Staying in the theme of Fluffy

There is enough stuff blooming in my garden now that I am seeing some cool pollinators.  Bees are always favorites, especially the various species of bumble bees.  Ironically I posted this species almost exactly a year ago on June 20 - it is Bombus Perplexus (Perplexing Bumblebee).  You can read a bit about it, if you're interested, in my post from last year.  Apparently, I have created a good habitat for these somewhat uncommon little bumble bees - and that makes me happy.

I had a nice long FT chat with my parents this morning and got to wish dad a happy Father's Day.  The Portland area (and whole Pacific Northwest) is still colder and wetter than usual so they weren't sure what they'd get up to today except that it would definitely involve donuts, Starbucks and a trip to the farmer's market to pick up some fresh Hood strawberries.  

While we were chatting, I was keeping an eye on the feeder outside near the deck.  There were a young house finches being fed and lots of other birds coming and going.  And then I saw...a pair of fuzzy  black ears with tags visible through the deck railing!  Yep, one of the yearling bear cubs was back.  Hubs was out in a flash with the airhorn (or bear horn, as we call it) and the bear raced across the yard and into the woods.  Needless to say, the feeder came in directly.  And Jax has been on hyper alert all day.  When I was out on the patio stalking insects he watched my every move from the deck and issued several false alarms which involved ferocious barking and full hackles (which are always kind of funny on a short-coated dog).  This is definitely turning into the "beariest" summer we've had in quite a while.  

Tummy is feeling much better today, happily.  I am sure it was just irritated from the little camera thingie that was poking around in there on Thursday.   

Dark with salted caramel today.

xo
Debbi