March 14, 2024
The Wild Deer
I woke up early, feeling rested. My wife stayed in bed. She was feeling better but had no energy, so she opted to take another sick day off work to recover. The sky was dark and the stars bright. Since last night, Venus had moved closer to the moon, and Orion was performing a cartwheel towards it, while the Big Dipper had moved toward the west.
After a morning of writing, I grabbed a light jacket and slipped on my boots, sneaking out the front door. The dogs, surprisingly, stayed quiet, knowing their mamma was still in the house with them. As soon as I stepped into the pine grove, I heard several songbirds tweeting while woodpeckers thumped on trees all around. It was a clear, beautiful day.
As I walked eastward through the grove, I looked through the maze of pine trunks and spotted three deer feeding near my blind. They popped up their heads and ran west into the woodland after spotting me. I most often saw these beautiful creatures in the open fields, but seeing a deer in the woods always felt special. It felt like more of a natural habitat, as human hands had touched the crop fields and pastures. Whatever the reason, seeing deer weaving through the forest trees invoked a strong sense of wildness.
At Beaver Tooth Rock, I stopped to rest and listen to the creek flow as the birds chirped their morning songs. There were several wrens and cardinals, and in the distance, I heard the faint sound of a rooster crowing from a nearby farm. It was 46 degrees, but the damp air felt cold. As I exhaled, my breath floated out in a thin, visible vapor. I stopped to watch it dissipate while straining to hear the faint sounds of a flock of geese flying in the distance. Near the creek, I noticed new grasses and shrubs sprouting from the ground.
On my way back to the house, I came up on a second deer herd. They saw me first, and when the head doe barked, they were off in a flash. I froze and saw several white tails bouncing up and down and they glided through the trees. On the trails, another familiar sign of spring emerged: spider webs. In the winter, I walked freely through the forest, but now until fall, spider webs would tether between the trees like trip wires placed precariously along the trail. There was nothing quite like walking face first into a web.
During my lunch break, I drove to the Piggly Wiggly to buy more soup for my wife. She went with me, but stayed in the car as I shopped. We ate lunch outside in the sun on the back porch. My wife was slowly recovering, but she still wasn’t eating much. When I came back inside the house, Bodhi had stolen two empty soup cans off of the counter, stashing them behind one of the dog beds. One can bore several perforations made my his sharp teeth that cut right through the thick metal. Bad dog.
After work was over, I was ready to relax. I took a short walk into the woods, noting the scent of sweet blossoms from the trees in the grove. The morning dew had dried and the forest floor made loud crunching noises as I walked. When I entered the woodland, far away through the trees, I saw a herd of deer on the north side of a crop field, probably about five hundred yards away. They didn’t spot me, but they were on the move headed north. I saw them and within a few seconds; they had all vanished into the tree line.
I continued moving toward the creek when I came upon a second herd of deer near the middle of the property. This herd was larger, and when they heard my loud footsteps, they sprinted west, never looking back. The air smelled dusty, and I could hear the faint hum of large farm vehicles engaged in husbandry. The farms were preparing the fields for the spring crops, which probably pushed the deer into the woods.
On my way home, I crossed paths with an eastern gray squirrel that had trouble sitting still. I finally snapped one photograph when it stopped to pick at a pine cone. Near the grove in an empty field, six or seven deer were feeding on grasses staring at me. I kept walking perpendicular to them, staying inside the tree line, stopping every so often to shoot a couple of photographs. I turned west toward my home and they stayed to finish their evening snack. When I arrived home and exited the grove, more deer were in the pasture. So many deer tonight! I suspect we’ll have some new fawns soon.
My wife was sitting on the front porch waiting for me, and halfway teased me for being a late. We laughed about it because I had offered to skip the walk and stay snuggled with her on the back porch. She laughed at the notion and told me to go for my walk. And now that I had returned, I was apparently gone too long. We often teased each other this way. While we acknowledged that not all couples liked their spouses, we genuinely preferred to be together. Sickening to hear, maybe, but that was the truth.
On the back porch, I noticed more and more insects showing up. I sat watching bees, butterflies, gnats, and mosquitoes. And with the insects came other things, like the bats that flew over the backyard on spring evenings, catching mosquitoes. As they fluttered around, we enjoyed hitting our hands together in one loud clap. Since the bats were blind and navigated with sonar, they would pivot mid-flight when the noise reached them. The bats seemed to like the game, although they were mainly interested in eating. I enjoyed having them around, as I loathed the mosquitoes and other biting bugs.
After dinner, my wife took a bath while I cleaned the kitchen. After, I showered and slipped into bed. My best friend had a rough few days of being sick, but she was feeling better. And well, it was Thursday night, and the weekend was knocking on my door.