One doesn't have to cut browse for the reindeer galloping around in the old crabapple tree or take windfall apples and other fodder to their winter lodgings. My late husband and I did that for many years, dragging toboggans of cut cedar and other stuff to deer yards in the deep woods during harsh winters. That is fine - most of my time in the last few weeks has been spent moving snow around, and there would have been little or no time for feeding deer. These days, Beau and I would be doing it alone.
The caribou of the Canadian north are reindeer, and their name in this country was coined by early 17th century French explorers who borrowed it from an indigenous Mi'kmaq word meaning "one who paws". Both genders grow antlers, and that makes them unique among deer species. Males drop their racks after the autumn mating season, but females retain theirs all winter and use them to excavate food sources in deep snow, important because most mature does are pregnant during the long white season. The antlered reindeer in my tree are all female. What ho!
Our red holiday ornaments are cheerful, and I like to leave them in place until spring. That means that at some point this winter I will be burrowing through three or four feet of snow in the front yard to unearth (or rather unsnow) those that have been loosened by the wind and fallen out of the tree. The exercise is good fun.
If the girls were real and not ornaments swaying back and forth in the old crabapple, they would be hoofing about in the garden, digging holes in the snow for nosh and munching on the cedar hedge until it was a thicket of forlorn twigs.
2 comments:
So glad that you don't deal with reindeer in your yard, but that globe is certainly beautiful! I've always enjoyed that Santa's sleigh was pulled by females.
This is utterly charming. Thank you, cate.
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