Three Days to Shania Twain! - Missoula, Montana

The rigging is going up! We're at the three day countdown to Shania Twain's concert in Missoula, Montana's Washington Grizzly Stadium...let's go girls!

Gold-Fuzzed Bee and Rose - Missoula, Montana,

"It became a game that I took to with immense gusto: to see how much I could remember about dandelions themselves, ... or searching out the smell of the gold-fuzzed bees that hung around our back porch grape arbor. Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers."

– Ray Bradbury, from Just This Side of Byzantium,

An Introduction [to some editions of Dandelion Wine], Summer 1974

(I suppose this quote merited my crouching patiently next to any dandelion bloom peppering the backyard... but this little flier conveniently buzzed at shoulder height, so there you have it. I will pencil in crouching for another day.)

Poppy In Sun - Missoula, Montana

Imagine today's sunshine-loving poppy swaying in a little breeze, humming this snappy silly 1960's surfer song by The Sunrays. 

(You can also hear this ditty at our house - or in our car, or out of doors...- on most any random day the Montana sun breaks through, courtesy of The Best Husband Ever...."Sun, sun, sun, sun...I-aye liiiive... for the suuun...")

Spring Rain Like Kindness - Missoula, Montana

“Kindness, after all, did not distinguish between those who merited it and those who did not. It was like rain, she thought. It fell everywhere and made everything green and new and alive once more. That is what it did.”

-Mma Ramotswe in To the Land of Long Lost Friends, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, by Alexander McCall Smith, p. 70-71 (lg type)

Spring Training View, Lolo Peak - Missoula, Montana

Best ever spring training view: Snow-capped Lolo Peak and its lower elevation neighbours. (Go PaddleHeads!) 

Looking Up - Yelllow Snow Crocus - Missoula, Montana

...imagining a wee mousie's view of the stalwart yellow snow crocus...

(thank you to thebesottedbookworm for the charming mousie inspiration, and Big Sis 1 for the share !) 

Freshest Blooming - My Neighbour’s Spring Crocus, Missoula, Montana

“And then the light changed, and the vegetation of the ground. It was April and the freshest flowers of the year were blooming under the trees.” - from Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, p. 351

Road Trip Ready Raccoon - Missoula, Montana

Seems I’m not alone in my springtime yen for a road trip… Another splendid Montana thing: You never know what kind of kindred spirits you may meet on an afternoon ramble!