Google Map UD‘s house and you don’t see a house. All you see are trees. Zoom in as much as you like. No house. Trees. Somewhere under that canopy is a little brown house, but the trees swallowed it up.

There are a couple of reasons why UD‘s house is over-forested, why it’s more like a country than a city house, even though it’s in the city.

Yes, UD‘s part of Maryland is urban, and getting more so by the minute. Development around the green island of Garrett Park – the town where UD lives – is rampant.

Which makes it all the more surreal to UD that her life in the little brown house is powerfully dominated by the natural world. Have all the animal and plant species displaced by development moved to Rokeby Avenue?

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Garrett Park itself has long been an arboretum, with immense trees everywhere. And the town’s always planting more.

UD‘s neighbors and old friends the Pratts own a strip of woods next to UD‘s house. From these woods each August UD harvests giant puffball mushrooms. The same woods hold the graciously rotting branches of immense trees that have, over many years, fallen during wind storms.

Farther up the slope of UD‘s half-acre, the Pratt woods hold large families of deer. One of the families just produced two fawns whose spotted bounciness UD grudgingly admits (she hates deer) is adorable.

Continuing along to the edge of these woods at the top of UD‘s property, we come to another reason her house has disappeared under trees: the railroad. CSX owns the land immediately adjacent to its tracks, which means yet more forest.

One summer we came back from a stay at our little house near Cooperstown and found a dead deer at the foot of our back deck. The smell was outrageous. The guy who took it away said it was probably hit by a train and then staggered down to our house.

Hang a left back toward UD‘s property and we find, under centuries of wild grape, a fox den. The fox feast on the rabbits all over UD‘s lawns. From a tree back there, at night, horned owls swoop down on baby squirrels.

This year, for the first time, I’m seeing gophers.

The most exotic thing I’ve ever seen on my land is a mink.

You say mink need water sources? Another reason UD lives with so much wildlife is that her house lies near Rock Creek.

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UD is under surveillance by a number of these animals, in particular the fox and deer. They are always watching from the edges of the woods.

UD used to see a lot of racoons and opossums, but she doesn’t anymore. I’m sure they’re out there.

Box turtles sunbathe in the vinca.

Elphaba, a toad, took up residence on UD‘s front stoop one season, and that was wonderful. Magical. You’d flip on the light at night and she’d be gulping down bugs.

Last May I stepped on a big garter snake. Now when I enter thickets to cut trailing whatevers, I scan the ground.

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Even as I blog, Adam from The Beekeepers is shoveling up a huge yellow jacket nest next to my house. I’ve been aware of it for years, but everyone left everyone alone until yesterday, when I moved the lawnmower over the mound. Out they came, stinging my ankles pretty badly.

I unplugged the mower, shook off the yellow jackets (luckily I was wearing gloves), ran into the house, bathed my ankles in soap and hot water, placed ice cubes wrapped in cloth around my ankles, took a Benadryl and a Tylenol, and tried to calm down.

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Wow. I didn’t even get to the birds. Last week I found two dead, not-out-of-the-nest babies – one at the end of my driveway, the other on the front lawn.

What we’ve mainly got are robins, cardinals, mourning doves, cat birds, grackles, wrens, and blue jays. I don’t see them often, but I hear wood thrushes every night and every morning – a gorgeous sound.

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Adam and I chat at my front door. The afternoon is sunny, with mild wind and low humidity.

He couldn’t find the nest. He put down a white powder which will kill most of the wasps, and he’s coming back on Friday to see how things are. Maybe he’ll find the nest by then. Even if he doesn’t, he guarantees that they won’t come back.

But for the next few days “you have quite a few angry wasps out there, flying around wondering where their home went. They’re going to be looking for someone to blame. I’d stay away from that area, or use caution.”