Oh, Deer

The deer came in the early hours of the morning and ate not only all the tulip leaves (no buds on offer), but also all the crocuses--stems and flowers--and, for dessert, chose grape hyacinths. In eighteen years, I have never had the deer eat either croci or grape hyacinths. They did not eat the standard hyacinths this time, but perhaps only because said hyacinths had not yet gotten their leaves up above the piles of leaves on that bed. They did not eat the daffodils because they don't eat daffodils, but then, in my experience, they don't eat croci or grape hyacinths either. So, what's the good of learning from experience, if it doesn't work?

There is yet snow here on the Sunshine Coast, right in peoples' yards and driveways, but only up above the highway. We have no snow at our house, but we have deer, of course. And gray skies and temperatures in the low 40's. Everyone is feeling kind of down and what they talk about in relation to that is not the financial world but the weather, the lack of spring. Canadians here are particularly inclined to see some part of the world that is warmer in February, and then they return in March to the north, where at least it is not snowing. Now, they are thinking of revisiting the southerly parts of North America for a March session.

Maybe it's not the weather, though; maybe it is just that we all thought it would be better come January 22 (correction: January 21, says Ed), and now it isn't. And worse yet, we are going to have to hear about the X-million dollar contract that George Bush got to tell the world about his fabulous decision skills. It never rains but it pours...