A nice send off

I'm nearing the end of my time in NY, and this morning I had 3 very large does in the back yard to send me off!  I used to see the deer coming and going every day but in the last few years they haven't been using this yard.  Today I watched them and they stopped nibbling grass and watched me back.  I tried mental telepathy with them, but don't know if it worked or not - they stayed longer than usual watching me, so maybe it did.

I was out yesterday and noticed that the trees are definitely getting some color.  Too bad I will miss the best of the show.  I will certainly miss all the green grass and trees when I get back to the desert which Sacramento is becoming.

Speaking of Sacramento, I remember when I lived there in the 1980's I liked to go to the Crocker Art Museum on Saturday mornings, and one painting was my favorite.  It depicted Sacramento before the fortune seekers inundated the area, and it was still inhabited by the native Indians.  It was obviously during the heat of summer and you could see the heat shimmering up from the ground.  The grass was brown everywhere, as the natives didn't use irrigation on the large scale we do today.  Think of the millions of people now using water, industries using water, farms using water, and so on, and it's no wonder we have such a shortage.  If and when the rains finally come, everyone will wish they would stop and the sun would shine for a change.  We humans can only be satisfied when we are wishing for something else.