deer one

Hello again dear readers. It's a gorge ous Monday morning and Summer has arrived! Too hot to leave the windows open, it's already 25C (78F) in the shade at 11:30 a.m. as I write this.

I stepped out the back door last night and saw this fabulous sunset glow in the southern sky

On the lower deck, Wally planted geraniums, lobelia and pale purple petunias for me,

placing my old dog sculpture that I made about 15 years ago at the foot of this fabulous hand thrown, reduction fired pot that we found at Walmart, a real coup, as one never sees hand thrown work at a big box store, so large and at such a price (my years as a potter paying off all these years later).

I walked down to capture the view where the old shed once stood,

a crazy rose/violet in the ESE sky, the wind blowing the lupins in the field.

The southern sky over our yard.

then, suddenly!

I spied a doe beyond the apple tree, 2 yards over

She wandered deeper into the yard

and found her way to the forget-me-nots

in the pale evening light, pink from the sunset glow, she stood like a statue

She steps in for a better vantage

a graceful deer in a forget-me-not "pointillist painting"

By now I've done a combat/bum crawl over to the berry bushes as I watch her turn back to where

I first saw her, the light getting low, and I'm being attacked by mosquitoes and blackflies

and then she sees me... and we have a staring contest.

Apparently she can take the mosquito bites better than I.

One false move and she turns, leaping out of the yard into the long grass of the hayfield,

bounding away to the far side and the safety of the ravine from bad old me.

Actually I'm glad she was frightened as she made all too easy a target.

She needs to have her wits about her.

I turn, relieved not to be a mosquito buffet, and see that the northeastern sky is also glowing over our house which looks so much grander somehow, looking up at it from the lower yard.

I wander out to the field, sure that the deer is gone by now

The honeysuckle is coming along, its perfume yet to come

I took more pictures, but by now the light was almost gone and this is the last that's worth sharing from last night, the yard facing SSW. It fills me with joy to have this sanctuary in our lives.

This morning I continued with this pencil crayon image that I've been working on over the weekend.

I'm sure I'm not the first to do this subject.

All my borders have been hand drawn, but this is the wonkiest. I'll be more careful next time.

And, as is often the case, I see some other flaws I'd like to fix. Artists often use a mirror, holding their picture upside down or, in this case, taking a picture to see their work more objectively in order to refine it. I'm delighted to see what I can do.

a lovely day

takes a mindset

that can be perfected

with practice.

peace on earth