Our friendly, but hungry deer

A couple weeks ago a very friendly deer starting coming around our house. She seems to have very little fear of humans.  One morning she walked right up on our front porch and proceeded to eat every potted plant arranged there as though it were her private buffet.  As much as I enjoy opportunities to see wildlife up close, I must admit I was quite upset at the ruination of all my work.  No deer had been brazen enough to walk on the porch before so I considered it a "safe" bet to garden.

This deer loves the clover by our front door and will graze for 15-20 minutes with us just standing outside and watching from no more than 30 feet away.  In the video, she is about six feet from the house.  I truly don't care if she munches the clover.  There is plenty of it, but when she crosses the edging and starts feasting on my flower bed it is another story entirely!  She seems to start early in the morning so I have started checking all the windows from the moment I get up and sometimes race outside with arms and pink, fuzzy bathrobe flapping wildly.  She trots away about 50 feet, stops to look back at me and I can almost hear her say, "I'll be back!" as she twitches her white tail and flutters her wonderful eyelashes in my direction.  Is that an impatiens branch hanging down below her glistening black nose?

Life in the forest

There seems to always be something going on with wildlife in the forest surrounding us. Sometimes those goings on have a direct impact on me.

I planted several dozen impatiens in an effort to have a garden behind a fence of deer screening.  The deer have ignored them completely so far.  Is there such a thing as racoon screening? Trying to be a good little green person I used organic fertilizer to plant my new annuals.  That night something dug up in between every plant and ate the fertilizer.  I filled the holes back in.  The next morning, the next set of plants were not only dug up (inside the deer screening area), but the plants were seemingly laid carefully aside and the fertilizer eaten again.  I'm assuming a racoon did this, considering their very capable little paws.  It's hard enough for me to plant these days without having to plant the same plants twice!

We have been providing suet blocks for the birds and especially enjoy watching the woodpeckers they attract.  Suddenly, the blocks were disappearing at an unusually fast pace.  We couldn't help but wonder what was causing this because our bird population in May has been dramatically lower than in April.  Not lower is the number of huge black crows visiting our feeder area. Too big for the feeders, they normally just enjoy the seeds tossed to the ground by the smaller finches and titmice and others.  One day this week we discovered the mystery of the suet blocks as we watched a crow jump high off the ground and hover beside the block.  It took several attempts, but the crow was successful at knocking off a chunk or two and falling back to ground to enjoy it.  Always trying to win the battle, we attached a shiney aluminum disposable pan to the bottom of the suet feeder today in an attempt to make the crow's efforts more complicated.  Still waiting to see whether or not that is successful.

My favorite forest story is the most personal for me.  A few days ago I was watering a potted plant on the back patio.  Suddenly, I hear the sound of bird wings fluttering and getting very close to my head.  Just as I started to raise up to see what kind of bird was so close to me the bird stopped its flapping and landed square on my head!  I froze in place as the still unidentified bird hopped around my head yanking my shortish blond hair as hard as it could.  I wanted someone else to see this amazing thing so I slowly walked toward the workshop window to alert Bill to the happening.  The bird continued its yanking until I raised my arm to knock on the window. It then flew up a few feet, made another attempt at landing and flew off.  Only then did I see the bird was a titmouse.  My Virginia bird book was quickly thumbed through to find this bird has a reputation for yanking fur out of sleeping dogs and squirrels to use in nest building.  I never thought I looked like either of those things, but one friend said the bird thought my hair looked like a haystack.  She might be right.

Luxembourg Twilight

Luxembourg Twilight by Gerri Young, 2011

In the last year before we left Europe, Bill and I went to the beautiful city of Luxembourg which was just a couple of hours from where we lived in Germany.  I liked the place so much I wish I had explored it earlier and been able to go back numerous times.

As we strolled the old city near twilight, we turned the corner to this enchanted scene where a street light had come on and bathed the narrow way with golden light.  The photos we took stayed on my list of things I wanted to paint for quite some time before I met Robin Poteet, a wonderful watercolor artist in Roanoke, who gave me the courage and guidance to capture this beautiful atmosphere.  I showed the finished painting to a nice Luxembourger lady in Blacksburg who said she felt "transported" by it.  So do I.  Every time I look at the painting now, I get to go to the city again.

A walk in the woods



I know she named this one, but in my concentration to get
 a picture and not fall off the rock at the same time, it
totally escaped me. I now know it is a Canadian Columbine.

 It's one thing to stroll through the woods by yourself. It is quite another to do it with Holly Scoggins, Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture, and Director of the Hahn Horticulture Garden at Virginia Tech.  First she scouts a location for the walk a couple days ahead of time and remembers the location of assorted lovely flowers and plants.  Then she leads a group of early risers through the morning chill and damp and points out treasures like May apples (flashback to my childhood, carefree days in forests), Jack in the Pulpits (familiar, but rarely seen by me), walking ferns (obviously more gifted at walking in the forest) and horsetail reeds, a bundle of which I once had in my possession.  Of note is that she doesn't just say "horsetail reed," she says "Equisetaceae," or things like "Aristolochiaceae" and she somehow wraps her tongue around them before 9 a.m.

In addition to the many interesting flowers and plants Holly pointed us to, she also led us to the Falls Ridge Waterfall which squirmed its way over the rocks, left and right and left again for a total of 80 feet, delivering the always satisfying sound of water in motion and the vision of sunlight dancing on the ripples.  It was not a bad way to start the day.

St. Pierre Gallery sets grand opening--with my work included!

The St. Pierre Gallery on the main street of Floyd, Va., has announced its grand opening date for May 6, from 6-8 p.m.  This is especially exciting for me because the gallery is now carrying my work!  This is a first for me and it has happened just one year after I moved to the area.  It has been such fun to meet so many talented artists like Carly Burke and Bill St. Pierre who have made the gallery possible.  Their beautiful work is, of course, included in the gallery.  Bill's gorgeous woodwork is all over the two-room space and Carly's Mountain Light Jewelry graces the shelves and tables.  Becca Imbur's incredible handmade books are a delight to see; Eric's pottery sits near Wendy's and they are all gorgeous.  Photos by Rob Jones.  Paintings by Starroot.  Many more whose names I don't know are also there. All of these talented folks have been in the area and the business a long time.  My watercolors, prints and ink drawings are new to the mix and I'll let someone else describe them!

At any rate, we are all excited to be a part of this locally owned and operated venture and hope you can make your way to the lovely town of Floyd to see it.  If you come during the grand opening you get a big bang for your buck because it is on a Friday when the town is full of blue grass music, flatfootin' and people from all over the place!  Mark your calendar!

Bird feeders and prayer flags

A bright spot of color in a brown and green world.

It seems every bird watcher/feeder who lives near or in a forest must go through the battle of squirrel versus bird, and it hasn't been any different at our house. Lately, squirrels and some unidentified other furry creature were winning the battle and cleaning out all but the finch feeder overnight. Bill thinks about things a good while and then pursues his plan.  This one meant putting a ladder up against a tree, attaching a heavy, plastic-coated cable and repeating the same process on another nearby large tree. A pulley was threaded on to the cable and the filled feeder attached, then raised high up in the air.  Worked like a charm and no trees were damaged in the doing. 

Guess who suggested the prayer flags? Me, the artist, of course. A nice, bright spot in a brown and green world.  Bill, always the analytical thinker, inquired as to whether or not birds would be frightened by them. The next morning I sat by the window a long time to find out.  Two titmice could have cared less and flew straight to the tray.  Nuthatches, normally very adventurous acrobats, flew at it, under it and beyond it numerous times, landing on a tree and looking back to inspect the new arrangement. Finally, they landed on the roof of the feeder and did one of their upside down flips on to the tray.

Nearby, a flying bright spot landed on a branch to soak up the sun--a bluebird with a worm in his mouth!  I just love this splendid creature and am hopeful he will become a regular visitor even if he never uses the feeders.  To encourage his presence, we cleaned out all the bird houses and I'll start putting out some fruit for him. I read about how to raise my own mealworms for feeding the bluebirds, but decided the rather slimy, smelly and laborious process was not my thing...even for a bluebird who already has proven he is quite capable of getting his own worms!

At the front of the house, our house not the bird house, my hopes for the phoebe's return has been answered as I watch him flit around outside the kitchen window wondering what happened to the nest he and his mate left on the downspout last year.  I'm sorry, dear phoebe, but we really needed that new guttering and the new downspout is even bigger than the old one. Your sturdier perch awaits you as I await the return of the hummingbirds to provide aerial entertainment for us both from just a few feet away. 

All this just in time for the first day of Spring.

Earth, wind and fire

All the pieces finished in Jennifer Mulligan's raku glazing and firing session. My pieces are all the front row slab work and the tall slab piece with circles in the back.

Dirt fire pits lined with paper and ready.

Playing with fire should have been warmer, but it wasn't.  The raku shelter at potter Jennifer Mulligan's place was on a cold and windy bluff above a small river.  The wind blew and the rain fell on and off the whole day.  Cozying up to the gas kiln during the first stage of the firing provided some solace.  In spite of the wind, the other two elements of earth and fire provided a high degree of activity and excitement to the handful of students hellbent on having a raku experience on this day in March.

Raku is a thing of mystery.  The glaze buckets were labelled things like "yellow rose" and "purple haze." My tall moonscape came out blue and pale turquoise and lovely anyway.  "Copper penny" glaze and "yellow rose"  produced a nearly black interior with hints of metallic and a pale greenish exterior on my coiled piece reminiscent of a burst-open pea pod.  You paint on the glaze with adventure and bravery in your heart and then turn the piece over to the raku gods.  Wind, dampness, coldness, temperature, too much paper, not enough paper, too much sawdust, not enough sawdust, too much oxygen, not enough oxygen--all these factors toy with your glaze and create a piece you are in awe of but cannot duplicate. Sometimes they blow your piece up and give you bits you learn from. 

It's all good, creative fun.  A day in the country, nice people to meet and the opportunity to say things like "apple crackle" as you vow to put that glaze on a bigger piece next time because it is so special.  Thanks, Jennifer. The earth, wind and fire day was terrific.