A New View of Owl Man, More News from the River Trail, and a Surprise Neighbor

Back we went to the new River Trail today, this time with P's sister in tow.  G is visiting from New England and so we wanted to show her this wonderful trail.  We took a side trip through part of the college organic garden where we saw asparagus shoots emerging in a straight line, perfectly evenly spaced, some purple and some green.

Nearby a flock of hens were ranging somewhat freely in the front yard of their large coop.

There was a new art piece in the river, a few feet out from a rocky beach.  This was a traditional cairn, very well-done and especially interesting because of its island status.  It was very close to the golden bamboo grove.  Today I studied the roots and runners of the bamboo.  This must be one of the kinds of bamboo that proliferates and take over the neighboring fields if not contained by underground concrete walls.  Runners looped up at the base of some of the stalks,  and even cut-down stalks often had runners springing out from them.  The newer stalks are light pea green, and the older ones are golden with a few light green stripes.

Owl man was sitting looking out over the river, still wearing his single sock.  I drew him and some of his owl disciples from the rear today, framed by two enormous stalks that looked like columns of a portico overlooking the Aegean Sea or something.

On the right is a white-flowered plant that I know now is NOT nettle.

When P and I drove home a couple of hours later, to our surprise a young bear was loitering in our across-the-street neighbor's front yard.  It seemed unperturbed by us.  We stopped the car to take pictures and look, and the bear stepped out a few yards in front of our car and proceeded to lead us down the block.  We drove very slowly.  The bear walked straight down the middle of the block, and then turned a sharp right into our next door neighbor's drive and headed up onto the deck where bird feeders hang during the daytime.  We drive into our driveway and got out of our car as the bear trotted back down the neighbor's drive and back into the street.  A few  minutes later our 80-something year old neighbor called to say a young bear had been on their deck and they had chased it off.  "We need to renew our bear horns" she told me, and I guess we do.  I haven't seen a bear on our block or on the mountain at the end of the block in several years, and I have let my air horn run down;  but I guess this year we'll need our horns if we're going to be sharing space with bears.