oh, and...

I meant to mention in posting about my rambles in our local parks that I've run across a few comforting signs of wildlife. Specifically, in my first trek I saw a whole area where young saplings had been cut down, and I was rather wondering if young hooligans had been about when I noticed that the young hooligans would have to have had very, very large teeth and been quite short to have done the damage in question. :-) Looking around at older stumps, I could see that certain friends of the Pevensies had clearly been at work in the area for some time. :-)

As I was coming back at dusk that same day, I saw movement crossing the trail ahead of me. I moved forward slowly and quietly, and got to watch several deer as they assessed me warily and retired up the slope they had been moving towards. Being well-trained deer, they used bounding overwatch, with one or two keeping an eye on me while the other ones moved, then trading roles. In the dusk, with plenty of dead leaves covering the ground, their brown coats blended in almost perfectly with the background, only popping into visibility when they lifted their big white tails to leap away.