BC is Bear Country - fall time in the Kootenays.

Well it's that time of year
The long hot sunny days of summer, with colourful blooms, birds, and butterflies are fading away into long shadows and shorter, rainier fall. The Kokanee have been spawning, kids are settling into school, and it's time to shift into autumn mode.
 Harvest season is coming to a peak and everyone seems to be busy, picking, pickling, canning and  gathering firewood.
 We didn't really do a garden this year, but we can count on our walnut tree, which is just starting to drop a few walnuts- time to get out the buckets & rubber gloves :)
 There's so many things I want to write about, but right now, I've got bears on my mind since there's been 3 different bears in our yard this week & have been so many sightings in town and all around. I have some great pictures to share, here's a few and I'll add more later :

A bear on a hill

I'm so fortunate to have a good zoom on my camera.

We were getting firewood when I spotted this bear in the distance.

He's been watching us.

Usually, this is all I see- a brown blob in bushes.

A few minutes later, I saw another black bear.

                                                       A bear in the backyard...

When you're taking pictures of trees & stuff & see this silhouette in the background!

   

so you take a couple of zoomed photos...

but it's not holding still... or is the photographer moving?

nope it's the bear....

finally a couple of good shots!

A  healthy (brown) black bear watching us... and posing for just another moment.

 

A bear beside the highway

We stopped to watch this bear across the highway-

zooming in to see what it's doing/eating.

  

Spotted- it sees us in our car (a long way away)

Running for cover?

Hiding?

Nope- bringing a friend

Click here to See my Black bear/s video 

Note: While making this blog- we had another bear visit- next door... it was a big one! Here's another healthy looking brown (black) bear...

A blue bird and a bear head... finished.

I've just completed two clay pieces that I'm quite proud of. 

An adorable blue bird figure, and a bear head wall hanging.

To see them before painting... click here.

I hope you don't mind if I show them off.

This is my blue bird before I painted a 

glossy finish on him. 

The gloss protects the paint, and enhances the colours,

but makes it hard to get photos without glare.

This is the bear head before the glossy finish.

These are after the glossy finish. 

Things I'm working on...Ok, who changed the format?

Has Blogger changed the format? Or did I mess up my settings last time I was here?

I was just going to post some photos of pieces I'm working on... and everything here has changed.
Note: The blog looks the same to view, but the screens for updating and creating the actual blog has changed.

 I've been in my studio for about 10 hours, making a couple of pieces with my new Plainsman clay.
Finally have some photos to add. It's midnight, my eyes feel as gritty as my hands, and I'm too tired to be amused by the totally different look, but will just muddle my way through and hope for the best.
I'm listening to Susan Jacks... in case you're interested.

(I started these birds last weekend)

Made a small bear head, wallhanging...

I love the way his mouth turned out 

When hanging on the wall, this is how he'll look.

And I made a dog vase...

front view

side view

(Update- March 27/12-He's ready for a first firing and 

I've decided on a glaze ... it's called "Dalmation" how fitting.)

Update- May 15/12- see him finished and fired.

 That's how my day off was... fun :)

I'm off again tomorrow too, just not sure what to make next... 

(Update: I like this new format- especially for adding photos, now that I've tried it a couple of times :)