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It is now dark by 7:00 pm. That is normal for this time of year... but I, for one, miss the long and light nights of summer. With early darkness come a few problems for those of us who live in the country and have dogs. One of those problems is porcupine that begin to move at dusk. Then there is the neigbourhood skunk who wanders about at night - usually not on our acreage I am thankful to say. And now there are the moose that seem to have taken a liking to our land.
A couple of nights ago the dogs were going "insane" barking up a storm. My husband went out to see what was the problem, only to encounter a huge moose. He got the dogs inside the garage, then came to get me. By that time, the moose had gone around the side of the house into the front yard.
We have a verandah across the front of the house, so we went outside and there she was - with her BABY... so sweet. We stood and talked to the mommy for about 5 minutes before they moved on and walked down the driveway. It was so dark we couldn't see them any longer (and I couldn't get pictures. They were just at the edge of where the light fell.).
This morning the dogs were barking furiously again - at 8:30 am. When I looked out the studio window, they were chasing this moose, which is a different moose, because she does not have a baby with her. So... I got the dogs in and ran for my camera. By this time she was on the road, so I am shooting the pictures from about 12 feet below her position. The sun is just coming up and hitting the grass and bushes behind her, while she is still in shadow.
Here you can see she has moved into a place where her ears are lit by the sun.
This is just before she jumped the fence on the other side of the road to move into the bushes. Moose are generally very shy and will leave an area where there are people and animals. However, these moose chase my dogs, and stay long enough for me to talk to them. Our neighbour's boy was complaining a few weeks ago that he couldn't go out on their driveway to shoot basketballs because the moose was there. Imagine! You can't play because of the moose!!! :-)
These tales are moosely true. Have a great weekend everyone.
