1 April, 2018            Short (definitely!) and sweet (hopefully!)

I hope you had a wonderful Easter and a spectacular April Fool’s Day today. I drove to MD and back today and had dinner with my sister and her family and just got back so I’m going to put up a few pictures and go to bed!

I see deer at Pony Pasture nearly every day now. This one was gazing placidly at the dogs and me Saturday near noon:

They’ve actually begun walking toward us!

Just FYI, the deer are walking nonchalantly toward all four of us. Mackey is lying down on the left, Turner in the middle, Yuki in the rear. They’re all on leashes. I guess the deer know it: 

The deer ignore these guys (and ignore me) 100% of the time

The deer aren’t the only things to see at Pony Pasture now. Look at this trout lily – there were dozens. They are “ephemeral” both in name and by their nature. Get there quick if you want to see them! This was yesterday midday, almost within sight of those deer:

Truly ephemeral Trout Lilies on the creek bank at Pony Pasture Saturday

These redbuds were gleaming about three minutes walk before the trout lilies (which were about three minutes walk before the deer):

Redbuds along the creek at Pony Pasture – another of my favorite Spring trees

Speaking of ephemeral, the first things we saw at the river were these buffleheads sitting (as they always do) out in midstream on the river. They will leave any day now – it’s possible they’ve left since I took that picture – and won’t return until the first frost in the Fall. Yesterday:

Buffleheads – for the last time in the Spring of 2018? We’ll see.

Anyway, first it was buffleheads then redbuds then trout lilies then deer – here is a still image of two of the deer grooming one another: 

Mutual grooming at Pony Pasture

I also captured a reasonable (if shaky) 15 second video of the two of them grooming. Have a look:

These turtles are from Deep Run and not Pony Pasture; I took this Friday:

Deep Run turtles sunning

Ev has our daffodils bursting out all over the yard. I took this picture next to our front stoop the same day I photographed the turtles:

Almost too bright to photograph!

I can’t (of course) let a week go without a raptor picture. My friend Sam got this great image at Brandermill Monday (3/26):  

Another great image – nice job Sam!

Sam left a couple of hours later and I walked back to the car and the same bird was sitting in the same tree – this time with a fresh-caught fish:

The same (or similar looking) osprey with a recently deceased fish

I’ll close with the most recent image of the week – I snapped this at my sister’s house in Maryland when we arrived today. That’s Penny greeting Mackey. She is well named since she was the smallest denomination dog in attendance. But sweet:  

Penny giving Mackey the traditional canine Easter greeting

Have a great week! Come back next week!

All best,

Jay