Well, summer is in full swing! Well mostly at least. We have had our share of rain but it's been interspaced with some really beautiful days too. We finally had a baby moose in the "hood". Seems like everyone but me had seen one this year so I was glad to see one. Last year I had one that was in the neighborhood for a week, maybe more. Needless to say I am glad I now shoot all digital and not film. It would have been an expensive week! I took a bazillion images! Here is the recent guy.....

 

Wonder if this is edible?

Wonder if this is edible - yikes, nope...

 

Summer is a great time. There are little young ones all over, the landscape has exploded in lush green with wildflowers injecting color all over, like a painter would in their own masterpiece. I have just about finished the remodeling I have been doing so I hope to be out taking more images than I have. We did go out and about looking for an image I "saw" while we were out mtn biking on the evening of Summer Solstice. I talked the Fiancee into coming with me and told her there were "just a few hills" to get there. Well, I miscalculated, at one point she remarked "this is a hill" - at least she was still smiling when she said it. Below is the image I captured....

I like it, but it is not what I was going for. We never got there. Partly because of the hills and my error on trying to take a "shortcut" that I got wrong, partly because the clouds were rolling in and killing the shot I had envisioned, and lastly because of the bear : ). Yeah, and of course two mins before that my Fiancee says "we don't have bear spray or anything do we?" - uh, nope : ). I crested the hill top and took this shot. I packed up the camera gear, rounded the corner and there he was, standing there, mid step looking at me. Ugh, well, so much for any further forward progression. He actually yielded the trail pretty quickly but we opted to head on out anyway. Too bad I had just packed the camera up. It would have been nice to have grabbed a frame or two. He was a beautiful creature, smokey black in color and a decent size too. Oddly enough at the trailhead another woman remarked we had rustled "something" black out of the brush near her and that was a few miles from where we saw the bear we saw. This is an active place in the dusk and dawn hours.

Speaking of bears - we are going to McNeil Falls in a few weeks! I am sooo excited. If you have ever seen an image of a bear catching a Salmon while standing on the falls that is likely where it was taken. Lets hope the good fortune that allowed us to be drawn in the lottery also provides us some decent weather!

A parting image of another family out exploring the lands...or as it may be the "waters".