This is half of my back yard. The trees have not completely leafed out yet but they are working furiously on it. This is one of my flower beds (or maybe I should call it a rock garden!). [Note: all photos were taken this weekend.]

Above is part of the other half, and my big flower bed which will soon have a large variety of things taking their turn blooming.

With all these trees it figures that we get lots of different birds. Some of them are not residents of our mountain highlands and live a bit further south, while others live here year round. The red-bellied woodpecker is one of those residents. [Please don’t ask why they call it “red-bellied” when it’s obvious that it’s head is the only red thing on this bird.]

This male Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (and the female, next photo) we only see occasionally.

One of my favorites is the Indigo Bunting which we only see coming to the feeder in spring. They are so bright blue you can’t miss them even when they sit in the trees!

Of course we gets lots of these pesky (but cute) creatures.

This is growing in the woods just off the big flower bed. It’s a kind of Jack-in-the-Pulpit. I consider the woods inside our fenced area to be “my yard” as well, so this counts.

Rick found this on Sunday morning as he started to plant the marigolds in the front flower bed. It’s a white morel! More on that story in a different entry ...

And last, but certainly not least, the newest repeat visitor to the front yard. Patch(es). As I drove in the driveway returning from a grocery trip yesterday, there she was laying in the same spot again. I think she likes it here. I managed to catch her on video as she was leaving.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed your tour of things found in my yard!

Our hummingbirds arrived on May 2nd this year. Nice to have them back!
(Yikes! I am so behind in my ABC-Along ... )

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better than Patch in my yard the other day, I had another surprise visit today.

Count ‘em! FIVE BABY BEAR CUBS! In my yard/driveway! Two weeks ago they were sighted by my neighbor Luke, and also had their photo on the front page of our local newspaper when they happened to visit the community down the road from us, but I never thought they’d show up in my driveway! Last week Luke and I trudged up one side of the mountain and back down the other in search of this family unit with no success. Go figure.

You have to agree that they are just totally adorable. They didn’t stop to visit so I had to be quick and shoot the photos through the upstairs window (with screen) so the images are not as clear and sharp as I’d like, but at least I managed to capture them.

Look how eensy the littlest one is! I don’t know how old they are exactly, but I’ve had puppies bigger than this at 8 weeks of age! My goodness!

“Wait for us momma! We’re trying hard to keep up with you!”

And oh, as for a name ... uhm ... how about Myrtle? (As in Fertile Myrtle.) Luke has already named the cubs “The Fantastic Five” which I thinks fits them extremely well. I don’t know how usual it is for a female to have five cubs, but here they are!

I had a visitor yesterday afternoon. She made herself quite at home in my front yard.

“Ho, hum, I kind of like just laying here licking up seeds.”

“aahhhh ... time for a little stretch!”

“hey, did I say you could take my picture?”

“well, okay, go ahead then.”

“pretty, aren’t I?’

At first when I saw a tag in each ear and the darkish face of this bear I thought it was Minor, the cub from the year before. But after I looked up the photos of Minor I could see it was a different bear. The ear tags are in different spots. So, a completely new bear, and a young one at that. Probably a cub from last year turned out on her own.

I took these photos from the upstairs window that does not have a screen. She only looked up at me when I opened the window enough to get the telephoto lens of my camera out; she didn’t move an inch. She acted like she was right at home. She stayed until the mailman came by and he spooked her into the woods.

She came back twice more yesterday, the third time being after Rick had come home, so he got to see her. I had told him about the bear visits, so as he drove past the bottom on his way home he was looking for her. He saw her roaming around down there in the woods. Not ten minutes after he walked in the door we got a call from neighbor Kim alerting us to the fact that she was once again laying in front of our windows. We watched her for quite a while, but it soon became obvious she wasn’t in a hurry to move on. She scratched and pawed and found seeds that I think may have been buried all winter.  She did a lot of just laying there like an big, black, overgrown dog. Lazy bear. She reminded me of Doris who was always the lazy one and did the very same thing. I wonder if this is her daughter?

New bears have to be named. This bear had a distinguishing feature (other than the placement of her ear tags): a triangular patch of brown on her chest. So, by the authority vested in me by the black bears of my neighborhood, I hereby name thee “Patch.”

We’re hoping she’s taken up residence in our woods. Come back soon, Patch!

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! The word is finally out. Leaflets bearing the news are being distributed all across the townships and counties of New Jersey. Aided by the sun, wind, and rain, the leaflets are reaching a rapidly growing audience with their important news.

And what exactly do the leaflets say? Simple!

More...