One Tree, Two Squirrels

On a very hot afternoon, the squirrels were busy. I watched one shimmy up the trunk of a tree with a crab apple bigger than his head clenched between his teeth. Then, in the nearest tree, two squirrels stopped at the same moment, rearranging the parcels in their little paws. The angle of the sun transformed the tree into a silhouette. Suddenly I was seeing the scene as if it was a scherenschnitte, an elaborate cut paper design most commonly associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch. Whether it's 1836 or 2016, sometimes inspiration sits and waits for us in trees