The Sturbridge police have issued an official warning on
Facebook. Yes, there is a bear hanging
around our neighborhood. They even posted
pictures of this bear breaking into the henhouse of one of our neighbors to
prove it. But I haven’t seen the bear
yet.
Last night, or should I say this morning, around 4:30 when
it was just beginning to get light out, Olive, the pug, stood on the end of the
bed and began chuffing. The first thing
that came to my mind was the bear, of course.
I did something I seldom do at that time of the day. I put on my glasses and looked out the
window. No bear in sight. Still, Olive was not to be put off. She was positive that something was out to
get us. As I lay there trying to get
back to sleep, I thought I heard the culprit.
Turkey gobbles. My guess is that
the turkeys that populate these parts have had their young and they are now on
the prowl for food. I haven’t seen them
yet. I’ve seen a few single males but no
broods as yet.
My wild life sightings have been few this year if you don’t
count the birds, bunnies and squirrels.
I did get up one very early morning about a week ago and looked out the
window to see what I thought was a large cat rubbing itself on a tree
trunk. When it turned around, I realized
it was a young fox. But I haven’t seen
him again although there is a hole in our yard that makes me think that a fox
might just live there as Greg discovered part of a dead mouse next to it a
couple days ago.
I’m not discouraged because there are two pieces of wild
life that I can depend on seeing every day.
They aren’t going anywhere. I’m
talking about my two favorite trees.
Well, I shouldn’t really play favorites here because I actually have
about 15 favorite trees…maybe 20. But
these two are in our yard.
One is a large European Beech tree. It’s a tree with funny habits, not losing all
of its leaves until the spring buds push them off. Its leaves are a gorgeous color, kind of
reddish yellowish on the top and sort of greenish yellowish from below with a
trunk that looks like a big elephant leg.
 |
| Our lilac with the beech in the background. Gorgeous spring color! |
The other is the Red Maple in our back
yard. I love that the leaves on this
tree are never really green. Although they
kind of fade to green in the fall. I’ve
taken about a gazillion and two photos of this tree, especially of it's fabulous leaves in the sun, but I never tire of
looking at it. From our upstairs windows
I can watch the birds flying around inside it.
Crows seem to love it and when a cardinal lands on it, it is just a
fabulous riot of reds. It inspires me.
Okay, so I’m a tree-hugger. What of it?
It beats getting an honest to goodness bear-hug, for goodness sake. Ask the Sturbridge police.
