Warm weather was here and I was finally enjoying my back deck again. The sun was out and there was a gentle breeze. I was busy admiring the tiny buds on the trees when my son Alex came out to join me. We weren’t really saying much to each other, just watching the birds at the feeder and feeling the sun on our faces.
It wasn’t long before I noticed a plump, gray squirrel scamper across the deck. He was only a few feet away from us with an acorn in his mouth.
Subscribe to keep reading
This story is from our archive. Get your SandPaper Annual Pass for access to our digital archive, plus everything else a pass includes. Details below.
Annual Pass — $18 Details
365-day access to:
- The complete SandPaper digital archive (stories date back to 2012).
- Full photo galleries from our photographers.
- The entire catalog of SandPaper games, puzzles and quizzes.
How it works
- Enter your email below and click to pay the one-time $18. Card details are entered on Stripe’s secure page.
- You’re in straight away — no password to create, and nothing to set up or manage.
- You stay signed in. If you’re ever signed out, or you read on a new phone or computer, we’ll email you a code to get you back in.
- Never auto-renews. Your pass is good for one year. We will email you when it expires so you can renew if you’d like.
See our site policies for more information.
Already a subscriber? We’ll email a code to get you back in.
















