Key to the images:
1. I’ve been seeing this hawk up in the greenery, no not that greenery, I mean the greenery! For months. Here, she fluttered down to engage in some scrutiny with me, her only human friend. It was a lengthy, calm, formal visit. I spoke English. She listened. That is our dynamic.
2. This is my favorite deer. “You’re a good-looking deer,” I tell her. Now, before you wicked people start with your quips, I am already involved with a fox. The other deer are like bounding here, bounding there. Whatevs. I need dependability in a deer. Like a newspaper: she’s waiting, daily.
3. Behold the mole kingsnake! I nearly jogged on this fella. It’s a perfectly good snake, only you don’t lay eyes on it very often, so you’re like “copperhead?” but no, that’s not a copperhead. To be clear, I don’t like snakes: most of them can go f*** off. But I like this one.
4. Here we see a renegade member of Brood X reclining comfortably on a stalk of grass. I remember when everybody was like “Where’s Brood X?” blah blah blah (impatiently) but not anymore. Cicadas everywhere: mating on my car tires, ffs. Good thing I’ve got all-weather radials.
5. The Fox in My Life. (a) She jumps the creek but looks back to see where I am. (b) She appears suddenly in the grassy grassy lea. (c) She jogs with me at a remove, on the edge of the woods. (d) She checks on me in the snow, after I had slipped! (e) This is just heartbreaking, I will confess. Here she is, waiting for me, sitting as a dog might sit. I have been pandemic-isolated from so many people and places but this fox has been my friend.
