Bear Alert!

 The pictures are blurry because my camera was on manual focus and I didn't have enough time to adjust or switch to auto (I hadn't figured out how to switch back at that point), so the pictures are blurry, but there are pictures so you can see how close the bear is to our place.  We were looking out our living room window.

 db heard a rattling sound outside, and saw the bear batting at the birdfeeder, knocking the seed out of it. The bear cubs were licking up the seed from the patio and the ground.

My mom was visiting at the time so she got to see the excitement as well. She had just arrived from Montreal, so this was quite a welcome.

Here are the bear cubs eating up the seed. There was actually 3 cubs. The mom bear headed over the fence. We watched the little ones eat up the seed. Then they went across the yard, over the fence and hopped from the fence to a tree to climb down into the forest. Amazing to see, but also a bit scary.

So bye, bye birdfeeder. That had to go.

db and I realized that we need to scare the bears off as soon as we see them. It's definitely not a good idea to watch, but I think we were a bit shocked by the sight of them.

I only put the birdfeeder out in the day time when I'm home and we bring it in at night, or if we're not going to be at home for a while. 

Friday, db barbecued some veggies for my vegan eggplant parmesan dish. Later he was about to go out and clean the bbq, when he noticed Gigi at the patio door acting quite excited because she obviously saw something in the yard. db spotted another bear! This time it was reaching up to the hummingbird feeder. db made a loud clapping noise and it ran off. He decided to leave the bbq until the morning since it was already dark, and we couldn't see where the bear had gone. Even though it was probably long gone, there was no point risking it.


So bye, bye hummer feeder. It goes out in the morning now as well, and comes in at night.

Well, we finally saw a bear in our neighbourhood. It's been over 2 years since we've lived in this apartment, so that's pretty good. Hopefully we won't see any again for a long, long time. I'd like those bears to stay on the other side of the fence in the woods, and maybe even further up the mountain deeper in the woods. I know the food supply has been slow coming for them, so I think that's why they're searching for other sources. The salmon berries are out now though so hopefully that means they'll stick to what they should be eating.

bear obsessed

It's true I am bear obsessed. I really want to run my long distance route that takes me through one of the parks, but with all of the bear sightings lately I'm a little hesitant. I've never heard so much bear talk as I've heard this year.

A woman who I sometimes see at the bustop lives just around the corner from me. Earlier this week she told me about her neighbour having to fix his fence for the third time this month because a bear keeps destroying it, making a path through the backyards. I had no idea bears were frequenting this area on a regular basis.

This morning on my bus route to work (I'm taking a rest break from biking so I can put in a long run tomorrow) the bus driver stopped in one area and I thought there was something wrong with the bus. Then I heard him on his phone calling in to report a bear sighting. He had just seen one. I missed it! Again! I'd been engrossed in my running magazine (one track mind right now).

Now I'm thinking about tomorrow's a.m. run and am thinking it's best to stick to the main roads. Of course we live on a main road but our place boarders a green belt so we get some wildlife traffic. I guess I'll just do like the bears and go about my own business. Maybe it's time to really get involved with one of those group runs organized by one of the running stores.

more bear news

You can read the story here.

Two grizzlies were released back into the wild today.

News update

Time is flying by. I just haven't had time to blog or visit my favorite blogs. I'll hopefully get to it later this week.

Recent news here in whoville:

• the gardening continues with the removal of a juniper. We now have a bare patch that's in desperate need of greenery. Back to the nursery we go.
  
• my sister's visit was a success. She did great on the pitch and we had a great time together. Also, Gigi finally started to accept her just when my sister had to leave.
  
• I won the postcard challenge! mister anchovy sent me a book of poetry with prints by he and candy minx. It's an incredible prize . I want to take time to sit down and really go through the book. Hopefully I can do this in the back yard, under the canopy beneath a sunny sky.
  
• Bears in whoville. Midday this past Friday, a bear popped the lid on our garbage can, took out a bag and left with another bear that was waiting across the street.
  
• No half marathon this coming weekend. I'm not prepared nor do I want to spend the money on the registration. The detox has slowed me a bit, but I'm still running and am now focusing on the marathon. I'll probably still do the trail river half marathon in September if they have it again.
  
• We have sunshine! The weather has finally turned into beautiful sunny, warm and summery. It's been heaven.
  
• The Turkey/Czech Republic game! Very exciting. Turkey's through!
  

small bites

The front garden turned out to be dust. After I pulled back about 6 inches of mulch and found the landscape fabric, I cut into the fabric and pulled out dust. The soil has been completely depleted. Now I know why the three boxwoods at the front are stunted. They're bonsai boxwoods. Why am I telling you this? Because I had mapped out a colour coded chart of my bulb planting plans for this rather drab looking front space.

Plan B? I have no plan b. I started digging into containers and sticking bulbs where I could find space. Plan B is to come up with a Plan C. I will have to plant most of the bulbs in the back yard. That's all I have right now.

I did get to spend a few hours in the garden transplanting, cleaning, raking, doing a little pruning which was very enjoyable.

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I joined a hockey pool this year. This is something I've never done before. I've been in last place (33rd) since the start of the season and had an early morning call (yes another one!) from my brother telling me not to worry. Believe me I wasn't worried and at 7 in the morning it is definitely the last thing on my mind. However, the good news is that today I am no longer in 33rd place (last). I am now 29th on the list tied with my brother's dog (Little Joe). Here's my competition:Looks threatening doesn't he?

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I'm looking for more work opportunities to try and be more involved in the arts in any way possible. Let's see where this takes me.

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I got this amazing email from a friend from way back (something that's been happening more and more lately) who is a fly fisher (is that what such a person is called? Mr Anchovy?). He takes photos and writes about his fishing experiences and the BC outdoors. A local paper in his neck of the woods published an article on him that focused on his encounter with a Grizzly bear in the Kootenays. He was in his truck and he saw a Grizzly coming down the road towards him. He got out of his truck to photograph the bear. He seen lots of bear and said that bears usually run off when they see him, but this one kept walking towards him and sauntered right past him, coming as close as 6 feet away. He got some great shots. So I'm linking his site here. From there just click on "recent updates" on the left side and it will take you to the photos.

I was so happy to read a story about an positive encounter with bears.

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