The sun shines betwixt and between scattered showers. The peepers are peeping out in the bogs and the geese and ducks are honking and quacking as they fly overhead. And just in case you doubted the season, daffodils are everywhere. And so are the deer.
The other day as I was driving from Nahcotta to Oysterville, I pulled over as five (count ’em! five!) lovely doe people crossed the road in front of me. They moved in their usual leisurely fashion and the only forewarning I had that there would be a third and then a fourth and a fifth was that the first didn’t wait for the second one and that second one wasn’t a young’un. They were all grownup lady deer, ambling slowly, oh so slowly, across the road.
Too, more than once I’ve had to stop as I went up Wiegardt’s Hill headed for Ocean Park. Fortunately, everyone coming and going has slowed and then waited, too There is no “Deer Crossing” sign, but the locals know. And… while we wait (usually for only one or two in that spot) we can enjoy the bright daffodils that the Ocean Park Village Club and Tom Downer have planted along the walking path on the north side of the road.
So far, I have seen plenty of deer sign and nibbled camellia leaves in my garden… but no deer people. They must know when I’m otherwise occupied. I do love to see them, but I don’t love the havoc they leave behind! And, will I have any roses at all this summer? I’m thinking that there are other delicious morsels coming out in the woods around town about now — but I don’t know how to convince our visitors to choose those over our garden plantings.
Thank goodness, though, that they aren’t interested in rhododendrons or poppies or peonies or daffodils or… as far as I know — nasturtiums or lilies. At least, they leave some of my favorites alone. More or less.