bears in the backyard

in the middle of spring this year, i awoke one saturday morning and glanced out our large window over the balcony. "paul," i said. "there is a big bear walking around our backyard."

"oh, interesting," he commented. i believe he was interested, but more excited to get to the gym and play basketball with his buddies so he dressed and left.

i grabbed my camera and spent the next couple of hours in a tree by our deck, still in my pajamas, taking photos and mesmerized by this big, beautiful black bear and her good-sized cub. they had settled themselves in our neighbor's backyard about 35 yards away from the tree where i set myself up to watch. as time went by, i climbed down from my hidden vantage point thinking i should prepare an escape route, if necessary. i quickly ran over and opened the sliding door to the family room then climbed back up to my perch again happy to settle in for the morning.

the mom and cub spent the lazy early hours munching on berries, wandering around, tumbling contentedly around the grass and napping. I couldn't get enough of their comfortable, lounging ways. they were actually simply adorable and obviously felt completely at home. after a long while, i finally had had enough of scratchy bark on my stomach and legs just about the time Paul came home so i left my lookout and shared the photos and wonder of my morning with him. magic.