Meanwhile, Back in Nod...

It's a rainy, gloomy, day here in Nod with areal flood warnings posted...and extended.  But I am not complaining...we do need the rain and, while I have more outdoor work to do than I will ever accomplish, the rain gives me a guilt-less excuse.

I thought it would be a perfect time to squeeze in a post and then saw my half-hearted, half-started, post from last week.

So, I thought I would just trash the words and dump the photos...

A look around Nod, if you will.

This photo is a bit dated, obviously...last month's full "Flower Moon."

It was truly dazzling.

Like most full moon nights, I did not sleep well.

I gave up around 5:15 a.m., and the moon was just going down.

Guess it's a night owl like me.

The magnolia's fragrant blooms:

The flowering crabapple trees: 

{Pretty even at night...}

My very favorite:

The rabbits are, once again, more than plentiful...

...Wait...there are more....

(...and actually, 2 more out of range of the above photo.)

...of all colors and sizes....

{This guy looks like he needs a smoke... Hmmm, wonder what he was doing.}

{The fawn was still wobbly on this day...}

{Nothing special to most of you, I'm sure, but, around Nod, black squirrels are rarer than white deer...}

And because someone asked....

Beautiful Things in Humble Places...

The older I get, the more I find myself looking backward, rather than forward.

Remembering...

And, somehow, even harsh memories are softened with the warm glow of time.

While summers growing up found me essentially completely cut-off from everyone but immediate family, the days were full.

Daylight hours (after chores, of course) were most usually spent roaming the fields, pastures and woods of our little 80-acre farm.

Mostly the woods...

The woods I roam these days aren't the familiar woods of my youth but they still hold a measure of magic...and beautiful things.

Look closely...do you see him?

 

My peek-a-boo partner for the day.

A young albino buck....

See the velvet of his newly-sprouted antlers?

We played a good long while but I failed to get great photos...alas, he was much better at the game than I.

Beautiful things in humble places....

The Visitor....

I sensed you before I saw you....

Stepping coyly from the shadows of the wood...

The starkness of the white pronounced in the deepening gloaming;

All the colors of the spectrum combined into something purer.

You acknowledged me and, though your companion retreated, you came toward me - self-assured and unafraid.

You stopped within a comfortable distance and seemed content to continue grazing while I sat on my porch watching - my hands becoming stiff with the cold and my eyes struggling to adjust to the thickening dark. 

When the dusk turned inky, you lifted your head to me and then to the wood, and slowly turned and made your way back.

I watched you and even thought I saw you turn back to look at me one last time ...and then you slipped into the shadows from where you came.

{*A few months back, I posted about my first sighting of a white stag. (That post can be found here.) Initially I thought this was the same deer and I had been mistaken about it being a stag.  However, I went back and looked at the photos from that day...both the ones on the post and the others I had not posted and I am still convinced that that was, in fact, a buck.  If you look at the photos from the first post, poor as they are, you can definitely see antlers. And while bucks typically shed their antlers here from January to February, this deer has an entirely smaller, more delicate, frame than the first. Also, the first deer seemed more mature in keeping its distance...this one seemed naive in her innocence and lack of inhibition in my presence. 

 Mayhap there is more magic in Nod than I give it credit for.}

 

There's Just a Little More Magic in Some Days Than Others...

{Angel with Scandinavian Woven Heart}

Those kind of days are rare; but like anything rare, they seem mercurial and vanish quickly leaving the person experiencing them doubting their existence in the first place.

Despite my misgivings about this new year (being 2020-too and all), I have been blessed to have had several of these most magical days in this first month of this new year....

While seeing an eagle is not uncommon here (especially at the lake as we have a nest in the tree outside the front door), one does not always see two together (I believe the adult inhabitants of our nest)...keeping each other warm...on a frozen lake...during a storm....

Then, one late afternoon/early evening after returning to Nod, I looked out my front window and saw something that seemed out of sorts.

I initially dismissed it thinking it just a strange agglomeration of snow from the most recent snowfall - one that would be there in the same place the next time I glanced out until the sun found it.

But as I continued to look out, I realized what I was looking at.

{Pay no mind to those strange glowing eye things in the trees behind him...}

He stayed until the sun set and the gloaming began.  His wondrous white stood out against the darkness.

And he was huge...as were his antlers.  (I eventually dug through several closets and came up with a pair of binoculars...unfortunately, you can't take photos with binoculars and his magnificent rack is lost in the photos.)

I have heard there is a "pocket" of albino deer in these parts and have seen them on others' trails cams and photos, but had never ever seen one in person. Now I have.

Legend has it that one who sees a white stag will have good luck (and woe be to anyone who harms one).

 I guess there are perks to living in Nod after all.