. . . 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!

I still have more photos to share from San Miguel. I hope you don't mind. 

Tomorrow we set off for the maiden voyage of the LadyBug! We are not going very far, just over the border to Pennsylvania in the Delware Water Gap. The dogs don't have a clue what tomorrow will bring! It's only a one-nighter just to test the waters and see how the whole thing works with the dogs along. We already have a 3-day-weekend planned to meet friend Carolyn half-way between her home of Rhode Island and our New Jersey one. We are meeting in Mystic, CT a few weeks from now. The dogs will stay here in the kennel for that visit since we want to sightsee. Pizza at Mystic Pizza is definately in our plans!

Stay tuned for the Bug's maiden voyage!

Our new solar powered lanterns lighting up the night.

Yesterday was perfection. The entire day from start to finish. The weather was the nicest day we've had so far this year. Clear blue sky, temps in the high 70's and low humidity. A nice breeze dried our freshly laundered sheets on the line. The trees are filling out pretty quickly now and each day our view through the woods diminishes. The grass really needs its first cutting.

We went to opening day of the Warwick Famers Market and bought some a few herbs (thyme, sorrel, borage), pickled spicy carrots and pickled brussel sprouts (yummy!!), and some new potatoes for our dinner.

We ate lunch at Pennings Farm and bought two more herbs—sage and cilantro—along with a cute lady bug yard flag and a little lady bug spinner for the Lady Bug.

When we got home Rick potted up the herbs and put them on the deck. We sat in the Lady Bug for a while and planned out what we are going to eat on the Bug's maiden voyage coming up this weekend. We drank a couple of glasses of wine and munched on our pickled carrots & sprouts.

The Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks having been gracing us with their presence over the last few days. I'll be sorry when they move on to wherever they are migrating to. They show up every year right around this time.

Dinner was BBQ baby back ribs and potato salad (featuring those delicioulsy creamy potatoes we bought at the market). 

The best part of the day came with dinner. We ate outside on the deck and sat and watched all the birds. Rick saw something big fly and land and there was the pileated woodpecker on our big oak tree. He stayed and hammered on the tree branch for awhile and then flew away. Magical. Then we sat in awe and watched the first hummingbird of the year take his first sip from the feeder.  Which reminded us of when we first bought the property that our cabin now sits on and we took our RV up and "camped" on it. We didn't have many hummers in those days and we made a pact that each time we saw a hummer come to the feeder hanging from our RV's awning we would take a sip of wine. We sat for hours with only one glass. Last night we did the same thing: each time the hummer and his wife came to take a sip, so did we. All I can say is that it's a good thing it got dark shortly thereafter and the hummers went to bed.

We built a fire in our little outdoor fire pit and had dessert (Blueberries and Cream Pie) and a whiskey nightcap.

Bella sat by the fire with us and seemed to be saying why isn't the pool open yet? 

As we looked above us we saw our first bat of the season too, circling over the pool area. Like I said, One Enchanted Evening. The only thing missing was a bear sighting.

colorful

narrow

cobblestoned

busy

thriving

These are the streets of San Miguel.