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