...I was just about to go out on a nice afternoon walk on a beautiful fall day in New Jersey (it's been raining for 2 days straight, so I'm happy we have a little sunshine today...) when I noticed few of my main garden enemies eating and destroying my favorite rose bushes...
Honestly, I used to love deer. When I lived in Poland in a big urban area, wild animals were only in pictures...

Lately, I don't even notice how cute they were when I watched Disney's movie "Bambi".

The number of wildlife on my property can be almost compared to ZOO content... from deer to squirrels, groundhogs, foxes, rabbits, racoons, skunks, opossums and all sorts of flying animals...

And that's where my story begins...
Last spring we noticed a nest of new-comers to our backyard. A family of hawks settled on one of our tall pine trees.
Very talkative and carrying family. Everyday we saw parents carrying food (...read mice) to the nest.

...And one day we saw their children. Two of them.
 THEY WERE READY TO FLY!

Parents were shaking their wings and screaming loudly. It sounded like a "loving push" to do the first step...


...I felt the same way when my son was leaving preschool to the BIG SCHOOL, on the BIG BUS with BIG BOYS.

I just opened my hands, looked at him with wet eyes and gave him a "loving push":