Summer Nature

Going for walks around our neighborhood in the evening around dusk is one of the things I look most forward to during my day. That is the time of night that deer like to tip-toe out of the forest and prance along the grassy lawns of our neighbors like ballerinas on a stage. They stop. The turn and they snack slowly and thoughtfully. I have never been able to get very close to any of the deer because they usually dart away as soon as I say "Hi" in my nicest voice.

Good-bye!

So I decided to try something different: to be small. Yesterday I saw a little deer and I crouched down. I walked in the tiniest steps towards her as she looked at me with giant eyes. I felt my ankles asking me what I was doing but I kept going like a ball with feet inching forward. Finally I was about 5 feet way from the little beauty and decided it was probably best to say nothing. So we looked at each other.

There she is!

 I crouched into a ball like Pokemon and slowly waddled up to her.

"Hi baby!" I wanted to whisper but didn't so the little one wouldn't leap away.

Then, after a few moments of looking at each other, she continued to eat her field green salad with tomatoes, mushrooms, and fried cicada. She had a nice meal. I slowly stood up and walked back as slow as possible.

Other deer in the neighborhood have eaten quite placidly

On the way home a mushroom said hello.

Mushrooms are such phenomenal plants. Fairies and fireflies make them their summer homes, decorating them with little lights and having the most splendid feasts and dances on their roofs.

Where I work there are some great dance halls on mushroom tops. Only they were hard to spot, I had to go looking:

Excuse me, Mr. Farmhouse, but have you seen the mushroom dance-hall? You know, the disco?

Gulping my diet Dr. Pepper and mushroom hunting. A productive workday at best!

The sun rising over school buses hauling reluctant middle schoolers to a house of knowledge. 

No mushrooms here!

 And then I got excited! Aha! There they are!

This is the Pancake Dance Hall. It looks like a crepe and the floor is soft, making it very nice for the older fireflies to dance the Lindy Hop on.

The fireflies like this one the most. 

Back home, Fatty is having trouble digesting his food. Fancy Feast Beef with Gravy doesn't agree with his aging belly. Chicken pate' is on order. He has gas. It smells....really bad....there are few things worse smelling than a Fatty Fart.

The middle school boys actually rival him. Anyway, maybe I should sit him outside to scare away the mosquitoes which have feasted on my ankles. Mosquitoes are never invited to mushroom dance parties.