I was gonna call this post "Naked Deer Photography", but then I thought, "well, deer are always naked so that was kind of a silly title".
Anyway, the new title is catchy...
My friend Donny and I were standing at soccer practice a few months ago watching our kids and he shared a tale about deer hunting in the nearnude. He had stepped out of his shower to find a big buck just outside his window. Since it was deer season, he was licensed, and it was safe to do so on his acreage, he shot the deer through his window wearing only a bathtowel.
Not through the glass ... through a slit in the screen. That deer would feed his family for some time.
It's wild out here on the Florida frontier.
Last week, I stepped out of the shower and strapped on a towel for the walk around my 4 poster bed to my closet.
To get to my closet, I have to walk by a huge bay window so I did my usual peek out the window to make sure the UPS or Meter reader folks weren't walking up the walkway. (We live in the middle of a forest with no visible neighbors, so it's very private here) When I peeked, I found this deer grazing just outside the bay window in my bedroom.
That blue flower is a wild petunia that she's sniffing/eating in the picture.
My camera was nearby (what a surprise) so I ducked down below the window sill and duckwalked over to the camera bag, grabbed the camera, turned it on, and slowly rose above the window sill. The deer kept eating my plants and I was able to get these two shots.
After I was sure I had my shot, I pounded on the window to scare her off.
TEN acres of woods and she has to eat my flowers and vegetable garden. These mammals of mass destruction have decimated the pretty beans I showed you earlier, the watermelon vines, the squash, and the sweet potato slips in my pigpen garden.
Arrrrghhh.
I feel the pain of the Dad in "The Yearling".
I'm the one who moved into their backyard however. I try not to forget that little fact.
Plus, there is this ...
A little later this summer, when the heat and humidity has zapped my garden, I'll get great pleasure watching this doe and the tightly wound spring of a fawn she's carrying.
They'll be in the yard constantly and I'll watch them from my window or porch and think, "Lucky me."
the photos , to my mind are worth any amount of vegetables or flowers. i'm so glad you shot her with your camera and not a gun.how exquisite.........
ReplyDeleteFC-
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot!!! The vision of you duckwalking in just a towel is gonna creep me out all day! Anyway the photos are great! We may venture over to campus of UWF this week and maybe snap a pic or two of yours and Thunders old haunts!
Lightenin
Just for your piece of mind, Lightnin only knows what she knows, not necessarily all of what went on!
ReplyDeleteHey I can't help it if my memory fades now and again! ;-)
deer and goats have an exquisite sense of the worth of various plants to humans. they go unnerringly for the most prized shrubs and flowers and veggies. not that i'd shoot a deer to save a carrot, but i do like our deer fence. they are kinda cheeky here too.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to have to forgive me but this is the way my mind works: what color is that on the wall? Looks like a sort of warm khaki/mustard yellow.. I LOVE it!
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent shot. I especially liked the angle you used in the bedroom.
btw, where do they get their water supply? Are there other ponds or lakes nearby?
The view from your window looks almost like Africa, even the antelope...er deer.
ReplyDeleteLove the story of hunting deer through the window clad only in a towel. Sounds like something that might happen around here!
Ah, the joys of country living.
ReplyDeleteYou could scarcely have planned that first shot any better. We haven't seen much of our deer lately. Good that they're not eating my roses, but I do kinda miss them. 8-]
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a view like that out my window. I think if you had included "naked" in your post title, you would have gotten a lot of google hits.
ReplyDeleteLike you, the only unannounced visitors we tend to get are the meter reader and the UPS driver, the latter of whom we could not survive without.
ReplyDeleteBluebird,
ReplyDeleteShe's safe here, but I'd appreciate a little less grazing.
Lightnin,
Love to see some UWF. Sorry to creep you out.
ThunderD,
What is the statute of limitation on campus shenanigans? Your memory fades are flashbacks from that PGA punch.
roger,
and they wait until the crop is ripe. my beans were almost ready.
Laura,
Too funny ... what a remodeler! It's a little brighter than that photo. I'll have to take shot in better light.
There's still a tiny puddle of water left in the bottom of my pond.
ThreeCollie,
If you see a giraffe go by let me know.
Deb,
Define "joy".
;)
Sophie,
As the summer begins, they will move close to the house to raise their fawns. They'll snort and stomp their feet when I walk out on the porch and surprise them.
Pablo,
Or if I'd left of "-life".
Hal,
Yup. And both of those have surprised me before.
Yep. Definitely a catchy post title. Perhaps you could give my hubby lessons on how to anchor a towel and/or duck-walk beneath the bedroom window.
ReplyDelete" . . . spring of a fawn." Now that's lovely imagery.
Cathy,
ReplyDeleteI never said the towel stayed on.
That whole towel anchoring thing has eluded me.
Absolutely beautiful pictures. I saw one a month ago walking briskly across my front yard and then run off. I was so amazed that I couldn't tear myself away to get my camera.
ReplyDelete