The other day I was sitting in my garden chair thinking about where I would set my half-pound of garlic cloves this October. Last year I ordered a quarter-pound bag and enjoyed harvesting the bulbs so much this summer that I figured next summer I would have twice as much fun.   A half-pound should give me about 30 garlic bulbs in early summer. At the other end of the garden, peering over an old pine log, was a yellow and white feline watching me watch it.

  I don't know whose cat it is but I'm sure it's keeping the mouse and vole population down.  A few days later I was picking a few of the remaining tomatoes when a little grey mouse scurried across the open garden right in front of me.  I told that mouse about the visiting cat and that I wouldn't be scurrying out in the open if I were him.

The gourds are still growing.  I have only one winter squash and plenty of kale which I freeze and throw into soups all winter.  By mid-September the sad task of pulling up the tired vines and plants will start and my mind will be planning and dreaming of winter's end and spring's rebirth.

                         Recently spotted by a few residents in Boulder Creek.
 Those who know about a bear cub's weight figure it's about 125 pounds.  It seems the cub's path is along the creek that flows at the bottom of our hill.  Other neighbors have spotted it in their yard, too.  No one has reported seeing the mother.