Cooler?

A cooler morning and an earlier start lured us down the street, into the park, and along our dirt road.

We were on the cusp of "too late for deer," but I thought it worth the effort to head down the dusty road and see. The dust of the road held tales of deer - lots of deer. There were a few feline or canine footprints as well.

We immediately heard rustling in the small patch of woods at the commencement of the road. A good sized buck bounded out of the woods and through the tall grass of the first meadow. The grass was so high that all we saw was head and tail as he hurried away from us - DH, dangerous pups and me.

This was all the encouragement we required and we hurried to the far meadow, hoping to catch the herd.

We arrived and saw nothing. The meadow had been mowed at some point. Two bales of hay were keeping mute watch. Scruff was alert and sniffing. Paddy too was watching, her head moving from side to side as she searched for.... Then DH whispered, "Something is moving out there."

Through the glare of the early morning sun we could just see movement along the edge of the tree line bordering the far side of the far meadow. The herd was on the move and moving cleverly, perfectly camouflaged.

As the deer disappeared the pups looked up at me as if to say, "OK, we found them. Time to go home."

On our way back visited with the woman of the lovely flowers. She was hand watering, hoping to keep a few blooms alive in this heat. We spotted (at least DH and I did) a neighborhood black cat almost hidden in the tall end-of-summer grass.

You cannot see me!

Scruffy alerts. (I wish I could catch the way his nose moved as he sniffed the air.)

I know, I know. You don't see anything. (But notice the baled grass to the right and the tree line).

 I attempted to adjust the photo a little more here, but you lose even the hint of deer I have given you. About one third of the way across the photo, you can just make out those ears. She was stopped and looking at us.