[please click on this image to see it larger so you can fully gaze upon the texture of snowflakes falling on horses…beautiful]
Oh man.
The world is such a beautiful place. The people I love are extraordinary, in every way. The animals I keep are true lovebugs. The mountains I know, the plains I adore, are pure, wild, ancient gifts from the Father Of Lights.
I am home from Jackson. Rob is home from elk hunting. We are cooking pizza and then we are going to lay on the couch together in the crackling warmth of candlelight, snuggle and tell each other the stories from the past few days of our lives that we spent apart.
I have a broad heart that reaches high and deep, eyes full of snowflakes, and arms that were made for hugging.
X
Jillian, I can’t believe that these photos are of real places! I’ve never been to Idaho and have never really put any thought about visiting, but oh my! what a mistake! It looks like paradise on earth! And you look so truly happy; I can understand why! Sending you big huge hugs back your way XX
They are!
So real!
I wear them on my heart like a badge!
You’ll have to come visit, but be prepared…it will change you forever. These wild, wide open spaces need to be taken in — heart, body and mind. 🙂
Thank you so much for being here!
i love your broad heart!
it makes me happy that your time away was filled with delights,
and that they make you love your one wild and precious life even more!
xx
And I love your broad heart, too.
X
In…LOVE. I was wondering if the top picture is around the S. Fork of the Snake near Fall Creek. Maybe around Swan Valley? Looks very similar to it if not. One of my favorite places. Always love what you share with us. Makes my heart aflutter.
p.s.-I was so excited I forgot to finish my arithmetic to release my comment!
Ha! Checked the Flickr stream this AM and found the answer to my question. It is as if I myself have stood in that exact spot years ago (and may also have a similar shot in my folder). The scenery there is inspiring and breathtaking and maybe that is why, even after five years of leaving ID, it is still burned into my mind.
It’s EXACTLY there. I think Swan Valley is one of the prettiest valleys (WITH A ROAD) in all of Idaho. Just spectacular. And the South Fork…well…be still my heart. There’s a reason those waters are legendary!
You’re such a babe.
Idaho misses you. Just so you know. The land here whispered it so, this afternoon while I was out pheasant hunting with Robert. How blessed am I to call this place home? How blessed.
X
Oh the blues! Oh the buffalo! I’m convinced I need a print of every one of your photos to put on my wall and turn into postcards.
HA! Well. You sweet thing. All credit to the wilds in this beloved state of mine. And in Wyoming too. When I am in WY I sometimes feel sad that I’m not a Wyoming girl! Isn’t that silly? Such a beautiful state…
I love the heart-shaped cloud in the second photo of Bison.
Sums up much about this post…your life.
🙂
I think it sums it up too!
X
Ah, I miss snow so much sometimes. I think I’m going to move somewhere where it snows more someday, until I miss warm winters and then I’ll move right back, haha.
Your times with Rob are some of your most sparkling; I can always ‘read’ this change, the slightest emphasis on a kind of constant bubbling-up happy when he’s home.
HA HA!
We humans…so fickle!
I love four, strong seasons. To be frank, winter in Pocatello is a bit mild for my personal tastes and needs. I like a blessedly cold, icy, snowy, brutal winter. It makes the summertime ever so sweet…
When Rob is around, I am the very best version of myself. He neutralizes everything in me that is sour and bad and makes my light brighter. I loved him first because he makes me a better person, and he still does, even after being married for ten years! Thank you for noticing. 🙂
Welcome home, beauty. I hope your journey was as grand as the scenery.
It was.
Short and sweet.
Bright and light.
X
~~~~sigh~~~~~ home.
Oh…girl……
🙂
X
the mountains!
the colours!
snow on horses!
snow on snow on snow!
tater-tongue!!
xx
Friend! All of those things! And so much more. 🙂
Joy shared is joy doubled.. thanks for sharing it here. If anyone deserves to see such spectacular beauty all around them.. it’s you – for you have that soul stretched capacity to truly savour/wonder/delight in every morsel!
xx
mel
needle and nest
Oh gosh. Thanks for saying that.
And thanks for being here, Mel.
X
What amazing photos! What an inspiring life! Thank God for the internet, for I now know it’s purpose- To be blown away by all the abundance of life. Some times your photos seem a fairytale to me. Do this places still exist? Are there buffalo still on the plains? I am reminded of how small and tribal my current employ is and that I must leave it as soon as I can to get out into the wild and learn the news.
HA!
I love that purpose for the internet!
Perfect!
There are bison. They still exist. NOT like they used to. They are more of a whisper now instead of a dominant shout. Don’t you wish you could have lived 100 or 200 years ago when North America wasn’t so changed…??? I wish that all the time. The wild places then were truly wild in every way. I don’t know those times, but I miss them, so badly.
If you could leave your currently employ, where would you go? What would you do?
I do wish I could have lived all those years ago, to see how things were before all the changes people brought. How much more and less complicated it must have all been. I hope one day to leave much of the complication of modern life behind. Travel with my love, maybe live in a yurt somewhere, making many of my own items and tending to a garden and small flock of hens. I’ll roam the wood with them as a kind of shepherdess. There nothing hens love more that digging under leaves and dirt. Maybe I’ll have a dog too, for company.
I say make those dreams happen. 🙂 Sounds like a beautiful life.
The mountains! The snow! Your photos made me heart skip a beat.
Your. Sweet. Heart.
🙂
Wow – stunning photos!! I want to go back there!!!! I’ve been to Jackson Hole once, long ago. I remember the antler arches.
You need to make a photography book of the west. Seriously!! With your prose!
Thank you for sharing. I could stare at these photos all day!
It’s time to revisit.
The Tetons are…other.
They are OTHER.
I would love to make a book of the interior West…all the stomping grounds I cherish and hold dear…
Thank you so much for being part of my life!
X
When I say “I want to go to there”, understand that I feel the same way about snowy wilderness as Liz Lemon does about junk food. LOVE.
HA!!!
Oh my gosh. Liz Lemon.
Bless you, Milla. Bless you!
Consistently inspiring.
Thank you, Kari.
inspiring lady you are!
Thank you, Steph.
OH! The blue color is so lovely, but I just loved seeing the bison! I haven’t seen one in person in a long while– and the pictures truly do them justice. Happy that you’re so happy!
You know I adore the bison…such a staunch symbol of the interior West. 🙂
oh the Buffalo……
love and light
🙂
Maybe I should start a bison fan club!
WOW WEE! Absolutely breathtaking.
The life you keep never fails to inspire, dearest jillian. xx
Thank you, sweet one.
speechless…as beautiful as I remember it from over 20 years ago!!!
Twenty years ago!!!??? It is time for you to return. 🙂
Goosebump-creating photos from a beautiful soul. The way you are refreshed by the wild places…I experience that on a mini-scale when I am weary of the long work day and pop into your blog to rest my eyes on a world apart and read your words to satisfy my language-loving heart. And then I lift my eyes to my own hills and see anew. Peace and grace to you.
AH! Then you give me a reason to write, a reason to photograph, a reason to be. Thank you for being here Sharon and thank you for being able to love your own home the way you do.
Wow 🙂 I am a new visitor to your blog- and I never want to leave!! You are speaking to the heart of another outdoors loving gal here. There’s just something about mountains……. the sight of them, for real, or in a photo can move me to tears – I guess through a certain timeless joy and reliability they represent… I’ve always felt so silly for this. Your photo of the Bison and the mountains did it to me though!
Although England is not quite as blessed with the dramatic scenery of parts of N. America, through your photos I feel the awe and beauty of their magnificence and hope one day to return to your part of the world.
Thank you for brightening my day – I’m excited to have found your blog!!
Kelly — welcome here!
“…there a certain timeless joy and reliability they represent…” — Love that.
Oh,oh,oh,oh,oh,oh,oh!!!
You’re back! I’m so excited for you!
And, ummmm, all your fave beasties surrounding you! What great photos. Teehee xo
Mash!
Hi!
XX
You are so fantastical fantastic!
Thanks, Ryan!
what an insane, knock-your-boots-off landscape. someday i need to get back to wyoming again. you captured it in all its wild beauty.
I captured SOME of it. Wyoming is as wild and wonderful and undiscovered as Idaho (except for Jackson, that is…). The Tetons are beautiful but I also like, quite a lot, the high desert sage flats and some of the red rock country in the state. Really special…
Love your beautiful pictures of Wyoming~
My grandmother Pearl was the first woman marshall there back in the day.
She would tell us fun stories of growing up in Jackson.
They used to have dances in town & there was a man who would walk over the pass,
have a dance with my gramma, and walk back home again!
I wonder what his story was.
Thanks again for your wonderful words & pictures~ I’m longing for the mountains now.
Your grandmother Pearl sounds like a heartbreaker!
THanks for being here, Robin!
Thank you for reminding me of the gorgeous autumn of the mountains! I live in the almost seasonless San Francisco and have found a way to spend my summers back in Idaho and Montana, but only sometimes can stay until the autumn changes. I love your dog’s expression like a lamb being carried! So much good sky, thank you for enjoying it for all of us as you do.
Even!
Good for you for finding a way to be in ID and MT in the summer months. You’ll have to find a way to extend your stay into the autumn months…Rob and I think that October is the very best month to be Idahoan! 🙂 Thank you for swinging by.
I live in Northern Ireland so this is a real treat – I mean wow!! I need to see landscapes like these 🙂
Oh…but Northern Ireland is rich with beauty! I fell in love with your North Coast…you are also blessed with incredible landscapes in that little corner of the world.
Thank you for dropping in!
Breathtaking.
Thanks Jana.