Bears were spotted last week at the Union County Fair in Anna...Yup...there’s another one...or maybe the same one...this time in broad daylight...and what big ears it has...Yup...there’s another one...or maybe the same one...this time in broad daylight...and what big ears it has...Thank you to the fellow Traveler on the Journey Through Life for sharing a picture of an “official” bodega cat which was seen in New York City during a visit several years ago.

Bears out there...at the Union County Fair...

Please Read This...

There were bears out there. One bear. Two bears. Three bears. Maybe even four bears. I saw them. I really did...

...at the Union County Fair... 

...there’s even a picture to prove it...

Recent adventures on The Journey Through Life also have included foxes. Maybe a mountain lion. A raccoon...or two...or three. Countless numbers of very friendly hummingbirds. Mosquitoes. A veritable plague of mosquitoes. A garden spider...almost the size of a Volkswagen Beetle...or a bear. Well, maybe not.

Bear sightings have been quite the “thing” in our little corner of the world in recent weeks. I have not seen any bears. Yet. But, to be honest with you, I keep looking out the backyard, which, truth be told, looks less like a wildlife preserve than it did a week or two ago. 

During one of my visits to last week’s Union County Fair, I was fortunate to meet a fellow traveler on The Journey Through Life who is very, very “lucky” when it comes to finding arrowheads. After an update on his treasures, we also talked about bear sightings which have happened right here in the county. I am pretty sure that this story will continue. 

While I was at the fair, another fellow Traveler on the Journey Through Life also was kind enough to share a story about a special sunflower his daughter had grown... I was grateful that he shared a special memory with me. I think that was a wonderful example of why our fair remains a special part of the life in our community...

Meanwhile...

A garden spider showed up, strangely enough, last weekend in The Other Half’s garden, which is being reclaimed after weeks of neglect by a Sort Of Gardening Wannabe whose green thumb skills are somewhat lacking...

Apparently, I could have turned over this week’s column to the spider. That’s because, thanks to the internet, I learned that the garden spider also is known as the yellow garden spider, the black and yellow garden spider, the golden garden spider, the zigzag spider, the zipper spider, the black and yellow argiope, the corn spider, the Steeler spider, the McKinley spider and...hold on now...the writing spider. I wonder how the critters get all of that on their business card...

Actually, if you have never seen a garden spider, or whatever it might be called, they are quite impressive. And really big. And with that being said, I do not know, yet, why they are called writing spiders.

Meanwhile...

Raccoons, you may recall from reading this column, are frequent visitors on our front porch. Take Monday evening, for instance. Rocky just kind of strolled up onto the porch. From where he came, I do not know. 

At that particular moment in time, Bob and I were, once again, sitting on the porch swing. Both of us were making generous donations to a blood drive sponsored by our neighborhood mosquito association.

As Rocky stepped onto the porch, he looked in our direction. Bob hissed, as Bob does. Rocky was not impressed at all by Bob’s greeting. Rocky headed off in the direction of the setting sun, which is to say the west, in a completely cloudless August evening sky.

Rocky, or one of his cohorts, also paid a visit one evening in the past week or two. On that particular evening, I was on the porch swing by myself. I do not know how I happened to be on the porch without a certain c-a-t.

Rocky ambled in my direction...paused...stood on his hind legs...and just of looked at me for what seemed like a rather lengthy moment...or two... 

Enough for this week...

...and I suppose I should be grateful that the visitors to our front porch aren’t bears. Well, not yet anyway...

    

 

The Gazette-Democrat

112 Lafayette St.
Anna, Illinois 62906
Office Number: (618) 833-2158
Email: news@annanews.com

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