Nature .. nuture

Today as I was opening the back door to the gift shop to let Harriet out, she stopped in her tracks and froze....I looked up to see what had startled her, and there in the perrinial area munching away quite nicely on some over wintering plants were this pair of beautiful creatures. I ran for my camera and by the time I got back outside they were headed home, to the brush on the river. Every once and awhile they would stop, turn around and look, and then keep walking. I truly felt that they knew I meant them no harm and so they didn't take off in a dead run....just sauntered along..enjoying the view. When I looked over to my left by the pond area there were six more, just chewing away. Them I startled, and off they ran across the river.

When my Mom & Dad first moved into the house behind the nursery it was the biggest thrill for them to see the deer out back by the river. Remember, we were city folk, and the fact that these gorgoues creatures would just wander up from the river and start munching on the rosehips gave them such a thrill. The phone would ring up at the nursery and it would be Mom, talking ever so softly into the phone, "Try and sneak over to the back and take a look, here they come again, our rose garden in filled with deer". I would come in through the front door quietly and walk over to where she stood at the big window in the living room and we would stand there....ever so quietly....and just look...in awe. Over the course of her last winter here she got to where she could pick out the ones that she knew had been coming back every year. One had a hurt foot, one had some scars on his back. I haven't seen very many of them over the last couple of years. I chalked it up to dry winters, they were moving up the river...not really knowing where they had gone. Or maybe it was just that I never got the phone calls anymore. But today, they were back. Pleasant wonderful memories came with them.


luvya all su.