Bear Me No Mind

I know, I know, I said I wasn't going to post anymore photo's of snow. I lied. Get over it.

I am posting these because they mostly are about the bear and his attack on the garbage shed. Remember I said in my last Blog post:
And I flash on... ...me, waking up in the night to the sound of the Cat starting up and an Island Black Bear going for a joy ride across the fields with the big yellow John Deer Crawler Tractor, churning up snow as he goes.

Well, Richard went out a couple of days ago to start up the Cat and scrape snow out of the driveway, only to find that that annoying little Island Black Bear had been back. "Hey," he hollered through the front door, "that bear was back and he was trying to figure out how to start up the Cat and move it away from the shed so he could get at the garbage again! There are tracks all around the Cat."

"Um hmm," I replied. "Didn't you read what I said in my Blog?"

"Nope," he replied, "haven't read it for a while." So I made him go in and read the post.

"Yeah," Richard responds, "that's what he was trying to do! Give me your camera, I'll go take photo's for you," he said and went back out to do just that. You can see his tracks in the photo's above, as well as the trail of garbage leading off towards the creek. The other photo's are just there to remind me what warm weather really looks like.

Richard scraped snow from the drive, then headed off in the Cat across the fields to the other side of the farm to clean the barn. When he hadn't returned by 5pm - having left at 1pm - I called his cell to check on him. He informed me he'd be home shortly, would probably be walking back. "Aren't you bringing the Cat home?" I asked. "No, I can walk," he stated. "But...what about the garbage shed? Don't you need to put the bucket of the Cat against the door to hold it shut?" I queried. "Oh," was his startled reply. "Um, yeah, I guess I do need to bring it home, don't I. I forgot."

Sigh.

Bente says that none of the bears in the Valley are sleeping as the food supply is still too good. There has been no garbage pickup in town and around the district for over 3 weeks because of all the snow, so the bears are foraging in it. Tough to store 3 weeks of garbage in your house, gak.

The snow has been so heavy and so deep that it has knocked down all my plum trees behind the house and on the edge of the field. I doubt if they will recover. Once the snow melts, we will go out and assess the damage. It has crushed the Wild Rose hedge and the Himalayan Blackberries are flat - although they will come back. The Quince bushes look really sick, and we had a lot of them. I have a feeling we will be losing some of them as well. These are trees and bushes that have been here for a long, long time, much longer than we have, and we've been here 20 years. It's a shame to lose them this way.

The plums were small, round greenish-gold orbs that were tart-sweet. They made a bilious looking jelly but boy did it taste good, and we loved to eat them out of hand. The Quince were big yellow globes that smelled like Pineapples, and made delicious pies and jellies. Quince were one thing the bears and birds left alone, because the are so astringent when raw. I know the Roses will come back quickly as will the Blackberries. The whole lot used to make it impossible to see the field. Now you could nearly walk right through them to it.

The snow is finally, albeit very slowly, starting to recede. I can see a bare patch here and there under trees in the garden yard and under the work tables out there. I feel sorry for the poor Robins trying desperately to find a worm that didn't freeze to death during the cold spell. They will eat the berries in the Holly trees, but that can't be too nutritious. We hang suet blocks out for the birds, as I've said before, but Robins really aren't seed eaters.

The Wetter Network is calling for it to be warmer and sunny this week, rising to a high of +10 for Saturday. I don't believe them. They haven't been right yet so far this winter. Our temperature has not been over +4 yet, while they keep forecasting +7 or +8. Not happening. Fool me once......

I've lost my motivation, can't find it anywhere at all. I think it went on vacation from the weather and forgot to tell me. Probably to the beach at Baja. Sitting there under an umbrella, shaded from the sun, sipping frosty Mojito's. Watching people from behind it's sunglasses, reading the latest Janet Evanovich novel...sigh. I have no ambition to do anything, have to force myself to do the things I enjoy, like baking bread or cooking. I need some sunshine.

So if you happen to be passing by on the beach at Baja, and notice my missing motivation, please send her back home. I need her back.

Really.