My Deer!

Dad and I are having lunch - wonderful homemade potato soup - when Mom calls from the kitchen. "Come here! Hurry! Be quiet!" she whispers. I slide my chair back and round the corner and find her pointing out the large bay window in front of the sink. Two young deer - both female - are nibbling contentedly at my sunflowers. So that's why the flowers look so bedraggled!


The doe are in no hurry and experiment with tastes of the horseradish and tomatoes, too. But only the sunflowers meet with their culinary approval.


This close-up shot was at about 12X as I stood beside the sink and rested the camera on the windowsill. The deer are gorgeous with their still-white spots. We've seen as many as five at a time in recent weeks, including Mama. She is particularly alert and skittish while the babies, alone for the first time, seem intent on experiencing everything in this new world.

After about 15 minutes, the pair amble east towards the front of of our property and push beneath the Scotch pines. Then they run north towards our meadow and the woods.

My soup is now getting cold but my soul - what there is of it - has warmed in relation to any loss.