Spring Rains - Corvallis, Montana

Montana weather is notoriously - and sometimes drastically - mercurial, these early May days being a perfect illustration. 

Saturday and Sunday beamed forth a sunny 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

Monday's skies closed in to eke out a soggy 43 degrees, with overnight lows dropping below freezing - which delightfully translates to snow in mountain tops hidden behind clouds.
Last week, a recent Montana transplant from more temperate climes confessed that our warming days were enticing her to plant flower and vegetable starts; I urged her to wait, since spring is not a sure thing until it's pretty much summer.

Here's hoping that she and all the other optimistic weekend gardeners covered their tender new plantings. I'm just thrilled to skip watering grass seed tossed out in a fit of Saturday yard improvement!

Buttercup Attitude, Missoula, Montana

Just as I seriously pondered fleeing home from the rata-tat-tat of sleet pellets bouncing off my coat's hood, a spree of undaunted buttercups crossed the grassy path; my dedication to a Sunday afternoon walk was restored.
If these tiny cups of sunlight remained staunchly undaunted by the surrounding ice shot, I could finish what I set out to do, and dry out when I got home. As my lovely mother loved to say (with a smile, of course!) in the face of precipitation proffered as an excuse: What, are you made of sugar?

Lilac Snow Cone, Missoula, Montana

File this photo under “Things You Don’t Expect To See Out Your Bedroom Window After You’ve Packed Away Your Sweaters.“ 
After eating my lunch in my shirtsleeves on my personal balcony (read: the industrial stairway from our break room down to the equipment yard), I could almost go for a snowcone. Hard to imagine Missoula woke to snow yesterday morning.
While a spring snow flurry is fascinating and beautiful, it also brings the possible danger of freezing new plant shoots. Fruit trees are particularly vulnerable, as below zero temps at just the wrong time will kill off the buds that would have become a food crop.

Canyon Clouds, Mill Creek Canyon, Corvallis, Montana

Spring in the Rockies basically means winter’s not yet over.

The ritual first mowing of our lawn in Hamilton, Montana, was blessed with sunshine and blue sky peppered with fluffy white clouds - which contributed intermittent flurries of pellet-y snow! After late March weather in the balmy 60s F, our daytime forecast this week dips back below freezing. Good thing I procrastinated tucking any sweaters up on the top shelf.

Rain or Snow Drops, Missoula, Montana

The clouds just can't decide today

 whether to leave rain,

or snow to stay.

So they compromised with a gift of these lovely sparklings. I hurried to my car to retrieve my camera, hoping no one would run over my latest photo subject. Then I had to make sure no one would run over me, crouching out on the asphalt during lunchtime! This was my shortest photo shoot ever - 2 clicks; done. 

With the balmy weather we had up through yesterday, I've been eating lunch outside while I post my photo. Today, I'm in my car. Safely balancing my laptop and lunch recalled a childhood image-memory of eating in one of our vehicles from a handy fold-down tray with a drink divot. I thought it was so cool!  Either that or, in the days before "happy meals", the glorified and rare occasion of eating fries from a drive-thru was the cool thing that imprinted the whole tray snapshot in my brain.

Happy meals - now there's a distinctly American phrase. For the vast majority of the rest of world, every meal is a happy meal.
Wow, major leapfrog in the grey cells. Good thing it's time to go back to work - no telling where we'd end up with another 5 minutes.

Snow-Capped Spring,Stevensville, Montana

“And so we waited for spring to have its say. In Montana, that is most likely to be a stutter.”
- Ivan Doig, “Dancing At the Rascal Fair”, p 37.

Winter View South, Hamilton, Montana

“There’s never enough weather in Montana, except when there’s too much of it.”
- Ivan Doig, “Dancing At the Rascal Fair”, p. 312