Caught in the Act

This afternoon my camera found a young Virginia White Tailed Deer having some large leaves for dinner!

 

Or are they Wildlife hors doeurves?

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Ghostly Wildlife

Shot through my window screen I see a handsome but ghostly Virginia White Tailed Deer.

Isn’t he statuesque and elegant?

And how do I seem to him looking in?

 

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Hide and Seek

If I hide my head in these leaves, maybe she won’t see me?

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Do the Animals Know?

Image From http://www.news.nationalgeographic.com

It’s the American “Eclipse Day” today!

I live on the edge of Totality.  Sounds romantic but that means we aren’t going to go totally dark.

And we are expecting 80% coverage of the sun by the moon.

The excitement is still catchy.

This morning I looked out the kitchen window and saw two magnificent bucks with full antlers.  How handsome and stately they were nibbling the lower leaves of our River Birch tree (no river but the Birch is doing well anyway).  But how odd to see male deer on this sort of mystical morning.  We rarely see the Bucks in their full form.

Then there were others; a Momma and her spotted fawn and sister does that formed a mini herd.

And scattered across the lawns were a flock of small black birds happily feasting.

It was a full wildlife scene in our rural Virginia when usually (by that time of the morning) such creatures have all retreated into the forest to  hide from human predators.

And that has me with questions about the oncoming eclipse.

Do the animals know?

Is it much like a Tsunami?

Are the wild creatures sensisng something  preparing for the moments of darkness to come?

 

 

 

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First There Was One

 

Look Ma!  A Human!

Then There Were Two

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Never Alone in the Country

It was a clear afternoon in Virginia, in spite of looming clouds.  And the Blue Ridge Mountains called me out on the deck for cooler temps.  And there was something entrancing about the light.

I was not alone.

An agile young deer who could have leaped over the pasture fence, simply crawled right through a nice little gap in the rungs.

And another well fed deer looked up at me.  “Hello”, I said in my softest deer-like voice, and she simply kept dining on the last green grass of summer.

Two hummingbirds made their fly-by challenges for last minute dips at the feeder.  I have heard that hummers need to stock up on nectar for their long flights to winter in Venezuela.

I am never alone in the country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nature’s Apology

A Virginia View

After foreboding clouds and thunder the air turned cool and dry and the sun lit up our mountain valley.  I sat outside watching happy hummingbirds, butterflies, and the mother deer and her young ones.

We were all celebrating nature’s  wondrous apology.

“Sorry ,” she said, “for the unrelenting heat wave and all the storms, humidity and heavy rains!

But here is a taste of autumn joy to come!”

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Brave Bambi – One Out of Three

Yesterday we spotted a Mommy/Doe and her triplets!  We passed them on our country road in a neighbor’s horse pasture.

I looked up and around and what did I see?

Three tiny rein-deer staring right back at me.*

And there they were, the Mom and her three fawns looking at us through the pasture fence.

They were startled by our car and quickly ran away, except for one.

A courageous baby remained to stare us down.

I call her Brave Bambi.

She and her siblings are so tiny  (even though Bambi looks fairly large here), they actually resemble stuffed toy gifts for infant humans.

Note: The deer in Virginia are actually not “rein-deer.”  Ours are white-tailed deer who live in meadows and forests, and have poor adaptations for snow, whereas reindeer live in cold areas and have special split hooves for walking on ice and snow. Both male and female reindeer also have antlers.  In contrast, only the male of the species for White-tailed deer have antlers.

From: http://www.reference.com

 

 

 

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Oh Deer!

It is deer hunting season here in Virginia but our little “reserve” is reserved for wildlife to keep on living.

I know this is controversial since deer populations are exploding and hunting is a way to exercise control.

But just look at  this sweet young buck I surprised on my way to town.    See his little antlers?

He seems to be asking, “Who are you?”

And, “What should I do?”

Stick around little guy.  You are safe here.

 

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Friday’s Random Rants

Uh Oh – it’s Friday!

SUPER WOMAN COLLAPSES

I started working with a mattock on a long narrow ex-flower bed now destined to be grass only.

A MATTOCK IS A VERY HEAVY TOOL.  I think huge men use that tool to build railroad tracks.

Anyway, the soil I was attacking was compacted into immovable iron.

And my goal was to fluff up the iron into rich loamy (is loamy a word?) stuff to welcome grass seed.

But after an hour of hefting, heaving, sweating, and finally broadcasting seeds and tamping them down, I staggered into the house and collapsed.

Bill stopped by my inelegantly posed body (complete with ice packs in pertinent places) and said, “Are you o.k.?”

Moan:  “Yes, but      having      chest       pains……….”

“Oh,” he said.  “I’m going to get a haircut.”

RAIN, RAIN –  PLEASE!

SittingLying still with ice packs helped and I started thinking about the poor grass seed dehydrating in all those parched clumps of soil.

Those seeds needed water and fortunately THE FORECAST WAS FOR RAIN.  There was already high humidity, overcast skies and even thunder in the distance.

“I will just sit here a little longer and let the rain do the work.”

And I promptly fell asleep.

No rain.

This is Day 4.   Tomorrow I will resort to the hose!  It is sure to rain after that.

MORE WORK?

I am the secretary of our landowner’s corporation.

All of a sudden there was a lot of busy work to be done re the sale of one of the properties.

Work?!   Me?  Wasn’t working with a mattock enough?

I would rather play on my blog!

 

A DEAR ENCOUNTER

On my way out, there was a deer.  I stopped.  He stopped.  We looked. Why is he staying glued to the spot?   I reached for the camera.

Turn on camera.

Wait until things don’t look too fuzzy.

Aim.

No.  Too far away.

Aim again.

O.k. – Shoot Click!

We were frozen.  He still stood perfectly still looking right into my eyes.

How long could this last?

“I’m sorry but I have an appointment,” I explained and slowly moved forward.  And finally the young buck returned to the forest.

Such are the wonders of living in Brigadoon.

GAP TOOTHED WOMAN

I had a tooth enlarged to fill in a gap that harbored leftover morsels of just about anything lodged there.

ENLARGED?

Well, maybe that is not the exact dental terminology.  But what else would you call the insertion of putty or enamel or whatever between two teeth to fill in a gaping void?  It doesn’t show by the way so I am still a ravishing beauty.

The process took an hour, required numbing, cost $200 and left the same gap eagerly awaiting future lodged in morsels.

I have a darling of a dentist though who says to come back.  He wants to try again.

LAUGH UNTIL YOU CRY OR OTHER THINGS

Pete Begins the Laughing Fest

And tonight I laughed so hard I cried (and other things).  It was dinner out with friends and one of those times when everything is hilarious.

We were all beyond having a stable quiet evening but were into leaning over, close to falling over, screaming with laughter.

Bill tried to pry open the coke bottle salt shaker and missed seeing all the little pouring holes on top.  That sent us into fits of giggles and guffaws.

Pete ordered brown beans and he got about eight beans in a soupy mixture.  Talk about laughing tears!  I could hardly breathe.

The sign on the door left off pants in the dress code (see previous post “Pants Not Necessary.”)

And what better way to end a week than in laughing to the point of total collapse?

 

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