Hopefulness

I believe that deer rut is underway. They are moving feverishly around the forest at all hours of the day and night.

Last night, I captured my first photos of a mixed sex group of deer, with a big buck in the middle. This remote trail camera is an infrared camera so it shoots color photos in the daytime and black/white at night.

The buck lingered behind the group of does, keeping an eye on his does.

Someone asked if deer scrape the ground. Indeed, bucks scrape the ground with their hooves during the rut and then urinate in the scraped area. According to my favorite tracking book, deer urine smells "piney, light, and somewhat pleasant" (Mammal Track and Sign, by Mark Elbroch). Maybe I'll sniff the next deer scrape that I find :)

I probably won't sniff bobcat scrapings. They're the most common type in our forest. A freshly scraped spot stood out in the middle of the trail this morning. In this case, the bobcat left scat in his scraping but often they leave only urine. You can also see that the bobcat has left scat at this post before from the white desiccated piece near the top of the photo.

I noticed the bobcat scrape while K and I did our morning stroll. She left a reply for the feisty cat. That was quite different from last night when she was terrified of a tiny house cat! K acted like the queen of the forest this morning.

K is really antsy to go on longer hikes in our forest. When I tell her that it's time to go home, she tries to woo me with her eyes. It is very hard to resist.

I often dilly dally to give her more time in the forest without hiking any further. This morning, I posed her with a beautiful shadow silhouette behind her.

As she stood with one paw and one cast propped on a tiny rock, I focused on the amazing engineering of her good paw. Dog paws are tough enough to endure running barefoot across rocky and rough terrain but also soft enough to give climbing traction. I hope that K's injured paw returns to this beautiful state! When the vet changed K's cast, I saw that her injured paw is shriveled and bony, having lost most of its muscle in the cast. I am so eager to start helping her rebuild her strength! My hopefulness abounds right now.

Indeed, both dogs are having left front paw problems. R has a big crack in one of his nails. To avoid infection, he must wear a boot when he goes outside. He seems to truly believe that he can't use that paw for the first minute of each outing!

But, as soon as the forest catches his attention, he forgets about the boot. Unfortunately, he doesn't forget about the shriveled brown mushrooms that STILL litter the forest floor so he dons a muzzle. This is the longest mushroom season that I can remember.

When I plan to take a photo, I take off the muzzle so we can see R's handsome face. In the photo below, he's scanning the terrain for rodents or rabbits. Sadly, from R's viewpoint, all of our common rodents have gone underground except the tree squirrels. Our lagomorphs, the mountain cottontail rabbits, also stay active all winter and continually torture R from outside our house windows.

This morning, after R and I had a short mountain bike ride together, I headed out on my own. Alas, I still don't have my usual energy back after my virus. Moreover, I was hurting because a rambunctious dog surprised me by leaping up and punching me in the shoulders with his front paws two days ago. I was standing just in front of a knee-high rock, and the dog launched me into a half back flip that landed me on my upper back and neck behind the rock. It was a vigorous test that proved that my neck is solidly fused 9 months post-surgery! However, my neck muscles are still screaming.

This morning I sluggishly rode past this view, which had a blaze of yellow leaves on the aspen grove just a week ago. The gorgeous snowy mountains have replaced the yellow leaves as the highlight.

And, this steep and rocky giant is holding its snow - a sure sign that winter is really almost here.

At the end of my ride, I passed a distinctive seed pod, the pod from a Showy Milkweed flower. It glittered and shined in the cold sunshine.

I love realizing that the plants are already preparing for next spring. I hope that those seeds are sown and grow into beautiful flowers! The hopefulness of the plants lifts my spirits every year as we head into the dark of winter.