Bright & Beautiful

It's been a sparkly fall week with bright sunshine lighting up the leaves that still remain on the trees surrounding our cabin home in the woods. The squirrels, chipmunks, and deer are actively foraging and stocking up for the coming winter season.

Yesterday, our small herd of does came up to the goldfish pond for a sip, unaware that I was sitting quietly on the porch observing them. They look healthy and are so beautiful. No matter how common whitetail deer are or how pesky they can be to our gardens, they remain one of my very favorite forest animals. I love being in their graceful presence. The deer can be very comical, too. A couple of the summer fawns, now almost as large as their mother, were tussling the other day, head butting and prancing about while the older members of the herd simply ignored their antics and kept on feeding. They often get up on their hind legs to reach the tastier leaves from the lower branches of our young trees and are quite acrobatic in their efforts to stretch as high as there legs can lift them ... and they have a tendency to stick their tongues out, too! Often, when I walk down our long drive to retrieve the mail, several deer will be close by. They stand alert watching my every move. Once in a while, one of them will stomp it's front hoof as if annoyed. Rarely, do they run off, and they seem as curious to look at me as I am to look at them.



Love the photographs that capture light just the right way. Notice the sun star coming through the trees in the photo above. The colors in this segment of woods were simply awesome, too. This lovely weather we've recently been experiencing won't last long, nor will the remaining colorful leaves ... so I'm enjoying it all to the fullest until winter sets in and the snow creates its own special beauty.