Deer, Oh Deer....!

I nearly stepped on a fawn last evening.
MM and I had worked all day building on our milking shed, and weeding (lightly), and at the end of the day, just before sundown, MM decided to go over to the backside and mow a 30-acre field.  That, he says, is his way of "resting."  As he was leaving, he said, "Why don't you just go enjoy yourself, work on your blog for tomorrow, or whatever...I'll be back around sunset."

So, I got a big salad together for dinner, put it in the fridge, grabbed my camera bag and headed for our big pond.  We haven't been down there in such a long time.   

Granted, I SHOULD have been walking carefully...but I had my mind on other things and wasn't being very stealthy.  All of a sudden, something exploded right under my feet--well....about three feet in front of me.  I quickly determined that it had been a new fawn, lovely big spots,  completely hidden among the ferns and sun-dappled glints.  It's wobbly legs carried it to distance itself from me, but I did not pursue.  Feeling terrible about having routed it, I did a 180 and went in the opposite direction, taking another trail to the pond, storing the event as a joy in and of itself, rather than feeling too disappointed that I hadn't been able to get a photo of it.  But, fortunately for me, the photographer, we were destined to meet again..kind of....

I arrived at the pond and the vegetative growth is such that I could sink into it and be complete obscured.  So, I opened my camera bag and decided on my 70-300 mm Canon lens.  I hadn't been sitting there five minutes before the above scene presented itself.  Of course, I was frozen and couldn't do anything but keep on shooting images of the pair.  No tripod and maxed out focal length!  Holding my breath, smashing the camera against my face to keep it focused...breathe....not breathe....breathe....not breathe... I took roughly 20 shots at various speeds, lighting...and these were the best of the bunch. They are much clearer than they appear here, so I was lucky!

The cutest part was when the fawn decided it had had enough of the pond and headed off (before mom did) into the tall grass, crying all the way (yes, fawns do cry!) But before it disappeared altogether, as did mom, both were snorkeling in the water and eating weeds pulled from below.

It's hard to be a grouchy gardener who hates deer with scenes like this!

Here's wishing you all a lovely, lovely weekend!  Thank you for chatting with me this past week!  You are so much fun!  And so wise, as well....