The Sublime Passage

OK, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into when I moved to the woods. I knew this was bear country and I knew that someday I’d probably see one. Well it happened sooner than I expected. It happened today, just after 8pm on Memorial Day, as I sat at the desk in my office, which faces the window and the woods in the back of the house. As I sat here typing I noticed what seemed like a dark shadow. I looked up to see a bear. A big gigantic bear calmly strolling past the window. I don’t know very much about bears and have never seen one that close but he looked pretty big. He was definitely not a baby. If he was, he was really big for his age. Gulp!

I was stunned. Especially given the fact that only 15 minutes earlier I’d come in from outside where I’d been sitting on the deck. In fact the young college students who mow my lawn had just left about 45 minutes before this. The bear was walking over the freshly mown lawn. He lumbered across the yard and eventually crossed over the tree line to the next property. From the time I spotted him to the time it took him to get to the end of my property was about 3 minutes. He moved so fast that I didn’t have time to get my camera. By the time I did and ran upstairs he was disappearing through the trees.

It was just so unexpected and he was so close as he passed by the window. About 15 or 20 feet from me. I called Superhero as I stood watching him vanish from sight. I was so shaken. Superhero echoed my sentiments when he said “I’m not going hiking in those woods.” The irony is that we had planned to go hiking this morning but ended up just hanging out on the deck instead. Needless to say this makes me feel very differently about hiking the trails in the state park that lies behind my house.

I guess I shouldn’t be so shaken. I grew up in Africa. I’ve seen elephants, lions, leopards. Granted they weren’t in my back yard, but I’ve seen them in close proximity. One night when I was in high school, our dogs started barking like crazy. When we looked outside we discovered that they were worrying a big black mamba snake which was making its way across our property.

I don’t know if there is much more I can say about this. Except that I’m going to go and pour myself a stiff drink.

I started out my long memorial day weekend on thursday evening excited about the four days which lay before me. Days I was sure I would fill with working on projects at home and enjoying the beautiful weather that was being predicted. Especially given that it would be the first weekend since I moved into The House On The Hill that I could really enjoy being outside. However I did have a list of things I intended to accomplish.

I think my list was a little optimistic. Read more

Last night I went to the book store for the first time in weeks. I’ve been staying away, partly because I’ve been too busy moving and working, but also because I needed to take a break from my addictive compulsion to buy books. My house is scattered with piles of brand spanking new, as yet unread books. If I had to hazard a guess I’d have to say there are at least 30 of them. I’m not exaggerating. So many books so little time. Sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat at night contemplating the seemingly insurmountable dilemma of not being able to read every book I want to read. I mean people keep writing the things! Its bad enough that I have to worry about all the new books I discover, but what about my old favorites? All the staple books which I periodically like to revisit. What is a girl to do? Yes, I know. I have a problem. But as a good friend once put it “There are much worse addictions you could have”. Read more