Deer

I was sitting at my sewing machine and my cell phone rang. It was Ray, which was odd because he had just walked by my door and said he would be working in the yard. "Quick, go look out the window" he said, very quietly. I hurried to the hall window and saw three deer standing out at the edge of the lawn. Ray was a few yards away, standing very still with his cell phone at his ear.

Two trotted up onto the lawn and I moved to the livingroom window for a better view.

They stood at alert for several minutes, then turned and scampered down and across the creek and disappeared into the woods.

We have seen them here several times. This was the first time my camera was handy. I've mentioned seeing deer in the yard to several people, who invariably roll their eyes and say something along the lines of, "oh, no—they'll ruin your garden" or "eat your roses." We had deer in our yard years ago when we lived in Ashland and I never minded them. In fact I loved them. One Christmas Eve we had been at our neighbors' and were leaving to walk home. As we came out the door there was a beautiful buck with a large set of antlers standing under a street light in the middle of the street, very still. Snow was softly falling all around. It was magical.

The area where we live was very rural until a few years ago and now there are wooded areas, but mostly subdivisions with fanciful names (Summercrest and Stonemist Estates and Hyland Hills—blehh). There were probably once a lot of deer living around here. If I were a deer I would feel entitled to be here. For me, it seems like a privilege to be able to see something so beautiful here in my own yard. For the record, the roses in the picture above are unscathed, but I wouldn't mind sacrificing a few to keep the deer coming back.