Summertime, July 2023

 

And the livin' is easy ... and the fruit is ready to pick and can.  Last year in NorCal, most, if not all, the fruit was ruined by two late killer frosts, so we got bupkis, nada.  This year, compliments of enormous amounts of snow and rain, NorCal is experiencing a bumper fruit crop.  And lucky us, our farm friends are willing to share.  I pick, half for them, half for us, and Jimmy even helped.  We are grateful.

Lucky, too, that early summer was delightfully cool, right into July.  

Lots of strawberries makes many jars o' jam.

Poppies and bees.

I know some of you are wondering how Jimmy is since our return from Lisbon on June 8th.  He'll tell you himself that he's doing great and, all things considered, he is doing very well.  He and I work at Interfaith Food Ministry (food bank, restocking) on Tuesday mornings, and he was back to work last Tuesday, being careful not to lift heavy things!  Thanks for your prayers and concern.  We appreciate you.

Sweet cherries!  The birds left the cherries alone this year, which meant we could enjoy them.  This year is the first year Marlene and I each canned cherries.  If we'd been taller or willing to climb either the tree or a longer ladder, we could have picked a ton more.

Matilija poppies and carpenter bees -- which we see on our Cascade Canal walk. I call them Matilda poppies. Another self-explanatory name is fried egg poppy. Those bees were all over the egg yolk center, which also resembles a yellow golf ball. A cluster of these plants is a real sight to see, especially if it's combined with tangles of wild pink sweet peas.

Granddaughter, Evie (six years old) came to spend a weekend with us.  Swinging is still one of her all-time favorites.  Even though she can pump herself, she still likes Gramma or Pop-pop to push her.  She has another loose tooth -- it fell out when she got home.

Ohmygosh, the blueberries.  We picked and we picked and we picked.  Our farm friends have five or six rows of blueberries with maybe ten bushes in each row (I'm guessing), and the branches were sagging to the ground, so heavy with berries.  I made only four pints of jam, but I have bags of blueberries in the freezer if I want to make more in winter when heating up the kitchen would make me happy.

On July 3rd, Jimmy was sitting on the back deck, late morning just before lunch, when something caught his attention by the bird feeder -- ten feet off the back deck.  He didn't hear anything, just caught movement out of the corner of his eye.  He turned toward the feeder and nearly keeled over -- a huge black bear was reaching for the feeder!!  He yelled, the bear took off toward our side yard and another feeder.  Meanwhile Jimmy banged on the sliding glass door, so I came out, saw the bear and fumbled with my phone camera.  The bear entered our garage through the side door (the main door was closed), climbed up on the workbench to get to the window, turned around, and lunged out of the garage, saw Jimmy (who was heading for the garage -- yikes, too close), and jumped on the chain link fence instead.

It tore through my spent Irises (above), over the fence and into the neighbor's yard.  Then over the fence leading to the road, crossing the road and up our friends' driveway.  They have chickens in their backyard.  Frantic, I called Fran and yelled, "There's a bear in your backyard."

Hoo-hah!  It was a big bruiser, too!  It climbed over their backyard fence and continued on its way to somewhere else.  To see a bear in the daytime like this is kind of unreal and possibly rare, but it was probably looking for food or water or both.  It's been seen a couple more times in the area, just not in our yard.  Geez, talk about afternoon entertainment!  Hoy!  Scared the tarnation out of Jimmy!

The following weekend we spent some time on the American River.  On Saturday we played on/near the clay banks, not far from Fair Oaks where son, Matt, lives.  Phooey, I have no pics to share, but it sure was fun wading in the chilly water near the shore.  Lots of people were actually in the water, but seeing it run so fast was frightening and we steered clear.  On Sunday, Jimmy and Matt and Evie and I drove to the American River confluence in Auburn and played in the shallow water, away from the raging rapids.  We had a blast.

The river bottom was rocky.  Big wobbly rocks.  I hadn't planned on dunking myself, but I fell in!  You see it wasn't deep where we were.

As long as you stayed to the left of the rock dam, you were safe from white water.  Matt was watching the water race past, thinking of kayaking.  This is the confluence, where the Middle and North Forks of the river meet.

Heck, as long as you were already wet, enjoy!  I think I was sitting on a rock here, with Matt behind me on the floatie.  Evie was probably looking for stones to skip.  The water was refreshing on a hot summer day.  Jimmy manned the camera.  He was reluctant to tackle the big ol' unstable rocks and was content to stay seated in the shade of a willow.

Summer has gone all hot now, with days in the 90's and even the 100's at our house in Nevada City, with even higher temps down in the valley.  Of course no rain is on the horizon, so watering to keep plants alive is essential.

It was altogether too hot initially to sit outside at the July 23rd band concert in Pioneer Park, but we went anyway.  You can swelter in the Sierra foothills summer.  

The band shell is out of the picture on the right.  Matt, Evie, and Jimmy sitting above the red x (Jen was working).  Their 16-year-old dog, Sophie, was along, too.  She didn't like the heat, either.

Matt and Evie (and Sophie) left at the intermission.  Jimmy and I stayed and moved into shade so we could enjoy the second half of the concert.

That's it for now.  We're doing okay!

Does a bear ... Tuesday, 8/18/20

I sit here this Wednesday morning, still kind of reeling from our recent visitor experience.  Of course the windows and doors are closed to keep the blessed air-conditioned coolness inside and the stale, smoky conditions out.  There's no wind at the moment, and the sun is up there somewhere above the haze, casting eerie shadows below.  This will be another 100° day, one more day to hide indoors, like a blizzard in winter, only opposite.  The Jones fire continues to threaten, and we remain vigilant.  Our evacuee friend went home yesterday to her house after overnighting at our place, but many remain evacuated.  We're safe for now, thank heavens.  2020 has been such an ordeal for everyone in the world, I think, and then there's this:

Last night around 9:30, after watching a movie on TV, Jimmy and I retired to our computers on the dining room table to check on fire news.  The dining room is near the garage back door, which had been left open (the big garage door was closed).  I heard a loud noise.  "Jimmy, there's something in the garage.  Please go look."  And he did.  When he returned, he said (calmly), it was a bear.  I laughed.  Hahahaaaa.  "No, really, what was it?"  Really, he said, a bear.  WHAT?  I got up and turned on the flood lights, and -- sure enough! -- I saw a small/ish black bear running through the yard and over toward the neighbor's fence.  Up and over and it was gone.  But, in our garage?  WHAT?

This morning told the tale of the bear at our place.  Of course, it knocked over the bird feeder and bent the pole at its base.  I don't know if it'll straighten this time.  It left its calling card, thank you very much, before it amscrayed over the fence.

And what was that white thing over by the fence?  I retrieved a bag of flour that had been in our garage freezer ... WHAT?  The durn thing went in the garage, opened the chest freezer and stole a bag of flour?  It knew how to open the freezer?  WHAT?  Oh my gosh, I'm dumbfounded.  Flummoxed.  Looks like that garage door will be closed from now on!

It was hard to tell in the dark if the bear was full grown or a juvenile, and we wondered if it had a mama nearby.  Unknown.  Was it fleeing the fire?  Also unknown.  Bears are not new in our area, but this brazenness is.  Good grief.  What next?

Veddy Interesting Saturday! 12/20/15

The day began as a routine Saturday, except snow was forecast.  I went out to the street mailbox around 7am to get our newspaper, per usual.  Somewhere around 9, I opened the kitchen window shade to see if the birds were at our bird feeder yet.  Eh?  Where's the bird feeder?  Uh-oh.  I went into the garage to look out the garage door window and saw the now-empty feeder sagging several feet below where it should have been, the wrought-iron hanger nearly twisted off.  I ran back in the house to open the living room sliding door curtain to ... uh-huh, no bird feeders visible  ... they're on the ground.  Everything smashed.  Bear.

And a big muddy paw print on the garage door window.  Yikes!

Blue birdbath and three feeders downed and smashed (the orange one isn't broken).

Light snow dusts the ground and the torn-up area on the right looks like where the bear wallowed.  OK. I get it.  No more feeding birds for a while.

Our friends across the street came over at 10am to share our annual Christmas Kringle with us, always fun.  By this time, snow was falling in earnest.  Hi, Fran!

A picture post card!

Matt and Jen were driving up from Sacramento around 1pm to visit.  He asked about the road, so I sent him this picture.  I told him it looked doable.

When they arrived, the "girls" -- Maggie and Sophie -- wanted to explore in the snow.  From the back deck, Maggie looks out on the bird feeder destruction.  We were grateful to NOT see bear prints on the deck this morning! Maggie looks festive in her bright red hoodie.

Sophie wasn't so sure about stomping around in the snow.  Photo op!

After a bite of lunch, we hit the downtown streets of Nevada City for their Victorian Christmas festivities. The streets were clear, no snow stuck here, but drizzle persisted.  It was cold, probably in the high 30's, cold enough for me to pull out my Alaska parka.  We all bundled up.  Because of the weather, we left the dogs at our house. Lucky us to circle a street close to downtown and get a parking space near Broad Street.  Cool beans!

Not everybody left their dogs at home!

Matt made a friend -- "Peeps."

I think Jimmy looks pretty good in a top hat.

I wish my waist was this small .

It was fun listening to the various groups play carols.  These kids were doing their best ...

... while this little guy stood rapt.

Nice to have a blazing fire to warm your hands or whatever needed warming! 

We really enjoyed our afternoon here with Matt and Jen, never mind the weather.  By the time we took this picture, the light rain had stopped.  We walked in and out of shops, admiring their wares, sometimes oohing and aahing, but not buying much.  On our way back to the car, we stopped in at Wheyward Girl Creamery for some delicious cheese and a loaf of bread, and then drove home.

It was toasty warm inside!  Jimmy fired up the stove to heat the seafood gumbo he'd made, while I put on a pot of rice.  Matt and Jen sliced the cheese and bread and got out the crackers.  We proceeded to have a pre-Solstice feast, while the dogs circled like sharks (heh heh, it's what dogs do), and we smacked our lips afterwards.  We topped it off with brownies that Fran had brought over earlier.  Yum yum, all the way around.

The only presents that were opened today were two dog toys, one for each girl.  Meh, they said ... we'd rather have shrimp!

We had snow or light rain almost the entire day, but ended up with a slushy mix covering everything.  I don't suppose we need to worry about the bear returning since he cleaned us out, but I bet if I hear the slightest noise tonight, I'll be up and peering out the window.  Today ends quietly, altho not really a routine day after all. Tomorrow more rain/snow is predicted ... definitely an inside day.  A perfect day to bake more cookies!

Does a bear, uh, well, uh, YOU KNOW... Sat., 11/23/13

Been a rough couple of weeks critter-wise at our place.  I didn't post about the deer incident because I tho't it was gross.  I took pictures, but deleted every one, 'cause they WERE gross.  Short version is this:  We installed a 7' fence around the perimeter of our backyard a few months ago to keep deer out and protect all the growing things.  One afternoon we accidentally left our nice wide gate open when we went to town, and when we returned, two young deer were IN the backyard, and Mom was on the other side of the fence, watching.  One made it out.  The other one slammed into a tree or fence post, broke its neck, and had to be "dispatched."  Thank goodness the Sheriff's office sent an animal control officer out and he did the deed for us.  The deer had already nibbled to nubbins the few veggies I had growing in the keyhole garden - sigh.  The whole business was awful.  Jimmy has since installed an automatic gate closer, so that won't ever happen again.

Our weather has been very windy the past few days, blowing a cold front east, so we didn't hear anything untoward last nite.  I did wake up a couple of times... these pics are what greeted us this morning.  Today is my birthday, but none of this is the kind of present you want to see on your birthday morn!

 

The garbage can is always tethered to the left-hand tree, and bungee corded to the point where I have difficulty putting garbage in.  Not so for the bear that stopped by in the nite.  It even managed to twist the can out of shape!  I don't think our trash is worth all that effort, tho the Cool Whip container (which only had dregs in it) was licked clean!

 

Then, after eating whatever the heck it wanted from the trash, it climbed over our 7' deer-proof fence (bending it in the process), and proceeded into the backyard.  It knocked the bird feeder pole out of the ground and ate all the "new" seed I got as a birthday present from the small feeder.  Didn't touch the "old" seed in the long feeder you see in the foreground - sigh.

 

You can barely make out the tipped trash can top center.  It climbed over the fence near there.  The fallen pole feeder is at left, and the completely emptied round feeder is below the keyhole garden at right.  Its top is ten feet away, but at least it wasn't broken.

 

The bear left the backyard here - opposite from where it came in.  The wire isn't supposed to look like that!

And then, adding insult to injury, it deposited this swell calling card, not far from the keyhole garden.  The answer to the question is:  The bear dumps where it wants to!  This is NOT a Happy Birthday present!  No damage was done, thank goodness.  We live in the foothills where critters like these, and others, live.  This was up close and personal, however.  Guess from now on the bird feeders will go into the garage nightly.  The garbage can stay in there, and the dang bear can go visit somebody else's yard!