Over the weekend, family gathered at my parents for our Easter dinner - it was just a skeleton crew of 7, as both of my sisters and most of their families were at a hockey tournament with the girls. Shortly after he arrived, my mum asked my nephew Michael to take out the compost....and once we realized he hadn't returned quite a while later (don't worry, he's 16... we don't keep tabs on him like we did when he was a child), we texted him. Oh, the ease of tracking children in the 21st century.... LOL!
He replied that he was out by the tree house, watching a moose. He came back into the house a short while later and then left again to see if it was still there. He texted us to say that yes, it was.....so I quickly grabbed my iPhone and most of the rest of us (4 out of 6) went out to see it, too. After trying to make our way though the bush as quietly as possible (which is practically impossible, given how dry and crispy it is this year, from the lack of snow accumulation)....we caught our first glimpse.
It was a young bull, probably last year's calf.....happily standing in the middle of a small pond, drinking and munching on branches. Over the half-hour or so that we stood and watched him, we edged closer, and were completely fascinated. We even heard it chewing. In the last picture you can see both my niece (in purple) 'hiding' behind a tree and the moose, to get a sense of just how close we were. Of course, what you can't see is me panicking when the moose started walking closer to Hannah.....or when Michael was practicing his moose calls....but one thing is for certain, it's an Easter - and a moose - that none of us will soon forget.
