Thank you Karen.
This is absolutely wonderful.

Love,
Inda

This little fellow actually exists at my cottage. He gets blueberries every morning when I am there.

Thank you Karen, and everyone for this wonderful post and replies.
I do not have a computer and when I have a chance to get to Givnology to see such a beautiful post it is a real treat for me.

Sincerely,
Gisele

Thank you very much for all these wonderful and beautiful pictures. i am quite overwhelmed by the beauty of nature that we can still enjoy.

Love,
Vicky

Here is another view of the little chipmunk at Inda's cottage

This is a lovely thread. I enjoy coming back to it.

Sincerely,
Gisele

John Fletcher is a leading specialist in the diagnosis, treatment and control of deer diseases. He played a crucial role in the development of deer farming in the United Kingdom and Europe, liasing with the British Government in the development of appropriate legislation. John is the only registered deer specialist with the British Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

http://www.deervet.com/john_fletcher.html

Nancy L. Newfield has been watching hummingbirds at her Louisiana home and lots of other places since 1975. Nancy lost her amateur status years ago, and now writes and lectures on hummers. She is co-author of Hummingbird Gardens, reviewed elsewhere on this site. Nancy is also a licensed hummingbird bander and a recognized authority on hummingbird distribution, behavior, and taxonomy.

http://www.hummingbirds.net/humnotes/humnotes0197.html

This is a very beautiful thread.
Thank you everyone for your contribution.

Love, Inda

Thank you for bringing back this lovely post.

“HUMMINGBIRD: A minor character in American Indian folktale and mythology. The northern Paiute Indians [U.S. Great Basin area] say that Hummingbird once filled his pants full of seeds and started on a journey to see what was beyond the sun. He ate only one seed a day, but had to turn back because his food gave out. He didn't see anything. In eastern Brazil, Hummingbird is the character who hoarded water so that the people had none at all until the Caingang and Botocudo Indians released it.
Since pre-Conquest times the hummingbird has been considered by many Middle American [Central America] peoples to have supernatural powers. Today it is esteemed by many as a love charm.

http://us.ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?q=deer+and+hummi...e=english_uk&cat=web

Deer.

Bulgarian folk ballads reflect the sacred nature of the stag, describing it as having "the sun on its forehead, the moon on its breast and the stars upon its back."

According to Bulgarian folklore, deer live in the high mountains, drink water from virgin mountain lakes and are the companions of the samodivi, the nymphs of the waters and the woodlands who ride them up to the clouds and the moon.

Deer were sacred to the ancient Thracians, one of Bulgaria's ancestral peoples, and the Thracian great goddess of wild nature, Bendis, is sometimes portrayed riding a doe. Her attribute is the moon, which links the deer with feminine lunar aspects. But stags are also symbols of the sun, mediators between heaven and earth, crowned with antlers like the world tree upon their heads.

At present about 20,000 red deer, 5000 fallow deer and nearly 80,000 roe deer roam the Bulgarian landscape.

http://www.spellintime.fsnet.co.uk/Folklore_Section_Environment.htm

This is an absolutely wonderful thread.
Thank you for bringing it back.

Sincerely,
Gisele

A friend sent me this video of a lion who was saved by a lady then she gave him to a zoo when he was better and she comes to visit him. In the video, he sees her and reaches through the bars and gives her a big hug and kiss. The file is too big to add as an attachment but I thought that I would up load it to rapid share and then post the link to the download. You can click on this link and download it and then play it back on your windows media player.

http://rapidshare.com/files/79444304/AmazingHugLionandGirl

I got this picture in an email and thought it was pretty cool.



I also got a digial camera now and started taking some pictures, here are some deer that hang out in my yard sometimes.

I was thinking of you and the deers today.
Wonderful images yes. Thank you for posting!
Do you have some more winter pictures too?
That would be lovely.
Happy New Year!
Love,
Margherita

Hi Margherita, I've only had one big snow this year so far and I didn't get any pictures of it. But my friend up in Canada did send me this one from this year. Same storm I had but they got more the 2x what I did.



This is from last year out by where the deers were in my back yard.



Front yard last year.



And I was sitting here and seen all these birds landing in my yard in the fall, they must of been heading South and decided to stop here for a visit. But when I pulled the curtain back to take the picture I scared them and they flew up in my trees.

I just had to add these pictures of my neighbors too, this is my newest neighbor at 2 weeks old.



And this is my neighbor across the street last Saturday on her 97 th birthday party!

ooops I didn't have that one resized yet...... sorry about that I streached out the thread...

Wow, dear Karen, THANK YOU for sharing these wonderful pictures!
Oh, all that snow, so beautiful! But of course it means hard work too!
Do you put out food for the deers in winter or are they provided for by the forest guards within the woods area?
How incredible that enormous cloud of birds!! Did they have the time to leave some blessings??! They knew they found friendly hearts in you, most assuredly, but of course brisk movements are always suspicious, they know!
What a sweet baby! In a while I will post a poem for our children and grandchildren with the picture of my two grandsons in the poetry thread. What a treasure these babies!! There is nothing like looking at a newborn baby to be overwhelmed by the beauty and miracle of life!
And thank you for adding your neighbours birthday picture ... you associated the Spring of Life with the Winter of Life and it is equally awesome to see the love that is shared around God's children in these moments of celebration. 97 and still so good-looking. Tell the Lady that I send her my best wishes and greetings from Rome.
My very best wishes for a Happy New Year again.
(I have the flu ... but sometimes probably we need a reminder to calm down a little bit!!)
Love and hugs.
Margherita

when it once snowed in Rome (back in 1985/6)

Thank you karen for starting this magical thread. Thank you everyone for your beautiful replies.

Wishing you all a very happy 2008.
Enjoy the beauty of the seasons and all the wonderful living beings on this earth.

Love,
vicky

Thank you all for this HEAVENLY thread!

Thank you Artmin for fixing my picture!

Margherita, sorry to hear about you having the flu. I quit getting flu shots when I was 19 and haven't had the "flu" since. It took me 19 years to figure out I was allergic to the flu shots. I hope you get over it soon sweetie! I'll tell Katherine of your birthday wishes. I was in Roma in 1973 it was 112 and I just had been in Switzerland and had about 5 candy bars that melted in my suit case. I was on a band concert tour called School band of America, we traveled all around Europe for a month doing concerts. I played sax. I wrote a poem 10 years ago for my husband I'll have to find the poetry section and post it. The birds stayed for a few hours they didn't go very far they just few up into my trees. I have a 6 acre yard it was an open field when we built here 30 years ago and we planted all of the trees. So I don't have like a woods area my trees are getting so big that the whole yard is getting to be like a woods. I'll post a Google picture of it my house and barn and yard. I don't put out food for the deer they find plenty to eat from just what grows on it's own and from what is left over from the farmers around me. Some times they bring me food, I'll walk up to get the mail and find ears of corn that they dropped on their way to my back yard they like to sleep in the pines back there. Happy New year to you all!

Dear Karen,
thank you again for the lovely thread.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Love,
yoko