This morning, while mowing the yard I noticed a fair number of unusual things. I thought oddities only occurred in Ann Arbor, but here’s the country version of a stroll down State Street. I live on the corner of a county road that dead ends about half a mile from me and a subdivision road that doesn’t go anywhere either. So there isn’t much traffic other than those of us that live here. That’s nice, and one of the reasons we bought here.

Today as I began to mow the section of our lawn that runs along the county road I notice the neighbor’s dog laying in some shade at the end of his driveway watching me. This is unusual as he is usually with his people, but he was on his own property so I didn’t think much about it. As I continued to mow he trotted off down the road. Once I turned and headed back I saw that he was now laying in some shade but in the middle of the road. Well that wasn’t good. So I turned off my mower, climbed down and went out into the road to entice him back into his own driveway. He was a bit wary of me, but came along when I ran backwards and called him. Once he settled back into his own driveway I went back across the street and started mowing again.

As I turned the mower around for another sweep I saw a fawn dancing around at the other end of my mower run, coming out of a little pathway we have in the wilder section of our yard. Startled, I turned the mower off and watched. Mama deer was further back along the path, eating something. Baby was leaping around playing at the mouth of the path, just a few yards from me. The sleeping dog was to my left across the road in his driveway. I stay quietly on my mower watching the fawn play until it noticed me and leaped back, then ran back to and past mama, who ran after it and back into the woods. Shaking my head I started up the mower again.

On my next sweep back past the once sleeping dog I saw a young woman and her toddler standing at the end of the driveway. The toddler was petting the dog. That seems odd; I’ve never seen these two people before; but the dog wasn’t wary of the toddler so maybe they belong at my neighbor’s house? The mother is obviously waiting for something, she looks up and down the road regularly. The baby continues to play with the dog. Hmmm…. I turn away and mow some more.

On my next pass I was startled again, this time by a golden horse pulling a beautiful cream buggy in which sits a lady wearing a top hat coming down the subdivision street. It paused at the stop sign and then turned away from the driveway in which waited the woman and child, toward the direction of the dead end. The child stopped petting the dog, shrieked in glee, and raced into the street toward the horse. The horse seems to jump and trots away faster, the mother races after the toddler, the dog races after everyone. And in the midst of the chaos, an innocent, and slightly bewildered driver of a PT Cruiser eases to a stop at the stop sign in utter confusion.

I laugh out loud…it’s amazing what you can see while you’re mowing the lawn.