The order of the day was to head to Avalonia's amazing TriTown Forest Preserve to sample the vernal pools atop Rixtown Mountain, and while that was the place last winter from which I had to make a slow but steady retreat when my body simply wanted to call it a day after, for me, a grueling hike, today I made the ascent with no real problem. But there were other issues, the main one of which was that, as I tried to document all the critters I was seeing, I was having genuine difficulties getting everything in sharp focus. This was really, really upsetting and I hoped that the one object I was able to focus on, the skull of a deceased possum, wasn't providing a grim metaphor of my declining photographic skills. Maybe it was the camera. Yes, that's it. Definitely the camera... I'll get the critters in focus next time.