

Still Life - Frozen Finley Point Sunset, Flathead Lake, Polson, Montana

"...There had been no stillness in himself either, with Hamish rampant in his mind. He was never truly alone.

But here it was palpable - the quiet -
He stood there, looking up at the empty blue sky, his head tilted back, his arms out from his sides, his fists unwittingly clenched. And drank in the stillness....

Stillness.
It seemed to spread through him, it seemed to wrap him about, it seemed to fill him full."

- From Legacy of the Dead,  An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd, page 40

Twilight Reflections - Grant Creek, Missoula, Montana

"The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. 
My days of old have vanished - tone and tint. 
They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. 
Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. 
I listen vainly, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll."

-  General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), from his May 12, 1962 Thayer Award Speech

Aspen Dusk - Missoula, Montana

"The light is amber, the air still... Soon, the hooded blue of dusk will fall, followed by the darkness of night and the sky writing of the stars, indecipherable to us mortals, despite our attempts to force narrative upon them."
- from The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg

Twilight Birches, Missoula, Montana

Birches have long been my favourite tree - the strong contrast of black and white, the silken vulnerability of their skin layers, the childhood romance of birch bark canoes.