These chronicles of my rambles are usually filled with things I find to be beautiful and/or interesting. Of course, as we know and have experienced all too much in the past few months, life is sometimes harsh. I’ve written before about death in the Hollow; every year I’ve seen dead turtles and at least one dead fawn. Usually these have been roadkill (speeders on the highway have claimed the life of a fawn this year), a few have obviously been killed by a predator, but sometimes there is no apparent (to me) cause of death. Was the animal sick? An orphan too young and weak to survive on its own? I’m left to wonder, to mourn, and to be reminded once again of the circle of life.
Today I found a dead fawn. I think it was one I had seen by itself several times recently and now suspect it was the orphan of a doe with an injured leg I saw several times last month. It was a sad reminder of the fragility of life.
I had thought this post would be about mushrooms. We’ve had almost 2.5″ of rain in the last week, and fungi have appeared in many places in the Hollow, although the Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) that I followed so closely a couple of years ago has not returned. (The one below is across the creek.)
Five turkey hens have begun showing up regularly; sometimes they are with the two gobblers and sometimes it’s just the girls, even in the rain.
Spooky’s twins show up but don’t get close. (I was relieved to see both of them today; last year she lost one of her twins.)
Bambi, his brother, and Lil (last year’s fawns) continue to grow, and politics among deer have gotten rough.
The muchachos get rough, too, but theirs is just play.
Now they’re ready for supper, and I’ll leave this post. It was a hard one to write.
French Broad Hollow Ramble 
❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, friend.
LikeLike