Puddock Hill Journal #32: A good time to evaluate the structure of our landscapes.
I was walking the property line along the east woods outside the deer fence the other day and came upon a skull, which I placed upon a nearby boulder thusly:
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7bbb7bcc-f2e7-4263-bf40-6109cb2d5143_4032x3024.jpeg)
I believe it once belonged to a deer, probably a small doe, likely killed by its No. 1 predator, the automobile.
There were no other parts of the skeleton in the vicinity, so I presume a scavenger carried the skull to the spot where I found it, a good two hundred yards from the road, and fellow scavengers scattered the remaining bones in other directions.
The skeleton of our landscape, of course, is not so easily moved, but some aspects of it can be shaped. Fall and winter are a great time to take a look.