Wildlife in my yard.

 

A cute little chipmunk was hanging out today under my front porch bird feeder. Clarence enjoyed watching him root around.

 

This notice was just posted near our driveway. It's not a surprise; we learned months ago that it was going to happen. Soon, in theory, there could be people shooting at deer just yards away from my house, from 6 PM until 6 AM, Monday through Friday. Unless the deer figure it out and stay in my yard, where they spend much of their day anyway.

 

The green shows the protected parkland where they thrive and where the hunt will take place. Our house is on one of the white roads directly bordering the park. The deer like to linger and graze and sleep and give birth on the fringes of the park, which is precisely where our house is. It will be strange during the hunt. I'll be listening. I'm in favor of the hunt, for many reasons. But I'll be glad when it's over.

Hellebores. The first of many posts about hellebores. Dahlias are great but not quite as great as hellebores.

 

These are all new transplants with their very first flowers. I think I moved them from near their mother plants 2 years ago, or maybe just last year. The big surprise is that they have that inner ruffle, which I've never seen in my hellebores. I have a lot to learn about these random double blooms.

 

Last week I went to a plant sale at the American Horticulture Society in Alexandria, VA, and I met one of the authors of this book. So I had to buy it. Hellebores, also called Lenten roses, may be the perfect plant: they require virtually no care and very little sun, they survive very cold winters (the picture below shows my blooms under the last significant snow we had in late March), they produce many seedlings that can be easily moved, and (drumroll) deer won't eat them. Deer do, however, stomp on them so they still have to be protected a bit.

Hummingbird says hello. Or go away. Not sure what she's saying but she's not afraid of me.

Look at all those ornamental grasses providing wonderful homes for ticks just waiting for me to walk by. Yes, I think I do have tick PTSD, as my wise young friend from the PNW suggested in a recent comment. And speaking of ticks and their buddies the deer, look who was lounging around in the FENCED-IN back yard yesterday morning. I shooed her out through the very small little break between two sections of my "secure" fencing, a space so small that I never dreamed she or one of her dozens of pals would find. But she did, of course. She's relaxing after a big breakfast of hostas.

 

 

 

The butterflies love our hot, humid weather. I do not.

 

I used to look at these perennial wildflowers (Monarda, AKA bergamot or bee balm) in my front yard with joy. Look how much the butterflies and bees love them. But after finding a deer tick on my stomach about a month ago all I can see are beautiful flowers harboring thousands and thousands of deadly ticks.  I'm entering week three of doxycycline, the antibiotic often used to ward off the dreaded Lyme disease. Meanwhile, I've developed a huge phobia about gardening or even walking around my yard. I had to muster up a lot of courage to take this little video. I was looking forward to the fall and winter when (I thought) the tick population dropped significantly until I read this: "Ticks can be active on winter days when the ground temperatures are above 45 degrees Fahrenheit." For a long time I've fantasized about spending my final years living in a big city. Get rid of the biggish house and the cars and live close to whatever I need: grocery store, library, hospital, funeral home. I'm ready to make the move but I doubt if my husband would agree.

Look at those stargazers in the right background of this 15+ year old photo! Daughter with Socks, Wonderful Cat of the Past.

But about those stargazers. You can see three groups of them on the right. That shows how much the wildlife has changed in our backyard in 20 years. When the top photograph was taken we had no deer fencing in our back yard and we had big hostas and those lilies. We certainly saw deer from time to time and they were free to wander over the very ground Socks and Daughter are sitting on. But apparently they didn't. Because look at all those stargazers! 

And there she is once again, February 22, 2013, with Sean. Wedding coming up soon. [Clothes to find/buy!]

I bought some of the herbs that I plan to nurture into much bigger herbs to use as planter centerpieces for the June wedding.  Behnke's Nursery had a good selection of herbs, but not the full selection they'll have over the next weeks. I watched an employee with an old-fashioned clipboard and a printed list of different herbs and she was counting and checking them off. I love that stuff.

Cute, yes. Do I want them to go away? No, not exactly. Do I curse them daily? Yes.

Two of the (at least) five fawns that hang out around my house. Here they are next door in a neighbor's back yard. (I don't even try to be a good videographer. I'm lucky to hold the camera the right way. But I am sort of proud of this little vignette -- see definition No. 4.*)

*Noun

1. a decorative design or small illustration ....

2. an engraving, drawing, photograph, or the like ....

3. a decorative design representing branches, leaves, grapes, or the like...

4. any small, pleasing picture or view.

Bambi, unfortunately, loves my back yard--my so-called fenced back yard. Top picture shows her under the deck. Love those eyelashes!

 I spotted her yesterday morning and escorted her out of the back yard.  She left via one of her secret entrances, then trotted around to the front yard, where I got this shaky video of her.  The back yard is so full of deer treats that I know she'll find her way back inside again.  Here's how the yard looks now.  At least the ferns and the astilbe will survive.

A new granddeer! He or she arrived in the back yard (the so-called fenced back yard) between about 4 and 6 PM today.

I only discovered her (I prefer to call her a her) because at about 6:15 tonight I noticed what was probably her mom eating our damn hostas in our so-called fenced back yard. I went outside to escort** the large deer out and then walked around the edge of the back yard looking for any weakness in the fence. That's when I found Miss Adorable above.  She's next to my little pond, up near that so-called fence.

Doug and I tried to carry out a somewhat elaborate plan to get her safely outside our yard and succeeded only in that she wobbled her way into the front yard by way of the carport.  Poor little thing.  I was determined to get her safely out of our back yard because it's filled with what many people call deer candy.  Some people might say that we should just get rid of the deer candy and live with plants the deer won't eat.  I do that in the front and side yards, but it's nice to have a lush back yard, so I was determined to move the babe just to keep the mom from coming back in (I still don't know how she got in).

Miss Adorable was last seen in our front yard, backed up into some tall lemon balm. I'm confident her mom will find her. A similar birth occurred a few years ago and I think I learned from that experience not to worry.  These deer are survivors.

The bottom picture was taken a few hours before Miss A arrived.  The pond is on the right a bit to the left of the bench. Her mom found what she thought was a good place to hide her baby.

Well, that was exciting!  Now I need coffee and a piece of cake. 

**This means closing in on the deer until she's forced to either jump over the fencing (easy enough -- it's only 5-6 feet high) or crash through it, ripping out portions in the process. Most deer do a combination thing. The fencing is that 7-foot tall, heavy plastic mesh sold in Home Depot. It's not perfect but if I'm diligent about checking for rips and tears I can usually keep the deer out until late in the summer. Eventually, however, they always win.

Hosta Hospital.

Next door neighbor's deer-mauled hostas. Bottom picture taken 8/19; top picture taken 8/26. I asked her if I could dig up her hostas that were nothing more than stubs to see if I could nurse them back to health before the end of summer. Two are doing very well, two are at least off the critical list, but one is still in intensive care. My suggestion is that she put these pots on her very high deck so that next year the deer won't get them unless they learn to climb stairs.

Deer. Love/hate relationship.

Look at those poor hollow-stomached deer in my neighbor's front bedding area. They're chewing on the last little bits of her hostas, which I wish she'd just move out of there. And another pack of three was departing my front yard. Look at those adorable little fawns. Can I really hate them? No. I just wish they could find enough food in the HUGE park next door. From time to time, jurisdictions around the DC area ponder having controlled kills in the parks just to thin the herds. I think "they" do send out sharp-shooters from time to time but "they" don't publicize it.

PS: I really hate that little stone kitty staring at my house. I don't think my neighbor knows about this blog so I'm talking behind her back but she'll never know. She's a wonderful neighbor whose taste in gardening differs from mine significantly. I'll bet she hates the ratty-looking vegetable garden she sees when she looks out her window at my house.

Here's the first fawn of the year, meaning the first one seen in or just outside our yard. I saw my first one 5 houses away on 5/25 -- but no camera.

I'm glad the fawns are here although in 6 months they'll just be part of the herd I frequently and loudly curse. My guess is that she's at least a few days old. In the past few years I've noted that the moms often hide the babies, sometimes in our yard or a neighbor's yard, for up to 18 hrs when they're very, very young. The moms stray away but the fawns stay put, even if a human gets very close. I guess this is when they are freshly born and they need to hide from prey, or gain strength, or both. This fawn teetered after mom, so I wonder if she's been tucked up for a day or so under one of the many ornamental grasses or low-hanging shrubs in this area, and she's now ready to eat her way through the neighborhood and park next door?

Isn't she/he adorable? Mom and her lady friend were vigorously cleaning her/him when I first saw the group in my next door neighbor's yard. Which caused me to say "oh look, Bambi has Two Mommies!"

These sweet little heuchera (coral bells) have a strong will to live.

These coral bells are in their third home, at least, in the 4 years I've had them. They were much bigger when I bought them but each year the deer eventually break through my deer fencing (or storms knock it down) and they nibble these babies back to the ground. And yet every year they arrive with the spring. Just after I took this picture I moved the plants to pots, which I'll keep on a porch away from the deer.

The deer discovered the sedum I hoped would be safe on the front steps.

In the overgrown yard behind me.

I don't know what to think now. Do we have triplets or have the twins and the singleton just started hanging together?

Can't keep count of the fawns. I've seen the singleton a lot; today I saw these guys (pooping in unison) & then I saw another set of twins mins later.

Sorry for the bad picture.

See this island in my front yard? See the fawn peeking out? He/she's been there since 1 PM today. It's now almost 9 PM.

Looks like twins to me. It's near delivery time. I've seen a couple of does (maybe the same one) sort of pacing and hanging out alone lately.

She's young but not too young to be having a fawn this year. Behind my house, in a place where I first see fawns in the spring.

The deer are back! Been so worried about them. I'll be cursing them soon.

I've been avoiding my blogs for a few weeks. Not sure why, other than some vague feelings of being a little too full of myself. I mean really: pictures of socks and deer and snow. Is that what my life is reduced to? Apparently. Do I care? I didn't think so. To be continued. Or not.