And More Bear, Yet Again!

In nearly the same spot by the Kitimat river as our recent bear sightings just south of the orange bridge, today we saw 2 young grizzley sibs. I've used zoom and crop on the photo but still...both the husband and I had our fingers hovering over the window control.  People are starting to stop right on the highway and if you're on the southbound side, it's on a curve so if one of those ubiquetous logging trucks come barrelling along, the resulting collision is going to be spectacular.
I think I've had enough bear for now.

*Gasp* *Clutches Heart*

Remember this purdy thing??

Well today, when I visited the scene shop I witnessed the evidence of its demise.

*sigh* Kinda thought it might be saved but...guess not.  Bummer.



More Bear!

Second year grizzley cub munching on grass right beside the road near the Kitimat river.  Mama was off to the right a bit farther back, ensconced in the bushes so we didn't get very good photos of her.  This is how I prefer to view bears: sitting in a running car watching them intently focussed on 'not ME'.

Black is Back

Bears, that is.

Saw my second bear of the season yesterday while driving from City Centre to Service centre.  In both cases they were black bears which was surprising given our infestation of grizzlies last fall.  This guy was heading from a block of old growth forest conveniently placed in the middle of town and just on the other side of those trees is Kildala neighborhood.

While at the gym today, the owner told me that last year when we had a white Kermode bear hanging around, local citizens were throwing caution out the window and practically walking right up to it because "Spirit Bears can't hurt you, can they?" 

In addition the husband told me that people have been feeding a black bear not far from town on the highway.  *smacks forehead*

You don't even want to know some of the sloppy garbage practices. 

I can't believe that here of all places we have such bear unawareness...

May The Fourth

...nope...not gonna go there.
But here; here we have spring creeeeping in oh so slowly. 

This is the view to the backyard at the BFF's this afternoon.  Spring comes a lot later for her than it does for me and my yard.  There are still so many places tucked away around town where winter lurks either in a sheltered band to the north of a grove of trees or in the numerous piles where white stuff was frantically gathered during those frequent days and nights of unrelenting snowfall.

As Seen On The Cover of The MVAC Bulletin!

One of my most recent assignments involved creating an image to be used on the weekly bulletin for my church.  So ... you got yer Mount Elizabeth there, the building itself and the cross we see at the front of the sanctuary... three's a magic number so Bingo, Bango, Bob's your uncle!
Bottom line: it works, wasn't even that painful and the Mt. Elizabeth is a good standard view of the mountain to use on many a painting..
The transitional pastor who'd requested this was gracious/professional enough to ask what I would charge for this service; I of course said I couldn't charge for this especially given the amount of time others pour into our church. 
It was quite the novelty to be treated as a professional rather than a rented mule especially when compared to some of the requests I've received from people who don't even know me except as a handy local name who'll realize their vision for no charge while they take the bows.  The publicity's supposed to be good for my career...so I can attract more freebies.
To date I've managed to dodge three different free unpaid, large-to-mega projects that would have seen me donating services worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Now that I look at it written on the screen like that...NO! #4 is gonna be a whole lot easier.

The Happy Easter Snow Goose

 First spotted this goose yesterday morning while on a walk with our Rupert.  At first I wondered if it was a domestic goose who'd managed to escape for an extended excursion but after watching it fly became fairly sure it's a snow goose.  Fortunately I had my camera on me today so was able to take some halfway okay photos.

Today Rupert was confident enough to chase, though the goose landed not too far away and seemed rather unruffled.  Even managed to get Rupert to 'come' after we'd called a couple of times.
Don't know why this double picture post that I can't seem to delete though...?