Too much of a good thing is too much of a good thing. I really think that life is all about balance and evenness and while uneven is interesting and sometimes exhilarating, it usually means a fall or a slide until all is in balance again. This slide keeps us awake and helps appreciate the other side even more, but peace is really when all is in balance. I don't care how much you like it, you will get tired of too much exhilaration.
Last week I was reading a news story about the sea life in La Jolla, California. I remember visiting the shoreline there a few years ago. I could smell the richness of the sea long before I reached the walkway to look over the coast. The richness I am talking about was the smell of sea lion feces and old fish. This was in thanks to the many lumps of sea lions lounging on the floating docks and rocks in the water. They covered every bare space and if you were trying to get to a boat that had been tied up you better be careful that it didn't appear you were disturbing one of them...that could get you a nasty fine. According to the article they now are taking over the beaches. Centuries ago they probably owned the beaches. Now mankind wants to use the beach as well and there is a definite conflict of space. Too much of mankind and too many sea lions. No balance.
A similar event is taking place in my county. We now have more white tail deer than were here when the pioneers arrived. This is due to all the land we cleared and all the open grass areas we have developed along the freeways and in the city and county parks and of course, the well-manicured yards of every home. This is also because we no longer hunt deer for food. The deer have no interest in moving off your driveway when you arrive home from work. They stare at you like cattle casually chomping on that hosta leaf and wondering why you bother to come home each evening insisting they move. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of shrubbery and landscaping have been eaten to the bare bark. Neighbors try to protect rows of dramatic hostas and gardens of colorful roses with bird netting. Netting that gets tangled in the lawn mower and gets tangled in your shoe laces and doesn't look all that pretty and thus, distracts from the beauty of what you are trying to raise.
We have a private botanic garden nearby that finally put up a ten foot metal fence around its acreage with an automatic gate for cars. They were losing rare plants that were hundreds of years old due to deer foraging. Too many deer and probably too many people loving the plants. Ten years ago they did not need a fence around the garden.
Well, it should all slide back into place in the coming years. Disease and famine and death will reappear and painfully balance will reign once again in the end, although I may not be here to see it.
A couple of years ago I saw the Pacific for the first time. I was with a group of women friends standing on a bluff overlooking the ocean and I swore I saw seals, but our guide told us NO, it was driftwood. I stayed behind watching for 20 minutes, until I saw one of them get up and move! We all hiked down and got some good shots!
ReplyDeleteAs I type my neighbor's self-timed gunpowder machine is going off to scare the deer out of his pumpkin patch. We still hunt here, but we still have an overabundance of deer.
I love the new color scheme.
Quiet Floyd doesn't sound so quiet...
ReplyDeletewe have deer here who love our roses and weeping cherry trees, not to mention our hostas. they are not afraid of our "catching" them chomping away when our security lights come on to alert us they are here. we go flying out into the night, and they look at us while they continue to nibble. if we scream enough they leave. fortunately, they do not jump our 6 feet tall privacy fence across the side and backyard areas so we have moved all the hostas to the back. now we go out and fuss at them when they eat the roses or the cherry limbs near the front courtyard and entry areas. so far this is working! we have not seen them in a while.
ReplyDeletestill, i feel bad that we humans have taken their land. i see new housing coming up where they once lived happily and quietly and did not spend so much time in our neighborhoods. i suspect your area is the same...houses/buildings are going up where they once lived more reclusive lives. your new home area probably was recently developed. as long as we keep invading their space we are going to pay for it with our landscaping.
i have begun to look at landscaping plants which are less deer friendly. ask your nurseries for suggestions. deer do not eat our hydrangeas and none of our perennials in the rock garden. they did chew all the new buds and blooms in our pale yellow capistrano rhododendron this year but left the other rhodies alone. they don't eat our azaleas, did not chew on our daffodils or tulips, and have left alone the viburnum, sedum, smokebush, dappled willow, lilacs, lavender, and heather. they have not eaten our day lilies or asian lilies, gardenias, euphoribia, yarrow, phlox, astilbe, or dusty miller. try gardening with plants and shrubs which they don't like so they will spend less time in your garden - and everyone will be happier.
we see deer everywhere...walking on the beaches, snacking on vines and shrubs along lanes and driveways, walking through residential properties, hiking along mountain passes, standing near the curb on the side of the road, and even in COSTCO's parking lot! that tells you how much we have all invaded their space. development here looms large. i doubt that is going to change much. comfortable coexistence is a necessity.