Smoke and Water (and A Duck) - Lake Mary Ronan, Montana

Another view suggestive of a classic radio-play song - yah, you know the line I'm thinking of:"Smooooke on the waaater...".

Thankfully, rain Friday night scrubbed clear a crisp morning view of the far shore's treed mountains.

Apple Not Far From Tree - Polson, Montana

With our northernmost sister delayed and re-routed over Going To The Sun Road due to an unexpected fire closure of Hwy. 2 below Glacier National Park, we three traveling from the southern route enjoyed a bit of evening time along Flathead Lake's shore. The song keeps running through my head, "Smoky Mountain rain...keeps on calling...". Slightly different haze on these western mountains, but still has a (hopefully transient) beauty all its own.

Puppy Love - Missoula, Montana

So much sweetness and tiny, squidgy puppy sounds! Just a week old, these snuggly Golden Retriever pups represent an eight pup litter that just happened to be at Missoula's Swoon Beauty Boutique yesterday. (Mama is calm and happy to share the love.)

Beautiful Red Onions - Farmers Market, Missoula, Montana

"Red onions are especially divine. I hold a slice up to the sunlight pouring in through the kitchen window, and it glows like a fine piece of antique glass. Cool watery-white with layers delicately edged with imperial purple...strong, humble, peaceful...with that fiery nub of spring green in the center..." - Mary Hayes Grieco, 'The Kitchen Mystic'

Market Melons - Missoula, Montana

Tuesday evening featured perfect weather for meandering between in-season offerings at the farmers market in downtown Missoula. We are the lucky ones who live in the marketing region of the bounteous, beautiful, and  delicious Dixon Melons, vine-ripened in a temperate growing region near Dixon, Montana. 'Tis the season, to be savoured while it lasts!

Echinacea Honey - Missoula, Montana

"The careful insect 'midst his works I view, 

Now from the flowers exhaust the fragrant dew, 

With golden treasures load his little thighs, 

And steer his distant journey through the skies." - John Gay (1685-1732)

Mixed Personality - Superior, Montana

"All forests have their own personality. I don't just mean the obvious differences, like how an English woodland is different from a Central American rain forest, or comparing tracts of West Coast redwoods to the saguaro forests of the American Southwest... they each have their own gossip, their own sound, their own rustling whispers and smells. A voice speaks up when you enter their acres that can't be mistaken for one you'd hear anyplace else, a voice true to those particular tress, individual rather than of their species.” - Charles de Lint, The Onion Girl

Midnight Train - Missoula, Montana

"I was standin' at the station,

Ten to midnight in the rain

I was mindin' my own bus'ness,

Waiting for that midnight train..."

- from Midnight Train lyrics by Jon Tiven/ Roger Reale 
- My fave recording by Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang.