I finally got over to Skylands for a walk. The weather has been so iffy and even in this photo you can see a few threatening clouds. It was a nice day with temps in the high 60s and in and out sunshine. 

Right now the prevelant blooming thing is mostly the irises. They vary from those planted neatly in beds in various colors —

— to the purple variety that wildly takes over in the unmown fields.

The rhododendrens are blooming and there are a few azalea hanger-ons.

The azaleas were not worried about whether or not their colors all go together harmoniously.

These beautiful trees were also in bloom and I haven't a clue what they are. Exotic looking!

The only thing that marred my pleasant walk-around was a group of rowdy teens on a school field trip. It was hard to feel zen while everywhere I went I heard loud voices and excited yelling. But, they were enjoying nature (maybe) and at least had chaperones with them. I will be going back soon as I saw a few things I want to check out in about a week that were about to bloom. I love Skylands and I hope you do too!

Pretty columbines that just popped up in my flower bed this year.

That's sure a strange title, eh? Well, first the Warm Bodies part. It's a movie that we watched this weekend that finally ended up on HBO. I guess it wasn't exactly a big box office hit but we had seen previews in the theater for it the last time we went and we were intrigued. Not enough to see it in the theater, but still, we were curious. It's a zombie movie and we really aren't into zombies. This one is a romance of sorts and how the love of a good woman can bring any zombie man back to life. It's funny, it's well acted (it takes a lot to be able to look good staggering around like a zombie), and we found it bizarrely uplifting. I highly recommend it. In fact, we liked it so much that we burned it to a DVD so we can watch it again whenever we want to.

The weather for our 3-day-Memorial Day Weekend was pretty much perfection. We had the warmest days of the year so far with low humidity and bright blue skies.  We grilled every single night and sat outside on the deck to eat. Very, very nice. 

We tried out Rick's new early birthday present: a portable pizza oven that runs off propane! It cooked that pizza in no time flat to perfection! Yum! Plus, since it's portable we can take it camping with us if we want to, which I think we will do when we go to Mystic in mid-June. It heats up to 800 degrees F. Pretty slick.

Other meals included kebabs with steak, peppers, mushrooms and onions; hamburgers with potato salad. We ate well and healthily.

We did a lot of chores over the three days including mowing the lawns, weeding out the ferns in the flower bed that were taking over, setting up part of the cabana (we'll wait to hang the curtains until after the pool is openend and we've power-washed), buying flowers for the pool deck and the railing planters and getting them potted, going to to Warwick Farmer's Market, and I'm sure there is something else that I am forgetting but for now it escapes me.

Bella helps with everything, of course. Especially with the yard work and outdoor grilling.

. . . since we've seen a bear! Those of you that have been reading the blog for a long time will remember the frequency of bears in my yard. Since the bear hunt has been re-established in New Jersey we have not seen even one.

Lately neighbor Aileen has been telling me that they've seen a good sized male and some masons that were working on her chimney saw a female with two cubs. Yesterday morning, which was trash day, I opened the curtains to see that our trash had been pilfered and was strewn all over the ground by the trash can. Bear! It's been a long time since our garbage has been disturbed.

Last night as Rick and I were cooking dinner, the phone rang. It was neighbor Aileen who was on her way out when they encountered the bear in the road just past our house. She said he was headed our way. I looked out the window but didn't see him. Bella was on the back deck and a few minutes later she started barking and looking towards the woods. I went out and sure enough, here comes Mr. Bear! I got Bella in and headed to the front of the house to see if he would come in the yard. Sure enough, that sweet bear walked right up my front yard.

I was jumping up and down with glee just like a little kid. I grabbed the camera and stepped out on the front porch. He wasn't too bothered by me at all. He's a beauty!

He started to head straight for Kim's yard across the street and I could see that her dogs were out but they hadn't spotted the bear yet. Rick quickly called her to tell her about the bear about to enter her yard and she immediatley called them in. The bear froze for a minute when he heard her calling the dogs and decided to walk straight up the road instead. We watched as he strolled away in no particular hurry.

Welcome back beary-boos!

I've blogged about our first camping adventure in the LadyBug over on the T@B site! Happy reading!

I still have more photos to share from San Miguel. I hope you don't mind. 

Tomorrow we set off for the maiden voyage of the LadyBug! We are not going very far, just over the border to Pennsylvania in the Delware Water Gap. The dogs don't have a clue what tomorrow will bring! It's only a one-nighter just to test the waters and see how the whole thing works with the dogs along. We already have a 3-day-weekend planned to meet friend Carolyn half-way between her home of Rhode Island and our New Jersey one. We are meeting in Mystic, CT a few weeks from now. The dogs will stay here in the kennel for that visit since we want to sightsee. Pizza at Mystic Pizza is definately in our plans!

Stay tuned for the Bug's maiden voyage!