If only it had gone that smoothly...

Here's what I've been watching live for the last 11 weeks

The bears are back! We've had several "incidents" recently.
We had the usual knocking down of the garbage/yardwaste/compost bins. As you probably already know, whoville has provided all of its citizens with bear proof bins that have special clips to keep them closed and the bears out. It works as long as you clip both sides, which is something that seems unimportant to our neighbour. So, there was the incident with their bin where the bear emptied the contents across our front garden and sat on the garden crushing my oriental poppies that were about to bloom! (By now the lavender has filled in the flattened area and there is one small oriental poppy that survived with 1 bloom. It's a beautiful coral colour. )

Then the conservation officer came around to the houses and told everyone to keep both clips on the bins even when empty. Makes sense since the bins remain stinky even after rinsing and with a bear's sense of smell that would definitely be inviting. Our neighbour was instructed to move their bins to the side of the house as well (why they wanted them in their front yard is beyond me, but whatever).  Our house almost got a fine for not having both clips done up, but the landlord knew the officer from his spin class and that let us off with a warning.

Bears returned (mom and cubs) and knocked over all bins, but were unsuccessful.

Bears did get into the garage when the landlord forgot to close it overnight. The bear made a mess in there knocking all kinds of things over and found their sons protein powder and dusted that everywhere.

The above mentioned son chased a bear away from the side of the house one evening by throwing a rock at it. His mom was behind him with a broom (the son, not the bear. Gender unknown on this bear). When it ran towards the woods it ran just a few feet past our neighbour as he was barbecuing in the backyard. He was a little surprised.

I may have already mentioned that the bear got into our fresh produce delivery box. We thought it hadn't been delivered, but our neighbour brought it over. All of the veggies were in tact, but the fruit was all gone (except for 2 of the 3 lemons). We asked SPUD (that's the fresh produce company) to deliver to db's work address. Fortunately, we have the car now so that works out fine. I can't see db taking a large rubbermaid bin of produce on the bus during rush hour. 

Finally yesterday morning I was taking my birdfeeder out to feed the birds (I have a spotted towhee that waits on the fence for it) and there was a bear sitting on the lower level of our yard just behind the rhodo. S/he didn't seem too concerned when I clapped and then came back out with a pot and spoon to bang. However, the bear did climb the fence and then grabbed onto the nearest tree and climbed down into the woods. Bye bear. The spotted towhee and the rest of the birds were not fed that day.

Everytime I open our gate or go out the door, I'm scanning the property for bears. It will settle down once the berries are out. C'mon sunshine we need you!

I love their red eyes.  So cute and such a cute little call.