Natural Beauty That Will Never Be Miss America or Miss USA

I hate to harp on this subject again, but with the upcoming Miss USA pageant advertisements on TV, I feel disgusted by the superficial hype of what Americans consider real beauty. The irritation of it all feels like a sliver of wood jammed under my skin. Who are these people who equate beauty with a drop-dead gorgeous body, glossy long hair, layers of makeup, painted nails, and sequined gowns? I suppose that if that is what floats your boat, then great, but I believe that what a person lives and breathes in their soul is what truly reflects beauty. So, if living and breathing cosmetics, wearing the latest style clothing, and saying all of the pretty things the judges and people want to hear is what blows your sequined gown up, then go for it!

Peeking from underneath Mama’s udder!

Like many mammals, the baby does not have the ability to relieve itself on its own for the first few weeks so the mother stimulates it by licking. The doe will lick the urine and feces from the fawn while she’s nursing and ingest it. This keeps the fawn from being detected by predators. The mother can also detect what might be lacking in the fawns diet. Daisy will know what plants to eat to give Heidi the nutrition she needs.

No mascara, eyeliner, eyebrow pencil or lip liner on this little beauty! No store-bought, sequined gown… Heidi’s mama made this coat herself!

It took me three days of traipsing around after Daisy deer this week, to finally catch up with her fawn. This little girl is most excellent at hiding, which is what inspired my friend Ruthie to suggest the name “Heidi”, for this new baby. Daisy has not been helping me achieve photographs either. She leads me on a wild chase all through the highly humid, insect-infested (mostly mosquitos) woodland bottom, until she’s ready to feed her little charge. I have waited patiently, swatting bugs, and sweating profusely. I have walked up and down the slope, through trees and all sorts of unpleasant vegetation, trying to watch out for spider webs, snakes in trees, and other creepy, crawly critters on the ground.

Then, one morning after returning home from running errands in a nearby town, the trunk loaded down with bags of corn and deer feed, I spotted Daisy as I pulled the car up in the driveway. She was in her old deer pen and seemed to be acting secretive, so I did not even bother unloading the car, but rather dashed inside the house for my camera and took off after her. Daisy did her usual loitering around, acting nonchalant, nibbling a little of this and that, and making sure to urinate and leave her mark in her old stomping grounds. In a few minutes though, she made her way to my mom-in-law’s backyard. Sure enough, Daisy was mooing around in the iris beds in the same area she hid Spirit and Rowdy when they were little.  Pretty soon, I noticed Daisy had that “look” she gets while nursing – head up, looking alert, but not moving a muscle. I moved around to get a better angle, and noticed Heidi peering from under her mother’s udder.

Daisy keeps an eye on Heidi as she ventures my direction.

Already Miss Heidi is on high alert, taking in her surroundings and listening intently!

Passing by me just a few feet away, Heidi looks back as if to say, “Hurry up Mama!”.

I considered myself very lucky to get a few photographs of Daisy’s new baby that day. I kept a good distance but, thanks to my zoom lens, still managed to get closeup shots. Daisy did not waste a lot of time in the iris beds, and soon took another path through thick vegetation before taking off on a quick trot across the pasture, with Heidi running lickety-split behind her! I followed them down the hill near the burn pile and on down into the bottom where Daisy licked and groomed Heidi, who still seemed interested in nursing. After a thorough cleaning and a little bonding time, Daisy made her way up to the knoll overlooking the woodland bottom. This was Rowdy’s favorite spot to bed down when he was little. Thinking back to last year, a bit of sadness tugged at my heart. Rowdy would have been a year old this week. But then I think of the joy it brings to see Spirit, now as a yearling, so strong and confident. We spotted her in the pasture one night recently, and have sometimes seen her grazing on the lower clover patch in early mornings. And now Daisy has another little miracle to be her companion for another year. Ah, the circle of life goes round and round!

As I sat at my computer looking back over the photographs I had managed of Miss Heidi, I was taken aback by the beauty of this little fawn. I marveled at the changes in her over just the last week. For comparison, I also looked back at photographs of Rowdy and Spirit. Heidi’s eyes are a deeper blue, and her markings were much different from her half-siblings’. Perhaps she was more a replica of her father, where Spirit and Rowdy looked more like Daisy. I wondered about the buck that Daisy sought out those four days she had disappeared last November. Was he one of the five we had seen together over the harder winter months, or maybe even the king of them all who stayed hidden in the deep woods? Oh well, none of that mattered really. Eventually, Heidi will show us her personality, and her features will change and it will not matter who she resembles or what kind of genes created her. To me, she is a beauty regardless. Just like her mother, and her siblings, and countless other relatives in the local herd who frequent the woodlands and beyond.

Daisy moo’s and they’re off across the pasture!

Mama and baby head to the woods.

Daisy stops short of the woods to check for danger, then ambles down the slope, Heidi following.

Whoever is chosen as Miss USA on Saturday evening, will, in my opinion, never hold a candle to the natural beauty that resides here in our woodlands. And I will not be spending my time watching the pomp and parade of it on television that night. Likely, I will be out watching for Daisy and Heidi, or perhaps Spirit, to travel down the woodland path. As I wait on our back porch, I will watch the sun set and listen to the birds put out the last calls of the day. I will observe the little bats welcome the evening sky as they fly helter-skelter just above the top of the slope, and then listen to the whisper of the gentle breeze in the trees as stars begin to twinkle above. Yes, nature’s pageant of beauty is timeless, perfect, and unspoken. And those who listen, will not only see her beauty, they will know and live her passion.

Daisy takes a little time to groom and bond with her baby girl. Soon she will lead Heidi to the knoll above the burn pile and bed down together for the afternoon.

© 2014 Day by Day the Farm Girl Way…