Fresh from the meadow overlooking the sea, where fat dragonflies buzzed and hovered and the speckled seal periscoped and then rolled back into the blue, on a shadowy forest road echoing with a hermit thrush’s spiral song, we stood underneath two juvenile barred owls as they watched us with curious golden eyes, bobbed their fluff-feathered heads to paint the world around them, shrieked out with hungry bellies, and after a long while launched themselves silently on massive brown-and white wings to vanish into darkness beyond. We decided to take an unscheduled road trip today to Washington Park and after fighting the holiday traffic, did all the best things – read on the bluffs, hiked in the woods, ate a tremendous dinner, sang all the way back home.