all photos by Jonathan Schechter (August 2, 2011)

The mostly hollow old apple tree about 15 feet from my country porch under construction has been
on a downward slide for about six years. I will never cut it for it shelters treefrogs, red squirrels, screech owls and a branch that is a perfect perch for hummingbirds.
And it still drops apples.

Most every morning I find time to sit on that porch shortly after sunrise to sip ice coffee, skim
 the newspaper and just take in the dawn of a new day. Distracting me from coffee is very hard
to do. But 'my doe,' a doe with twin fawns that I often see meandering in the lower meadow behind
the the  old barn knew it was time to bring her fawns up to the tree. I put the coffee down and
reached for  the camera.  Pure pleasure for the next 10 minutes, not so much for a grand moment
of nature, but for the knowledge that they were as aware of me as I was of them.

"Ma, that apple smells so good."

"Here you go, I'll get one for you!"

"And where is your brother?"  "I think he's eating black raspberry leaves, Ma."

"Here I am. Eating leaves like she said."

"Hey! I see you moving around. Are you getting the camera in better focus?"

"He's trying to get a picture of me by the wildflowers!"

"Let's just go back to apple munching and let him drink his coffee."