Sunset Bear

Well, it’s been a pleasantly warm, sunny, sleepy day around the pond. Several woods turtles hauled out to sun themselves on the lawn. A large snapping turtle floated lazily near the island, apparently caught up in the general mood of the day. Several frogs harmonized their way through the afternoon and on into sunset. They interrupted their song only for an occasional (usually futile) thrust of the tongue at a passing insect. The grass carp pursued their stealthy chlorophyllic prey. And the bass lay on the bottom. Fantasizing about the imminent arrival of the dragon fly season, I suppose. What else is a bass going to do now that spawning season is over? A lone Tom turkey picked its way across the lawn and into the woods. What a dull life that must be. Still, we saw an oversexed Tom pursue and apparently arrange a date with a promiscuous hen a couple of weeks ago. Pheromones abounded. Once again we were forced to avert our eyes.

Our noisy marmotian neighbor continues to make a ruckus beneath the porch. My intrepid bride still finds it occasionally necessary to do a noisy dance on the porch floor to quiet it down. Groundhogs would probably not be so named were they more genteel. A tiny rabbit child has done a daily nosh on the front yard clover and, in the process, captured my sentimental bride’s heart,

In a word or two–or three, an ideal summer day. To top it off, Daryl, (so named by my lovely bride) our small resident buck, dropped by to graze quietly by the ledge. He, his cervidean brothers and sisters are especially pretty at this time of year. All decked out as they are in their bright rust red spring finery.

Today is in sharp contrast to yesterday, during which we were favored by Smokey. He strolled casually along the edge of the pond near the ledge. I’m assuming that Smokey is a “he” since most of the moms are accompanied by cubs during this time of year. Smokey meandered onto the property while my horticulturally gifted bride was showing a local tree surgeon where she wants some work done. Fortunately, they didn’t cross paths with Smokey, though it would no doubt have resulted in a mutual retreat. Not so with other local critters. As Smokey disappeared gradually into the woods, I’d swear that I heard the Beast of Hideaway Pond hurling invective at him from a lofty perch in a tall hemlock.

Oblivious to all of this, the evening sun settled quietly behind the lovely Catskill Mountains. Tomorrow is another day. Barring a massively disastrous celestial event. Or a serious schism in the space/time continuum. Or the sun flairs out leaving Earth a smoldering cinder. Stay tuned.

Well, to make things even more interesting (and this note even longer) a large deer just strode in and lay down by the ledge. After remaining motionless for a half hour, it put its head down and appeared to go to sleep. Still there after 45 minutes. As the note says “Stay tuned”.

Well, the deer finally stood up, stretched, pooped and sauntered off. God’s in his Heaven and all’s right with the world.