Brown-eyed susans (...and dogs and deer)

Brown-eyed susans have started their annual show this week here on Roundtop. I think of them as perhaps the showiest of the midsummer wildflowers. In the almost never-ending expanse of green around me, their bright golden shade is a welcome contrast.

Last evening, thunderstorms danced all around me but didn’t appear overhead. This morning, the sky is overcast, even a bit foggy. That makes me notice all the more how the sunrise grows ever later, minute by daily minute. I almost turned on my outside porch light this morning until I stopped myself and simply refused to go there yet. This morning’s gloom also meant that the great horned owls were still calling when Dog and I first headed out on our morning walk.

The moist air accentuates smells, captures the dogs’ brains and makes them stupid. Like most dogs, Dog and Baby Dog can only do one thing at a time, whatever thing most captures their attention at that second. Dog put his nose to the ground and tried to gallop off, entranced by the scent of deer. Judging by the tracks I see almost daily, the deer are here every night, but that moist air makes their scent stronger and holds it in that spot more than is typical. Baby Dog has a different approach. She points her nose into the ground and would hold it in that same spot for 45 minutes if I didn’t drag her away.

You’d think both of them would treat deer smells as old hat by now, considering that they’re in the driveway as often as not.