The deer abides

I had seen the doe in the wooded lot several times since Memorial Day weekend, but had not seen the fawn. I worried that the fawn might have died or been abandoned. Then, yesterday morning, I sat on my patio watching my herd of three kitties when the lady whose lot backs up on the wooded lot jumped up the retaining wall. She advanced toward me holding her camera and smiling. She came to show me pictures she had taken the previous evening of the doe and her healthy fawn browsing in her garden.

This pretty young neighbor is an Hispanic immigrant but speaks pretty good English. She's an avid gardener and has lots of flower beds, a strawberry patch and various vegetables planted all over.  She laughed as she told me that she had counted 14 roses ready to bloom on her bushes only to find them all eaten the following morning. A tomato plant was denuded and other plants were picked over. Yet, the joy of having these animals so close was so much fun that she didn't mind. She was posting the pictures on her Facebook page for all her friends and relatives. (However, she did talk about buying some fox urine concentrate to spray around the veggies.)

This sweet gal throws stale bread into the woods for the birds and squirrels (as I do) and laughs off the garbage pail raids of racoons, squirrels and crows. She was amazed at the big hole gnawed in the lid of the garbage pail, but didn't complain.

She is my kind of neighbor and I treasure her dearly.

First day of summer

A lot of people have called our cool, rainy season this year an English spring. The result is the vegetation in the wooded lot next door is as lush and green as it's ever been. I've mentioned before that the lot is only 15 feet from my bedroom window and is separated by a retaining wall that drops down 4 feet into the woods.

A month ago, I was leaning on my elbows on the table where the cats sit to look out at the birds and squirrels. I do this often for a "pick-me-up". I saw a flash of white behind some tall shrubs surrounding the big black walnut tree. I thought it might be the local white squirrel that I hadn't seen for a while. I kept watch for a while as it moved erratically.  I soon realized why--the white object was attached to a white-tail deer!

The pretty young doe gradually approached the retaining wall and munched away on the weeds and leaves in front of me. She seemed to be aware of me but continued eating, no more distressed than if I were a picture on TV. She eventually moved off to a dark, far corner of the lot where I couldn't see her.

The next morning, I was sitting on my tiny patio with my three cats who were contentedly munching grass. In the stillness of the moment, the doe came slowly walking across the lawn. She stopped about 20 feet away and stared at us. Her white tail flicked nervously but she remained still. Neither the cats nor I made a move. We were a little tableau of watchers.

Then Sunny decided he had to check out that big creature. He very slowly advanced toward the doe and actually touched noses with her.(How I wish I had a picture!)  His curiosity satisfied, he came back to the patio. The deer remained unfazed and after determining there was no threat from us, daintily jumped down into the wooded lot and went back to her secluded corner.

The next morning, I was eagerly keeping watch for any sign of her when I spotted the fawn. It was standing on the back edge of the lot all bandy-legged and tiny. What a thrilling moment it was!  The doe's behavior made sense now. Nevertheless, she must have felt we were too close to the fawn and they moved on that night.

We now have a tom turkey strutting around--looking for a harem, no doubt. He will walk past my window going "gobble-gobble" sounding exactly like someone mimicking a turkey.

I absolutely love where I live! I'm surrounded by trees and wildlife on all sides, yet I live only twelve minutes from the State Capital in downtown St Paul.

Maybe this will work

After getting a different computer and other technical changes I couldn't begin to understand, I believe I may finally gotten into my blog. Since I don't even know if this will actually post, I'm not going to say much except that I'm doing OK. It really warmed my heart to see all the comments from my bloggie friends while I've been, well--should I say moping?

If this works I'll try to start following your blogs again. I've missed you all!

Well, 2010 was worse that 2009, so do we dare give 2011 a chance?

So, is this gonna be a better year? I'm afraid I will have to insist upon it!

Unfortunately, I've done my darndest to cancel snowstorms this past month and we all know how well that turned out. The truth is, I have a pathetic lack of influence over the universe--even my tiny little part of it.

However, I had a wonderful family Christmas. All of my kids, most of my grandkids and my three great-granddaughters were there plus several family friends. It was hectic and lively we had lots of good things to eat.

My problem is that for most of my life, I have suffered with a kind of post-event insecurity. I always fear that I may have inadvertantly ignored someone, or did or said something that offended someone or was too bossy or overbearing, etc, etc. This really detracts from the warm memories and makes me feel guilty for those "sins" that I'm oblivious of. 

One cheery memory I took away from Christmas was 7-year-old GGD coming over to thank us for the big 24-pack of AA batteries. She was carrying the heavy package high and exulting how now they could play with all their toys and video games. I got such a kick out of seeing how such an utilitarian gift made her day.

I think I must make an effort to post more often and talk about upbeat things.

Thank Heaven for little girls...

The latest picture of my three great grand-daughters. They are so much fun!

Have a nice Thanksgiving Day

I also love having a house full of kids, grandkids and friends.  So, bring it on!

Anyway, the weather was nice

The migrating robins are still passing through from the far northern regions. The berries and crabapples are all gone from the trees, and all the insects are dead so the latecomers will have to subsist on other foods. We've had several hard frosts and all the outdoor plants are dead, as well. 

With the time change over the weekend, the kitties are still demanding to be fed at the time their biological clock goes off, so I got up ridiculously early today. I had the Sunday paper all read before the CBS Sunday Morning show was even over.

We are in the midst of changing two rooms around which necessitated taking all the books out of the bookcases. It's overwhelming to decide which to keep and which to get rid of. I worry about donating them to Goodwill because once when I took some old paperbacks there, one of the guys unloading them told the other guy, "These will just go right in the trash". If the books aren't useful, I would hope they'd certainly recycle them!

So, where do they recycle books?