Creatures – Page 6 – Skelton Sketches

Little bear antics

Posted on May 20, 2015April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

It was a quiet early evening. We’d had some chips and salsa for supper on the balcony just off the kitchen… Now the dishes were tucked away and I stepped back out on the balcony to listen to the birds and crickets and enjoy the quiet of the day…

What is that! A shaggy black coat stood by the tree just down the slope out back. And it wasn’t Jim!

I ran to find him and his dad and we stood on the balcony watching our very own ‘Minute-Circus’ act.

This little bear was intent on getting at some old cans hanging there for target practice…What a clever acrobat he turned out to be!

If at first you don’t succeed, try again another way!

Our backyard minute-circus

–LS

“A worker’s appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on.’” Prov.16:26

Birding for the first time…

Posted on May 14, 2015April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

There aren’t many things worth volunteering to get up at 5:00 for… but I discovered it to be a lovely and peaceful time of day, perfect for listening to birdsong!

One morning this week I accompanied an expert birder on her rounds to inventory a set of marsh birds in several local riparian areas. Distinguishing birdsong is quite an incredible skill. I know a raven. And a duck. And a red-winged blackbird. Oh, and a chickadee! (Ha!) But the rest is just…generic birdsong. A Rail and a Sora? I didn’t even know those were birds? A Bittern I had heard of, and a Coot and a Grebe. But their calls? Most unusual. One was rather like an amplified PLUNK of water. Another reminded me of a cross between a donkey and a squeaky water toy. Then there was the one that resembled a shoot ‘em up arcade game…

We listened for these and other calls and we listened to the morning birdsong of a host of other birds (that I could not identify!) waking the dawn. And we felt the sun rise to chase away the early morning chill.

And though we did not actually see the birds we tracked and hoped to hear (some of them are extremely secretive), we did see the morning in all its freshness and it was worth rising early… just to listen.

And of course I had to take pictures of what I could see…

Flowers, of course…

And Mr. and Mrs. Mallard!

–LS

“The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing [of birds] is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land…” Song of Solomon 2:12

A few of my favorite…Summery Thingz

Posted on July 18, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

Mellow mornings when the sun slants through the blinds turning everything to gold…

Quiet afternoons spent out back reading in the sun, (or dappled shade). Hmm… I’m sure I heard a bear, but I can’t see him. Can you?
… or watering the jungle that my garden has become

Fresh cut flowers from my very own garden…especially the ones planted there from seed. Miracles of a sort.

Homegrown cherries! We got a handful this year from our young tree that dukes it out with the deer every spring. And another handful from the wild cherry tree that sprang up in the old compost pile…

Making Currant Jelly from our own bush…

to go on hot homemade bread from home ground wheat. Next time we’ll try grinding our own homegrown wheat!

We just discovered we could thresh it ourselves! (Thanks to Rachel’s perseverance!)

Getting to make one more childhood cake, for the 19 year old that loves teddy bears still…

Evening bike rides when the sun has simmered down and there’s no rush to be anywhere…or to beat any KOM’s (‘King of the Mountain’ on STRAVA). Time to stop at the wharf and strike up acquaintances while the ferry comes in over the shimmering sea…

And did I say FLOWERS?! more fresh cut flowers? brought inside to celebrate summer (and a birthday)?!!

Ahh and blueberries. I love picking blueberries, especially with daughters. It’s been extraordinarily and wonderfully SUNNY and HOT this month and the blueberries have loved it as much as I. So in record time this morning we had our gallons of berries (from a local U Pick)…

…and in just a little more time we had a pie!

We weren’t the only ones looking forward to a bite. As we were happily downing pie a la mode, who should we spy through the screen door, emerging from the woods out back, but a hungry bear. He must have sniffed it through the open door and come venturing to see if there was any for him!

He seems to have taken up residence in our little wood this year, but I generally yell and flail before I think to catch a picture. This time, before we scared him away, I popped out the door for a picture!

Fortunately, he was more afraid of me than I of him. I got my picture but he got no pie.

Ahh, the wonderful business of summer!

–LS