Falling flora and fawning fauna

It�s autumn again. Like clockwork the leaves turn red and gold and fall from the trees, littering the ground with their stored nutrients, to dissolve with the dew and nourish next spring�s soil. We had a lousy summer this year. It rained most of July, there were two weeks of really hot weather in August, and the rest was merely mediocre. I didn�t even bother putting in a garden this year. The tomatoes would have rotted anyway, and I still have most of last year�s crop of basil in the form of pesto in the freezer. Why bother? Tomatoes are so cheap and plentiful in the stores these days anyway; there doesn�t seem any point to the hard work. Next year, though, I promise I will dig up my fallow ground and plant a herbaceous crop.

This morning I took these two pictures from my bedroom window. My husband noticed the creature through the backdoor and I peered at him from the dining room before dashing upstairs to get my camera. Lovely, no?

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