Two things for today...
Second thing. I was sitting in the dining room having breakfast at around 8 a.m. this morning when I noticed some movement right outside the french doors to the great outdoors (our side yard). I turned to see what it was and .... wow! .... it was a big, round, slow moving porcupine. The real deal.
I've lived in this house for nearly 27 years and I've never seen a real porcupine anywhere in the neighborhood. He was probably doing an early morning yard cruising to get water from everyone's sprinkler systems. He noticed me but remained very nonchalant. Padded off toward the fence line to venture through one of the holes at ground level of the fence at the far corner of the property. He certainly wasn't in any rush...
I thought that was the extent of my brushes with wildlife today but the hawk came back and landed outside the doors ( a bit further away, more reserved than the quill master ). He sat on the grass for a while and looked around. Then he pulled himself together and launched back up into the air. Aiming, I think, for the high ground of the upper tree branches --- to get a better view of this morning's squirrel distribution .... and to ponder other gustatory opportunities. When we headed out the front door to do our traditional Monday morning walk B. and I had to wait a moment for a squadron of deer to notice us, cop to the fact that they were trespassing on our territory and get organized to move into the neighbor's yard in search of newly planted, delicious flowers.
Add in our usual retinue of foxes, armadillos (watch out for leprosy!), possums, skunks and raccoons and it's like we're running a free form zoo here. And really, we're only a two or three miles from downtown. The animals are free to come and go as they please. Well, except for the rattlesnakes. There's still bad blood between us and them...
Laying low today. Got David Hobby's book about travel photography just now (thank you Amazon delivery!) and there's a couch under two ceiling fans that's demanding my attention....
Chilling out. Hope the same for you.
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