Some days I approach the writing of my blog post wondering what I can say that will be meaningful, or interesting, or useful. What bit of wit or wisdom will make you feel it was worth your while to stop here? My tidbits about the craft of writing are gleaned from personal experience and can’t be counted on as professional expertise. My life isn’t full of extraordinariness that makes it much different from anyone else’s. My efforts at photography are hit and miss at best. I take oodles of shots, and discard most, but I present you with the few that suitably illustrate my topic du jour.
My problem today? No ‘topic du jour’ will come to mind! I have no brilliant writing analogies, and my days recently have been pretty ordinary. However, I DO have some photos I can share, not because they’re particularly great photography, but because the subject matter is pretty spectacular… at least, it is to me, given it was shot in my own backyard.
I’ve mentioned before that we live more-or-less rurally, in a cul-de-sac, but one where the few homes are surrounded by woods and marshland. All manner of wildlife wander through en route to wherever. Wednesday the biggest bear yet came through… but she stayed. And stayed.
My hubby yelled at her when she started up the stairs to the deck, so she backed off. Instead, she wandered around the lawn and through the gardens. She climbed high into one of the very tall (200′) evergreens and then backed her way down again. She laid down and grazed on the grass, got up and wandered some more, repeatedly… for eighty minutes! (I know that because I checked the time stamps on the first and last of my 100+ photos.)
She didn’t DO anything, but neither did she seem inclined to leave.
Then, after keeping us entertained for eighty minutes, she took one last stroll through the garden shrubs, turned and headed with determination across the yard towards the trail to our marsh… this time followed by a little cub who materialized from behind a rhododendron and scrambled to keep up!
Our best guess for the prolonged visit is that, en route to wherever, it must have been time for the cub’s morning nap. Mama Bear had deposited him there, out of sight just above the creek, and left him to snooze while she put in the time munching and mowing our unkempt lawn, and posing for her extensive photo opp.
I’m left with an abundance of photos and memories of this close-up wildlife encounter, but I still don’t have a useful Friday post for you. Nothing brilliant has emerged from my boggled brain, so I hope you’ll be satisfied with this photo journal and feel your visit here hasn’t been entirely in vain.
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“Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth,
and makes us wiser than the fowls of heaven?”
[Job 35:11]
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MUSINGS 
I am so impressed dear friend, I L O VE your photography and your patience to tell the story it presented in every instance! I for one think your writing and pictures would make a great book, a journal, if you will, of The “NATURE” of My Life.
mE
I’ll gladly “bear” with you! What a treat to see.
This is definitely interesting and worthwhile! 😀
Perhaps the writing analogy here is that wherever we are on the journey, there is waiting… although the mother bear maybe doesn’t choose when (or where) her cub naps, she adapts and makes the best of the detour (grass…yum, yum). We writers are so often waiting — for feedback, for agent responses, for editorial letters, for the publishing industry — and we should make the best of that time! Write the next thing, catch up on our TBR pile, go on an artist date, eat grass…or maybe chocolate… 😉
Thanks for indulging my detour today, Earlene, Susan and Shari! I’m tickled that Shari actually gleaned a writing analogy out of it. 🙂
Haha, love the shish! For someone who wrote nothing important today, you went beyond. These are wonderful photos, Carol. You are definitely a techie. We have a bear in our neighbourhood too. A little big for me. Haha. No photos either. Ours is shy.
LOL! The “shish” was because Hubby was standing beside me trying to take photos with our new iPhone and muttered something about the setting being on video (those two beeps you hear were his). He didn’t realize I was in the middle of taking a video myself. We couldn’t get rid of the bear so took advantage of the opportunity to get lots of photos. I’m hoping they won’t appear again any time soon. It makes me nervous to be out working in the garden beds if they’re anywhere nearby, especially when there’s a cub involved.
I’ll look at pictures, but I don’t want to be anywhere near the real deal!
I was happy to be able to get some photos, but happier still to be on the opposite side of the glass from her! Except for briefly opening the patio door a crack to yell at the bear as she started up the stairs, we stayed safely inside while she was here. Any wild animal can be dangerous, but with a cub around (even tho’ we didn’t know there was one until the very end) a sow is easily provoked.
Our bear visitors took a liking to the bird feeder which we forgot to take I side overnight. She crushed the steel casing as if it was made of paper. Lesson learned. But we are still in awe that we have such magnificent creatures living so close by.
Bears think birdseed is gourmet granola! We love feeding the birds in the winter, but always try to take the feeders away before the bears come out of hibernation. Unfortunately, around here they sometimes don’t hibernate at all.
AMAZING!! Thank you so much for this video and photography treat, Carol. Pretty wonderful.
I can’t get over Mama’s squared snout. Are they all like that? I’ve met up with possums and skunks, but I can’t imagine what it’d be like to wander outside and come snout to snout with a bear. I’m a bit jealous–and a bit glad. Sometimes when I go outside at night, though, I look around for fear of meeting a coyote or something…
I love Shari’s application.
Thanks, Diana and Sandy. Yes, I’d say that snout was pretty normal. They have large nostrils that facilitate a remarkable sense of smell.
My mother and a friend were berry picking many years ago and found themselves with only a bush between them and a bear. They backed away quietly and quickly, and arrived home with quite the story to tell.
I guess! Luckily bear was drunk on berry juice.
🙂