There it was I saw what I shall never forget
And never retrieve.
Monstrous and beautiful to human eyes, hard to believe,
He lay, yet there he lay,
Asleep on the moss, his head on his polished cleftsmall ebony hoves,
The child of the doe, the dappled child of the deer.
Surely his mother had never said, "Lie hereTill I return," so spotty and plain to see
On the green moss lay he. His eyes had opened; he considered me.
I would have given more than I care to say
To thrifty ears, might I have had him for my friend
One moment only of that forest day:
Might I 
have had the acceptance, not the love Of those clear eyes;
Might I have been for him in the bough above
Or the root beneath his forest bed,
A part of the forest, seen without surprise.
Was it alarm, or was it the wind of my fear lest hedepart
That jerked him to his jointy knees,
And sent him crashing off, leaping and stumbling
On his new legs, between the stems of the whitetrees?
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
We spotted this fresh little fellow along side Sinking Waters Trail today. The green flys were pretty heavy on him... or her, but it lay stock still, movements of breathing barely visible. A sweet surprise as Spring continues to birth.
have washed the roads so badly that the van wouldn't make it to the top. So we parked and locked up at the bottom of the holler and walked. Recent reports of a mama bear and her cubs kept us alert as we followed the muddy but not washed road. Humidity in the air made it quite muggy until we reached the top where the winds blew from the High Nob. Unfortunately, the wind did little to relieve us from the aggravation and misery of the gnats. 
as your mouth goes suddenly dry. Your ears strangely become more sensitive to sounds as you notice that the birds in an area have eerily stopped chirping as the sound of crunching twigs and the swashing of branches as something emerges from the deep depths of brush. Kayla and I both stood together, neither of us about to move, we began to rehearse what to do if we encounter a bear. Just then Lady mare trudges from the brush! She must have been spooked from her cool spot when the turkeys came through, she saw us, gave a welcoming nicker and walked up to us ready for a good head scratching.
have had the acceptance, not the love
"The beautiful spring came; 
