I love slow, easy-going Saturdays. It’s a rare day when someone in the family isn’t needed somewhere or has a chore or errand that has to be done now. Today was one of those rare, relaxing Saturdays to be lazily savoured to the fullest. We began with our favourite breakfast omelette of sautéed onions, sliced celery, parsley, sliced mushrooms and baby shrimps, served with crisp, chunky panfried potatoes and slices of fresh mango. A large pot of coffee plus the bulky weekend newspapers completed the lazy Saturday breakfast ritual.

The morning sun streamed through the glass patio doors and with blue skies, soft breezes beckoning, we decided to go for an early morning walk before it got too warm. Strolling down our quiet neighbourhood street, we met several dog owners with their mini-poos, terriers and one Norwegian Elkhound. It was like meeting the parents of your children’s best friends because we recognized Minka, Sophie, Sally, Willie and Dolly before we saw the owners!

As we walked up the next hill, we passed a family of deer–a mother and her two fawns–in the front garden of a house on the other side of the road. The fawns were nibbling at the roses which they liked and spitting out the bits of geranium, which they didn’t like. Mother deer went on full alert as we passed, but sensing nothing dangerous, she went back to nibbling the wild parsley. Two gray squirrels scampered across the road and dashed up the gnarly trunk of a nearby oak tree. The tail end of a fat raccoon disappeared under the cedar hedges that lined the road. Fitz, the marmalade cat, passed us to slip through an opening between the chain-linked fence and corner of thick cedar shrubs that guarded his backyard. We saw a few Monarch butterflies that had been absent but were now returning to a few neighbourhood gardens. Briefly we caught the flash of blue from the noisy blue-jay, who was surveying his kingdom from the branches of the birch tree. Overhead, the raucous honks of the wild geese, practiced their formations before migrating south.

It’s amazing what we see–I mean, really see, when we’re not in a hurry to be somewhere else. I love these lazy, leisurely Saturdays. . . .

. The fawns were