In the past few years, I’ve been surprised by seeing more deer near my home in suburban New Jersey than near my home in rural Callicoon Center, NY. This year, we’ve had a doe visiting my New Jersey yard several times per week. My family and I would look out the window for her frequently, and sometimes twice in one day one of us would shout “the deer is back”. My cat, Meadow, was unimpressed by all of this despite our attempts to show the deer to her through the window. Meadow is far more interested in squirrels, chipmunks, and birds. Eventually it became evident that the doe was pregnant and I hoped she would give birth while visiting us. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but she did bring the fawn to visit a short time after. Sadly, the mother returned with a very large, deep gash on her side. We later learned that a fawn was struck by a car and killed within a hundred feet of our house in the same time period. We believe our doe may have been the mother of twins and was injured in the same accident that killed one of her fawns.

When I’m not busy watching deer, I’ve been watching several television shows. “Grace and Frankie” a Netflix series, starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin; my two favorite British shows, “As Time Goes By” and “Doc Martin”; American sit-coms, “Two and a Half Men”, “Everybody Loves Raymond”, “Seinfeld”, “Frasier”; and the game show, “Cash Cab”.

On Sundays, we get to watch my granddaughter, Shauna, sing, dance, and act with selections from “Les Miserables”, “Phantom of the Opera”, “High School Musical”, “Disney”, and more. As she always says, singing and acting are “her passions”.