Dear deer

Sometimes adventures are in your own backyard (there is a famous quote to this effect, but I can’t remember it now so not that famous I guess). Here is the summer summary from our plot:

• Flora: it has not rained here for over 2 months. Cold wet spring followed by an extended dry summer. The plants that were successful this year are different from previous years. Two crops of lettuce. Excellent pear year. Still have strawberries after 5 months (usually 2 months). Blueberry season was very short and early. Poor year for blackberries but we did gather enough to make the annual jam quota. Finally the peppers worked – first year in many years of trying. Onions?-first time that worked too, still growing and very tasty. Garlic worked as always.  J made me a pizza with our garlic/onion/green pepper last weekend. Tomatoes were very productive but I should plant salad/romano next year. Now on the 2nd crop of spring peas but we may not get the cold and wet we need. Huge Zucchini. Cucumbers so-so, never did get the spicy marinated rendition this summer. Rewarding hobby.
• Fauna: The deer that appeared earlier this year seem to have settled in, or at least one of them did. Instead of migrating back across the Interstate corridor, I confirmed today that there is an active deer bed at the top of our lot. This makes me proud. For legitimate reasons, there has been a decades-long policy of densification in our city, building too many houses on small lots. Some of our neighbors put up fences (and even electric gates across their driveways like a gated community in a 3rd world country). We have resisted that trend and kept our lot more and more natural, tearing out lawn, in-filling with local plants, etc. This resident doe is our validation!  However, if I add up the cost of the deer fence, landscaping, plants, property tax on that .10 acres, lawn care, etc, that deer bed probably costs over $30/night. At some point the local Motel 6 might be cheaper. But our dear deer doe may not be convinced. She does not seem to listen to much of what I have to say though she does go eat roses when I tell her to.