sitting here, observing...

.. the world through the window, while typing. Unless I am on the go, and traveling with my laptop in route to where ever, I am at the dining table where the view is out a big wide window to the north. I just saw that same doe with the two fawns noticed a couple of weeks ago. Standing at the edge of the lawn, acting like they are the ones  paying the taxes on our property. The two young ones were drinking out of a round flat basin sitting low in the leaf mulch, near the edge of the grass where I try to keep water for anything that comes along thirsty. I will see an occasional bird having a blast taking a bath in the shallow container,vigorously splashing and chirping. And the neighbors' black and white fat cat drinking from time to time. Maybe squirrels and chipmunks enjoy it as well, though I have yet to see them hanging around. I expect there are a variety of other rodent-type animals that benefit from a semi-dependable water source as well, small creatures like raccoons and possums or the occasional oddity of an armadillo wandering about in the dark.

I try to keep the water fresh, and remember to dump it once  week. I read someplace that it takes about ten days for mosquito larva to matuity in standing water, so  hope if I replace it on a weekly basis I am keeping the biting bug population in check. But putting fresh water in there at least once a week apparently also attracts the local deer population. Pretty neat, even though having them stroll through the yard where I have attempted to grow blooming things explains why those things never get a chance to actually bloom!

There are several hydrangea plants just out side the screening on the porch that are leafless, most likely due to the deer nibbling all the greenery. They still have blooms, that are slowly fading, but hardly a leaf in sight. I know they like the hydrangeas, as I have others planted in front of the house, where they have been growing for a number of years but never get more than six inches tall before the deer nip them back down the ground level. Nice big sturdy plants, but not a flower in sight, and rarely see any greenery more than a couple of inches above the leaf mulch. Also some daylily plants that must be reallly tasty, as they rarely bloom: when the plant makes a bud, it disappears before it can open - I attribute that also to the hungry deer browsing through the neighborhood.