Displays in the Sky, Gourmet Deer and Other Stuff

Washing machines come and washing machines go. We thought we would be one more step further along in the never ending house project, but its more of a one step forward two steps back kind of situation around here. At least now, we’re back on track to get back on track. Maybe, hopefully by next week we’ll be where we thought we were going to be this past Thursday. It seems at every turn of this project we’ve been undone by our boundless optimism. Anyway the good news is that it looks like no one will have to shimmy over a stacked washer and dryer set-up like in this video which did have me cracking up, and was probably one of the most realistic washer and dryer installation videos I’ve seen, and believe me, I’ve seen quite a few.

Last week was another rainy one here. Thankfully it hasn’t been anything like the awful situation in Texas. When the sun finally did come out here one evening just in time to set, we were treated to a sunset rainbow, which I made a valiant attempt to capture on my phone. Trust me, it looked way cooler in person:

Photo of a pink and purple sunset sky with a vertical streak that's supposed to be a rainbow, but doesn't really look like one in this photo.

In fact, I would say the sunset rainbow was a much more impressive sky display than the fireworks shows we witnessed from our deck on the 4th, which technically were just a couple of the neighbors shooting off stuff from their backyards. As for our 4th of July celebration this year it mostly involved creating templates in the size and shape of washing machines to determine the best way to install said appliance in a somewhat tight space. Soon, perhaps we will be celebrating our independence from the endless house project. Well, until we decide to get around to fixing up some things in our own house.

The deer in our backyard were also doing some celebrating this weekend. Back at the beginning of May, I picked up some plants to fill up the big planters that sit on the edge of our patio. “Deer Resistant” said the tags, but we all know what that means.

Still I had reason to hope. For two months the plants had been allowed to grow with nary a nibble from our backyard grazers. The season got off to a cold wet start, but the recent warmer weather meant the sun-loving plants were really starting to flourish. Here’s a photo of the cordyline and mandevilla in one of the planters:

Photo of a planter with a large spiky cordyline plant surrounded by mandevilla flowers in pink.

As it happens this planter, still looks pretty much just like this, but the other morning I went out to water plants and found that one of the planters now looked like this:

Photo of a cordyline plant in a planter that's been chewed up by deer.

The brown spots on the leaves are (I believe) thanks to the excessive rain, but the chewed up leaves are entirely the work of one or more deer who decided to treat themselves to a gourmet snack one evening. My understanding is that the plant is not poisonous to deer, but could cause them some minor stomach irritation. So, hopefully the epicurean deer got a little tummy ache, and have since learned their lesson. (There’s that endless optimism, again!)

Will they leave the plant alone? Will the other one survive unscathed? Time will tell. I did notice they had zero interest in the mandevilla flowers surrounding the cordyline which made it through the ordeal without a single bite mark. So, make of that what you will, fellow deer country gardeners.

— Alissa