deer deer

I think I ought to write a country-western song that starts with "someone left the gate a-hangin' open, and the deer got in." It would be sung in a very sad twang, with lots of slide guitar in the background, 'cause that is what happened last night. I had a tomato plant full of ripening Early Girls, one perfect Angel Face rose about to bloom, and lots of buds on my Gertrude Jekyll...but not anymore. I do feel grateful that this stealth-munching by the deer was minor, not the biggest problem to have on earth, and it could have been much worse...I've woken to a fully skeletonized garden in years past. Life in the woods creates strange and simple acts of gratitude.