You’ve heard of petty thieves; this summer I saw a pretty thief. My husband and I were visiting in Washington (state), seeing family, attending a fundraising event and spending a couple of days at the end of the trip where my partner was doing some work conducting a choir (comprising as its singers a batch of veteran choral conductors and teachers, a handful of whom are longtime friends of ours) in a workshop. It was all quite delightful, with the exception of the horrid respiratory gunk that my guy received as a gift along the way and that cut short the workshop fun. [He has fully recovered by now, thankfully.]
But another unexpected happy thing about the trip was that the fundraiser was held very near a condominium we own that, while it’s normally rented out as a residence—so we’ve not been inside it since we viewed it for purchase—our property manager informed us that we were getting a new renter and our visit sat right in the between-renters gap. So there was this handy opportunity for us to go in and renew our familiarity with the place where we might conceivably someday live ourselves as retirees, not to mention a chance to measure rooms, note the condition of things now that the home was actually clean and unfurnished, and so forth. All useful, along with the visit to that town itself, in reminding ourselves what had attracted us to the locale and the home in the first place.
Another attraction we were reminded of appeared serendipitously on this visit. As we were wandering through the neighborhood and trying to remember exactly how to find our only-once-visited place, we passed a house with beautiful dwarf fruit trees planted along its street side, and there stood a deer, placidly unruffled by either our passing car or the midday sun, casually balancing on two legs to reach up and nab some marvelous, rosy ripe apples and munch them one after another. We stopped, rolled down our windows to enjoy the sight, and listened to birds chorusing in the trees, and vowed never to turn in such a charming miscreant even if it one day dined on our own deck plants.
Art-Colored Glasses 
Hey, the fruit was for the taking! Lovely sight. Thanks for sharing and the wonderful photograph, Kathryn! XO
True. It would be wrong to chastise a lovely deer for dining on what’s being so boldly advertised and offered! 🙂
xoxo
Beautiful image and lovely post, as always. :)xx
Thank you, my sweet! 🙂
xoxo
is that real?! Looks like a pretty statue 🙂 Great pic!
It stood there very much like a pretty statue, but only when not picking the apples! Glad you enjoyed it too!
xoxo
Nom nom. . Thanks for the snack!
We’re *all* welcome!!! 😀
When we lived in Colorado, we found that deer just loved crab apples. Whenever we planted them, the deer would come.
I don’t think either the apples or the deer in this instance were crabby. 😉
xo
What a great capture, Kathryn!
I’m intrigued by your condo story. It’s something I have considered – that is, buying one to rent out until I’m ready to move in at retirement. How are you finding the experience being a landlady?
Pure serendipity with the deer, but wasn’t it a dear to pose for me? 😉
I wouldn’t do the landlady thing in a million years if we didn’t have a highly competent, totally trustworthy agent/manager, since the place is across the country from us. He’s been fantastic, so it’s working for us. We don’t make anything off it, and in fact don’t quite break even, overall, at this point, but our expenses are covered far more than if we let it sit empty until if-and-when we could live there ourselves, and given the price we got it for and where it’s located, it’s a safer bet to hold or increase its value until we make that decision for real. So, all worth it at present.
Meanwhile, I do know people who are very successful financially as owners of rentals, either single ones or multiples. One of the recent grad students Richard worked with is only in his 30s and he started buying, rehabbing and renting out houses when he was still an undergrad, I believe—he and his wife now have houses in several states (places they’ve lived and worked), most of them managed by agents on their behalf. It can work, plainly. I guess if I were considering it and trying to work it out, I’d do as we’ve already done and find a good manager before committing to it.
😀
I’m glad that it’s working for you. The main trick being finding not only good tenants, but good, or even great agents!
I have done the landlady thing when we owned the building that housed the sewing store. Two units above. It was, more or less, a nightmare. Actually, that’s something that I might write about! Heh-hey! Thanks for this memory jog!
Yes, I know plenty of the history of dealing with monstrous tenants—hence my trepidation in this endeavor and insistence on trustworthy support! 😉
xo
Lovely post, K, and how nice to have a condo to retire to someday. We’re still deciding where and when and what to, too!. 🙂 That pretty thief looks like a statue; such a great shot. xo
We’ll see if we actually end up in the condo or not; at the moment R has so many irons in the fire and is having such a good time that I’m not sure we’re likely to actually *retire* any time soon! At least it was great to get to visit out there, however momentary the break was, this summer, and seeing the deer was definitely a bonus!!!
xoxo