Thursday, October 3, 2013

Evening Walk With Jamie

Even though James and I had walked earlier in the day, I (we) decided to take another walk later in the day.
It was still very cold.  Still overcast.
But the sun was valiantly trying to break through, and the sky was an unsettled combination of blue and grey and white.
Heading in the opposite direction from our jaunt that morning, we were only a minute from the house when sudden movement startled me.
Looking up, I was surprised to see deer.
They had been grazing in an open field close to the house, and the sudden and unexpected presence of woman and dog startled them into a full run.
The young herd jumped and ran across the road, clustered next to a small abandoned building and turned to look warily at us.
Throughout August, when the days were very hot and dry we never saw deer in town during the day.
Almost immediately after the weather turned cooler, we began to see them in town at all hours of the day and night.
A herd of 6 or 7 spent the entire afternoon the other day, bedded down in our back yard after grazing on the grass and the leaves off the trees.
This morning I looked out the kitchen window and was surprised to see one lone doe grazing on grass across the street from the house.
During summer their appearance was predictable only in the evenings.
In fall I never know when they will magically appear.
I like that.
I like them................
We all stood watching each other for a few moments, until the small herd trotted away in search of a quieter feeding place..................
As I write this it is llpm and Fresh Prince of Bel Air is playing on TV and Will Smith is rapping "looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, to sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air".
I haven't watched that show in so very many years and found it while aimlessly channel surfing.
It was one of Chris' favorite shows as a young boy.
He could mimic Will Smith's teenage movements flawlessly.
It's funny that I should find this show now, because just a week ago I sent him this video:
I miss him.  
I miss them.
I miss my boys........

My pup is now at the stage where she has more will than she has legs.
We had gone only a short way and already old pup was beginning to slow down.
We had walked once already that day, and this one would be short.
Late in the day the light was beautiful.
The sky was gorgeous...............
The bar in town with its strange owner and his strange new wife and their strange stories and their faded, tattered and disrespectful flag waving on top of their business................
The top of Big Butte, obscured by low lying clouds............
I could be wrong (and I will quickly find that out if I am), but I don't think that this area will have much of a fall, as they do back east.
Tennessee has wonderful falls - filled with endless blue skies, cooling temperatures, and a magical array of colors on the trees.
We have had cool and blue here, but what leaves are turning are all turning yellow.
We have also had very cold and very windy here, and what I suspect will happen is that winds are going to blow leaves off trees in the blink of an eye.
One moment we will have leaves.  The next moment we will have only the bare skeletons of trees for many, endless months.
But at least for now, and at least on this day, as I dragged my tired pup around one large block, the beautiful bushes of one of our neighbors caught my attention............
The deer Jamie and I had spooked a short while before were back.
They startled me as they unexpectedly sprung from behind a building, and I stopped and watched them as they bounded like Winnie-the-Poohs' Tigger across the field, all the while trying unsuccessfully to capture a decent picture of them.
If you want to play Where's Waldo, enlarge the picture and you may or may not see one deer in this picture.
Look for the camper and the ears..............
I look at this picture and the sky in it makes me sad.
One small section of blue in SE Alaska was known as a sucker patch - the promise of clearing skies that suckered you into thinking that the day was going to both clear up and pretty up.  It rarely did.
One small section different from the others - a piece of blue in an otherwise grey sky, or a piece of gray in an otherwise blue sky.  
An eye in the sky that was watching over my family.
Only nothing and nobody is watching over my family and that saddens me to the core...............
Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad...........Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

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