Actually Leonard Nimoy's son. He put the pick up this weekend on his twitterpic feed. He said, "The makeup folks put ears on my son Adam to surprise me. A precious moment while shooting the original series."

The way Johnathan responds to his mother's voice after having been born deaf and getting a cochlear implant at 8 months is priceless.

I sure would miss their relentless songs starting in May each year. So since the old dead pin cherry tree they used to nest in has all but fallen over, I put up a few birdhouses in the yard. I figured they would have chosen one of the birdhouses farther away from the house, but they chose this one, right outside the door, attached to the clothes-line post. Who knew?

This is when I often see them. When the light is low, the air is moist, and fewer people are about outside. But this morning, the scents were summery after the heavy rain last night, the ground softer underfoot and the deer, even while stamping their hooves at me and snorting their warning, seemed a bit less inclined to bolt in hot alarm. A slower day, perhaps. The perfect day to see four young deer as I said my prayers under the wild cherry tree.