I found it as I walked around the small area that I sum up as “the parking lot,” a landscape composed of a parking lot in an office park surrounded by mounds of man-made green. When I first saw it upon the hill — a bit of white, bowl-shaped — I thought it simply litter. Perhaps a discarded jug of milk or even bleach. If you knew where to look you can actually see it in the above picture. I kept ignoring it. But as I walked around snapping photos of trees and leaves and rocks and brightly lit currents in the muddy stream, the light kept striking that white upon the hill. And finally my curiosity was piqued.
Old bones bleached white by time.
From the teeth, an herbivore, probably a white-tailed deer.
Carried in by a coyote? Unsurfaced by recent storms?
Most impressive to me are the patterns upon the skull.
Like rivers winding across the earth.
Just an unexpected find that makes one pause and wonder.
Words + Images 