The bears continue to live amongst us. It is not a daily occurrence but pretty close. We have seen the bear in our neighbors yard in the morning which was a big surprise as it usually has been in the early evening. A walking friend saw him also in the morning as her dog treed the bear as she headed out onto the trail. It does not seem to be aggressive but rather passively looking for food. Something about the winter being mild and the bears finding the bird seed I think. I’m not sure they really ever went into hibernation. As I walk around town, since I am rather chicken to go into the woods on my own, I have spoken to many others who have had bears in their yards or driveways. It is no longer a rare thing in our part of the world. Not sure what that means but I think it is time for them to go deep into the woods and give up on trying to find food in our yards.

Walking Continues Despite the Bears

Somehow I managed to get in 21 miles despite the bears and the one day when we had storms. Now I am trying to get creative about where I walk as I truly am not very brave when I go in the woods even though I have a very loud bear bell on myself as well as bells on the dogs. So, I have been walking around town which has been something rather fun and different. Amazing the things you see when you are not driving in a car. Mostly I notice the beautiful gardens that people are putting together.

Sunday Afternoon Hike

Katie and I did our new favorite “big” walk again only in reverse and discovered it is quite a bit nicer to go the opposite direction to last week. Especially when it came to the biggest of the hills. It is still 7.55 miles long and a challenge. There were still plenty of hills and we got a really good workout but the steepest one we ended up going down instead of up. My foot seems better but I am walking with my hiking pole which actually helps. Thanks to many for suggestions to help especially the icing and the stretching. Hopefully it will be fine. Our Sunday hike introduced us to some other wildlife. We first came across a tiny turtle and then a bigger one, we startled a turkey who flew out across the road making a terrible racket. Well, she had a reason, she had a wee baby and she was trying to distract us. We grabbed the dogs and got out of her way. Nobody was harmed. Then just when we thought things couldn’t get any more interesting we ran into a porcupine. Both dogs behaved beautifully when told to leave it and it waddled safely off into the woods.

We also found a number of really good swimming holes for Wyke and Bean which made it much nicer for them. I won’t let them go into standing water but in all of the cases these were part of a stream that was running water pretty strong. I so want to see a moose on one of our hikes as we definitely go through moose territory but I want to see it at a distance.

Needlepoint Again

My mother-in-law introduced me to needlepoint many, many years ago. Over time I have done chair seats and cushions and in the last 20 years have made Christmas Stockings for family members. Well, I get to do another one for our new grand daughter, Edie. It arrived this week, doesn’t have her name on it yet but it will and my fingers were itching to get stitching. I have a few favorite designers from the past and this is one of them. It came with a big full moon but I wanted to make it unique for Edie. It just felt right to add the face of the man in the moon to it. My other grand daughter, Libby, is a very talented artist and she agreed to draw the face on the moon for me to stitch. She was also my consultant on the colors and she was right. It is subtle but you can definitely see the smile. Needlepoint is very calming as well as creative for me so I am thrilled to be back at it again. Speaking of Edie, she is doing well and growing. We hope to get to meet her at the end of the month.

Update on Jenny Lane

We are getting ready for a big week coming up. The past couple have been pretty quiet. The big excitement was the arrival of the long awaited living room windows. They seem so huge when you see them on the ground. It will be rather transforming to see them once they are installed. The current windows don’t fit with the house at all. These windows will be similar to what is in the rest of the house which will begin to tie things together a bit better. Plus we will be able to open them and get a breeze going through from the front of the house to the back. The digger also arrived in preparation for burying the propane tank that has been sitting in our front yard like a yard ornament for two weeks. John has taken out walls and insulation in the “inside garage” which will eventually house the new furnace and be turned into a bonus room. The old oil tank will be removed in a week or so and a wall will go up to close in the space for the new propane furnace and hot water system. It was a huge undertaking to take out the awful walls and ceiling in there. It is now ready to be rebuilt and made into something much nicer. He even removed the garage door opener which was no easy task. I didn’t realize how heavy they are. The garage door will be replaced by a wall with a large window in it.

Recipe of the Week

That same grand daughter who is an artist is also a wonderful cook. She found a recipe to help use up all our rhubarb and made it for us all to eat this past week. It was absolutely delicious and disappeared very quickly.

Oma’s Rhubarb Cake from Allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1 ¼ cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3 cups diced rhubarb
• 1 cup white sugar
• ¼ cup butter, softened
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ground cinnamon, for dusting

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking dish.
• Step 2 In a large bowl, stir together 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking soda, salt and 2 cups flour. Stir in the eggs and sour cream until smooth, then fold in the rhubarb. Pour into the prepared dish and spread evenly. In a smaller bowl, stir together the remaining 1 cup sugar and butter until smooth. Stir in 1/4 cup flour until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle the mixture on top of the cake then dust lightly with cinnamon.
• Step 3 Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.