So yesterday morning there I am, looking out at the garden while drinking a cup of coffee, enjoying the ducks in the pond. Suddenly I see something odd in the back of the garden in the middle of one of the pine trees. I screamed for Mark to come quick. After 23 years a deer had found its way into the garden. See him back there on top of the Turtle Mound?
Mark was fascinated; I was not. I was in total panic mode. (click on the photo to enlarge it.)
He was bigger than a fawn; probably a yearling and a very big presence in our urban garden. He saw us moving around behind our big windows. We pretty much were locked eye-to-eye.
Then he realized he wasn't alone. Fred and Ethel were there, and so he turned his attention to them for a while.
Fred and Ethel were not intimidated at all. They just went about their business as usual.
He was totally enjoying himself and took a little break on the lovely mossy spot on top of the hill.
Mark went out the front door and around the west side of the house into the back garden so he would be the farthest possible distance from both the deer and the ducks. We didn't want to spook the deer and have him go into the pond or through the garden beds. That's when we suddenly realized he brought a friend with him.
They started moving down the stone path but we weren't really sure where they might go or what they might do. Mark left the gate open on the east side of the house. This photo makes it look like one of them spied the open gate and realized they could get out that way.
They high-tailed it out of there and went across the street running along the front edges of the neighbor's lawns until they disappeared from our view. They left these tracks in the wet path. They are about half the size of my size 10 feet.
Mark was working in the garden yesterday and realized he left the gate open overnight and that may be how they got in. But there is no gate or barrier on the other side of the house, so who knows.
There is a big park with a pond at the end of our street a mile or so away. We've always known there were deer there but had never seen any near us or heard of any problems near us. We had planned on adding an entrance feature on the un-gated side of the house but nothing that would stop a deer.
Mark thinks our visitors are a one time event. I'm not so sure, but it's more than I want to think about right now when the garden is springing to life and dozens of plants will be winging their way to me next month. And I thought the rabbits were a problem!
