June 22, 2011

New Visitors to Welcome Summer

I've posted before about the fauna that seems to enjoy the woods and nice, grassy lawn that surround this house. There are all manner of birds, especially those fun turkeys, and songbirds, hawks, crows, and the occasional pheasant, and, of course, the deer. Deer are everywhere around here. I often see them in the morning or at dusk as they wander across the lawn and through the unmowed fields that abut the yard, but I had a special treat the other morning. Suddenly, out of nowhere was....a fawn!



This is not the fawn, but it could be its mom. I took this shot yesterday, so I'm not sure, but I've seen both. I couldn't decide if she had lost (misplaced) the fawn, but it has been a while since I've seen both together. Lately, it's one or the other, but not both.

I can't figure out if the fawn is old enough to be out and about on its own, but it seems to know that it's safe here, particularly in the fenced horse paddock (where there are no horses these days). I've left the gate to the paddock open (of course), and, today, the fawn strolled out of the woods, across the back yard (which is the view I have most of the time since it's the direction I face when I'm sitting at the computer - looking to the south and out beyond the yard and horse paddock to the distant hills), and trotted over to the far side of the little barn, around the corner, through the gate and into the paddock. I saw it re-emerge in the paddock beyond the barn, but I haven't seen it come out since then, so it might have decided to hang out for the evening here. I hope so.


This is still mom - look closely at the edge of the lawn. It's the view to the north, where the mowed area of the lawn gives up to Mother Nature. Mom likes to cruise through the tall grass there for the tastiest greenery. She comes through there often.

(In the foreground is a tall, grey PVC pipe into which I placed my trotting horse weathervane that I've had at several previous homes, although it never was on a cupola, always in the yard, usually in the little spot in the lawn where a standing clothes pole once had stood. This pipe marks the location of the well head so the snow plow driver doesn't whack into it in winter. Do you think it's tall enough?! Yikes. We get a lot of snow, but not that much! It was just a big old pipe standing about 9-feet tall, smack in the center of the driveway circle, when I moved here over a year ago, so I thought it would be fun to place the weathervane on top for a little equine symbolism and amusement. I am a horsewoman, after all...lol.)

I'll try to shoot a photo of the fawn next time I see it, if I see it. It's so adorable (from afar)...my little neighborhood baby Bambi.

Happy 2nd day of Summer, everyone!

June 15, 2011

New Toys and Belated Lilacs

Regrettably, I'm still a bit slow in the posting department, so I'm just getting to downloading some images that have been in my camera for a few weeks.

In between shooting these photos and downloading them, I purchased a new laptop (finally) after months of struggling along with an ancient PC (my previous laptop having bitten the dust last summer). I can't believe it took me a year, but I suppose there's an upside to having taken my time in replacing the latter machine...prices seem to have dropped by at least 30% since my earlier purchase. That's the good news. The bad news is that my new laptop will not speak to my old PC, despite the procurement of the (supposedly) necessary cord intended to link the two and facilitate the transfer. Dang.

The result of this electronic miscommunication is that I'm slowly rebuilding my links, files, images, etc....and doing it the old fashioned way. I probably need to get a memory stick or something, but since I haven't done that, I only have access to these new photos, not to anything in my archives...at least not easily.

So, here are some lovely lilacs that bloom every May here. I cut some to bring indoors (and because I've always heard that helps generate more blossoms next year), put them in a vase and took these photos. They are so pretty and cheerful and, while I'm not a huge fan of lavender colors, this particular shade of purple is very pleasant, don't you think? I can almost smell their sweet, distinctive fragrance....ahhhhh.