Gluttonous Ants

    Greetings from the woods. The other day I published a post in which I mentioned that my wife and I were standing underneath a large limb that the storm had snapped off. It was hanging from a small limb and could have fallen on us. Here is a better picture of it. You'll notice that the ants have totally eaten the guts from the tree, leaving just a shell. Perhaps like that person who only looks at the physical attributes of a woman, or a man. I mentioned this in my post called The Shell Game. At any rate, the ants regrettably do this much too often in this area. It appears as though they get sufficient fiber in their diet, wouldn't you say?
     As for the second picture, this is the track of a doe, the female of the white-tailed deer. If it had been a buck, the male, there would be two parallel marks spaced like railroad tracks, just smaller. Ha, ha. The track on the left seems to indicate that the rear foot overstepped the track of the front foot.
    Today was an unusually warm day for April. It was up to 90 degrees in the valley and 85 degrees here at the green retreat. I guess we dispensed with Spring and proceeded directly to Summer. It was fine with me as long as there was no ice or snow. When we returned from the theater we walked in the woods, looking for tracks and laughing about inconsequential matters. Later we sat on the deck and watched the sun set. I was privileged to hear my old friend the screech owl. The first time I heard this huge critter, my blood ran cold. I thought that it was some person trying to freak me out by making weird noises. During warm weather you can count on hearing them around sunset, especially if you are grilling steaks.
    I played a dozen or so songs on the keyboard and my wife and I sang with some of them. At first I did not play well but I made a late comeback.
    My wife made homemade dough-nuts and we ate them with champagne as we watched TV. These sweets are wonderful. She makes a clear mixture of sugar water and soaks the dough-nuts in them and they seem to disappear as if by magic when they venture too near my plate . As we snacked we watched an episode of Baggage on The Game Show Network and later we watched the classic film called Out Of Africa with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Watching it makes me want to go to Africa so badly that I almost ache.
   Of course, if I went, I would probably just complain about the bugs or some trifle. From that place which is turning greener, I'm CE Wills.