Opossum Obsession
I decided to go into the woods at Lock and Dam today. No real goal…just packed the usual: a camera incase I saw anything interesting, and a plastic bag incase I found anything dead.
The water was high, so the concrete waterfall is now an actual waterfall. It was tricky getting past it, but once I got across and made it onto the trail that runs alongside the beautiful swamp, I was rewarded with that sense of peace one can only find when alone in the woods.
I just wandered around, played with my camera, gleaned the polished bones from that dead deer Tim showed me ages ago…. As everything dimmed at dusk, the quiet woods suddenly became alive with all manner of animal. As usual, I felt very out of place in this city of busy beings. Two does stretched up their long necks to peer at me from the other side of the lake. A very large beaver made a hole in the thick algae as his tail smacked the water’s surface to threaten me. A big ‘possum was ambling carelessly alongside the stream, and when he noticed me watching him, he trotted clumsily to the nearest vine and shimmied up it to what he thought was a safe height (about eight feet). He then just hung there, peering at me like a little person. He was so cute!
Once someone told me my totem was an Opossum… But I think it was more of an insult as I was rummaging through a garbage bin at the time.
I’m thinking for my independent project I will illustrate one of the Native American myths about Opossum. "How Opossum Got Her Pouch" is a bizarre one.
I think I want one as a pet.
The water was high, so the concrete waterfall is now an actual waterfall. It was tricky getting past it, but once I got across and made it onto the trail that runs alongside the beautiful swamp, I was rewarded with that sense of peace one can only find when alone in the woods.
I just wandered around, played with my camera, gleaned the polished bones from that dead deer Tim showed me ages ago…. As everything dimmed at dusk, the quiet woods suddenly became alive with all manner of animal. As usual, I felt very out of place in this city of busy beings. Two does stretched up their long necks to peer at me from the other side of the lake. A very large beaver made a hole in the thick algae as his tail smacked the water’s surface to threaten me. A big ‘possum was ambling carelessly alongside the stream, and when he noticed me watching him, he trotted clumsily to the nearest vine and shimmied up it to what he thought was a safe height (about eight feet). He then just hung there, peering at me like a little person. He was so cute!
Once someone told me my totem was an Opossum… But I think it was more of an insult as I was rummaging through a garbage bin at the time.
I’m thinking for my independent project I will illustrate one of the Native American myths about Opossum. "How Opossum Got Her Pouch" is a bizarre one.
I think I want one as a pet.