KangarooRat of Flourish

Home again. We had a relaxing morning, a lovely walk in the woods, and then I actually had a SWIM! The water was just that precious few degrees warmer, making it an intrepid act instead of just plain impossible. Down at the bottom, it was still ice cold, but the surface had warmed up enough to make it delightful once I was in. So refreshing and exhilarating! Also, we were down by the beach house, so I changed right away instead of sitting in the wind in my wet suit.

I thought the trail we chose was not as scenic as some of the others, but I was wrong. The woods were silent and peaceful, with few people abroad, so some of the animals came out. We saw a raccoon up close to the trail. He froze when he saw us, and just sat there staring at us. We could see his bright eyes, pointy nose, and thick fur, with his sides moving as he breathed in and out. He didn't try to run up a tree or anything--just looked until we went away. A little farther down the trail, we saw a young deer browsing. She didn't run away, either. She glanced at us from time to time as we crept closer, but then went back to her chewing. We were really close by the time she chose to walk a bit deeper into the trees. (Of course, she was chewing up the blueberry bushes, which is bad--deer are destroyers of the understory plants, alas. But still, her sleek pelt and shining eyes were lovely to see.)