Good morning to all of you on this beautiful Saturday! The sun is shining, but it is cool and windy and...what happened to the sun? As I look up the blue sky has disappeared and either clouds or smoke has come to block the sun once more. That happened fast. Though I admit, I wasn't watching the sky, it was nice blue sky just a few minutes ago. Now it's cloudy everywhere I look. And it feels even cooler now too, though the temp hasn't changed, but the sun is no longer shining on me. Time to retreat back indoors. That sun sure makes a difference. It has been cooler here for the last couple of weeks, all because the smoke had blocked the sun from giving us it's summer warmth.

Part of the river path, looking downhill.

So instead of being in the high 80s (F), it was in the mid to high 70s (F). As of last night there are 124 forest fires burning here, 102 are not under control, 22 are under control or being held. Because of the cooler temps and higher humidity, the fires are not spreading much, so that's a good thing. Apparently it is smoke that has now blocked the sun from shining here once again. I was hoping for a sunny day and perhaps a walk to the river again. I haven't been to the river for 13 days now. I miss that solitude, sitting on the bench overlooking the river. Listening to the birds chirping and flying all around. Squirrels scampering around looking for the pine cones they have just finished cutting down, or perhaps in the process of cutting them down from those tall pines.

They must get quite a view from up there, a hundred feet or more above the ground. Some of those trees are well past the hundred foot height. There's those squirrels, hanging upside down at the end of a branch, swaying in the breeze, beginning to gather their winter supply of food. Then of course there's the dragonflies and butterflies, plus other insects, just waiting to be photographed. And all those beautiful wildflowers...well, okay, there's not many wildflowers left, they all dried out already. But there is the families of ducks, geese and pelicans on the river as well. And the loons, their calls echoing down the river. Now we're talking solitude.

Looking at the river through the pines.

Speaking of bears, Thursday evening at about 9:45 I heard a noise on the deck, it was a large black bear. But it didn't stay long, just looked around and left again, so that's okay. At about 10pm I hear a crash and Muffin runs to the window. She sees something, but I don't. Even when I went to feed the gulls in the morning I still didn't notice anything. But a little later I'm on the deck, the chickadees show up and I put some seeds out for them. That's when I noticed. The bear had pushed over the apple tree to get at all those delicious apples.

It's not a huge tree, about 15 feet tall, but it did have a lot of apples, which that bear wanted. The bear came back last night at 9:30pm to finish what it had left the night before. It seemed to be really enjoying himself/herself, just laying there munching on those nice big apples. There didn't seem to be any apples left this morning, but I certainly wasn't going down there to check. The birds liked that tree in the winter, it was close to the feeder. Oh well. The chipmunks are chipping, so it's time to feed them again. I hope each of you has a wonderful weekend and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.