TODAY, a herd of deer trimmed and grazed the grassy slope in the front yard just beyond the driveway. It was a safe spot for mama and her twin fawns to graze together.

A couple of days ago they found the potted oakleaf hydrangea sitting in the flower bed just outside the breakfast room window.  They saved it for last for the sweet dessert of deer candy.

The next day, the deer walked right past the hydrangea and the wall of chicken wire that had been put up to protect it. No deer candy for their dessert this morning, or any morning. The rest of the herd moved up on the slope looking down into the meadow.

They had come every morning to graze and trim our little acreage. They thought it was the least they could do since we allowed them and their young to roam and eat in the cool meadow below. All this time, I thought they were extending their hospitality because we were new to the neighborhood.

The hydrangea was grateful for its’ new home in the fresh earth of the flower bed. Grateful for the morning sun shining down on it, and for the wall of wire to keep it from becoming deer candy.

Every day we rock in our Adirondacks together is a good day as we look out from the deck to the cool green meadow.  It is a sweet mountaintop experience, with or without deer candy.

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