Sunning deer

To help pass the time during our daily hour-long commute, I look for deer. There's a place just outside the city where the highway threads its way through a limestone rock cut. A railroad cuts under the road and wraps its way around the outer perimeter of the National Equestrian Centre. In the large open fields fringed with sparse woods are snow-covered jumps for the horses who'll be challenged by them once the snow melts.

Often, I'll see deer, one, sometimes two, standing on the railway tracks. Nose to nose, they look like they're conversing. More often, I watch for, in the weak spring sunshine, a deer, her legs folded under her, sitting in utter stillness on a large plate of limestone, watching the traffic go by and enjoying the little warmth the sun is starting to provide. All God's critters, including us, like their creature comforts. She watches us, but I wonder how many people notice her up there.

The other day she was nibbling on some sumacs at the base of her "seat". Again, I almost missed her, she blends in so well. Her coat is the colour of the wet limestone and is very thick. It's amazing that thousands of car are zooming by, oblivious to this little bit of nature 20 feet from the road who has the potential to be a danger to us, and of course, us to her.