Here of late, I have been busy constructing a shed in the back yard so that one day, perhaps, a car just might be able to park in the garage. It’s a three car garage that has never felt the weight of a car on it’s concrete floor. So much stuff, so little space.  But the theme of this writing isn’t about the car or the garage or the shed. It’s about doing something I haven’t done in a while. A long while. I needed a break from the work, so I sat down on the back door of the shed and just took a deep breath, and just lost myself in the back yard. It’s that time of year when the sky and trees are full of birds. And the mid day sunshine seemed to sparkle on it’s way to earth. I watched the hawks as they squawked and screamed at the intruding crows. Unless you watched them all, you might never notice how territorial birds can be over their favorite perch. Or just how many birds frequent and live in the neighborhood. Not to mention the armadillos that like to tear up the yard with their incessant digging. Or rooting I think it must be called. And they don’t mind you watching as the turn turf into a pocketed landscape. I consider myself one lucky man. We are the last house on the street with un-platted land to the south and west which must be preserved for nature and it’s inhabitants. Thus, there is a bit more wildlife to touch my day. And root through the compost pile.

Over the years we have been visited by creatures we really didn’t expect to see in our back yard. I’ll never forget one of the first nights spent in this neighborhood. I was home alone, just out of the shower in a bathrobe when I saw a house cat sitting in the back yard just as the sun was setting. Now, just to bring you up to speed, at that time, there were only 4 other houses on the street, mostly at the other end. My street is only about 4/10’s of a mile long with a cul-de-sac at the other end and a dead end at my end. The closest house was then about 100 yards away or so. And the nearest neighbor on my side of the street was several hundred yards at the other end. Between them and me were 10 or 15 lots (an acre apiece plus or minus a bit) and all overgrown. I could only see the other houses by standing in the street. Behind me was 2500 acres of pasture and cypress woods , wetlands, and palmetto scrub land. So getting back to the story, I went outside to get a closer look at this little cat sitting 50 feet or so from the house. I had only gotten about ten feet, when this little cat suddenly arched his back, and then sank down as low as it could to the ground. I remember thinking I wasn’t that close nor was I doing anything to scare the little creature. Just then, I realized the cat wasn’t looking at me. I turned to look so as to see what the cat was looking at when this panther, a real Florida Panther just comes ambling by no farther than 35-40 feet from me. I was in awe. And frozen. Fortunately he or she just ignored me or didn’t see me and just kept his slow walk across the yard into the next lot and disappeared into the darkness. I didn’t go outside after dark any more until I had installed flood lights. We have only seen a panther once since then and I have that on a VHS tape somewhere in a box of recordings buried deep within the storage jungle we call the garage. So, we have not only seen panthers, but bobcats, otters, armadillos, deer, and turtles the size of boot boxes. Those turtles, I might add, can really dig some big holes fast and they can move amazingly quick as well. All our rabbits disappeared last summer and I suspect that goes along with the timing of seeing the bobcats take up residence in our little nature preserve. They were fun to watch playing tag. With more species of birds than I can list and the parade of wild animals, the back yard is a good place to just sit and enjoy the sunshine of a winter day in Florida. And once again, I took time out to do just that. Time well used.