A mystical being

Ok, so maybe not quite so mystical, but...

First walk this morning.  We encountered a guy who we run into once in a while, walking his dog, who we also run into once in a while.  He's turning around, and taking pictures of something with his phone.  It's a deer.  Seems it's been following him for a while.  A deer following a dog.

Deer sees a second dog, mine, and decides to take a short cut thru someone's yard.  When we get to the next corner, we see the deer crossing the street, diving into another yard.  Then it comes out right in front of us.  And stands there, looking at us. 

Bandit is barking, intermittently.  More of a 'what are you' bark, rather than a threatening bark.  The bark he uses on people who he'd like to approach.  Deer just stands there, looking at us.  We're in the middle of the street, deer is on the sidewalk.  So maybe 30 feet apart, it's a narrow, residential street.

 Apologies for the photo quality, or lack thereof.  I was using my phone, which has days like this, for no apparent reason.  I need to go back to carrying a real camera, now that we're in critter season.

I took a couple more pictures of her, I think it's a her, as we tried to keep walking, and she just kind of stood there. 

Then, as we walked away, she started following us.  She followed us for a couple more blocks, then we turned a corner, and when I looked back, she wasn't there anymore.  She might have been just standing in the street, or who knows. 

I'm wondering if this is the Mom deer who belongs to the fawn we saw yesterday.  I thought at first the fawn was a fox, it was about the size of a fox, a bit smaller than my dog.  But no tail, and those spindly legs...definitely a baby deer.  Didn't get close enough to get a picture.  That's where I again need a real camera.  I do get tired of carrying a lot of stuff, tho, and warmer weather clothes don't have enough pockets, and all my jeans are so loose they might fall off if I load too much stuff in the pockets.

Or maybe it's a young buck, whose antlers haven't sprouted yet.  Because if it's Mom deer, where's the fawn?  Of course, we do have a whole herd of them around here, so it's possible the baby was with the sitter, or this Mom isn't a Mom at the moment, or any number of other possibilities. 

I fear for my Asiatic lilies, tho.  The ones whose buds are so tasty.  Something has already eaten or otherwise killed off the marigolds I planted to protect the lilies.  Gotta go get more marigolds, maybe tomorrow.

The upshot of the deer thing, tho, is that Bandit was so excited that he almost forgot to poop.  It took him till almost the end of our 2 mile walk to remember that little detail.  That's why it's mystical. 

I feel like I need to write

But I truly am at a loss for words.  I just can't deal with all that's going on here. 

So I'm out looking for roses.  Yeah, escapism.  Maybe marginally better than hiding in my house, drinking, or something.  I'm not a big drinker to begin with, I don't think that's going to change much.  It makes me feel worse, not better.  So I'm not going to do it.

Today the little roses, the drift roses, have begun to open.  Little because the bushes are small, and because the flowers are small, too.

I found this, one of my apricot ones, opened, but it's hiding, along the steps up to the front door.  Can't say I blame it.

I know, it's got reddish spots on it.  This is a new feature?  Last year they were more pinkish, with sort of a yellowish center.  Maybe it's something in the soil, or the weird weather we've been having. 

Now this one is on the next block.  This particular house has a bunch of bushes, similar to mine, on the sloped part of the front yard.  The flowers are white.  Except this one also is showing reddish spots.  I don't know why that is happening.

The white bushes have more flowers ready to open, and those also have reddish tinges on them.  It's odd. 

My red bushes (I have red and apricot mixed together) are not quite there yet.  Should start opening any day now.

Maybe the roses are reflecting all the wrong that is happening, and showing blood stains.  Scary thought.  I just don't know, anymore.

 

Yes, yes, yes, I'm obsessed

With roses, of course.  What did you think I was going to say?

More roses from our morning walk:

And yes, I am noticing that most of the roses around here are either pink or red.  I'm dying to find some yellow, but no luck so far.

Noticing that the pinks photograph better than the reds.  You get more detail in the pinks.  Much more shading of the petals.  

My little roses are just about to open, I can see touches of colour showing in the buds.  I actually hope they won't unfurl until the next couple of days of bad weather pass, because the heavy rain and wind could wreck them before I get a chance to adore them.  We'll see how it goes.

Mine are apricot and red.  And a house on the next block from here has white!  Which are also not open quite yet.  These are what they call drift roses.  Smaller blooms, and they bloom all summer, and the plants spread sort of like a groundcover, rather than growing into tall bushes. 

Still, I need to find a nice space to put a couple of yellow rose bushes.  Because I want yellow.  This may be my next project.  Adding it to my list.  Fingers crossed.

A rose by any other name

...still has no scent, because it's another hybrid.  Oh well.  Pretty, nevertheless. 

From yesterday's morning walk, between the rains. 

I had thought this one might have a scent, as it's an older bush in a front yard that is overgrown with older all sorts of bushes, but alas, no. 

And my own roses, which also have no scent, are still all in bud but not bloom.  The wait continues.

I wonder what people might think, when they see me sniffing various plants on my walks with doggo.  Maybe they think I caught the sniffing habit from the dog?  We've found some nice scents, lately.  There are a pair of small lilac bushes in one yard that you can smell from quite a distance.  But so far, no smelly roses. 

We'll keep looking.

This does remind me of a time, when I was in high school, when I used to walk there and back, since I don't do so well on buses.  I always loved the spring, because there were a lot of roses on my route.  Every once in a while, when noone was looking, I'd snatch a flower and bring it with me to school.

The walk was just under 3 miles, one way, from my house.  I'd "pick up" a couple of classmates on my way, so by the time we arrived at school, there would be a small group of us.  Maybe that's where my enjoyment of longish walks started.

The roses are coming

The weather is still being crazy, last week we had a thunderhail storm on Monday, and 85 degrees on Tuesday, and then up and down the rest of the week, with high winds.  The weekend was nice, on the cool side, which is how I like it.

Today is cool also, but the wind is horrible, cuts through you like a knife that's been kept in the freezer, while you're sweating in your windbreaker because it's in the upper 60s temp-wise. 

All the fluctuations give me a headache, among other issues.  Like my eyes and nose running like faucets any time I step outdoors.

BUT...even tho it's still May, the roses are coming!

Mine are just starting to bud, but I found a bush on our walk the other afternoon that is in full bloom.

Pretty in pink, but like Mimi's embroidered flowers, there is no scent. 

I really prefer the scented ones over the hybrids.  I remember having a Mr Lincoln, which was growing tall next to a window on our porch.  So when I opened the window, the scent would waft inside.  One of the very few things I miss about the big house. 

And here, in the neighborhood, people are even more acting as if there is no Corona virus, and they are spending their money on tearing out old trees and bushes, with no thought to replacing them.  It makes me very sad to see this wanton destruction going on around me.

But yesterday in the morning we saw the fox again.  He or she was just sitting in the street, a very quiet street with very little traffic, and watching us.  When Bandit finally showed signs of wanting to go greet the fox, it ran off, stopping a few times to make sure the running off was really necessary.  It wasn't, but the fox wasn't listening to me.

So, mixed bag all around.  This week I do feel better than I did last week, so there's a good thing.  But still not great, I wish someone could shut off the wind, or at least turn it down from the 30-40 mph we're having, to something gentle.  But that's unlikely, as there is a pair of storms approaching from different directions, and they are probably going to merge right here, and make a mess, if not a disaster. 

C'est la vie? 

When we walk

I like to find pretty or unusual things when we walk.  While I don't often take a camera with me (my hands are full with the dog and the poopie bag and all that jazz), I always have the mobile with me.  The camera in it is not too shabby, as long as you don't want zoomed in pics or something too up close.

I've been posting a lot of pics to Facebook, with the thought that seeing something pretty might help someone feel better about their day.  I'm also trying to do that here, maybe a bit less, because here I feel like I need to actually say something to go with the pics, and some days I don't feel like saying anything to anyone.

But we are walking something between 7 and 9 miles a day.  Mostly local, because the parks have been closed due to the virus and the probability that if they were open, too many people would go there.  If and when anything normalizes around here, we'll go back to parks and hiking.  We're off the beaches for the duration, because generally dogs aren't allowed on the beaches in the summer, which seems counter-intuitive.

That being said, I've been trying for a couple of weeks to get a good angle on this one yard we pass every day, because the plantings are just so beautiful, but they're spread over a rather large area, so it's not easy to find the perfect view.  And I generally try not to include anyone's house in my pics, because I feel kind of icky when people take pics of my house, which they sometimes do, and I see them doing it, because of the daffys and the roses in the front yard.

Anyway.  Here's the pic.  I kind of like it, and a friend thought it might make a good jigsaw puzzle, so if I find a place to get jigsaw puzzles made, I might do that for her.  I don't do puzzles of that sort, I haven't got the patience for it.  This is just one corner of the yard at this particular place, but it holds all of the elements that make it look beautiful to my eye.

Then the other thing, which is just up the block from where I live, and I'm jealous, in a way, because my irises in the back yard didn't do much of anything this year.  These are in the front yard of a house on a hill, so even if I took a pic straight on, you'd never see the house, it's way up above where the irises live.  At first there were just the deep purple ones, then one day, a batch of white ones popped up in the middle.  If only they could stay all summer; but they've already faded.  Glad I got the pic when I did.

Today it's cold and windy, so I'm trying to stay inside more than out.  But we'll still fit in our walking, only with my winter coat and hat on again, after we've had some really lovely warm weather.  I hope the weather is ok wherever you are.  We've had so much bad everything lately, we really need something nice.

I need to stop being amazed

when I see how stupid people really are.  The busy street is being repaved, yes, even in the rain, it seems.  It's a good time to do it, since traffic is somewhat less now than it normally is, because of the Covid-19 mess.  So yesterday sometime, orange barrels appeared along the side of the street, in sets of two, waiting to be deployed.

This morning, the barrels were out in the street, two by two, at about half-block intervals, indicating (to me, anyway) that one lane of the two lane street is closed to traffic.  At the starting point of the closure, on the end we walk by on our first walk of the day, there's a barricade with a large sign that says "Road Closed."  Ahead of that, at the side of the street, is a "Detour" sign.

Ok, so I get that, the road is closed, and I, if I'm driving a vehicle, need to turn off and go another way.  Seems pretty self-evident and obvious.

Not to some people. 

While we were walking, a car drove around the barrier, and played dodge-em with the pairs of orange barrels, diving in behind them when something was coming in the opposite direction, on the side of the road that is still open.  By the time we made it home, a few more vehicles were doing the same thing.  I saw several service vehicles - lawn care, plumbers, that sort of thing - coming down the street on the closed side, bopping in and out to get around the barrels and duck when opposing traffic appeared.

Someone misjudged, and booted one of the barrels to the sidewalk.  Hope they made a good dent in their car.

How fucking stupid are people?  Or do they just think they are SO important, no rules apply to them?  Probably both, I know. 

I'd love to have a franchise from the local po-lice dept to hand out tickets to stupid people.  I'll keep 10% of the fines as my commission, thank you. 

They should just close the whole street completely, in both directions.  It would be easier and faster.  But no, can't do that.

And god forbid they should put signs up after the first detour signs, to tell people where to go next. You never get told when it's ok to go back to where you thought you should be going.  But no, that seems to cost too much, or they don't own enough signs, or pick your poor excuse of the day.  The people doing the paving are idiots, too.  But we knew that.  

Down the rabbit hole

There is a gravel road, across the busy street from here, that only runs about 3 houses deep, and ends with a "Dead End" sign.  If you're in a car, the sign is for you.  If you're walking, or on a bike, not so much.

This path takes you thru to another world, it seems.  The houses are nice, maybe on bigger lots than on this side (except for the ones on the gravel road, which are HUGE), and because of the way the streets only connect to busy streets at a couple of points, there's very little traffic.  And what traffic there is, is usually going much slower than it does out here in the regular world. 

And trees!  Huge, old trees.  Lots of them.

We walk this way most mornings, and often on our last walk of the day, because there are fewer people out, down the rabbit hole, than there are on this side.  It's peaceful, it's mostly quiet, and the people you do encounter are generally rather friendly, as opposed to a lot of the ones on this side. 

And then there are the creatures.  Usually we see some deer, sometimes a whole herd of them.  But the last few days, we've been seeing a fox.  It's reddish, and has a big, bushy tail, but is actually somewhat smaller than Bandit.  I keep telling him we don't really want to meet the fox, up close and personal.  I suspect he'd lose any battle that ensued.

Of course, regardless of what I say, he gets very excited at spotting this creature, and wants to check it out.  So I have to act like Mom the Anchor, and hang on so he doesn't get away to chase the fox.  (This is a pretty good upper body workout, btw.  I highly recommend it.)

Sometimes, the fox comes over to our side of the busy street.  We can hear it, it makes noises almost like a cat but maybe more like a smallish dog.  And Bandit will sense it, at night, outside our fence, he knows there's a creature out there, but I can't see it, and frankly, it kind of scares me a little to know there's something out there, just beyond my fence, that I can't see, but the dog is very interested in handling for me.

This morning we also got a whiff of skunk out there, on the other side.  So far we've not come face to face with one, and I hope our luck holds.  And the other day, there was a racoon sitting on the porch of the house across the street from mine.  This is not a rural area, btw.  And it's always been like this, chock full of creatures.  It's not only since the Corona virus has taken hold.  Tho it is nice to have less traffic, due to the virus, so we can cross over to the other side more quickly, and more safely.

The sun also rises

Deep breath.  Listen to the birds. 

Change is in the air

Or, nothing is normal anymore.  Which is maybe not a bad thing.  Normal wasn't going very well, anyway.

So maybe change is going to be, in the long term, a good thing.  I hope.

For a depressive person like me, hope is an odd thing.  Yet I always - or usually - have hope of one sort or another.

Trying very hard to not get this virus thing.  It's all around, and the people around here are on the rich side of things, so they apparently think the virus doesn't apply to them.  They ignore the social distancing recommendations.  Earlier today, when we were taking our second walk, the entire police dept and the EMTs were assembled in front of the local morning to lunchtime restaurant, which is offering curbside pickup of whatever it is they make (I've never eaten there, so I don't know).  Not sure why, I wasn't about to approach the gendarme and ask what was going on.  Can't be anything good, tho.  Maybe someone tried to pick up their lunch without a mask on.  We took a detour through a bank parking lot, and a strip mall parking lot, then resumed our regular route without getting involved.  I did notice, tho, the cops were not wearing masks.  I guess it doesn't apply to them.

We have various routes, in varying lengths, whereby we rarely run into other people, and manage to get our distance done.  We've been walking between 7 and 8 miles a day, the last several weeks.  This has gotten bigger and bigger, but I think it has to stop growing, there's only so much I can do.  And don't worry, we do it in four walks, not all at once.

Yesterday it was almost summer.  Today it's trying to be winter, even to the extent that it has been trying to snow (not that I would recognize snow anymore, we only had one tiny snow all season).  Cold and WINDY.  Makes it hard to walk, and I'm always worrying one of the old trees is going to drop something on my head.  Hard to remember, we've had so much of the high winds thing this year, most of the self-pruning is already done for the year.  I hope.  And the tree on the corner that is literally falling apart just dropped a big chunk a week or so ago, it's still laying all over the sidewalk and into the street.  The homeowner doesn't care and his lawn company won't touch it if they don't get paid extra for it.  C'est la vie.

In fact, it's hard to remember much of anything from BEFORE.  

Going back to trying to file a stimulus return for a friend....hang in there.  The light at the end of the tunnel might not be an oncoming train.