Fast forward to the GMC
camping trips… in particular, the deer hunting one. After setting up camp, we scouted the area
above the small lake to find the best advantage point for me. My husband determined that he would drop me
off before the sun came up and I was to hike down the hillside and wait at the
bottom to see if any deer came to the water’s edge before dawn.
The next early morning he
did drop me off in total darkness, and where he stationed himself… who knows. I could barely determine the outlines of almost nothing, so the walk down the rocky hillside was slow with me proceeding sideways carrying a rifle, blind to what was around me.
I kept hearing just a
faintness of movement, but each time I paused to listen, all became silent with
what I would later discover was the sound of quiet breathing.
At the base of the hill I
settled myself in and listened to a pair of owls… one would let out that
haunting hoot, then the other would answer, then the first would hoot
again. At the first light of dawn I looked
over my shoulder and discovered a hillside full of cows.
I’m thinking my decent was
so slow, a cow would move out of my way as I was approaching it. I have no other explanation as to why I never
bumped into one. Luck was definitely on my side that early morning.
The big deer hunt with my husband and his work friends, was the one I drove 291 miles from Reno to Elko, to join the hunting party already there. There were maybe a dozen men, with me as the
only woman.
Since I literally stepped out of my car and joined the group, it was determined that I would ride in the pickup truck in between a stocky driver and a very, very broad deer hunter. I never had a chance to get out of the truck, so that first day was a disaster for me. I
complained that evening, and the next day joined the men hiking.
The goal was to hike up a forested mountain ridge, across the top, and down the otherside following the
gully all the way to the dirt road and back to our cars. Besides dress shoes for work and sandals for
warm weather, the only other shoes I owned was a pair of Minnetonka moccasin boot
shoes with a smooth sole.
A bitterly cold overcast
day, the men seemed to be more interested in my choice of footware than hunting. I kept hearing comments of how unbelievable I was to chose them for hunting footware, and the more I heard, the more I was determined to finish
the day without a murmur or complaint of hardship.
The distance between me and the hunting party kept widening, as I was the fastest hiker of the bunch, and soon I could no longer hear their comments. I hiked over the mountain easily, as I was
used to hiking during my upbringing. The
extremely difficult part almost defeated me; trying to hike above the bramble
line all the way to the end of the gully.
It has always been in my
character to clinch my teeth and carry on, no matter how many times I want to
give up. I saw zero deer. I hiked to the car and waited for the men who
began to appear after the sun set. No one had spotted a deer.
Now the comments were of
amazement that I had managed to out hiked them all wearing a pair of moccasins on my feet. I was super woman for the rest of the
evening. We ate dinner, then back
at the motel we played the pinball machines until we tired and went to bed. The next day I drove home to go to
work in my casino job.
Sometimes in one's life what we wish to happen is never our reality. This was my last deer hunting trip. I began doing the things I liked most, and that usually meant I did them alone. Would I have packed that freezer full of my own deer meat if I had spotted a deer? It was a different lifetime, when I was young, and felt the world could be my oyster. I'm pretty sure the answer is yes.
An
October Walk
in
the
Garden
*
Above: Brown-Eyed Susans, Rudbeckia triloba
*
Below: Green/Copper Bee, Augochlorella
I looked at the bee photos and book ID
until my eyes refused to focus.
Who knows, I'm sticking with the above.
...on Clasping Aster, Symphyotrichum patens
I think a tiny Flower Crab Spider, Misumena vatia
Flower is about one inch across.
I did not see it until I enlarged the photo.
It is a bit out-of-focus, sorry.
This aster is special in that it's flower petals curl as it ages.
I think, a Small Carpenter Bee, Ceratina calcarata.
I talk about it on a later photo.
~ Rain has fallen from Hurricane Helene ~
*
Viburnum nudum 'Winterthur' on left
and Joe Pye Weed on right
with seeds mostly fallen from plant to patio in the heavy rains.
Dark leaves on second plant from left is a wild petunia.
Sixth plant from left is a type of wild plantain.
On some types of plants, the rain water beads up on the leaves...
American Hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana
Part of the Beech family of trees.
Look carefully and one may see the hanging seedheads.
Northern Cardinal
Swamp Sunflower flower buds
“When she...walked down the long hill that sloped to the Lake of Shining Waters it was past sunset and all Avonlea lay before her in a dreamlike afterlight- 'a haunt of ancient peace'. There was a freshness in the air as of a wind that had blown over honeysweet fields of clover. Home lights twinkled out here and there among the homestead trees. Beyond lay the sea, misty and purple, with its haunting, unceasing murmur. The west was a glory of soft mingled hues, and the pond reflected them all in still softer shadings. The beauty of it all thrilled Anne's heart, and she gratefully opened the gates of her soul to it. 'Dear old world,' she murmured, 'you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.”
A still shot in motion, or as some might say- bad photos.
Above
Bird in the Viburnum
Below
Cardinal by the Bird Bath
Drives one's eyes crazy
And
We
Continue
Our
Walk
*
Above: Northern Cardinal
*
Below: Clasping Aster and last of the purple coneflowers
Purple Beautyberry and White Beautyberry
Itea virginica 'Saturnalia', Virginia Sweetspire
Winterberry, Ilex verticillata 'Sparkleberry'
Eastern Bumble Bee on Solidago caesia,
Blue-stemmed Goldenrod
I haven't always been accurate with my bee labeling,
but I hope I will do better with the ID book I purchased.
If you have read about the static electricity
and Bumble Bee studies,
this looks like the perfect example of
negatively charged pollen transferring
to a positively charged Bumble Bee.
According to the Princeton Field Guides
Common Bees of Eastern North America,
I think this is Ceratina calcarata, Small Carpenter Bee.
This book does not list common names,
so I looked it up on the internet.
I thought maybe a different black bee, but it isn't in season.
Here's looking at you.
Eastern Bumble Bee
Small Carpenter Bees
Swamp Sunflower, Helianthus angustifolius
...with Winterberry.
European Honey Bee on Swamp Sunflower
drinking nectar.
Bumble bee
European Honey Bee
Sometimes, with the right backlighting,
these little insects look exquisite.
Frost Aster, Symphyotrichum pilosum
Covered in small bees, bumble bees, and wasps.
Fills in any space it can,
and moves in from other yards around us,
so we must thin it out every year.
It's one of those annoying native wildflowers
that insects love with a passion,
and gardeners hate with a passion.
I think, a paper wasp.
European Honey Bee
I still have a few wild
petunias to dig out of the shade and transplant into the sunny area of the Ash
Tree stump, but all the potted nursery plants are in the ground… what a relief! Frost is in the forecast for next week, but
the first frost rarely affects the native plants.
My time outside lately has
had to do with appointments, garden work and photography, and the only time I
have sat down to relax has been indoors.
How do I write about the outdoors at this moment? I don’t think it will happen this time
around.
Vic did count the Ash Tree
stump rings and declared, give or take a year, it was ninety-two years old. A sad ending to a grand tree that lived for
fifty-three years in the wilderness before contractors built a house within its
parameters, then another, and another, and… you get the drift – an entire
subdivision emerged within a season.
The only wilderness we
experience these days is the state park over eight miles away. Every time we have visited the park, we have
picked up ticks, so it is an area I only wish to see in wintertime.
Temperature wise, Fall is
definitely in the air. We received over
four day of heavy rain, off and on, from hurricane Helene, and now no rain is in the forecast
for weeks to come.
My next step is to set up
the double walled pots on the deck and fill with soil, since they will support
native plants. I’m hoping to find fragrant ones this next spring to plant, as I ran out of time this year.
I’m off to look at my last
batch of photos and wrap up this post, hopefully for your enjoyment. Life... it’s a great gift to be here
at all, so please take care of the nature in your garden as if it's your family, because it is your family. Time to relax and take in everything autumn has to offer. Enjoy!