Tag: bears

Little bear antics

Posted on 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

A few of my favorite…Summery Thingz

Posted on by lindaskelton

 

  • IMG_20140712_094529350_HDRMellow 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?P1150556
  • … or watering the jungle that my garden has become

IMG_20140709_134712660

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

P1150553P1150555

 

P1150554

  • Homegrown cherries!  We got a handful this year from our young tree that dukes it out with the deer every spring.IMG_20140708_104656096 And another handful from the wild cherry tree that sprang up in the old compost pile…IMG_20140708_104838688_HDR

 

  • Making Currant Jelly from our own bush…

IMG_20140709_132510645 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!)IMG_20140709_123956369_HDRIMG_20140709_150431401

 

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

P1150561P1150572P1150563

P1150575

  • 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…

IMG_20140713_202429130_HDR

IMG_20140713_202412633_HDR

 

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

P1150579

 

P1150585P1150581

P1150580yellow

  • 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)…

blueberriesblueberries 2

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

P1150596P1150597

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!

P1150590 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!

P1150593 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

 

Preparing for Winter…

Posted on by lindaskelton

Did you know bears eat grass?  Neither did I but there they were, Mama and her quadruplets.  This year’s litter was a big one, probably because practically everyone in our neck of the woods has fruit and/or nut trees in their yard!  Plenty to support a burgeoning populace of black bears.  Well, not really.  What ever happened to man having dominion over every living creature? (Gen.1:28) Now we give them our parks and our food too. Hmm.  It’s novel the first time or two but these chaps will be foraging for my fruit next year… sigh.  In the meantime they’re getting ready for winter…

DSCF9997

DSCF9993[Bear photos compliments of Jim]

And so am I.  Soaking up the sun and the silence every chance I get… treasuring this rarest of  Septembers—a gift of summer’s sun and warmth extended—and glad for the invitation to retreat with my Maker on this his footstool.

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool…” Is.66:1

P1080335

“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah”  Ps.46:10-11ESV

–LS