I went for another walk today, around the five acres or so that's on the far side of the driveway. There are a lot of paths, or at least path remnants, where the boys who lived here before us used to ride their dirtbikes. They hunted, too. Now we three girls don't do anything of the sort and the woodland plants have started to reclaim things. There are wild berries of all sorts back there, and it's perfect for the deer, who have increased their numbers despite the hunters on adjacent properties. All the paths are delightfully overgrown and while I know I shouldn't be wandering barefoot through the brush, it's too much trouble to put on pants and sneakers just for a fifteen minute traipse down the grassy deer paths.

I startled a few birds on the way, and saw a doe and fawn from a distance, but the doe noticed me and when I tried to get closer she snorted and ran. The fawn was tiny, and I wish I'd have had my camera to try to get a picture, but it probably wouldn't have come out. I didn't see any other wild creatures, unless the newts in the pond count. The muskrat seems to be back, as there's a new hole on the end where the pond is damned up and seeps out into a little creek. It's marshy ground and there are a lot of deer tracks, though they're hidden under the buttercups this time of year. I love the wildflowers we have on the property, and I can find just about any of them at a moment's notice - proof I spend too much time wandering aimlessly in the woods.

I think I meandered into a patch of poison ivy, but since I stepped out and came back and washed my feet, I don't think I'll end up with it. There's no itching so far, anyway. I don't know, maybe it wasn't poison ivy at all. I was tempted to pick a leaf and rub it on a patch of skin just to test the theory that I'm immune (I've suspected as much since last summer when I wandered around several paths at camp which were overgrown with the stuff and never came up with so much as a single itchy spot). Then again... I'm going to spend three days in nature this weekend and I don't feel like starting them off with poison ivy. Maybe I'll end them with it instead. :P