The Giants Have Departed

Two fawns are growing fast.  The first I ever saw them was maybe two months back.  Molted, faltering, less than two feet tall, they have now doubled in size.  In order to run fast you need to practice and just like little boys and girls, these clumsy, energetic juveniles practice dashing about on the slope of our lawn, looking like they will skid and tumble over each time they tear across the yard.  And now they are right below the window.  Are the eating the seeds I threw on the ground for the birds?  Are they just nibbling the grass? One fawn now seems to be looking for his mother’s teat but she is not interested and steps away. 

And then they are gone.  The pack, it’s bigger than a family, of seven deer have moved off into the trees and in their wake, the blue jays and mourning doves have returned to forage for the seeds I threw.  The squirrels come later and nervously join the feast, now that the giants have departed. 

My older one starts a babysitting job this morning.  She’s been sort of waking up around 2:00PM for the last few months, so the 8:30AM ride over in a few minutes will be a sharp departure from late-late nights and missed mornings.  An hour ago she came into my room during a conference call and suggested there was a bug, the size of her foot, crawling about in her room.  Reluctantly I rose to dispose of it but went back to my room to grab my phone so I could identify the hapless monster, who turned out to be only about as long as half my pinky.  The name?  “House Centipede," I discovered before tossing him in the toilet.  Unattractive, surely.  But in an under-two-inch, sort of way. 

Out on the bike trail today it was hot.  But pedaling along the wind felt good and the bridge, which has been under repair for a while now had the barrier removed.  I biked on down to have a look.  There was a truck in the path, which didn’t bode well for unobstructed progress.  And as I went around to the back of the pickup truck, I found a nice gent, a peer I’d say, bald, smoking a pipe and I asked and he informed me that no, it wasn’t fixed yet, but it was close.  "Probably by the end of the week."  I thanked him and wished him a good day.  He did me the same. 

Later up on Old Ford Road, the detour, which I’ve come to really enjoy, I spied a willow tree, which I knew I didn’t have in my species-hoard on the Seek app.  I parked there on the way back and took a walk around, in front of the big, old barn they have there off the road.  Got four new species, for my trouble: The Leafy Spurge (I wasn’t sure 'spurge' was a word.)  A Siberian Elm, which made me think of the train from Vladivostok, a Greater Plantain and indeed a Chinese Weeping Willow.  Two Asian trees, right across the street from one another. 

Wednesday, 07/29/20