Sometimes it just hits me in the face how beautiful it really is here in New Jersey. Forget about the crummy summer we are experiencing with all the rain and 100% humidity. (Hey, it’s good for the skin!)

Yesterday I drove to our CSA to pick up our share. I took the back roads instead of the main road. The back roads are twisty and turny with plenty of hills. I pass all kinds of styles of houses nestled cosily in the woods. No cookie-cutter housing developments here. Some make me want to stop, knock on their door, and ask I can come in and tour their home. My Mom was always wanting to do that. I think she would have made a great realtor. Has it really been two years since her passing?

I also pass two or three (or is it four?) small lakes with their clusters of houses. Some are log cabins which must go back to the days when this was a popular place to come in the summer from the city. Now they are permanent homes for some lucky family. I love the look and feel of these small lakeside communities. My favorite is Lindy’s Lake. There is so much foot traffic going back and forth from houses to the private beach that they put out orange traffic cones. As I drive slowly by keeping a sharp eye out for stray children, I get a quick glimpse of kids swimming and splashing while the moms chat in small groups or sit on beach towels in the sun.

Also yesterday there was a bear parade down the street in front of my house. Patches had the kids out for a stroll. I stood in my driveway and tried to snap a few photos. They were on the move so the photos are not the best. First came Patches.

and then the three amigos.

The went into our neighbor’s yard and then their woods, coming back out on the road again. Patches was curious about our new driveway (We had our driveway resurfaced on Monday and the asphalt smell is still very strong.) and she came over to have a sniff.

She was probably planning on coming into my front yard but she knew I was out there so she changed her plans and took the family on down the road.

It was midday and very hot. I was pretty surprised to see them out and about. But that would not be the only bear encounter of the day. Oh no, not the last.

Several hours later I let the dogs out after their meal. Bella didn’t show up at the door to come back inside and I knew she must be up to something. The dogs never want to stay outside when it’s as hot as it was yesterday. I went out to see what she up to and I could see her back by the fence. I called her. She ignored me. I walked a little further and could see she was just sitting there at the fence intently staring back into the woods. Hmm ... very suspicious! Sure enough, there was Patches sitting at the base of a large tree, and looking up I could see the cubs in the tree. I got Bella back inside and went out with my camera, hoping to get some shots of the cubs up the tree.

Patches was laying down when I approached the fence. She picked her head up and looked at me. I went to the fence, and standing on a rock, positioned my camera on the top of the chain link, preparing to take a photo of her. She stood up with her front legs on the tree as if to climb it and I figured I was making her nervous and she was going to call the cubs down from their perch high above. As I stood there, quicker than lightning, another bigger bear came charging at her from somewhere on my left making scary noises. I didn’t get my photo but I nearly peed my pants. Where did that bear come from? Patches went up the tree and there was a lot of vocalizing going on in bear talk. I was still standing there dumbstruck when the bigger bear turned in my direction, looked straight at me and started walking at a quick pace towards me and the fence. I have to admit I was pretty scared (especially not knowing what kind of scene I had just watched the bears play out). So what did I do? I backed away as quickly as I could keeping my eye on the bear at all times. I knew it could come over that fence in a heartbeat if it wanted to. (And speaking of heartbeats, mine was pretty rapid right about then!) The big bear got almost to the fence and then turned around and went back to the base of the tree where Patches and the kids still were. Holy crap! I have never witnessed anything like that before. I stood there in the yard for a little while trying to peer through the trees to see what was going on. I saw a cub come down the tree and the bigger adults moving around, but no more confrontations. I left them to it and went back inside to call my neighbor Aileen to be on the lookout for them in case they headed in her direction.

I don’t know which bear it was, but it was big. Much bigger than Patches because she looked like a cub next to it!  Yikes.

When I told Rick my story he had this to say “Gee, too bad you didn’t get it on video.” Not gee Lynne maybe you should be more careful or how scary or anything like that. No. He’s wishing I had gotten it on video. Well, now that I think about it and my heart rate is back to normal again, I’m thinking how very cool it would have been to have it on video. Think I should try again?

I don’t know why I’m sitting here trying to blog today. I am kind of in a funk and not really sure why. I have no reason to be. I feel like summer is passing me by and soon it will be gone and I won’t have done any of the things I intended to do. I had a goal of keeping my flower beds weed free and it all started out so well. Then the rains came and so did the weeds. I battled them for a while but now I just looked at them this weekend and said go ahead, clog my flower bed, see if I care! I’ve given up. Plus, I think that in my zeal to weed early on I must have pulled out my coneflowers since not one do I have now. Bummer.

It is still not really summer here. More like an extended spring. The pool temperature I think has topped out at 78 degrees on a good day. Yesterday three-quarters of an inch of cool rain fell over much of the day and I’m sure the pool temp will fall by a few degrees too. It’s just sad. I do like the cool nights for pleasant sleeping but I really could use a little more heat. I think we may have broken 80 degrees once or twice. My day lilies did not bloom as vigorously as years past and we’ve not had the dragonflies we normally do. They usually love the lilies. Neither have I seen my little buddies the hummingbird moths, and only a few butterflies so far. We still have a few hanger-on fireflies, still looking for love (most likely in all the wrong places), winking high in the treetops. And the cicadas? I am really not sure they will make an appearance this year. I’m afraid it may be too cool for them. I associate the sound of cicadas with hot weather and it’s not looking good!

There are so many things to blog about that I have just let pass me by.

Like the day we had two trees removed from our front side yard. It was fascinating to watch how quickly and easily the tree removal crew took them down. And how their super-charged shredding machine chewed up huge branches and limbs into mulch in a matter of seconds. We kept the wood from the trunks of the trees and will season it for use in a year or so. One tree was a black birch and when they cut it the smell of root beer, or to be more exact—birch beer—permeated the air for hours afterwards. I can still press my nose to the pieces of wood and smell that wonderful odor.

Like the two tea towels I finished.

Like the rest of the photos from our trip to San Miguel.

Like the somewhat upscale dinner we gave for a few friends of ours on Saturday night.

Like the great walk we took through the old Jungle Habitat with the dogs on Sunday. (Jungle Habitat is a story within itself! Another abandoned New Jersey attraction.)

All likely topics to blog about, but yet, I didn’t. Or haven’t. I need to get on with it here!

Watch this space ...

Edited on Wednesday afternoon to add:
Okay, so I lied. But not on purpose.
I went out to take some photos around noon today and these three things were different than my post above.
It was steamy and very warm. My camera lens even fogged up!
I heard a cicada!
I found one coneflower blooming and several others about to!
So, there you have the latest.
I’m thrilled about all three things above.
Well…maybe not so much the foggy camera lens ...

eBay is a strange cat. She is always going over to one of the dogs for attention. Bella just happens to be the perfect playmate. (Note: the growling you hear in the background is not coming from eBay but from Pookie who didn’t much like what was going on, or maybe she really wanted to join in?) And just how long ago was Bella that little puppy??

Edited to add:
eBay was raised by our Bernese, so it’s not so strange she thinks she is one of them. For those new to my blog, you might enjoy the back story on eBay. Follow this link.

Alex says Happy 4th of July! Alex was a good model for the Stars & Stripes until Bella got into the act.

psssssttt ... hey alex ...

i think that’s my tiara!

hah! got it!

my tiara ... mine, all mine ...

ahhh… see how good it looks on me?

Here’s hoping your 4th of July weekend looks good on you too!

As you already know, our nearly ten-month-old Berner Bella loves the water. She has gone in the pool once before but I was not smart enough with the video camera to actually turn it “on.” sigh. Okay, today was not perfect pool weather and the temperature has not increased any (still 70-ish degrees), but we had to dunk ourselves today in the tiny sunny window that we had. Hey, after nearly another inch of rain in the past two days I think we need to take advantage of any short sunlit opportunity that comes our way.

You can view Bella’s super cool movie one of three ways:

The best quality with a fast internet connection can be viewed here:
http://gallery.me.com/bmtndog/100200

You can view it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ15Nl61lZs

Or you can watch it here:

I was manning the video, but Rick did all the super editing of the movie and he is responsible for the end result.

I hope it makes you smile!