Harvest moon - whitetail visit

At dusk yesterday a whitetail doe nibbled her way through the back yard. In the twilight, her dark gray coat looked like a shadow against the paler gray grasses. She might have been eating acorns scattered about, or the grasses may have had some fresh growth after all the rain we've had recently. (We didn't think deer ate grasses.) We just watched quietly as she picked her way through the yard until she started to help herself to the forsythia bush. Then we stepped out onto the deck and ordered her to "cease and desist." She scampered away 25 or 30 feet and stopped. Maybe she realized we couldn't reach her from the deck. After looking about, she slowly wandered into the woods North of the house.

whitetail doe, Autumn twilight

It's actually lots more fun and exciting to have one deer within 15 yards or so of the house than to have several 25 or 30 yards away munching pears on the hillside. Having just one deer wander through is a little unusual though. Do you suppose it would help get the driveway cleaned up if we left a trail of acorns and some signs (more this way -->) from the back yard to the acorn windrows on the South side of the driveway? We'd rather have the deer and squirrels eat them than have to rake them up.

There's a few yellow hawkweed plants in bloom, and a couple or five purple vetch flowers in the grassy fields. That's about it for wildflower blossoms. That probably helps explain the dearth of butterflies.

harvest or rice moon

Tonight is the harvest moon (full moon nearest the Autumn equinox), although we doubt we'll be able to see it since the weather forecast is for clouds and rain. It's also known as manoominike-giizis - rice moon, for the Anishnaabe.

The Harvest Moon

by Ted Hughes

The flame-red moon, the harvest moon,
Rolls along the hills, gently bouncing,
A vast balloon,
Till it takes off, and sinks upward
To lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon.
The harvest moon has come,
Booming softly through heaven, like a bassoon.
And the earth replies all night, like a deep drum.

So people can't sleep,
So they go out where elms and oak trees keep
A kneeling vigil, in a religious hush.
The harvest moon has come!

And all the moonlit cows and all the sheep
Stare up at her petrified, while she swells
Filling heaven, as if red hot, and sailing
Closer and closer like the end of the world.

Till the gold fields of stiff wheat
Cry `We are ripe, reap us!' and the rivers
Sweat from the melting hills.

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