Likely when animals other than our own very special pets look at humans they probably can't distinguish one from another visually. When we look at the raccoons that nightly crowd onto our porch it's difficult to distinguish them one from another, and we do a lot of speculating. Is that the juvenile that came around regularly last winter and didn't bother moving off when you were putting out new stuff? Is that the family of tiny kits we saw in the winter grown now?  You think those two that often come along together are siblings? Hold on there, this can't be part of the family of five kits, there's six of them here, and they look smaller.

It's interesting to watch them and to think you know something about them, but you don't. It's comforting that they keep watch and take care to quickly move off if they see someone passing out on the street, though the porch is well hidden from the street, given all the trees planted about on the property. So looks like we were wrong about the earlier five assembled on the porch, assuming one of the five kits was missing, because now there are six kits and they're much smaller than the earlier ones. Two families?

This afternoon I was out sweeping the porch. There is just so much dirt and detritus left from so many little paws plodding through the garden soil and bringing it onto the porch. No use telling this to Irving, he feels compelled to feed our wild bestiary. The three large clumsy crows that come along together must also be siblings or parents and an adolescent. When they're frightened they evacuate in more ways than one.

Well, it's another beautiful late-summer day, nice and breezy and the sun bright and hot. So bright it seemed to have no trouble at all penetrating the forest canopy when we went out in the early afternoon. Jackie seemed particularly interested in off-trail sniffing about and Jillie, this time, followed him every time he dashed off in a new direction. They had no idea and no interest either when we stopped in front of a maple that had been wrapped about in wire mesh a few years back when a 'temporary fence' had been put up by the municipal workers who look after public parks, after a collapse in some of the spring-saturated hills.

The trunk of the tree close to the bottom was shimmering in the light of the sun. It looked as though a stream of liquid was pouring upward, from the ground level to the top of the tree. A closer look revealed them to be ants with wings. They had evidently left an ant nest that had become too crowded. When that happens the population splits and some go off to find a new home, taking with them a nascent queen who mates with the worker ants. So the stream of thousands of winged ants we witnessed was part of a mating ritual.

We couldn't believe the numbers involved and their steady climb from the base to the crown of the tree. Their wings will all fall off when the ritual is completed, the new Queen established and a new nest chosen. A young couple with two little dogs passed us as we watched the spectacle, but they were completely disinterested. It's Saturday so a few more people than usual were out on the forest trails.

Coming across one of our ravine acquaintances, we were informed he had spotted the return of the Great Blue heron. And that, of course, spells the end of those little orange and the black goldfish we spotted yesterday in the creek. They won't, after all, have the opportunity to grow to a large size since the heron will find them perfect for breakfast, lunch and dinner with the occasional snack between.

Latest-blooming of the fall asters in the forest; the largest and prettiest type

On our way out after our completed forest circuit we stopped briefly by the meadow and looked intently at the pools in the creek. At first there was no sign of the fish, then moving to the opposite side of the creek, we did see a few largish bright orange fish and trailing after them, smaller black ones. Some will survive their existential ordeal just as they have previously.

At home, Irving cut the grass and I worked in the backyard to try as usual to establish some order in the chaos of the vegetation, cutting back here and there, assessing the situation, watering the garden and the pots. The backyard tends to become much warmer than the front garden, so Jackie and Jillie were happy to get back into the house, while I moved to the front and began cleaning up there. We have so many trees and shrubs, including fruit trees that the falling crabapples and foliage from trees beginning to turn quickly build up piles of detritus.

And the trees themselves close in on the pathway leading to the porch so they have to be trimmed to open up the space. It's the price one pays for the pleasure of a mature garden whose vegetation has a tendency to grow and to thrive and to take up considerably more room than anticipated when they were planted decades earlier.