On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
If I had a backyard like this, with deer hanging out, and a hot air balloon overhead… I am not sure I would think of it as “just my backyard”! I suspect that I am alone in that. ~WaterGirl
Catherine D.
I find my sorta mowed and ungardened backyard very peaceful. It’s shielded by trees and hedges from my next-door neighbors, and there’s no one directly behind me.
This picture was taken during hunting season in December 2008, when I looked out to see 14 deer lounging away from all the Elmer Fudds. We don’t have nearly as many deer now as then because of a sterilization program.
The balloon picture makes me very happy and calm. In August 2016, I heard a strange noise and went outside to see a hot air balloon right overhead on a beautiful day.
Baud
The
BirdsDeer.Mary G
Very cool and peaceful. Thank you.
JPL
Perfect spot for morning cup of coffee.
JPL
@Baud: How’s your toes?
Baud
@JPL:
Better. I have topical meds that seem to be helping.
My allergies however….
waynel140
I hate deer! They eat everything, from my tomatoes to my roses. They are major pests, and we can’t kill them. You can kill roaches and you can kill rats, but you can’t kill Bambi’s mom. They are worse than squirrels attacking a bird feeder. Both are pests with good press agents. Only deer taste much better.
Kristine
@Baud: my allergies have been bad this spring. Mostly tree pollen, according to the news reports. I’ve seen it stream off trees so that it looks like smoke.
Glad your feet are healing.
debbie
I’ll take a mess o’ deer over an infestation of Canada geese any day.
oldster
Looks like Cayuga Heights?
I remember hearing from friends about the Great Deer Kerfuffle of…whenever. 2010 or thereabouts. Some residents (gardeners esp.) wanting to shoot them. Others passionately opposed to any reduction. Incredibly expensive trap-and-sterilize as the compromise.
Oh well. Looks very pretty, all the same.
arrieve
These days I really wish I had a back yard! Thanks for sharing yours.
HinTN
@waynel140: Seven years ago I gave up vegetable gardening because I was unwilling to build a fence halfway to heaven as my neighbor had done. She successfully gardens in the face of the deer onslaught. I raise zinnias and Mexican sunflowers. These are the only two the deer don’t destroy.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: I buy my bulbs from Colorblends. If you enter “deer” into the search box, it pulls up a list of bulbs that are deer resistant.
You could think about trying that? I noticed one of my favorites on the list – tiny little iris that bloom very early. They are such happy little things.
mad citizen
Thanks for sharing; that’s a lot of deer. I was recalling the other day the one time a hot air baloon flew low over our house, and how one of our cats hissed at it.
SkyBluePink
Beautiful!
kindness
Ithaca is Gorges. Love that tag line. I went to college there in the middle/late 70’s.
LivingInExile
@waynel140: I have had good.luck with Liquid Fence. Just mix with water and spray around plants. Keeps deer and rabbits out of my strawberries.
LivingInExile
@WaterGirl: What are those irises called? They are gorgeous.
LivingInExile
@WaterGirl: 60 dollar minimum order. Ouch!
jonas
There are *fewer* deer now in CNY than in 2008? Could’a fooled me. The main issue is that there are simply fewer hunters than there were a generation or two ago, so fewer deer get culled in a season, and a milder climate has meant more young survive the winters. Add those two together and you get a major deer overpopulation problem. And they are a *huge* PITA for anyone trying to maintain a garden. Plus they carry ticks with lyme disease.
WaterGirl
@LivingInExile: Most of my friends neither want or need another “thing” to go in their house, so it’s not uncommon for me to give bulbs as birthday gifts or early christmas gifts. Or what I call “just because” gifts.
So the minimum is very workable for me.
WaterGirl
@LivingInExile:
The little purple iris are so sweet and absolutely adorable. I just love them.
I planted them near miniature little daffodils that are a cream color with a pale yellow center. The picture at the second link makes them look all cream; I’ll see if I can find a photo of them in my yard.
Iris Harmony
W.P. Milner
evap
Thanks for the pictures, they made me smile. I lived in Ithaca for 5 years in the 80s when I was a graduate student at Cornell. It was a mostly happy time for me, so glad to relive it.
Catherine D.
@oldster: Just up the road from Cayuga Heights. I don’t have that kind of money ?
West of the Cascades
@Catherine D.: I lived in Lansing for about five years (two decades ago) and was just back in Ithaca last summer — you’re lucky to live in a very lovely place (and the winters are better than Buffalo, where I grew up). Thanks for the photos!!
stinger
@HinTN: Yes, I have to fence every flower and vegetable bed, even the one immediately outside my front door, with at least a 7-foot fence. I like deer, and really we’ve moved into their territory, but I could do with a few less!
No fence keeps the Japanese beetles from destroying roses, vegetables, pears, and entire trees.