Bambi...

Lots of deer movement in our neck of the woods recently. We saw a very young fawn gamboling along the dirt/gravel road last week. This was a bit unusual, as they almost always hover alongside their mamas at this age. He ran in front of us as we were driving along the gravel rode, heading into L's shop that morning, with Bambi mostly keeping toward the right side.







Every once in a while he would pause and look back at us.






He ran for about a mile, right up to the paved area which crosses a small creek/river. Then he balked at the paved bridge, turned around and ran back in the opposite direction, retracing his steps.



And last night, returning from my sister's place - she had fed us some wonderful oven-baked ribs and we had a chance to visit with her three grown kids - it was later than we usually return home. Probably around 10:45 or so as we got closer to our place. L had just cranked his neck to the left, checking to see if a friend's van was in the parking lot of the local inn and I began to chide him about watching the road and then I saw a large ADULT deer who had popped out from the wooded roadside SO closely in front of us, with no warning at all. Just leapt out in front of us. L prides himself on being SO aware of deer movement... and he had just been a near-statistic, himself.

Usually we can count on the deer doing their wandering and moving onto the roadways, either late at night or else early in the morning. But they have been very active in the daytime, this past week to ten days. Guess we need to have our radar on high!

L has an old riding lawnmower that he uses (this place is on a large lot which slopes w-a-a-y-y-y down to the lake) and with all the rain we have had, the grass was in serious need of mowing. So on the first day without rain and WITH the required time available, he climbed on the ol' machine and was making countless passes to get the grass down to a reasonable length. I was doing something at the sink (it faces the backyard where he was mowing) and he drove up to the window and motioned for me to come outside. After I got out there, he related how he was on the left side of the property (as viewed from the lake), made a turn, and was nearly broadsided by an adult-sized deer! His assumption was that this beautiful creature was bedded down between our place and the neighbors' place, and he startled it awake with the sound of the riding mower. In its hurry to get away, the deer came within an arms' length of L on the mower.

Family note: my niece is getting married on the 25th, to a great guy that the entire family likes. I hope they will have many, many years of happiness! Happy wedding, A and S!!