The sunrise this morning was gorgeous. Above are three separate photos stitched together in Photo Elements as a panorama.

One year ago we were still living in Colorado and waiting to find out if Rick had gotten the job here in New Jersey. We really didn’t know quite what the future had in store for us. Our plans were to sell our house in Ft. Collins and semi-retire to our mountain cabin. We had already installed satellite internet service and had contracted with a company to build a garage in the spring. If we had moved to the cabin we would be pretty snowed in right now under about 4 feet of snow! Instead, this year finds us comfortably settled in New Jersey with unseasonably warm temperatures.

One day we will live out our dream of spending a few years at the cabin. But for now we are just enjoying the newest chapter in our lives.

From the time we found out in early January that we really were moving, to house-hunting in mid-February, to our move in mid-April, the first part of last year is just a blur of packing and planning. It all happened so fast, and before we knew it we were here. It was a good year. My only regrets are the loss of two dogs, Milli and Bode, and the fact that our house is still not sold.

We love living here. Rick loves his new job and I love the small town atmosphere. And how many people can say that bears are daily visitors to their yard? Just this morning while the dogs were out I heard frantic barking. I looked out the window to see two black forms running away from our fence. For a moment I thought the dogs had somehow gotten out. No…it was the cubs…wait…there goes Ursa right behind them. Ho hum, just the bears.

People are friendly and welcoming. Why do people in the Midwest and West think that Easterners are cold and unfriendly? I don’t know how many times we heard that when we told people we were moving East. Not true at all! In fact, we’ve found people to be so much more friendly than in Colorado.

In the year ahead I would like to see us finding a sitter or kennel for the dogs so that we can take more small trips. I would like our house to sell SOON! We want to do some small things to our house here, such as add a decent closet, change the kitchen countertops, maintain all the decks, and rip out carpeting and tile and put in wood floors instead. We can’t go ahead with any of that until we are free of our other house. I would like to expand on my knitting skills and learn the Tarot better. I feel the urge to do something creative, but as yet I don’t know exactly what.

This blog is something I didn’t plan on. It just happened. Blogging has added new dimensions to my life, as well as many new blogger friends. Thank you all for your support! Reading your blogs have made me think, reflect, and take note of many things. So thank you all for your blogs! I wish blogs had existed back when we lived in Europe. So much to write about then. I still have some old newsletters that we sent out to family and friends when we lived in France and I’ve thought about resurrecting them here. What do you think? It would be something different anyway and make me scrounge for past photos to scan in. No digital images back in the early 90s! I could take you on a European tour! Anyone interested in joining me?

I know I’m supposed to be writing something profound to start off the New Year with. Words would not come today, sorry.

I’ve retired Bode as my blog header for now and am starting fresh. I took this photo of this red leaf today while out for a walk. I think somehow it got left behind. Notice that the shadow of its own branch is visible through the leaf itself.

Happy New Year! We are off to a very soggy, foggy start to our new year. Here is the scene in our back yard as I write this entry at 12:36 p.m. Is it day? or night?  It rained overnight, nearly one inch. The yard, not frozen, has turned into a muddy mire from the dogs. Lovely. But, we are cozy and happy in our house. We just finished lunch of champagne [to toast the New Year as we went to bed before it arrived last night] and salad with poached pears and gorgonzola cheese. We just watched some of the Rose Parade. It’s pretty, but really what is the point of wasting all those gorgeous flowers? What happens to all the floats tomorrow? Truly a waste in my eyes.

Rick is out in the kitchen starting a new batch of cheese. Soon I will return to my Zelda game on our new Nintendo Wii. I need a few hours of fantasy!

A more thoughtful, deep post regarding the New Year to follow tomorrow. Until then, enjoy your first day of the year!

Above: Doris visits the front yard on Christmas Day

It was an interesting morning which began with a phone call from my neighbor Kim. She’d been out for a walk with her two dogs and they led her to the storm drain grating at the foot of our other neighbor’s driveway. When she looked in she saw a huge bear staring back up at her. She was worried that it was stuck and couldn’t get out; what should she do? Should she contact Friends of the Bears? My first thought was that it was just looking for a place to hibernate, but then again with heavy rains expected tonight and tomorrow I sure didn’t want a drowned bear on my conscience in case she really was stuck.

So I took a look for myself with flashlight in hand. I could hear heavy breathing when I got to the grate. I peeked in. Yup, there she was looking back at me with big black eyes. Oh hello beary-boo, I crooned softly to her. are you stuck? She looked like she was trying to climb up the concrete wall. She looked back at me woefully and retreated a little bit back into the largest drain pipe. I couldn’t tell if she was stuck or not. I walked back to the house to get Rick.

After getting down on our hands and knees to peer into the grating, we could see that three drains come together at this point with a small area in the middle. Rick went down to the drain outlet by the creek that runs in back of our house and looked in. When he shone the flashlight up the pipe he could see a pair of eyes staring back at him. Well, he said to Kim and I, she’s not the only bear in there! At that point I knew she must be Ursa with her two cubs, the bears that do the twilight bear parade.

I decided to go back to the house and get some suet that I had bought for the birds [but can’t put out because of the bears] and see if she would venture into the middle area to get it. At least that would allow us to see if she were truly stuck or not.

At this point we were all peering down at her, and she up at us. I dropped a piece of suet down and within a few minutes out she came. So, not stuck at all. She thought the suet was pretty tasty so I dropped another piece down to her. She looked up at us and was making wierd snuffly noises, more like huffing. Hmm…I thought, that doesn’t sound good. We all put our faces closer to the grate. Quicker than any of us could even think, the bear jumped up and gave a mighty ROAR right in our faces! YIKES. Scared the beejezzus out of us! Thank goodness for heavy grates! Scary. So much for all that oh poor beary-boo talk.

I heard other noises behind Ursa and sure enough, here came a cub to see what all the noise and excitement was all about. Usra left as if to say to her cub, think nothing of those stupid humans looking down at you. The cub came too late to get any of the suet; Ursa had eaten it all. We got a good look at this yearling cub and I’m convinced it was the sweet shy cub in my previous blog post and photos. She’s grown A LOT since then but still had fuzzy baby fur instead of the sleek coat of her mother. She just looked up at us sweetly. No more surprises there.

Kim walked down to our neighbor that loves the bears and found out that their son had seen the bears down in the drain last week and called the Friends of the Bears. They said that if the bears can get out alright to just do nothing. So, that’s what we did. I feel better knowing they aren’t going to drown. I would miss them. Now it makes sense why we see them where we do so often, as it’s right on their exit route from the drain.

All in all it doesn’t look like too bad of a place to stay. A nice bear cave. Unless of course it rains heavily…