Deer sighting, a lovely way to start the day.

 January 4, 2021 – Deer sighting, a lovely way to start the day

 

         About 8:45 a.m. I had just finished my first cup of coffee and was coming around the kitchen island on the way to the coffee pot when something caught my eye – up on the banking near where the recent Bradford Pear had been cut down that fell on the pickup truck.  I was opposite the kitchen sink double window. I whispered “Deer” to my deaf husband.  He and I were on the same destination route – the K-cup coffee pot.  His selective hearing worked this morning, followed by my “SHHHS” when he was about to speak.

 

         The pinky, golden glow of morning sunshine fell on two deer, female. Their breath made small puffs of steam, heads up, then down, then up again, their ears tuning in like satellite dishes on a distant star.

 

         I instinctively stepped back; good, they didn’t see me.  They strolled leisurely up the Bradford Pear tree line, finding nothing there, they perused the neighborhood from the front knoll. They tentatively, eased on down to the grassy swale where the road water runs off.

 

         I moved to the front day room window on my tippy toes and twitched the lace curtains aside for an unencumbered view from this vantage point. They were now less than 25 feet away.  Oh, how lovely, the early morning light skids over them creating shadows down by their slender ankle hooves on the heavy frost on the nearly bare ground under the trees.

 

         They sense me and look in my direction.  I remain stone-still and even needlessly hold my breath.  At the bend of the road they stand, tuning their two pairs of ears forward and backward as they scan the neighbor’s yard for “taste-es”.  Hesitant, then suddenly confident, they stroll down the road searching.  Seeing nothing of interest, they turned back into my yard near the well house.

 

         As they become out of view at the front window, I slip down to the living room window and catch only white lace silhouettes of them as they go further on.  They must be at the north end of the house now and luckily I do have a window on the master bathroom end.  It would be iffy if I can see them from there. 

 

         Quickly circling the master bed to the Roman tub edge, I kneel on the cold edge to get a better vantage point out the window.  One is munching a leathery Magnolia leaf, twig end first as the other one is on look out.  Then their ears snap upright and they individually circled half round this way, then that, and I see one take off to safety.

 

         I scrambled to the back window and catch a millisecond of a disappearing rump at full gallop past the second green house down behind the holly bush wind screen.  Poof!  They are gone.

 

         What was it, a neighbor’s dog?  No, I listen in the cold still of the morning as my neighbor from the end of the road shifts into second or third gear on his diesel pickup truck on its way up the road.

 

         Interesting, they can turn and twist their ears separately or together.

 

         So fleeting, yet so exquisite while it lasted . . . .all taking place in less time than a roller coaster ride, but leaving me with the same heart pounding exhilaration. . . . what a lovely way to start the day – a deer sighting.