"He walked out slowly, past the bookcase...[of] books he had read and reread...plenty of poetry...that stayed in your heart [including a] well used [Dante's] Inferno. It was so appropriate. If a man could only learn that you are punished not for the sin, but by it, and you thus become less than you could have been, how much that would change you."
-Lucas Standish musing in Death in Focus by Anne Perry , p.36
....odd to see an abundance of green leaves AFTER we've had our first snow! But the inevitable change is underway...
After some pseudo-snow-spit last night, the forecast downfall materialized for real (shocker!) this morning in Missoula town proper. But I'm thankful it's not the 2-feet-&-counting in Browning & other Montana towns further north.
(And still my summer petunias bloom fiercely on...)
"...The reason we love it so much is that it takes us back to winter, our
bikes somehow feel like we’re riding lightest and deepest snow, only at
75 degrees and in short sleeves. Riding through fields exploding in the
white, softball size blooms of the bear grass, many at perfect handlebar
height, can be just as much fun as skiing the best run of the winter...."
-Phil Grove, from Ben's Beargrass, 21 May 2018 essay at Eskapee
Other-worldly beargrass, blooming late in the season, beckons to come further up the mountain path at the top of the Continental Divide at Rogers Pass (elevation 5610 ft)
(Alas, we did not heed the call, partly because we are more akin now to City Mouse and are dreadfully afraid of bears...)
Clouds are forming up tonight in similar fashion as preceded yesterday evening's late-night light show...here's hoping for another good storm (minus the brief onslaught of hail, and please no forest or other fire-inducing lightning strikes, of course).
