Yard Hijinks

Couple of things recently in the yard. First: T ran around with the digital camera (I alluded to this the other day) snapping pictures, and some of those follow:



Skittles and the soccer goal (which Q has been using like mad lately - in fact, he and I were playing while T shot these).



Me in the distance, T reflected in the window.



Me up close. Armed with beer and a Flip video camera, with which I was filming Q's repertoire of soccer moves. Tightly edited compilation to follow.



Q even upper closer.



Skittles crazy-uppest-closest.



T so ultimately-uppest-closest, the camera is actually inside her.



Fascinating subject matter.



Compare and contrast!



Artifact of another time. That time being a couple of minutes ago, when I was sitting on it in the "me-in-the-distance" picture.

The other thing: Woke up this morning to find that the expensive squirrel-proof bird feeder is not at all bear-proof:



Apparently, he knocked over bird feeders in the yards up and down the street. I knew I shouldn't have had it out, but it was hard to resist - there are so many great birds coming these days. Purple finches, rose-breasted grosbeaks, goldfinches... But in the last few, I should have heeded the signs that it was time to put them away. The bird attendance had really petered out - they have so much to eat in early summer, after all, and don't have to depend on the feeders. But the bears do:



Sons of bitches. He knocked over my birdbath and bent the steel pole the feeder hung from:




He tried to go after this feeder, too - you can't see the feeder in this picture, since I took it down, but it was undamaged, as it was hung up too high for him to get to:



I know he went after it because I found these against the side of the house under the feeder:





I was standing with my arm straight out when I took these, so he was probably a little taller than me when he stretches his head up. You can actually see them in the picture of where the feeder was hanging, too, if you click on the picture and get the larger version. Dirty pawprints, right up on the siding, one and two slats of siding above the level of the fence. He also fell or crashed through the bush on the other side of the fence there in his attempt to scramble up the fence and use it to hoist himself up to feeder level:



Durn lucky he didn't scratch up the siding. I showed all this to the kids, and to Janneke, when they all got home this afternoon, but none of them were as excited as I was. Figures. No one cares about me...

'Cept maybe her:



And, heck, if I got that, who needs anything else.