Snow Survivors - Missoula, Montana

Local wisdom warns that it's not safe, weather-wise, to set out bedding plants before Memorial Day, but these Gerbera daisies made it through last week's snow and have peeked up rather nicely.

Waking Sprig - Missoula, Montana

"...Wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig
sang under my tongue, its drifting fragrance
climbed up through my conscious mind..."

- from Lost In the Forest by Pablo Neruda  (1904-1973)

Read the rest of this tasty poem here.

Unrushed River - Clark Fork River, Paradise, Montana

"There is no rushing a river. 
When you go there, you go at the pace of the water
 and that pace ties you into a flow that is
 older than life on this planet. 
Acceptance of that pace, even for a day,
 changes us, reminds us of other rhythms beyond
 the sound of our own heartbeats."

 -- Jeff Rennicke, from River Days: Travel on Western Rivers

From The Shoreline - Rainbow Lake, Montana

"...Meanwhile the sun and the
   clear pebbles of the rain  
are moving across the landscapes, 
   over the prairies and the deep trees, 
the mountains and the rivers. 
Meanwhile the wild geese, 
    high in the clean blue air, 
are heading home again. 

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, 
the world offers itself to your imagination, 
   calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting- 
over and over announcing your place 
   in the family of things." - from Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

Westward Ho! - Missoula, Montana

These long, lovely days leading into summer provoke cogitation of road trips. 
What gorgeous sights can we drive to in these four (currently) extra hours of daylight?!

"...It's opener there
 in the wide open air...."

- from Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess 

Springtime In The Rockies - Missoula, Montana

Last week in Missoula, MT: 70+ degrees Fahrenheit.

Earlier this week: Snow.

(I kid you not - you're looking at it right here!)

And that, my fine people, is the truth about springtime in the Rockies.

Wishing For Sky - Missoula, Montana

"All stories are love stories. 
Paul remembered someone famous saying that...All men get the things they love. 
The tragedy of some men is not that they are denied, but that they wish they'd loved something else."

-From The Last Days of Nightt by Graham Moore, p. 26

Pop Colour Clouds - Missoula, Montana

"I know that if odour were visible, as colour is, I'd see the summer garden in rainbow clouds."

 - Robert Bridges (1844-1930)