Bill called at noon to say he had just crossed into Kentucky…which surprised me as I didn’t expect him to be that far along. I was looking at the map and weather and thinking about schedules…

Anyway, I hied myself off to the hardware and picked up the wood for the bus to sit on to have that done and talked to Sara who was going to do some Bob caretaking to re-arrange a bit…

Just now (5:30 p.m.) - talked to the man who made it to Benton, IL for the night and plans on north of Kansas City for tomorrow - putting him in South Dakota by Tues… and I can’t get there by then…so we discussed options and the new and current plan is that he will come all the way to Montana and I’ll save the one way car rental, gas to S.D., lost work time, etc. and hope to find absinthe locally. There was no guarantee Spearfish would still have it anyway.

So…a few less things for me to arrange and a few more days he’ll have to drive on his own but if he continues at the current pace should be here in MT by next weekend.

But, I did get the wood…

At times, the views in the mountains change from moment to moment…

Living here - in Montana, in the shadow of the Continentel Divide has been my choice for fourteen years. I was thrilled yesterday when I discovered that Mountain Jobs had discovered From the Front Porch. Further, that the summary was so how I hope the writing and the photography is perceived as well as an accurate vision of how I hope I am living my life here. The Mountain Jobs Blog Post titled “Big Sky Country: simple pleasures living in Montana” made my day!

For those readers who hope to someday live in the mountains, Mountain Jobs is an employment network. The company and the site work to bring employers together with people looking for the mountain lifestyle. While the company is based in Jackson, Wyoming, it serves employers and job seekers from the entire mountain west.

From Wednesday through last evening as I write this post that will appear Saturday morning - the mountain views have changed from moment to moment.

Driving home Wednesday afternoon, clouds were starting to build up along the mountains surrounding the valley while all the while the sky was a brilliant blue…

The sky and mountain views glowed with the colors of the rainbow that evening… a scene I captured in yesterday morning’s post: Mountain Sunset Alpinglow

Yesterday (Friday) morning the mountain views were VERY different…

The views in the mountains change from moment to moment…

I just heard from Bill (3:30 p.m. MDT) - he rolled this morning and decided on a short day for the first day - smart! The first day from home is always harder and more stressful with the last of the loading, buttoning up house and property and trying to think what you might be forgetting.

I have reminded him countless times that we do have stores in Montana…

The magic bus is parked for the night just south of Birmingham, AL and Bill said it is rather on the warm side - that is not exactly how he put it, but this is mostly a “G” rated blog…

Wednesday evening with thunderstorms forecast - 9:00 p.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time (sunset is close to 9:30 now)…the sky to the east looked interesting, the wind was kicking up and sounding fabulous in the pines. I called to Karl, grabbed my camera (and pepper spray!) and off I went. Karl did not follow - he hates thunder and seems to have a sixth sense about it -…I whistled and called and watched him head from the driveway back to the house…Rats!! - I hate to walk without him - it is our thing!! But the sky called and so I went…. but halfway along as I was looking at the vista which was beautiful beyond words, my good dog appeared - panting, wagging tail - …. I love the following photos, but more than those, I love that my dear dog put aside his fear and followed…

Oh, there was no thunder that night - and more important, no lightning …often the clouds pile up and it rains or snows in the mountains but not in the valley. We never even heard rumblings in the night…

You can just barely see above what you can see below with more intensity…the setting sun, once again casting the tops of the trees in gold, bronze, deep red - the colors of Fall in the height of Spring. I stood - in awe - with my mouth open in amazement at the color feast spread out before me. I have seen the setting sun turn the tree tops in my woods gold but I had never seen the array of colors that I did this evening. I took a lot of photos and as I took each I knew that there was no way I was capturing the feast of color spread out at the foot of the mountains. With each photo, I hoped I could capture what I saw - from where I stood there was a wide expanse of glowing trees, snow covered mountains and building thunderheads - magnificent! For a long while I just stood and watched the color and the light.

And below…looking the opposite direction - West - as we headed for the house…the sunset through the trees…

My property sits in the woods on a plateau of foothills before the land gives way to the Swan Range - Continentel Divide - to the east and the floor of the Flathead Valley to the east.

The Calypso orchid or Fairyslipper (Calypso bulbosa)….

A very small foot to fit in this “slipper” - these are less than an inch. They are easy to miss in the woods as they are often bent downward so that only the purple “underside” is visible and looking very much like the back of a wood violet. They are my favorite thing to find. Montucky at Montana Outdoors has much better capture of these beauties: Calypso

A correction on yesterday’s post…those are Gardenia - which I’m very happy about. I love gardenia - my father gave my mother and I gardenia corsages for Easter. The scent of the gardenia in the refrigerator…waiting for Sunday - to put on my very special Easter dress - a vivid and beautiful memory. The scent always transports me.

Almost home….looking back

Where Karl and the last trees are - before things open up - is the eastern edge of my property. I’m taking these photos about a third of the way from that edge - towards where my house sits.