After the fiasco of my trip home from the Montreal Worldcon—which I was reporting on in real time over at Twitter and Facebook, but which I haven’t had the time to write up here yet—I got right down to business, digging into the mountain of mail which awaited me and getting today’s online content ready for Sci Fi Wire.

But then I took a brief break to step out onto the back deck and admire the garden. As I came back inside, I saw something tiny and brown land on the glass of the door. I at first thought it was an insect, but as I knelt to look more closely, I saw that it was this little guy:

He was small! Definitely smaller than a quarter, and perhaps no larger than a nickel. Its back was entirely that orange-brown you see, with none of the white of its belly.

I’d hoped the box turtles would gather to welcome me home, but this will definitely do.