Sunday, September 11, 2011

Clear skies

The weather forecasters kept telling us to expect rain all day yesterday, yet we didn't get a drop.  Instead, the sky was partly cloudy, while a gentle, fall-like breeze cooled the air and kept the bugs at bay.  Venturing out first thing in the morning to tackle some chores, we thought it wouldn't be for long before the predicted rain chased us indoors.  We ended up working outside for hours.  Old wood was burned, the gardens weeded, bushes trimmed, and the porch and walks were swept.  It looks rather nice out there at the moment.

While resting in a chair by an upstairs window shortly after we came in, I glanced outside and spotted two White-tailed deer just beyond our back fence.  They were both full-grown bucks with quite a few antler points.  It was rather exciting to see them, because although our property backs up on a forest preserve, we rarely see deer there.

Watching them amble by our property reminded me of a story I heard earlier this week.  Apparently some guy in Sweden came home from work on Tuesday and found a drunken elk (looks more like a moose to me) stuck in his next door neighbor's apple tree.  He said it looked like the animal was severely drunk after eating too many fermenting apples, and that it most likely stumbled into the tree while trying to reach the fruit, getting itself hopelessly entangled in the branches. It seems drunken elk are fairly common in Sweden during the autumn season when a lot of apples are lying around on the ground and hanging from branches in people's yards.  Now that would be exciting to see!    

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