Sunny day

I've been raking leaves and playing outside. Today is a pretty November day with blue, blue skies and hardly a cloud in sight.

A Visit from Jack Frost

We're supposed to have sun during Thanksgiving Weekend. Yahoo! This morning Jack Frost paid a visit so all of my photos have a little bit of the frosty glow.

Big Beautiful Hibiscus in Bloom!

The weather outside has been really crummy. Wet, cold and damp. So I'm taking some liberty with this blog. This hasn't really been in "the backyard" since mid October when it started getting chilly... but this hibiscus sure does love it where it's nice and warm in the office!

Big Buck in the Backyard

Day before yesterday when I was driving to work, I rounded the corner and almost came face to face (or car to nose) with a BIG BUCK. Luckily, he didn't hit my car, but continued walking along thru the field behind my house. I grabbed my camera and rolled the window down to get a photo of him. Lots 'o antlers!!



It took me this long to get the shot just before he went into the woods surrounding our house. It's just a little woods... probably less than an acre. Hard to believe a guy this big could survive. I know that there are at least 5 other deer that live in there, because we've seen them. The dogs seem to keep them at bay during the day, but I think the deer are starting to understand the whole electric dog fence system because they are getting braver and braver.

First Snow

Last night we had our first snow. Time to put the deck chairs and table away for winter.

Deer Season in the Backyard

I don't recall ever seeing so many deer as I have this fall. Yesterday I saw 3 in the morning, 7 at night... just in my short drive to work and back. They just glance up from time to time... then go back to grazing.

These deer were only about 25 feet from the road and not the least bit intimated by the flash from my camera, or the honking horns of passing by cars, or even shouting strangers yelling at them. In fact, these deer were just about as tame as the cows on the east side of the road.

This photo was taken at dusk from the car window. The deer are standing in the field just behind our house.

I used to like deer, you know, so graceful and calm. That was until a big buck jumped on my hood one December evening and demolished the front quarter panels, grill and hood of my relatively-new car (only 7,000 miles on it), breaking off his antler into the passenger side window.

The guy at the repair shop just told me, "You're just lucky he didn't come thru the windshield, the last car I did, the driver was impaled by the horns." Ever since his comment, I look at deer in a whole new light.