There was a time this post would have been full of flower pictures, but sometimes there are other distractions to capture my attention... starting with Sophie. She'll be two years old in August and has grown into a sturdy and very fluffy girl. She was good enough to stop and let me take her picture, but she definitely had adventure on her mind at the time.
The picture below was actually taken in June. Town turkeys, geez. Ordinarily they're only here in the fall. They don't bother me so much and, heck, I think all babies are cute.
The young buck in velvet, below, caught my eye through the window, so I went out with my camera thinking my photo efforts would be a gentle way to shoo him from the garden. It worked, but he lingered in the woods for a while. He's probably been visiting here since he was a fawn.
Pictured below, Sophie is beckoning me to her favorite place of sticks and loam and the scent of critters who've passed along the trails. She's at the head of the path right behind our garden shed, leading to the network of trails I cut years ago. Just like Wally and LuLu before her, Sophie has the run of the place with or without my supervision. She's a good girl and knows her boundaries. She doesn't stay down there long without checking in, and she comes running gleefully when she's called.
The fawn below is standing at the very same spot in which Sophie was pictured. A doe and two fawns were lounging alongside our shed, and the buck was munching on native foliage nearby, probably part of the same family. This fawn is robust and healthy, but just as I took this picture another smaller, paler fawn stood up and wobbled weakly into the woods.
I was and still am very worried about the weakling fawn, and fear I may find another casualty in the woods this year. I waited a while and then ventured quietly down the path. Just a few steps in I found the family resting once again. The weak fawn is laying down, the healthy fawn is standing the other side of Mom. You can see its two back legs in their knock-kneed stance just beyond her.
Finally, Sophie is now at the front end of the yard in the cool shade of the cherry tree where she loves to roll in the emerald lawn and chew on the sticks she brings up from the woods.
The past two summers I let the garden go. I was grief stricken the summer of 2023, then the summer of 2024 Rich was very sick and I spent all my time as a caregiver and chief cook and bottle washer. Over the last 5 years we've lost 4 trees, changing the look of the garden significantly. The deer were already eating everything in sight anyway, so I threw up my hands. This spring the whole front of the yard and half of the side were torn up for sewer line replacement. It's never ending. However, once the landscapers finished the huge job of putting our yard back together I decided I missed my garden and now I've started over. Hence the back and foot pain, sigh.
It will never be the same, but a person has to just keep going forward with hope... and lots of deer spray and altered expectations.
Have a beautiful day!
