Who goes there?

Last night, I attended at performance at The Northern Star Theater Company in Rice Lake.  

This year I have a season ticket so I'll be sure to see all of the plays offered.  

When I saw that Les Misérables was on the 2014 schedule, 

I was pretty impressed (and maybe a little skeptical) that a community theater could take on such a large story.  Leaving the theater, I was not disappointed by last night's performance, in fact, I was in awe.  The cast was huge, the set was ever so clever and believable, costuming simple yet fit the mood and the era, orchestra music amazing, and the acting & singing drew me right into the story of Jean Valjean's life.

I loved it so much, I hated for it to end.

When you leave the playhouse at NSTC, the cast always lines up to shake hands and thank the audience for coming.  Sometimes this feels a little awkward but last night it was crazy fun.  

The cast was huge, lining both sides of the long hallway.  It was really fun to greet each of the actors and actresses, and there were many little children as well, and thank them for all the work that must have gone on to result in such a fine evening at the theater.

My life is pretty darn good, and not at all Misérable.

***

Often times when I get home from an evening at the theater, it's not easy to fall right into bed.  I'm a night-owl anyway, so last night was one of those times when I didn't head for bed for a couple of hours after arriving home.

As I was headed for bed, I noticed the motion detector light on the garage had come on, so I quickly went to the back window to see who was there.

A medium sized black bear was strolling around, sniffing at bird feeders and flower baskets.

I was hoping for a better photo of him, I guess I'll move the trail cam today and see if we can do better capturing images of who wanders the backyard at night (and during the day).

Towards morning, on the day of the Summer Solstice, a doe was also seen in the backyard.

Nearly daylight at 5:00 a.m...

sometimes is seems hard to remember what time the sun came up during the long winter.

Rest assured it was nowhere near 5:00 a.m.

I haven't noticed any nibble damage to any of my hosta or other plants, but clearly, deer are here.

In all my planning to move to Wisconsin, it never occurred to me that I would share my yard with so many of Mother Nature's amazing creatures.

Life is Good.