Quick May 2021 Trip – Day 2

Mowing took most of another three hours. The place looks amazing with small increases in the scope of what’s cut each time. I followed up with some line trimming, and then walked the west drive doing what can only be called rough pruning, and cleaning the mower’s path of tree fall. I also worked on cleaning up under the fir that sits between Stella and the house. There’s what I think are two rolls of deer netting (!) under the fir against the garden fence. It’s partially free of the duff. I ran out of steam at that point, in part because one has to be very careful when rooting around that deep in a tree’s own mulch. The last thing I want to do is damage the tree by exposing shallow roots. My energy had gotten to low to be meticulous at that point. Perhaps I’ll start there tomorrow.

While working I smelled the oder of something expired a couple of times. When I was at the bottom of the driveway, my neighbor to the north stopped on her way home to say Hi. She said they had a deer floating in their pond! And further that in her attempt to have it removed, she’d heard that something is afflicting the deer. She blamed COVID. I haven’t heard anything on the scientific channels about this, and so will take that comment with a grain of salt. There have been far fewer deer out and about since four weeks ago (like, 70% less), that much is true.

The plum and apple trees have teeny tiny fruit set on them! I saw lots of garter snakes today, and swallowtail on the lilacs yesterday. It’s sweet to be here.