by jphilo | Aug 8, 2013 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- Dealing with website issues for almost a week at www.DifferentDream.com has revealed two more personal character flaws: I have some unresolved patience issues, and I have as much chance of landing a job in the tech field as making the 2016 Olympic gymnastics team.
- The Japanese beetle’s mindset is the insect equivalent of a World War 2 kamikaze pilot mindset: leave no survivors or die trying.
- On almost every morning this week, I’ve crossed paths with a doe and her twin fawns. Each encounter is a reminder that God is the Master Creator. What signs of His creativity have amazed you lately?
by jphilo | Mar 15, 2013 | Walking Down the Gravel Road
All week I have been hungry for spring,
Impatient with the snowy view outside our windows,
Eager for the spring thaw that brings freedom from our stuffy house,
Antsy to stretch my legs and walk miles outside in the fresh air.
This morning, eight deer graced the winter vista outside the living room window,
They pawed through the snow, finding little to eat.
One yearling fawn mouthed a tree branch and stood two-legged,
Then dropped on all fours, still wrestling with the woody, bitter morsel.
From the warmth of my living room, I watched the shivering animals
Wander across the yard, through the hedge, and across our driveway.
They looked for greener pastures, shorter trees, and tender twigs–
These winter-starved creatures, hungry for spring in ways I hope to never know.
by jphilo | Feb 22, 2013 | Walking Down the Gravel Road
Oh, deer! If the current trend continues, our neighborhood is going to get a bad reputation. Why? Because our front yard is becoming a teen deer hang out. Every day, after school is dismissed at White Tail High, the students hightail it to our lawn like teenagers bound for the mall.
Be warned, and don’t get in their way.
First, they head for the diner out front and have a bite to eat. Then they slouch on over to the big maple tree, put in their antler buds, and listen to Alvin and the Chippunks on their iPods.
They think they look so cool.
On weekends, they hang around the yard all day long. One night, their parents showed up about supper time. They kept circling the perimeter of the yard, but the street parking must have been full because they didn’t march in and drag their kids home.
What were they thinking?
You’d think they’d want their kids home and out of the cold in the middle of winter. But if Fawn and Bambi mess in their bedrooms like they do in the diner, Big Buck and Mama Doe may be relieved to have the kids raising Cain somewhere else.
So how did our yard get designated Teen Deer Hang Out?
Who knows? For now, I’m jiggy with it, but if they start listening to the sound track of West Side Story and tatooing their fur with the emblems of the Shark and Jets, I’m calling the deer patrol. The real estate market’s bad enough without rival gangs laying claim to the ‘hood and driving down home values.
What’s with fawns these days anyway?
by jphilo | Nov 16, 2012 | Walking Down the Gravel Road
Bambi’s Disney dad was an absentee father. How do I know this? Because during my morning walks this week, more twitterpated bucks than I could shake a stick at have crossed my path. And believe me, the gleam in their beady eyes made me wish for a stick to shake at them!
But back to Bambie’s absentee big buck daddy. If Pops been around, Bambi wouldn’t have needed to ask a wise old owl to explain the meaning of twitterpated.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXBbgzQmpJw[/youtube]
As the video clearly shows, owls get twitterpated in spring. But deer get twitterpated in the fall, which Bambi would have known if his father had been around to serve as a role model for his cute little boy.
I’m neither a deer nor a member of the male gender. But during my walks, the deer in my town are making it perfectly clear that November is their twitterpation month. Like this young buck that keeps strutting across our lawn several times a day.
Or this big fella who chased the doe at the top of the page across the walking path in the park and then hid in the woods. He was torn between wanting me to take a picture of his big rack and following the does sashaying around him.
I know he really wanted to have his picture taken because he stood still until I got a good shot of the back of his rack, too.
The camera was at home the morning when a fairly young guy, with one broken antler and one intact, pranced in the park. And the camera was home this morning when 3 more bucks–one the same size as Mr-take-my-picture-while-I-act-modest, but not as battle-scared–engaged in a stare down.
Dumb bucks they may be this time of year, but maybe not as dumb as they look. After all, these twitterpated gents are smart enough to strut their stuff within city limits where hunters aren’t allowed.
So I’m predicting a bumper crop of Bambis next spring. With daddies smart enough to stay close to home and out of harm’s way. Which means it’s time to collect sticks and practice shaking them. No way do I want to be mistaken for a come-hither-look doe next November.
by jphilo | Oct 11, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
This week’s nippy weather may be inconvenient for humans, but it takes a noticable toll on animals. Worry about outdoor critters led to these three thoughts for Thursday:
- Can global warming be blamed for the behavior of the directionally-challenged flock of Canadian geese I saw flying north this morning?
- The image of a doe spied earlier this week is stuck in my brain. She stood in the frosty grass and shivered, perhaps too cold to get out of camera range. How hard would it be to knit wool booties to slip over her cold hooves? Hmmm. Probably not as hard as it would be to catch Bambi’s mother and slip the booties over those chilly tootsies.
- If soccer players had the same kind of jaw action as squirrels, they would mouth the ball down the field and spit it past the goalie into the net. Do you know why squirrels can get their mouths around the nuts they’re gathering and carrying from hither to yon? If you know why, leave a comment. If you don’t know why, make up a theory and share it in the comment box. Fall’s a good time of year to get squirrelly, don’t you think?
