in conjunction

a few scenes—ordinary scenes, some would even say boring scenes—performed over the last few days in maine were, to me anyway, worth noting.

the worlds of venus and jupiter were visible—bright, vivid, bold—high and mighty in the west on cloudless monday evening, so close together in the sky they were practically holding hands.

earlier in the day, a day that showed off a gentle warmth that was weeks ahead of schedule, it was the gray versus the red, each holding on to their positions in the backyard.

in a flurry of rapid-fire squeaks and squawks, a chattering war was going on out there. i watched from the window as the battle lines were drawn—the little red squirrel occupied the high ground on the bird feeder pole and the large gray squirrel, at a definite disadvantage, was below the feeder in the garden.

they put on an entertaining show. red rushed down the pole when gray dared to get too close, causing the big guy to run. satisfied, the little one climbed back up the feeder to guard "his" stash of sunflower seeds, but then gray would pivot, take a couple jumps and stop, walk, stop, walk, like he was sneaking up on red or something.

finally red could not take it anymore. he jumped off the pole and ran gray straight out of town. congratulations, red, for being monday's winner.

and the maine black bears up north? let's not forget the bears. (who could forget the bears?) the two adorable cubs, now almost two months old, are very active—they tumble and play-fight and ham-it-up in full view like they know they're on camera—and they're obviously getting sick of being cooped up in the den watching momma sleep.

the bears, right here, were fun to watch this winter, especially lately. but it's almost spring and i know one of these days when i click the link to the live camera the bears will be gone.

i will really miss them.