Recent Flora & Fauna

 Meg lying down in the bed of naked ladies (Amaryllis Belladona) before the green leaves turn brown.

 Good to see Bucky is growing up strong. We name the deer something different every year, because it's hard to tell them apart. Bucky likes to stare down Meg while she's barking at him.

 Acanthus flower spike.

 Crazy out of control butterfly bush, it was a cutting I stuck in the ground to see if it would grow. And now it's fifteen feet tall and wide. We cut it back by half every year. Boy do the butterflies every like it.

 And the many shades of wild sweet peas. I enjoy these, I really do, but they are so invasive and such a bully in the yard, taking over and blocking out the plants I'm trying to grow. And they don't smell too great (compared to the mannerly cultivated ones.)

Closeup with an instagram filter.

Garden Cornucopia

 We've been lucky enough to get some great figs from our tree this year. I like cutting them up this way because they're kind of heart-shaped.

An actual pomegranate is growing on my tree. Finally! I think I've had that tree for five years, and it flowers and sets fruit but they've never gotten this big before.

I definitely did not give these enough water this year, but they look interesting with a few petals like this.

 I was happy to get a surprise Iris blooming over the last few weeks.

 Our curious deer is still sticking around.

Rain clouds and the late afternoon sun.

Deer-Watch 2013

 Our deer seem to be enjoying the not-quite-ripe apples tremendously this year.

 They wisely ignore the dog barking at them and me taking pictures.

And then they come back the next day for another one.  I guess I post about our deer quite a lot as I have a tag for them! I do see them everyday, and we name the new ones every year. This one is Dearie.  If I get a good picture of Prongs I'll post it, he has a wonderful rack growing.

Deer Follies

Who is that sleeping under my family's trampoline? (Picture taken through my bedroom window).

The newest mama deer that's who. I guess it counts as shade. But it is funny that they crawl under there to hang out. I haven't gotten any good pictures of the baby fawn yet, she moves around too much to get a clear picture.

Here she is, she just loves to pick apples. Amazing to see them balance on their hind legs as they stretch up to grab the green apples off the tree.

Pshew, got one down. Guess they like sour, because those apples are pretty far away from ripe.

Pretty cute huh? Noisy when they're romping around at night, but I am getting used to it.

And very very thorough, they don't leave any green bits or apples behind.

Cornucopia of Fun

Smirking Rexie. Sideways for some reason?! He is a very patient subject for portraits and doesn't run off the first time the flash fires. Guess he is mellow or lazy, or both. No wonder I love him!
Some good smelly soap from Adrienne called "Temptress". I opened the tin to smell it and got a bunch of soap powder in my nose, fun! But now my nose is much cleaner than it has been in a long while. I guess the powder was from the soap bumping about as it made the trip with the Passionate Purples Bullseyes you can see behind it. More on that project in tomorrow's posting.

OMG, my youngest is 13 now! I am now officially the mother of teengagers. Those toddler years are looking mighty far away in the past now letmetellyou! As the years with them wind down so quickly, everything seems compressed, there are all these things I still want to do with them, go so many places, teach them so many more things, pant, pant, will there be enough time?? Hope so!
This was his present. An electric Jazz Bass Guitar. Woohoo, now both my teenaged boys are playing guitars of all types. We gotta 'em all, electric, acoustic, bass, and of course "pretend" for RockBand.

Yes it is noisy, but still fun. I'm still fiddling around trying to learn keyboard, and then we'll be the next Partridge Family, just you wait and see...(lifelong dream #37).
The noisy noisy deer are back once more. This is the daughter of "Dear Leader" from last year I think. They are noisy because they come at night on the hillside which is right outside our bedroom windows and trample around in the dry grass and gnaw on the fruit trees. Sometimes it wakes me up and scares the crapola right out of me. I still have yet to catch a good photo of them standing up on their hind legs to grab new apples off the lower limbs. Like a bunch of giraffes have invaded.
Oooh, and more goodies from the Exquisite Corpse experience, now going into round 2, these are fibers from Reta, nice huh?!