Rainbow Remainder, Missoula, Montana

Rainbows graced the skies over Missoula, Montana, courtesy of a thunderstorm which capped a hot, hot day.  We’re finally getting weather up into the 90’s F . To entonophobics (people with a tick phobia) like me, this signifies that ticks will head higher up the mountains, and fear-free hiking season begins. Call me a wuss, but if you’ve ever found one of those little bugs crawling on you - hours after you thoroughly checked! - you may understand the creepy factor.

Clematis Thriving, Hamilton, Montana

A friend in Corvallis, Montana, loooves clematis - if you want to know anything about clematis, just get her talking and you will be amazed and enlightened.  I love to watch people talk about whatever it is about which they're passionate. Their faces animate, drama enters their voice, they lose track of time. The only downside is when they typically stop and say, "I'm sorry, I get a little carried away."  Dedicated passion needs no apology. It needs to be shared.

Salmon Lilies Blooming Up to the Sky, Hamilton, Montana

Hurray! My salmon lilies are blooming!  Next week should bring the opening of the white lily buds. They're forming up to be a massive bouquet of about 10 buds on one metre high stem.  I'm not sure exactly the lily category into which these fall - they seem less flashy than what I've seen of Stargazer or Oriental varieties.  But, every summer, they make me smile with happy gardening thoughts of my mum, since she shared the bulbs with me a few years before she died.

Flower Dreams - A little more - Missoula, Montana

Here's a little more inspiration for sweet flower dreams to dance in your head.
(Much healthier than visions of sugar plums, I'm sure.)


(And if this is not really a white balloon flower in the foreground, please, somebody, tell me! I guess I should have looked at the tag in the container...)

Nursery Dreams of Flowers, Missoula, Montana

When some people dream of nurseries, they envision soft paint colours and snuggly stuffed animals. But a whole other sub-cultural obsession exists with nurseries of the plant variety - you may resemble that remark, and know of what I speak. The other day, we stopped to buy some essentials at the one-stop chain store in our neighborhood.  Before we even got to the front doors, I was totally waylaid  by mesmerizing row upon row of glorious flowers, herbs, shrubs.... a soft wind carried their siren song : "Only stop to look at us, please...". Oh, the lush promise in a plastic four-pack!
Thanks to my husbands' task-oriented focus, I made it safely through without crashing on the rocks of landscaping love (or is it lust?).

Red Barn, White Snow, Blue Sky, Victor, Montana

Here’s my visual Red, White, and Blue Montana homage to the Fourth of July.
(Hats off, hands to hearts, please, and sing the Anthem with feeling.)

Twining Vines, Hands of Time, Missoula, Montana

Seeing these vines twining themselves amongst old machinery parked on our friends’ ranch put me in mind of our human fragility. We see ourselves as strong and capable, but then, suddenly, it seems, we hear complaints come out of our mouths - things our parents said when they seemed sooo old, for which we gave them pitying glances and said, “Here, let me do that for you.”
In truth, the hands of time pause for no one….so it’s good to realign our focus onto the things that really matter.

(For more relevantly provoking thoughts, click here for the 6/30/2012 River of Life podcast.)

Pied Beauties, Victor, Montana

Pied Beauty - Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
Glory be to God for dappled things
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscapes plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise Him.

(Big thanks to a lovely niece for this poem, sent in response to my call for quotes that I will try to fit to a photo. Other offerings, anyone?)