There is an ancient oak tree in my back yard.

At its base, it looks to be over four feet in diameter.

Six or seven feet up, there’s a hole.  A hole, if it were slightly bigger, that would prompt me to look about for a large toadstool and place my rump upon it in hopes it would be so hot that I would just know the lost boys were down there cooking their supper.

Today, in that hole, was a squirrel.

Rooting around for grubs and nuts no doubt.

It made me realize that until today, I had never witnessed in real life, that quintessential image that fills the illustrated pages of children’s books:  A squirrel peaking out from the hole of a large tree.

I’m not sure I realized that it was an image that happened in real life.  Just in folk tale pictures.  But there it was, out my window.

Next, I expect I’ll see a fairy living in my birch tree ring.