Connecticut

So here is a post about life in Connecticut; written by a wildlifer.  Deer are ridiculously abundant in CT.  So much so that although T really would like to plant new bushes in front of the house, it seems like a rather silly idea given that the deer ate the rhododendron from our front yard (a plant that is mildly toxic to deer).  Below is a photo from our neighbors yard.  Can you see the deer browse line?   Can you believe that some of T's students are so accustomed to this look that they actually did not know what the term "deer browse line" referred to? 

 This weekend the weather was beautiful, so what did we do?  Spent several hours hand pulling Japanese barberry from our property.  But we made good progress removing this invasive plant (that grows like crazy because deer won't eat it. It also supports elevated mice populations and deer ticks).  No photo proof of our effort.  Kids also helped the neighbor clean up after he cut down a tree the snow plow killed this winter.

Then Aubrey found this trillium.  T wonders how many more would appear if we didn't have a family of deer living in our neighborhood.  T has a feeling that the previous owner really liked trillium, maybe planting them everywhere, but we may never know since deer also love trillium.