I am living more acutely now than ever before in the previous 80 years. Seeing a beautiful child puts me in a state of wonderment, or seeing a vigorous-bodied man walking ahead, with slender hips and a back rising to broad shoulders, emanating masculinity.
But it’s the animals particularly who fascinate and cast their spell. I am new to the animal kingdom, and admit with shame that for years I was totally ignorant. An awareness of animal shapes, variety and beauty has now overtaken me. And during a visit to Vermont, we learned about injured birds of every variety in need of medical attention who were being specially cared for. At the Vins Nature Center (Vermont Institute of Natural Science )in Quechee, Vt. we saw an avian rehabilitation team at work and watched two young women bent over and doctoring two birds who had been injured. We saw live,injured and now mending VT. species of frogs, fish, turtles. We saw poison dart frogs, woodchuck, barn owls. We saw butterflies, hummingbirds, and raptors, birds of prey, ansers, hawks, vultures in their cages or hanging on a simulated tree limb. A real-life revelation,. rarely witnessed, of the animal kingdom.
