Weekly Photo Challenge: Pure

what a concept. Noticed these lawn ornaments chowing down on the morning glory – a pest devouring another pest. Both can look good though.

Today it was a breading pair that graced our backyards looking for the good stuff. Usually it is just the doe and perhaps a fawn or two. Hardly see the bucks.

Notice how the horns are velvet, this new growth that will soon be scraped off. 4 points and he still looks good. Urban life for the dear can be very harsh. I have seen several over the years with gashes and broken legs from jumping the fences. If there is food – they will jump and pretty much anything (except thistles) will tempt their pallet.

I rarely see older does – parenting is hard under the best of conditions. And this one is so young and small. I suspect her life will not be as long as the bucks. Though you never know she may beat the odds.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Texture

My world is filled with texture. These are from this morning.

The back yard deer!

The back yard deer! They never cease to amaze me. The young doe and a buck with three points. The tenderness between the two is amazing.

The buck has an eye infection, it looks painful and yet he is seeing something though the eye. He still looks though it – his watchful gaze was noticeable from either eye! It gives him an surreal look – eerie on it’s own.

The Fawn is growing up.

I took my camera today when I walked Loki – it was a delicious fog and would have been silly not to get a photo or two.

As luck would have it the young buck that was the focus of my camera as a fawn was looking to get away from a guy with a camera that was getting a bit too close. The young buck was headed for a very busy street and I mentioned to him that it would not be a good way to go so he turned and ran past the dude with the camera. Cool!

Really he was eyeing Loki on the end of my leash and that helped push him away from dancing in-between impatient drivers on the busy road over the embankment. And I did mange to get his great escape in a photograph or two.

Last I saw of him he was prancing into the condo’s with the dude following him. To be fair the deer do make for good stories and photographs and the dude most likely lives in the condo’s and was out cleaning up the fallen leaves and lo, here comes this young buck. Pulled out the camera to capture the moment on his phone. Luckily the deer here are used to us humans and know it is better to just walk away.

Youth

Youth.

I couldn’t think of a better title. Not that it matters much. This animal’s youth is somewhat idyllic. Meandering from garden to yard, enjoying the bounty of the city. An unnatural existence but the only one this young creature and her small family has ever known.

They are naturally watchful of their spaces. A loud noise a block off will send them into hiding. Instinct and instinct alone. It serves them well. They prosper as a species though they are not gathering in herds but only small family groups – easier to find safety in the city.

Yet as I watch this small family prosper in this urban setting I can’t help but wonder on the fate of all creatures outside of human species. These creatures, great and small, can not vote, they usually only add to the economy upon their death and can not stop the destruction of their home. There is little political will when it comes to saving our global home.

We, those of us alive today, may be the last generation on earth to see wildlife at all. Whether it be the birds in the sky, an insect on a flower or mammals wandering across the horizon.

Maybe it we try hard, we can slow it down.

Plant a tree, actually plant 3! One will most likely die and will nourishes the remaining two. Until the trees mature, let open spaces go wild. No insecticides, no herbicides, just water, a few feathers (my ninety two year old Gran’s recipe for growing tomatoes – a feather under the roots!) and a thank you for helping the human species overcome it’s own immaturity towards our only home.

It doesn’t sound like much but every little bit helps. I think that we can move forward, increase the economy, increase our natural habitat and live in a very modern world.

To do this, we must first look at how we view our only home – the great (late?) planet earth a little differently than before.

He who has the most in the end will not win this race. Really. I have yet to witness anyone leaving this planet with any of the latest appliances, cell phones (astronauts always come back so they do not count), the fastest car or brightest diamond.

Chief Dan George once said that all we should leave behind is our shadow. Use only what we need and no more.

This is hard to do when you a part of this society. The latest and greatest fad of electronic, clothing, accessories, furnishing et el have very demanding places in this society.

I have my thoughts on this but not today. My thoughts on recycling, up cycling, reducing, reusing and longevity.