It is good to know that our immediate environment in the out-of-doors is an overall healthy one. All the more so, one supposes, that aside from the natural surroundings of the ravine which we daily access for recreational strolls with its abundance of wildlife and botanical specimens, all in good health, our own cultivated areas surrounding our home are appealing in their more ordered state to the presence of bees, butterflies, bugs and insects of all kinds, and of course, birds.

Not to mention the almost-daily presence, usually at night, of raccoons busily rummaging through the goodies left in the compost bins. Their presence must be kept isolated from our two little dogs who occasionally take exception to the presence of others besides themselves on what they seem to feel is their very special property. So we prop up a few boards between the fence and the side of the large garden shed to keep them away from the two compost bins so alluring to the raccoons.

Their presence outside that area in the immediate confines of our backyard doesn't the least bit bother the raccoons, who despite their curiosity leading Jack and Jill to sniff around and look on incredulously at the presence of the creatures larger than they are, simply get on with their mission of retrieving tidbits from the composters.

But the other day we noticed Jillie's attention fixed on something and our own eyes swivelled that way to see what had so attracted her. It was a bird, its beak full of long strings of dried foliage. Then we watched as that bird swooped with its burden under the deck. Our first intimation that a pair of robins had decided to build a nest under the deck. With all the trees that surround us, it's hard to imagine why that would be their choice, when we're back and forth continually, making sounds and vibrations on the deck floor as we gad about.

When we ducked under the deck to see what was happening it became immediately evident that the robins had made starts on a number of nests, abandoned each and went on to the next. The latest one was almost complete. So we worried about how suitable it would be to lay eggs and raise nestlings in that particular spot. My husband thought of simply taking the almost-completed nest away to discourage the birds, then we thought we'd better let nature itself take its course.

And then, nature solved the problem. During yesterday's ongoing thunderstorms and copious rainfall there was no sight of the robins. And today it seems obvious that they've decided for whatever reasons that appealed to them, to abandon this fourth and last nest and to build elsewhere. We see them continuously around the front of the house so possibly they'll make their choice one of the trees out front.