W W W. D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA NA . C O M
9
T
HOUGH WE ARE A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE, WE LIKE TO
THINK OF OURSELVES AS "SEASONAL," SINCE MONTANA
HAS SEASONS THAT ARE OH-SO SPECIAL—SUMMER,
WINTER, FALL… SPRING?
Well, the truth is that spring presents a problem for us, because we are not
really sure when it starts… or stops. Ask anyone in Montana about spring,
and you will get a wide range of opinion. Does it start in mid-March when
the first bluebirds arrive? April, when some of the best skiing is yet to be
tracked? Does it stop in May, when wildflowers poke their shoots through
the shrinking whiteness and your hiking boots fill with slush? Or June, when
the mountains slough off untold tons of snow and ice?
You do see the problem, don't you?
So, for us, we treat spring as more of a pleasant idea than a reality, an
errant wish, a faint whistle in the wind. e other three seasons are hard and
fast, quite sure of themselves. ey announce their presence, in turn, with
long days of sunshine, goldening aspens, and harsh blasts of freeze. Spring
doesn't seem to care to announce itself, it rather timidly raps for attention
with leafless branches, and departs just as suddenly, when we one day awaken
to bright green fields and achingly blue skies. What happened to spring?
No one seems to know.
Yet, we do our best at Distinctly Montana to cover the period from March
to June with what we call our "spring issue," which means a more seasonally
eclectic editorial approach to the joys and wonder of our Treasure(d) State.
We invite you to this issue with a measured confidence that we do cover
the spring season, somewhere, sometime over the next three months.
Just don't ask us when it starts or stops.
BILL MUHLENFELD, PUBLISHER
bill@distinctlymontana.com
ANTHEA GEORGE, PUBLISHER
anthea@distinctlymontana.com
A N O T E F R O M T H E
P U B L I S H E R S
a
"Spring is when you feel like whistling, even with a shoe full of slush."
~ DOUG LARSON
(COLUMNIST; DECEASED)
