Invasion

What smells like pig manure, rotten eggs and a hint of cadaver ?

I do - after spraying deer repellent on our little trees in a slight breeze. That is one powerful spray !! Note to self : wait until total calm, wind will veer around in a split second and dose you with noxious smells.

After a long shower, I went to bed, secure in the knowledge that deer would find our orchard repellent and peace would reign on the old homestead for at least one night. What we did not count on was that apparently it would attract other wildlife. We spent the night listening to a bunch of foxes yodeling under our window. Yodeling is the wrong term, a fox has a high-pitched, hoarse bark that combines a scream and a cough - startling to put it mildly, especially in the wee hours , rendered at a high volume and without cease.

Where was our trusty dog, protector of hearth and home, you ask ? Fast asleep on her pillow, next to the open window where the fox concert took place. Maybe the fumes from the deer repellent knocked her out.

Under siege

The local deer herd has found our baby fruit trees and has done some real damage to them.


In desperation we covered all baby trees with sheets last night, hoping to keep the menace at bay. Today we're going to build cages around each tree, which will make our lovely orchard look bizarre.

Thank goodness they haven't touched the rather heavy peach crop; maybe they only eat leaves and shoots and not fruit ?

The raspberries are also still safe. They are just starting to get ripe and I enjoyed the first berry of the year this morning. When I was a little girl, it was the custom to make a wish whenever you ate the first fruit of the season that year. I fervently wished for a bicycle with each first cherry, berry, apple and pear and would you believe it ? After several years I actually had my wish come true and got a beautiful blue bike. So we know this wishing thing works !
This morning I was considering what to wish for and thought maybe - now that I'm grown up -I would go for world peace, but death and destruction to all local deer was an extremely attractive alternative.Oh deer !!
Think I'll go sit in the meadow on the hill and restore balance and harmony to my soul by contemplating the world of flowers instead.