Some deer are not very smart people

This morning a small group of deer visited the garden, probably the doe and last year’s youngsters. They went foraging a bit and when they wanted to leave, one of them had painted itself into a corner, with the absence of paint and a meaningful corner.

You have to imagine the gardens as one big rectangle cut into four parts. At the head of two of them, are the semi detached houses of us and our neighbour with the gardens that belong to the houses, both with fences (mostly) all around. Behind that are the two gardens we both rented from the city, only that ours is still  a work in progress while our neighbour’s is basically abandoned, because tearing down the garden house would be much more costly than paying the rent. There’s only a partial fence between those areas, but the neighbour’s is closed to the woods while ours is open, which is where the deer entered.

One of the then went to the neighbour’s place and you can guess what happened, it didn’t find its way back. While mum and sibling were waiting on the other side of the fence, it took the youngster about half an hour to realise it needed to walk back towards the houses and cross into our garden so it could leave again.

They’re still cute.

© Giliell, all rights reserved

© Giliell, all rights reserved

© Giliell, all rights reserved

© Giliell, all rights reserved

© Giliell, all rights reserved
It’s amazing how well they’re hidden when they don’t move.

© Giliell, all rights reserved
Probably not a deer. Deer are shy. This one looked at me like it was contemplating my right to remain alive.

 

Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

We had quite the storm around here last night. First the temp dropped from +3 to -5º C  and then, just as the light was fading from the sky, the wind started to howl. It was a pretty steady howl too at about 40km/hr with big gusts of up to 120km/hr. And then, Cue the Snow. You gotta have snow, you know. Thankfully not much with this storm, just short bursts of that small, light snow that gets caught up in the wind and won’t settle on the ground. I couldn’t see farther than 2 houses down my street and when the wind gusted it actually looked as it the snow was falling sideways.

The wind is still howling this morning, but the snow has stopped and we only got a total of about 5cm of the stuff. There’s a lot of drifting, though, so shoveling turned out to be more challenging than I thought. It doesn’t help that our only shovel is too big for the porch steps and too small for the driveway. I keep meaning to get proper shovels, but I never seem to remember when I’m out. (aargh!) Jack and I did get out, though. We braved the cold and the ice and the wind and daydreamed about warm, green grass and the sun on our bare shoulders.

Bee Happy

If the early bird catches the worm what does the early bee get? Her picture taken, of course. This delightful early sign of spring comes to us from Avalus.

Walking home last Saturday I found the first bee of the year! She allowed for one photo and then took off. I hope for a good year for her hive!

First bee of 2019 ©Avalus, all rights reserved

Harakka in Autumn: Chapter 12

Ice Swimmer has more rocks to show us and they are full of colour and pattern. Let’s go….

Chapter 12 – Southwestern Rocks on Sunday, II

Details. ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

This part of the rocks comes with stripey details.

Detailed Details. ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

Here is a more detailed look on the details.

Decidous and Evergreen. ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

Many of the broad-leaved trees were exhibiting their deciduousness while, the pines show their evergreenness all through the seasons.

Grain. ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

The pattern is like figured woodgrain.

The Border. ©Ice Swimmer, all rights reserved

Humans are not welcome on the other side. Gulls and geese will keep watch in spring and summer. The dinosaurs were absent in October, but no human was seen trespassing.

In the next installment, we will have walked the path towards east (to the left of the last picture) and we’ll see something completely different.

Harakka in Autumn: Chapter 11

Jack’s Walk

©voyager, all rights reserved

The forecast is calling for warmer temps (+9º C!) over the weekend with rain. If it’s true, that should get rid of the rest of our snow and all the damned ice so that Jack and I can walk around our own block again. I don’t want to get too excited, though, because the warm is just a blip and not a trend. It’s supposed to turn cold again on Monday (-9º C!) and stay that way right through next weekend. Oh.

These photos were taken at Pittock Lake. The snow and the sand made these really interesting patterns and I thought I’d share a few with you. [Read more…]

A Day at the Zoo 5: Charly the dog

© Giliell, all rights reserved

Not Charly the Affinity author, obviously. He’s seriously getting old and everybody is dreading what lies ahead. He’s one year older than #1 and our kids and our friend’s kid all grew up with him herding them.

© Giliell, all rights reserved

© Giliell, all rights reserved
Fun with the wide angle lens

© Giliell, all rights reserved

Up and Down Mt. Lofty

Lofty has sent in a few photos from his daily bike ride up and down Mt. Lofty.

The final four pictures of Mt Lofty. The first two are of the summit with its own little wooly cap on the morning the cool weather arrived, lastly two predawn shots over a local vineyard. I circle around the mountain on my bicycle from the south west via the east side and then up the northern ridge, then after a rest at the summit descend down the south ridge at a rapid pace.

©Lofty, all rights reserved

[Read more…]