Saturday Wonderday!

A good day starts with a good walk if I can manage it. Sometimes the other half gets up too early and needs his coffee made and can get grumpy if it isn't taken care of. [I am smiling as I write this, because I know that I can get up at 4:30 now and enjoy quiet time for a while!]

I am trying to keep track of the trees alongside the gravel road to our house. The one below is a Grey Dogwood ~ I believe.

This year I am trying to keep track of birds...trees... and of course fungi. It is a means of keeping myself occupied and my mind stimulated.

My favorite Box Elder

Red Oak I believe!

Another one? Oak.

I think...not sure... Hazel nuts? I will have to wait for the tree to leaf out a bit more or some sort of elm??
Speckled Alder??? 
Gosh I don't know!

I found more amazing trees on the morning walk then headed to town and picked up Rhubarb Pie and Cherry Pie from the Farmer's Market and some fresh leaf lettuce. I've decided to just grow sweet corn in the garden this year.
When I can purchase fresh produce each week all summer for our needs and for freezing, it doesn't make sense to spend endless hours in a vegetable garden.

For example, the cost of the beautiful lettuce I got? $2.50, I can't grow it for that! 

MMMM. It gives me more time to play with flowers which I LOVE!

I went out just before lunch and found Morels with Charlie!

Charlie didn't feel so good, so I took him home. As I cut through a deer trail looking at the ground, I saw this...

Fawns do not have a scent when first born. They lay so still as to be invisible! I moved away with Charlie and we headed home.

BUT! Not before we heard a commotion in the trees about 40 feet away. An owl was having it out with some red wing black birds and crows.

I thought to myself...Dang where is Aurora with that lens of hers? I know she would have loved watching this owl watch us. [Taken with my pocket camera and cropped so you can see the owl.]

We had Morels with our steak and watched several squalls come through and ended the day with a rainbow. [A bit over the top with the edit, but the clouds were so amazing and I wanted to catch their strangeness as it cut through the rainbow.]

Wild Things near

When the morning sun broke over the tree tops, I saw this young deer north of the house at the top of the hill. The winds hadn't started yet and everything was calm.

Taken through the 

back door window

After I'd finished the chores, the breezes started. By the time hubby got up and had some coffee, the sun had disappeared and it began to snow.

Imagine our surprise when we spotted another fawn bedding down between the old garage and a tree. It curled up and went sound asleep. [And it looks like it is drooling!]

Later during another snow squall, some fawns came ambling through the yard.

I took these through a screened window so they are sort of soft looking. But the mules are standing just on the other side of the electric fence napping and ignoring the deer.

Two of them walked around to the side of the porch and then turned around and headed out to the woods but not entering the mules fenced area. I know the electric fence doesn't bother them much as they just jump through the two lines.

I do know that the mules will chase intruders that enter their areas.

I'm curious if the fawns had already learned this.

I'm also learning that deer tend to be more active during certain barometer readings. 

I do know that they feed towards dusk. 

This little one came right up to the spot I'd cleared for parking and off loading groceries. 

Speaking of feeding at dusk, we were quite amused at 6 deer that decided to surround my Subaru. It is parked in a grassy area that was plowed last week.

One actually walked up to the passenger door and looked in the window.

I couldn't pass up adding this little nuthatch to my shots this week. Just check out that face!

Attitude!