Preparing for Winter…

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…

[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

"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

Good to the last drop!

Intent on savoring the lingering loveliness of summer’s blue skies, we’ve been out and about this week…Hiked up Scout twice.  Didn’t bother taking the camera along. Rats!  Because it was the coming down that proved interesting!  As we emerged out of the dense trees onto the green soccer field at the base of the mountain I thought I heard a  sort of grunting sound followed by a raspy scrabbling effect…

And then there they were within a dozen yards—Mama Bear, and three cuddly toddlers, one of whom was up the fork of a fir tree very near us.  Just loitering in the park,  startled by our appearance, as much as we were by theirs!  But alas, I was without my camera.  sigh.  I retreated only reluctantly.  And from a more distant vantage point realized there was another Mama and her twins dawdling at the lawn’s edge not far beyond the ones we’d startled.  Hmm… fine day for a (teddy) bear picnic I guess!

Yesterday we got out with friends to discover the Stillwater Bluffs people here rave about—great rock slabs covered in dry moss and lichen, adorned with arbutus and gnarly old firs towering above the oceans’ glinting expanse…

The cacophony of sea lion babble on a nearby islet wafted over, a humorously accurate but muted imitation of a dirtbike rally!

After a thorough bit of basking in the heat atop the bluff we headed down to tuck our toes in the still waters of a tidal pool

and introduce ourselves to the locals.  Meet Hermie.

All under the calm blue sky of this lingering Indian Summer…

--LS