August 2018 – French Broad Hollow Ramble

Glimpses of autumn

The shadows are longer, the days are shorter, leaves are falling, and the forecast calls for lows in the 50s the next few nights—autumn will be here soon! There are fewer plants in bloom, but there is still plenty of lavender, purple, and yellow as the late-summer colors take over. The thistles are lovely but invasive. I have tried to dig up, spray (carefully), and/or cut down the ones in my meadow, but I am resigned to never getting them all.

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This year’s fawns are more skittish than those of past years. They don’t come to feed, but I see them as they pass by the house and before they scamper off when I go down to feed. Here is a video of one of the twins passing by as the turkeys were headed down. The little buck I am now calling V-Boy (instead of Vinnie, which I realized sounded too much like venison!) hangs out with the twins and is almost always somewhere near my house.

There are more turkeys this year than I remember from past years. They wait for me to feed the deer then run ahead or come running down the hill when they hear the corn hit the pans. I see the three toms several times a day, especially after a rain when they go to my orchard to dry out.

The apple trees in the orchard had their biggest crop so far! One tree had a single apple, but the other had about a dozen (more than twice as many as last year!) with several more still on the tree. One of the pawpaw trees has three pawpaws, and the seeds I saved last year have finally sprouted. 🙂

The chicken-of-the -wood was fading before I left for New Mexico and was basically a mess by the time I returned. However, other mushrooms and fungi continue to appear, including a return of the indigo milky mushrooms. (They lasted two days before being eaten; I saw deer tracks and assume that’s who got them.)

It looks and feels like rain is coming, and I think I’ll head down while it’s still dry. (Here’s what I looked like in the drizzle earlier this week. Thanks to my cousin Cheryl for the pic!) Maybe I am scaring the fawns off! 😉 I’ll try to post again soon. Feeding deer 8-19-18 (Cheryl)

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Ramblin’ in Roswell

It’s been a while since my last post; I spent a week visiting my mom and other family in Roswell, NM, where it was sunny and HOT most of the time I was there. (Highs near 100 almost every day) I walked in the neighborhood two or three mornings but stayed inside a lot more than I usually do.

Here are some pics from my Roswell rambling. (The glare was so bright that I couldn’t see to get all the words on the plaque; it’s an interesting story.)

And more pics from the morning I flew home from Roswell International Air Center, which was formerly Walker Air Force Base and, before that, Roswell Army Air Field. (The planes in the distance have all been decommissioned from many airlines and are in various states of being dismantled.)

As you can see, the land around Roswell is flat and brown, and I was happy to get home to the green woods of the Hollow. Although someone else had been feeding them, I think the deer were glad to see me back home, too.

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And, as usual, they are waiting now. I’ll post again soon.

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Changes

The fawns are growing, the migrating hummingbirds are emptying the feeders rapidly, the trees and undergrowth on the sides of the two roads in the Hollow are being cut back dramatically, and the weather—oh, the weather! Here we are in the first days of August, and it’s been raining pretty steadily and has struggled to get above 70.

The biggest change for me has been the passing of my canine partner of 14 years, Jet. She accompanied me on my rambles for years before I ever started this blog, but it began to be difficult for her several years ago. Walking became harder and harder, and we both knew it was time to take our last walk together, which we did yesterday.

Jet soon after I adopted her (8-4-04)

Jet in the meadow (5-22-13)

Jet on the deck (7-27-18)

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