Sure, the 2012 PPOC Manitoba Awards Announcement & Banquet is almost here. And as a finalist for Manitoba Photographic Artist of the Year, I suppose I am a kind of trophy hunter! But yesterday, I received a trophy of a different kind.
Yesterday was a bleak and damp day with a kind of smirr that makes your bones shake. My Rottie and I went for our usual walk but this time we hunkered down along the path in the trees, away from the biting wind. It was visually quite beautiful, with semi frozen rain drops everywhere, and patches of crystalline snow from the mini blizzard the night before. Buzz was on a mission through the brush. And I, having not often seen the “back 40” this early in the spring due to the insane amount of standing water on my property at this time of year, was quite eager to let him lead me there.
As we wound our way through the trees, I thought that if I was ever placed under house arrest, I would do just fine as long as I was allowed to wander my few wild acres. Who needs exotic places when anyone with a creative eye can see an eternity of photographic subjects so close to home. Too bad the “photo a day” project has been done to death because that is a project I could surely make famous!
Oh yeah, back to famous…trophys etc. So Buzz is grunting like a pig for truffles, with his big snout routing through the autumn’s crinkled leaves – deer poop I surmised…and soon we found ourselves along the back of the property where the cattle scratch against the big trees, and just glancing down to make sure I didn’t trip in the ruts from the big beasts’ hooves, I spied my trophy!
A shed antler! Now you may not consider this anything of the kind – unless you bagged the animal that was once upon a time attached to said antler. But when you think of the amazing power and efficiency of the system that “built” that antler (deer’s antlers can grow at a rate of ¼ inch per day, and as much as a ½ inch per day during peak development), to hold it in my hands is a very spiritual event. (woowoooo, cue the music from the Twighlight Zone- yes I know, I’m weird… 🙂 ) I don’t know how deer do it, but to grow a thing of that magnitude in such a short time, then to have it fall off and start all over again is a remarkable bit of biology.
Regardless whether or not I win anything this weekend, I will still have my best trophy. Presented by mother nature 🙂
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