bear-y cute surprise

I found a cute little surprise in our mailbox yesterday... a little handmade gift for Jasper from one of my crafty friends, Heather (also, one of the original members of our craft collective Hob Snobs). I love crochet and amigurumi (and never ever did figure out how to do it after several failed attempts..ugh)... aren't the orange pants and little letter "J" on it's shirt the cutest thing? The little bear has already been welcomed with a big slobbery kiss (from baby Jasper, of course).

face to face with a bear

Ok, so no need to panic... our face-to-face time with the bear was under a completely controlled situation. On the weekend we headed up the Grouse Mountain gondola to enjoy the city night views as the sun was setting. Once up there, we decided to try and catch a glimpse of the resident grizzly bears Grinder and Coola, two orphaned bears in the Refuge for Endangered Wildlife. We were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one of them (not sure which) before he slumped over and started snoring (this bear is apparently quite a loud snorer)... not sure where the other one was. Apologies for the dark pictures, but the sun had already set by the time we got up there... and having a camera flashing in a big bear's face, didn't seem like the best idea.

bear bums

Remember the post from last week about the orange bear sculptures that sit outside one of Vancouver's Skytrain stations? (see post here for a refresher). Well, thanks to Kristen from Knotted Nest for letting me know about the other half of the sculpture that sits in the Toronto Sculpture Garden! How cool that the bears enter one wall on the other side of the country and come out another wall out here on the west coast. Seeing these orange kraft dinner colored bear bums still bring a "cheesy" smile to my face.

photo: Toronto Sculpture Garden, artist: Dean Drever

forest fun

I love walking in the woods... the fresh air, the smell of trees, the birds chirping... ahhh, makes me want to sing to all the forest creatures like Snow White did (but I will spare you, since I haven't had time to warm up... memememe). These are some pics from the walks we took while on Vancouver Island - at Pacific Rim Provincial Park and Cathedral Grove MacMillan Provincal Park in case you're wondering. And not to worry... the bear was spotted from our car while we were on the drive back... he was just walking on the side of the road.. maybe he was hitchhiking?

ps. don't forget to enter my giveaway here!

Collage: Capturing Bears

I am packing for our weekend camping trip today, so am digging through our closets and storage locker for all our necessities. It must be noted that, we aren't hardcore campers hiking through the backwoods eating twigs and berries and fishing with our bare hands. Au contraire mon frère... we have our cozy tent, camping stove, small air mattress (totally worth it), battery powered lanterns and a cooler full of food and drinks (no dehydrated goods here). Fingers crossed we will not encounter any bears on our trip (hasn't been a problem on our trips in the past)... but for sure, we will definitely NOT follow the example of the fellow in this collage anytime soon. 

the bear up there

I love the neighborhood we live in (Mount Pleasant, aka South Main). One of the best things, I find, is discovering the weird quirks and oddities in the area. Which brings us to the giant 7 foot tall chrome bear statue that sits on top of the roof of a local optometrist's office. I walk by it quite often, and one day I noticed they had given him a new pair of shades!... makes sense.

collage: casting a spell on the bear

Now that it is spring time here in Vancouver, there will be more black bears waking from hibernation and roaming around our local mountain trails. A few years ago we had gone for a summer nature hike uphill on Mount Seymour when we heard a distant warning from another hiker, who was quite a bit ahead and above us. Hearing someone shout, "Hikers! There are three bears up and to your left!" is not the phrase you want to hear whilst enjoying a promenade. (Three bears can only mean a mama and two babies). Anyways, we quickly clapped, hooted and hollered (to scare the bears away) and made a quick detour, thus avoiding any bear encounter and ending our hike. I wish I had a magic wand that day to cast a spell on the bears to let us pass, just like in the fairytales.

new collage: kids & bear

New collage up in the shop today. This one is called kids & bear. I imagine that the bear and little girl are having a dialogue - perhaps negotiating whether to set the bear free.