Do you remember those worksheets from primary school that instructed you to find the object that was out of place? What certainly doesn’t belong in this photo is the big, black bear strolling down my garden path. Bears don’t belong in gardens. It seems like this guy or gal hasn’t got the memo.
I took this photo standing on the top step of the back stairs, camera in one hand and a paddle in the other. Ready for anything.
So far, we are living a peaceful co-existence with this bear. Except for chowing down on the grass that covers the pathways, he/she is not interested in any of the garden produce and we are not interested in his/her primary food choice – salal berries. Time will tell if this honouring of boundaries lasts.
My niece and I were in the living room the other night, both of us immersed in quiet reading, when we heard the distinctive sound of something thrashing away in a salal bush. Coming into the kitchen, we saw the bear, pawing and eating away on a rise just outside the kitchen window. If you read my last blog, you will recognize my tranquil view from the exercise bike filled with something not quite so peaceful.
Yesterday morning, our visitor was back. A wonderfully, healthy black bear going about business as usual.
“We are all travellers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Here’s to living in peace with our wilderness friends 
disappearinginplainsight 
Wishing you continued cohabited peace. 🙂
Bruce is home this week making his usual amount of noise outside and that seems to deter our visitor from dropping in on a daily basis. Thanks for the well wishes.
Walking into Crater Lake territory here! Worst we get here is a marauding squirrel stealing bulbs and cracking walnuts from the nearby tree! All best & hoping s/he moves on soon…
Sometimes reality does most certainly mirror fiction or is it the other way around? Probably both. Time is on our side – he or she will be tucked in somewhere nice and quiet by mid-October or so.
Wow, that’s quite an impressive visitor. In my neck of the woods it is more likely to be a possum.
We have gotten quite used to bear sightings here – though one never loses the wonder combined with awe and healthy caution. It was the first time my niece had seen a bear so close and she was quite enthralled.
Fascinating, what a lovely place to be based. I bet she would be enthralled with such an interesting visitor in the garden.
Great pictures and how fun. We were visited by a coyote family recently. Gotta love living with nature. 🙂
I love the comment stream for this post – visits from coyotes, possums and squirrels. I think I’ll write a post with an open invitation – tell me about your garden visitors – the four-legged or winged variety. Having the wilderness as a backyard is fun and challenging.
That’s a great idea. For those of us who live alongside nature, each visitor is a blast. 😀
That’s amazing, Francis! I commend you for being so kind and brave. It’s a wonderful thing you’re doing––trying to coexist with the black bear. He or she is beautiful. ❤
Being able to observe a healthy animal in that animal’s natural environment as it goes about what it does is quite a treat. Sometimes, I simply stand and stare as a bear grazes over the grass outside the bathroom window and then it looks up with strands hanging from it’s huge mouth and it is hard not to burst out laughing. What a life 🙂
what are
those lights
and flowers doing here
says the bear 🙂
And then he huffs and big bear sigh and says – “On the up side, I do like these nice clear, grassy paths. Easy going and yummy.” Definitely, I take your point. We live in his backyard and renovate and expand at our own risk.
I’m glad you’re managing to coexist with this bear – I hope it continues. In NC, people are invading the territory that is the bears to build houses – so you have to figure out to co-exist.
The important thing is to recognize who is trespassing on who! Living in the wilderness means making compromises – we are on borrowed ground in so many, many ways. Thanks for the comment, Noelle.
Awesome Fran – great that you’re co-existing rather than scaring the critter away or writing to the newspaper complaining. A pity humans can’t respect each others’ right to a peaceful existence living in their own style.
No doubt complaints would be met with a blank stare then a comment related to – What do you expect, living where you live? And that would be very true. Best practice – get along – co-exist, as you say. As always, Roy, thanks for stopping by.