NO, it's not a spelling mistake, I meant it to read DEER. We're just so excited that we just had to tell someone!
Pottering around in the garden this afternoon laying more paths, edging them with rough stones in preparation for filling them with gravel, we took the wheelbarrow out up the lane behind the house in the search for more stones. Rounding the bend right behind the house and bordering our fence, Y-Maria said "is that a goat? Looks like a deer to me."
I looked and couldn't believe my eyes, for there just 60 metres from the track was a beautiful doe deer, grazing on the newly sprouting grass. We'd been busily throwing stones into the wheelbarrow, blithely unaware that she was there, yet she hadn't bolted. She merely lifted her head and gazed at us curiously. We were even able to walk on past her without her running away - twice!
So, having returned to the garden with a barrow-full of stones, I grabbed the camera and ran back around behind the house to find that she was still there. hence the pics above [click on them and you get a larger view]. It was fairly cloudy and very late in the afternoon, so the picture quality isn't wonderful, but you can tell how lovely she is. Since the fires of 2008 we haven't seen any deer within a couple of kilometres of the house, so this is a very encouraging sign.
After I returned to the garden and we'd resumed work on the paths near the front wall, the Greek gentleman who lives in the house at the bottom of our valley, right on the main road, came walking past. He's quite a private man and is known around these parts as "The Major" since he's evidently a retired army man, although we don't see a lot of him and don't even know his actual name. My wife was all excited and so she told him, "We've just seen a deer, right behind the house! It's the first time we've seen any so near since the fires." To which he replied, "Yes, and I saw a family: stag, doe and 3 fawns, on the road outside my house at 6.30am one morning back in the summer. They were standing on the road evidently confused as to which way to run, with traffic to-ing and fro-ing around them."
We all agreed how encouraging this development was and so also agreed that it wasn't such a pointless exercise the local council putting up signs on the main road recently, which read "CAUTION DEER CROSSING."
We just hope that some keen-eyed Greek with a rifle doesn't get her, she's so beautiful an addition to the local environment.
Pottering around in the garden this afternoon laying more paths, edging them with rough stones in preparation for filling them with gravel, we took the wheelbarrow out up the lane behind the house in the search for more stones. Rounding the bend right behind the house and bordering our fence, Y-Maria said "is that a goat? Looks like a deer to me."
I looked and couldn't believe my eyes, for there just 60 metres from the track was a beautiful doe deer, grazing on the newly sprouting grass. We'd been busily throwing stones into the wheelbarrow, blithely unaware that she was there, yet she hadn't bolted. She merely lifted her head and gazed at us curiously. We were even able to walk on past her without her running away - twice!
So, having returned to the garden with a barrow-full of stones, I grabbed the camera and ran back around behind the house to find that she was still there. hence the pics above [click on them and you get a larger view]. It was fairly cloudy and very late in the afternoon, so the picture quality isn't wonderful, but you can tell how lovely she is. Since the fires of 2008 we haven't seen any deer within a couple of kilometres of the house, so this is a very encouraging sign.
After I returned to the garden and we'd resumed work on the paths near the front wall, the Greek gentleman who lives in the house at the bottom of our valley, right on the main road, came walking past. He's quite a private man and is known around these parts as "The Major" since he's evidently a retired army man, although we don't see a lot of him and don't even know his actual name. My wife was all excited and so she told him, "We've just seen a deer, right behind the house! It's the first time we've seen any so near since the fires." To which he replied, "Yes, and I saw a family: stag, doe and 3 fawns, on the road outside my house at 6.30am one morning back in the summer. They were standing on the road evidently confused as to which way to run, with traffic to-ing and fro-ing around them."
We all agreed how encouraging this development was and so also agreed that it wasn't such a pointless exercise the local council putting up signs on the main road recently, which read "CAUTION DEER CROSSING."
We just hope that some keen-eyed Greek with a rifle doesn't get her, she's so beautiful an addition to the local environment.
Another lovely read! Thank you. Fingers crossed I get your books for Christmas. Decided against buying them for others and put them at the top of my 'present list'!
ReplyDeleteVicki