Yesterday morning, I woke up to these awesome clouds, hugging the mountains and thought that, for sure, we will get some rain today. We need it so badly..... I need it so badly, I should say, while the native plants and animals seem to be doing just fine. The Juniper bush, for example, is a rough, tough, and enduring part of this landscape.
All summer long, I have felt drawn to this particular bush, so full of berries it appears blue in a certain light.
Here I'm trying a little "artistic" photography....not sure how it came out.
We trim the bushes closest to the house.
The bushes come in all sizes, shapes, conditions: large round ones and smaller odd- shaped ones; junipers in great condition, others that seem to be struggling, and some that are almost dead. These are the bushes that grow on our dry land.
How they survive, I don't know. They are very hardy and seem to not need any water other than what the seasonal rains and snow provide. Once you get used to their rugged nature, you come to like and respect them for the tough survivors that they are.
My neighbor told me the other day, that a black bear has been spotted several times around where she lives. She also told me that her birdbath and a water bucket, that she leaves out for the birds and rabbits, had been turned over. Hmm....doesn't that sound like a bear? This is at the other end of our property and I haven't been up there for a while. So I haven't seen any tracks or scat and much less a whole bear myself.
And this year, I haven't seen any bear tracks at this end of our land either. But last year, I saw many tracks and a lot of bear scat, even right outside our living room window.
This is a pretty good bear story and it is true too:
One morning last year, I came outside and found my lounge chair, that I kept under a juniper bush, covered in broken-off tips of juniper branches with the berries gone. More branches were strewn all around the bush and the ground was covered in bear tracks. This must have happened before I replaced my broken camera because I have no pictures of it. But my hubby was here and we both saw the mess and were amazed.
One could imagine the bear, sittig down in the lounge chair, enjoying all the berries, as the morning sun came up behind the mountain ridges.
And yesterday, thunder rolled around the hills for a while, but not a drop of rain fell.
