Lovely Summer!

In the summer, I eat breakfast on our deck, with Shyla snoozing by my side. I love July because I watch the Flycatcher parents industriously catching insects and then flying under the deck to feed their nestlings.

They always keep an eye on me before they take the snack to their youngsters. I think that they'll be doing this for another week or so before the youngsters take their maiden flights.

It's a banner year for insects after all the rain. I think that the early part of nesting was very tough for the Flycatcher couple but the current part is probably incredibly good with the swarms of insects down near the ground (but not so plentiful up as high as the deck, thank goodness).

The insects are enjoying the riot of wildflowers with gusto.

And so are Shyla and I. I've never seen so many Mariposa Lilies in my life. Entire sections of meadow are covered in them. In the next photo, they are the white flowers with yellow centers all around Shyla. Most years, I feel lucky if we see a few!

Today, as we rode, I remembered the drought 3 years ago. We had almost zero wildflowers, and forest fires were breaking out all around us. I think I like having at last some rain!

The bears do too, although I know that some of their most common food crops were destroyed during the cold and rainy/snowy weather of May.

This is a new bear who has been around for a couple of weeks. She's been marking trees and swimming. Due to the small white dot on her chest, I thought I'd call her "Dot". I'm hoping that she's making this area her home territory because I am now convinced that something happened to our two matriarchs, Mabel and Cinnamom, and they probably won't be seen again.

Based on the way that bears divide up territories, I'm guessing that this female is the daughter of one of the two matriarchs. Usually, the females make their homes very close to where they were born. Here's Dot at the same tree, three days later.

I hope to find time to make a video about her exploits sometime soon!