This fall I’d been anxiously waiting for the half-dozen or so apples on the little Dwarf Macintosh to ripen up. Most folks with any experience assured me that when the apples were ripe, they’d begin to fall off the tree.

One day, I was away all day. When I returned home it was dark, and I gave little thought to the apples outside. In the morning, I opened the front door to let in some fresh air and light.

Just outside was this little buck, eating something from the ground. When he saw me he raised his head and I could see a very robust apple in his mouth. I realized that the apples must have started to drop, so I went out to have a look. Of course the buck started and trotted off, dropping the apple as he left. Looking around, I could see that it was the only one; none in the tree, no more on the ground.

The apple was nearly pristine, and I thought about just leaving it for the buck for if he should return. Since he’d obviously already gotten the other five, I decided to bring it inside instead, where I washed it up, cut around the barely-noticeable tooth marks, sliced it up and ate it with much good humor.

This blog will be a collection of images from approximately one square acre of the land around my house. Periodically, I’ll discover some little item–a leaf, a rock, a piece of rusty metal, weathered wood perhaps–and will record such with my camera. I’ll upload the image here and comment upon it: what it is, genus, species, composition and tell the story about it. I hope that you will rejoin me with comments upon these subjects.