Fire Formations - Missoula, Montana

Smoke plumes from a couple peripheral fires burning on national forest land blended with high cloud formations above the Missoula valley. Fire season presents a strange dichotomy which we in the western mountain regions have become used to: it makes for spectacular sunsets and provokes good-paying jobs, but we'd all prefer some rain.

Other Days Blue Sky - Missoula, Montana

"...Other days from ridge to ridge
there’s only a high, dry, guileless blue,
and you can fairly hear
the meadow grass breathe. You could say,

I have lived well. You could say, I have lived
well and anyway been troubled. You could say, 

Come evening,
deer browse the meadow fringe."

-From BACK FORTY: MANIFESTO by Joe Wilkins

Some Days Sunset - Corvallis, Montana

"Some days clouds drift over the canyon,

horsetails, bits of high cotton.

In the afternoon, then,

the sky quickens, tumbles —

a dark creek crashing down the mountain...."

-From Back Forty: Manifesto by Joe Wilkins 

Big thanks for today's photo to Pat Richards. 

To see more through Pat's eyes, browse around in JourneysWithGod.com.

Fire Season - Lolo Peak, Lolo National Forest, Montana

"Love is a smoke rais'd with the fume of sighs;
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in a lover's eyes..."

- from Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 1, Line 196

Sunlight Secrets - Missoula, Montana

"But when the sunlight dies away
Let the delicious secret out
To every breeze that roams about..."

- From The Light Of The Haram by Thomas Moore (1779–1852)

Another Day's Climb - Waterworks Trail, Missoula, Montana

This hill is bigger than it looks at first glance - kind of like "objects in mirror are closer than they appear". If you zoom in, you can see three tiny hikers framed in the second standing structure. I've climbed up and over this section of Trail from the other side, and it requires a fair stretch of time and determination- best tackled in dogged and optimistic company. But the. views are (of course) gorgeous - one year we saw a sheepherder's camp, vardo, sheepdog, flock and all! We'll definitely save this climb for another day!

8:13 PM Mountain Time - Missoula, Montana

Similar Saturday evening views will be available well into August along the Waterworks Trail system above Missoula, MT. 
Self-serve, while they last!

Perpetual Peeve - Missoula, Montana

If you are going to eat the last delicious bit of scrumptiousness that some kind, baking soul brought to share then, for crying out loud, clean up like you would at home! 

Oh, wait - maybe that's the problem - you have people for that at your house?
(Did that drip a wee bit too much sarcasm?)

Apparently, I'm not alone in this peevishness, as "Messy Common Areas" tops the list in this workplace peeve article. 

The optimist view, however, is that this repeated work scenario keeps me mindful of how thankful I am to have The Best Husband Ever aka Bit Of A Neat Freak. 

(Note: I love my work, and my co-workers are wonderful people, bar none. 
Thus, I can only deduce that there must be a rogue - & messy! - alien among us. 
But that could be attributed to a repeat viewing of Men In Black last night.)