Yes, again. She came back! Only this time she didn’t come into our yard. I was out scooping the yard with most of the dogs. I heard a noise in the woods and looked up, and about that time Hailey heard it too. What I saw was a bear on the other side of the fence, about 30 feet away. Hailey ran over to the fence, barking. No, I told her, come here Hailey, come on, quick! Alex came over and started for the fence and somehow I managed to get him to listen to me too. I made a game out of running back to the house and put them all inside. I yelled for Rick—Rick! the bear is out there! We walked back over to the part of the fence where I had seen it but neither one of could see it. Okay, bear left. I went back to scooping and Rick went back inside. I stared into the woods. I swear that black over there has got to be a bear. I looked closer. Yup, definately a bear sitting there looking at me, only a bit further away this time. I go back inside to get Rick again and my trusty camera.

We watched for a few minutes. I think it’s not the momma bear since I don’t see any cubs around. Just a large black bear at the foot of a tree. The bear seems to very interested in the tree and keeps looking up. I move a little closer [after all the fence is between us and with no cubs I doubt it will bother me] to get a better shot. The bear looks at me and turns around and stands up to full height with its paws raking at the tree. Rick says, that’s a big bear! At the same time the bear is making rather ominous noises, like huffing in short breaths and little groaning noises. Hmm…this doesn’t sound good.

We retreat backwards and watch. Rick says, I wonder why it seems so interested in that tree? We look up. Rick thinks he sees a blackish blob in the tree but can’t tell what it is. I look further up the tree and see a bear cub just dangling in the notch of the tree! Yup, Rick’s blackish blob is a cub too! They look just like little monkeys hanging there.

OH NO! We’ve been messing with momma and the babies, not just some bear! Yikes! I think it’s time to head back inside and leave them alone. They look stuck up there to me, sure hope they can get down. The neighbors start out for a walk with their dogs and Rick goes up the drive to warn them. They aren’t too bothered and continue their walk but they can see the cubs in the tree from the road. Time passes. I keep walking out the front door and looking over at the tree to see if they are still there; they are. At this point I am wondering if we are going to have to call 911 and have a ladder truck come out to rescue the babies. Rick thinks I’m nuts. Lynne, they’re bears for god’s sake, not cats. They’ll get down when momma thinks it’s safe. Okay, sure hope so because I want to go for a swim.

So, I go out and take the solar blanket off the pool and do my skimming [not much of interest in my net today]. Just before changing into my suit I go out to check again and Rick comes with me. We don’t see the cubs in the tree anymore, so we start walking to the edge of the woods. OOPS, one of the cubs is just coming down and nearly at the bottom of the tree. We can’t see momma but we know she’s got to be there. We start walking backwards very s-l-o-w-l-y and go back inside. We didn’t have long to wait until she came out of the woods with all three cubs. Here she is forming her very own 4th of July Parade down our driveway with our neighbor’s flag in the background.

Happy 4th!

I (Rick) just posted some slow-motion movies of dogs drinking at my website. You might find these interesting.

Dog’s Drinking Slowly

Our friend Carolyn came to visit over the past weekend. We were hoping she could stay a little longer, but alas, she had to return to work today. We thought her visit provided the perfect opportunity to visit some of the local attractions we’ve been meaning to go and see. On Saturday we visited Ringwood Manor located in Ringwood State Park. It is a state historic site as well as a national historic landmark. The manor house was first built in 1807, and then added on to after 1850 until 1910, resulting in a mix of styles. The family left the manor house to the state complete with furnishings. The history behind it and the surrounding area is fascinating, but as a manor house it’s a bit depressing. I got strange feelings from walking through it. I am not saying I’m psychic or anything, but once in a while I do experience “vibes” from certain places. This was one such place. The dining room was the only room I got a good, warm feeling from. What I didn’t realize until I came home and did some searching on the web, was that it is on the register of “haunted” New Jersey places! Hey, maybe I am psychic after all! I had no idea. The tour guide never mentioned it. Here is a link to the Ringwood Manor web site in case you’d like to know more. Or this link which will take you to a story about the ghosts.

The next day, Sunday, we visited the Botanical Gardens in Ringwood. Again, this is an estate complete with manor house but we didn’t tour the house this time. The grounds are extensive and we started the self-guided trail around the outside edge. Here the path wound through the woods and by several bogs filled with frogs. They made an odd noise like a guitar string being plucked in different keys. Lots of different varieties of dragonflies whirred past our heads. The best feature of these “outer limits” were the iris [at least at this time of the year] and they came in many different colors. Here is just one example.

I think you could wander around forever and even get lost in that part of the gardens! We finally made our way to the perennial garden which was now in bloom. We had hoped for more labels on plants and trees so we could identify them, but these are pretty lacking throughout. There was occasionally a tag on a tree but never on the ones we found most interesting. I think you need to visit the gardens at least once a month to see all the different gardens blooming. There are Crab Apple Alley, Lilac Garden, Peony Garden, Azalea Garden, and Magnolia Walk, all done blooming now. The tiered gardens closest to the manor house [Skylands] are my favorite. Lots of water features such as splashing fountains, channels of water filled with koi and lily pads, and many kinds of interesting trees. It’s a lovely place all in all, but again we would have liked more identification on things. Such as this tree that just had us fascinated, mostly due to its trunk structure.

We’ll be going back again, and next month hope to join in on the monthy Sunday tour of Skylands. Here is a link to the site for the Botanical Gardens at Skylands. I’ll leave you with yet another photo, this one taken in the perennial garden. Not sure what it is!

Yesterday I spent half the the day painting the downstairs bathroom and hallway. The other half I spent just wandering around the front yard, taking photos of all the odd mushrooms that have sprouted up since our soaking rains. I know most people don’t even notice mushrooms and if they do, they think they are disgusting or evil [somehow associated with witches, etc.]. Rick and I started mushrooming a few years ago when we began noticing them on our mountain property. They can be fickle from year to year there depending on the rainfall. No rain; no shrooms. They can be fascinating to watch as their life cycle is very short; here today, gone tomorrow or even sometimes here this morning, gone by evening. Their various forms and colors are amazing.

Just look at the strange one I found the other day. It popped up after the rain in the morning and was shriveled up by afternoon. It had a sponge-like consistency and you could almost see it breathing, it was that creepy! Another popped up just this morning but it’s not quite as large as the previous one. Maybe it will grow during the day. You can see the withered one from the other day right next to it. It’s icky looking I’ll admit, but you have to be in awe of nature when it produces something like that! This one has a sticky, wet brown goop covering the head. The one the other day must have had the same goop because it did have a small patch still stuck to it. Maybe the flies are eating that part? It stinks, too. Ewwww. Here are several different pics of it. One a close-up showing the porous nature as the sun comes through. Fascinating. Maybe you won’t think so and wish I would get off this mushroom kick I seem to be on!
 

Here is another one I found interesting. I am always seeing faces in things I guess, because the side of this mushroom looks like the profile of an old man with a long moustache to me. Okay, use your imagination here. You know those folk art carvings of old men Santas and the like, right? This one is all dressed in white with a white cap on his head. On the right side of the mushroom you can see a fairly high forehead, the protrusion of his brow and the indentation of his eye below that. Then his nose sticks out in a bulbous manner and you can see his long moustache going down his cheek and the indentation of his mouth right underneath. C’mon, you’ve got to see this too?

Okay, enough fungi for this morning. I’ve got to get busy and remove all the painter’s tape from the woodwork, put the bathroom back together, do some laundry, clean the house, make up the spare guest room [Carolyn is coming for the weekend! Note: She was the person who helped us move all the dogs and kitties here.], take a swim and get some sun, do some weeding, prepare dinner ahead of time [Eggplant roll-ups stuffed with ricotta and monterey jack cheeses], and then WHEW! sit down with a glass of wine and relax while waiting for Carolyn’s arrival.

Not long after my morning post of yesterday, the rain stopped. It didn’t just taper off, it was more like somebody turned off the faucet. The silence was almost deafening after the constant drumming sound we had become used to. The sun played hide-and-seek with the clouds for awhile, and the dogs and I went outside to walk around the yard and woods. Come with me and see what we found!

The bee balm is now in bloom

An Indian Pipe Plant

A vine making its way up a tree

Some tree fungus

A slug

A turtle

And a very strange mushroom. We’re going to have to look this one up! It only lasted a few hours so I’m glad I found it when I did.