Triple Tree Trail, overlooking Gallatin Valley

Mountains Walking Brewery • The tater tot nachos were placed before me, I blacked out, and now they are gone. 😋

Fun time last weekend with my parents visiting from Maine during their road-trip vacation. Touring Yellowstone, walking around Bozeman, hunting for bucket hats, eating all the good foods, and playing (very serious) games of Scrabble and cribbage

From Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams:

The aurora borealis, pale gossamer curtains of light that seem to undulate across arctic skies, are transfixing in part because of their diffidence. “It is impossible to witness such a beautiful phenomenon without a sense of awe,” wrote Robert Scott, the British Antarctic explorer, “and yet this sentiment is not inspired by its brilliancy but rather by its delicacy in light and colour, its transparency, and above all by its tremulous evanescence of form. There is no glittering splendour to dazzle the eye, as has been too often described; rather the appeal is to the imagination by the suggestion of something wholly spiritual….”

It is unusual in the literature of exploration to find a strictly consistent reaction, but virtually everyone who wrote down his thoughts about the aurora described, first, the inadequacy of his language and, second, a pervasive and stilling spiritual presence.

First personal sighting of an aurora last night. This is unedited, but I think the long exposure brightens the glow. To my eye, the glow across the whole horizon was a duller, subtler green, while the shifting vertical rays had more brightness and definition. Worth the 12:30 alarm!

Paw pillow

Put down the pen, please. Less booky, more walky.

Finished Reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear 📚

Half ostrich, half dog • Between the pocket gophers, ground squirrels, prairie dogs, and/or muskrats, it’s impossible to walk off leash around here. Contrary to popular wisdom, I am quite sure more dogs have been harmed by their curiosity than cats. Just can’t help himself

Finished Reading (2023): On Getting Out of Bed by Alan Noble 📚