“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” - Robertson Davies
“Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world.” Nikola Tesla
I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not. Maybe it’s just me. But something just seems a little off with this long season we refer to as fall.
Perception is sometimes often a tad deceptive.
Let’s not rehash, or refer here, to some Red State or Blue State sort of thing. Although, how you may perceive that sort of billion dollar drama, it could be a good kind of off, or a bad sort of off, made for television sort of nonsense. Politics in the fall appears to be an ongoing and seemingly endless mini-series, full of simply weird perceptions.
No, something else about this most recent and lengthy fall is at least one good and a half bubbles off plumb, even when you discount recent election hysteria.
Speaking of plums, there’s one tree out by the garden that’s covered in little plums the size of double 00 buckshot, at Thanksgiving, no less.
There’s a lilac bush next to the corner of the house that’s in full bloom. That Gingko tree, that’s normally piled up with bright yellow leaves at the base of the tree, like some brilliant yellow mat, looks like it did in August. Past Thanksgiving photo archives, from multiple years past, show grown children and grandchildren frolicking in the flat and brilliant yellow carpet.
Photographic and indisputable evidence they call it. Undeniable evidence that this fall is just a bit “off”.
The fire ants have rebounded in the pasture. The ponds are still at summer levels. By now the lower water holes should have been filled for the early arriving Arctic bred ducks. A scant few sandhill cranes have clattered loudly by, but there’s been no real appreciable crane invasion as of yet. We haven’t seen any new ducks either. They’re late again. Late that is, by last decades’ standards.
None of this is anecdotal evidence. It’s a bonafide fact.
No credible observer of fall past, who’s spent any appreciable amount of time in the woods this year, would’ve missed the fact that the trees are still not barren of their leaves.
Once again we return to the photo archives for proof. Past hero photos, clearly show smiling faces over downed bucks, complete with a background of barren forest and field. It just all seems a bit off this year.
Why just the other day I got a call about 8:00 from my best hunting partner. It seems he’d magically managed to carve out some time for a mid-morning deer foray and he asked if I was up for a mid-day trip to the mountain. I said sure, come on over.
While we were standing in the kitchen, coffee in hand, trying to decide exactly where to hunt, he suddenly blurts, “Look at that buck jumping the fence.”
Sure enough, we hustled outside and stood in the yard slack jawed, watching a five point buck jump another low piece of barbed wire, cross some asphalt, and cruise behind a series of neighborhood houses, and suddenly disappear in another nearby neighbors’ front yard.
We turned around, and there stood his twin brother, a cloned twin five pointer, at 40 yards. Amazing!
We figured, as buck number two quickly reversed course, that there had to be one hot doe down in the pasture somewhere. So, we crept in that direction and in minutes the doe materialized, and she was actually glowing in the sun. That’s about the time buck number two managed to get involved in a brief and violent encounter with a large bodied six point. The big six quickly and rather unceremoniously, dispatched the smaller buck and stepped out in the field to follow the shinning doe as she eased down the far fence line.
It was a pretty easy 75-100 yard shot. My partner handed me his handy 30-06 and softly urged me to take the shot.
“Chip shot! Take it!” He grunted and the big 6 stopped and looked us both in the eye. Show time!
“Maybe next year. And not in the yard.” I mumbled as we watched him walk after the doe.
We went back to the kitchen, the coffee and the amazement of the morning. My hunt for the day was over. In my mind, it had been a success.
I can’t explain it. Something’s just a bit off here lately. After five or six sits in the woods, the only deer I’ve managed to put eyes on all season, is around the barn. Everyone I’ve surveyed around here lately has at least two eight point bucks in their freezer by now.
So what in the world is gong on here? How do you explain it, this strangeness? Is it global something or another? Could the Solunar Tables and rut guides all be some devious sort of lie? Is it El-something or another, or La-something or another? (Why in the world do today’s weather prognosticators feel it necessary to refer to impending winter by using some Spanish mother tongue prefix to describe changing weather patterns?) What ever happened to simply predicting a coming colder winter, or another warmer winter?
Maybe it’s all caused by some big ballon flying high overhead that drifted in quietly from China! Maybe after Black Friday and Cyber Monday things may potentially get back to some semblance of normal?
Maybe it’ll snow soon?
Who the #$%^ knows? What is perception actually? But, something still feels a little off here lately.
WOMR Note: As you may have already determined, the timing of this whiny little piece is also a bit off. Things often seem to get in the way of most schedules around here about Thanksgiving. We had 27 over for Thanksgiving dinner and I had to rent a Port-a-Potty. Since I started this piece, we’ve had a couple of good killing frosts and big rain is in the forecast. The ducks need the rain. The old Gingko has dumped all of her leaves and the mountain is looking more like winter every day now. The big six pointer that was chasing the glowing doe is now in the neighbor’s freezer. She sent me pictures and wanted to know how to cook it.
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