I have lots of thoughts running around in my head —subjects I want to talk about, but for right now they are not coming out in any kind of pattern that makes any sense. So, I think those posts will have to wait.

Today the pool was opened for the summer season. I love the pool but I dread the next couple of days after opening because it means constantly changing Robby's dirty diaper. One swipe of the bottom and he's full. Not just with sludge, but with nasty things like worms, millipedes and etc. Every 20 mintues or so you'll find me trudging down the stairs to do my duty. (What a whiner!)

It's hot and humid today and it's also the first day for air conditioning! We just had a new unit installed last week, so today's weather is very timely. Our old unit had a frozen coil but they couldn't replace just that because we still had the old freon based coolant, which of course they don't make anymore. 

We have a racoon. We have always wondered why we never had them, but now we know for certain that we do. The infred game camera caught him the other night red-handed. When we first saw something clinging to the tree with creepy glowing eyes and two little ears sticking up we thought maybe we had a resident Ewok. But other shots following it were of a large raccoon. 

I have decided to finally start posting on FaceBook. Yikes, did I really just say that? Me? That hater of all things involving social media? (Social media being one of the topics I want to address.) Maybe I am getting old, but I feel the need to keep in better touch with some people and the easiest way for both of us to do that is to FaceBook. Soon I will post. It might hurt. A lot. So if you want me to "friend" you, let me know. I won't be posting much, just some daily stuff and a link when I blog.

I used to write quite a bit on the blog but somewhere along the way I got lost. I know it's boring when all I do is basically post photographs. I feel my fingers starting to twitch again with untold stories, be they new or old. Only time will tell if I can hold up my part of the bargain. I begin today. Thanks for reading.

Photo: Par-A-Sol hummingbird feeder at the first house in San Miguel.

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!