Our Dear Deer
It really is starting to feel a lot like fall, not just here in the Ozarks, but my friends across the country have been commenting on the cool mornings and warm afternoons that signal a change in seasons.
It seems that it is during the change of the seasons that I stop and do a little self-reflection, as well as take time to notice the changes around Our Little House.
There are the more noticeable changes. Since spring turned to summer, we lost Emma, a beloved family member, but also gained Chloe at Campbell Town.
The days are also growing shorter, we have to take our walks now by 7 p.m. rather than 8. The county fairs are over and the weekends in the Ozarks are busy with fall festivals.
Other changes are less noticeable. Our large Oak right off of our party deck, which I fought the construction crew to work around while they were building, hasn’t produced many acorns in the past two years. Unfortunately, the majority of the trees in our woods die a slow death when carpenter ants eat them from the inside out. As well, that tree sustained considerable damage during the horrible ice storm in 2008.
We’ve saved it so far, but I’m afraid its days are numbered. I sat on the deck on a cool morning yesterday remembering how Emma, Molly and Dakota used to love eating those acorns on the deck. It made me a little sad that even things at Our Little House cannot always remain the same.
That sadness, though, is tempered with some excitement over our new neighbors, a pair of bucks that we’ve seen wandering the property in the past two weeks. We rarely saw deer when Emma was here, her nickname was “The Woodland Creature,” just because she loved wandering the woods around the house so much. Of course, Sade and Chloe normally joined her, scaring off any deer with sense.
It’s fun for us to watch the two wander through the property now, especially bucks, which seem to be seen less frequently than the does. The larger of the two has a respectable rack that shows his maturity over the one with the smaller antlers.
Soon, the leaves will completely change and fall and the days will become even shorter. We’ll make it through another dreaded hunting season. It will be time to fire up the wood stove and dust off the comfort food recipes.
Now I know really what the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” means.
What changes are you noticing now in your own family or around your own home?
Hi Kerri; I have been absent for awhile…with all the work and trying to complete new projects around my little house. Learning the ebb and flow of a new place. Had a Handyman build me a little garden/potting shed and all went well until he started putting the windows in…while I am no expert I watched enought HGTV to know he was doing it wrong. When I questioned him..he got mad and left. Yes, of course I had already paid him. He ‘was’ my next door neighbor…now he just lives next door. Very sad to have hard feelings. Now I have to hire someone else to do the windows. But I am moving forward..just as the seasons are too. I have noticed that it is getting light later and it is actually ‘cooling’ down in the evenings to about 78 degrees. LOL. course when you have had days on end over 100 then 78 is almost sweater weather…just kidding!
I too have noticed the different angle of the sun and how it plays on the reflection on my little lake and the light in the LivingRoom and Sun Room. Take care and I still love ‘Visiting’ your Little House. Cindyt
HI, Cindy! It’s good to have you visiting again! Sorry about your neighbor problems. Maybe it will work itself out in the future. It is very hard having neighbors with hard feelings between the property lines. Just as I was reading your note, I was noticing the “strange” light in my office. The sun and shadows are changing by the day now.
Yes, fall is definitely on its way. I feel like I’m gearing up for hibernation in some ways.
That’s exactly what it feels like!
I love to watch deer. They are such graceful animals. On a recent trip to Port Townsend, Wash., I saw them jumping up and picking apples of a tree in someone’s yard. I’m betting the homeowners were none to happy about that, but as a city dweller, it was fun to watch.
Now that would have been worth a photo!
Here the spring flowers are in bloom, the days are getting longer and the glasshouse is full of sprouting veggie delights. Summer, here we come!
Rubbing it in from Down Under! 🙂
My response is similar to many of the comments. Tourism is one of our largest “industries” – the other two being farming and fishing – so we too have noticed that many of the restaurants and stores are closing up til next summer. Most of the tourists have left so our little island is returning to its peaceful state again. No lifeguards on the beaches – not that it’s warm enough to swim anyway. It’s dark when I get up each morning at 6 AM and dusk comes earlier each day. Some of the trees are turning and the fall flowers are abounding.I have already had to put the woodstove on several times – it is on today – and we are getting dangerously close to frost warnings – down to 4 degrees (Celsius) some nights. The pumpkin stand in the field next to us is up and running and store are sporting Halloween decorations which is WAY too early for me. (Canadian) Thanksgiving is just over 3 weeks away.
Oh summer – where did you go?
OMG, Olivia, the woodstove already? YIKES! I’ve seen Halloween decorations already as well. Is Halloween a big holiday there now?
Yes – Halloween is a big to-do although, out here in the country, we rarely get any trick-or-treaters. None last year, one the year before. I think maybe parents take their kids into “town” nowadays so they can go around the subdivisions rather than drive them around the countryside like we did.
The woodstove – I know.The joys of living in Canada! I noticed on the weather tonight that they were having flurries out west and the night time temps are dipping below freezing.
UGH!!!
As the old French Canadian song says, “Mon pays, ce n’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver.” (My country is not a country, it’s winter.)
That’s funny, Olivia. I went to Minnesota on a college trip once and brought home a t-shirt that said, “Minnesota: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…Winter…Winter” 🙂 We did go at the first of November, I think, and there was already inches of snow on the ground. Unheard of in KC (typcially) that early!
Summer’s end here is marked in a totally different way: restaurants and shops close. This weekend the wonderful veggie shop on the town hall parking lot will sell its last fruit for 2010. The fish shop next door will hold a big sale of everything that remains. After that, we will need to shop at the overpriced deli or venture to the twon 20 miles away.
Other than that, I notice the seasons changing by the light. The sun is up later, the shadows are deeper in the afternoon.
That must be a kind of isolating feeling having everything close up for the winter, Alexandra. I know how it feels around here when the weekenders come usually for the last time in the fall. Our road is pretty desolate.
Changes at our place are driven by strong swirling wind ever changing the pattern of each day. I am hoping things will quiet dowm. The creatures who created dens last Fall in the woodland garden appear to be still sleeping. Each year we enjoy different animals. This year it has been deer and the herd increases each day. I have taken lots of photos. There is a young fawn with spots. Everything this spring was a month late.
Here’s hoping things calm down for you soon, Mary. One cannot take a strong wind for a long period of time.
It is cool in the mornings here now, and the sun is setting earlier and at a different angle, I can sit out on my little veranda, and not roast.
It is supposed to be in the 60’s here Sat in Nebraska, the sign that I need my hooded sportjacket when I go to do Farmer’s market, Another sign of Fall, with people mingling in the cool air.
It gets pretty warm during the day, but everything is showing the Fall signs of coming to a closure for the season.
For our area, the fall is about timed right, though our spring never materialized, and we went to hot summer instantly, and an extremly short growing season it was. The garden was in-between, but that is gardening and farming, take the good with the bad.
Ah yes, the sun setting at a different angle. I love noticing how the light changes through the seasons and how it streams into the house and studio differently. I think I might be spending at least part of this weekend rotating some outfits. We’re in that time when sometimes we need a jacket and sometimes we need our summer wear.
It is still hot here and cannot wait for cooler temps. Your mention of the deer brought a book to mind that I think you might enjoy. The Gift of the Deer by Helen Hoover. You can order it through Amazon if your local library does not have it. I have her 4 books to that series. http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Deer-Fesler-Lampert-Minnesota-Heritage/dp/081663128X It shows her other books on that page. She also wrote childrens books.
Thank you, Susan! I”m always looking for good book recommendations!