VISITOR OF A DIFFERENT KIND

DAY 62-63

Well, 2 months of this project is behind me, haven’t written anything earth shattering yet or made any progress on those ‘lost stories’ filed away long ago awaiting some attention to breathe new life into them. Then again, if I haven’t dragged them out by now to peruse once again and sift through what’s worth keeping and what’s simply a load of crap, then maybe they’re all better staying where they are. If this whole process is supposed to be a new beginning, then maybe I simply have to begin anew. Don’t think I can go so far as to throw them all out and delete the old files, I’m not quite that rash, but I definitely need to find something fresh that stirs me enough or riles me enough or challenges me enough to believe it is worth engaging once again in the torture of applying myself to a long term task. Until then, we return to the everyday.

I fell in love with echidnas decades ago, probably very early on after arriving from England when I was 10 years old. Not for me the supposedly cuddly koala or docile wallaby, I tended towards the more quirky native inhabitants, those which I felt had a bit more character and spunk. My favourites? Echidnas, emus, and of the gentler varieties, sugar gliders. Have had close dealings with sugar gliders and emus, will keep those stories for another time, but echidnas by their very nature don’t exactly allow for close contact.

After all my recent encounters with bugs of various shapes and sizes, went out to get the washing off the line today when hello, a surprise of a much more welcome nature greeted me, an echidna foraging with his long snout. My presence prompted the usual burrowing himself into a ball so all that was visible was his spiny exterior, but my patience paid off as he emerged and headed off on his quest for an ant snack. I never fail to get excited when I see one, either in its natural habitat or having strayed into my yard, that cute face, the sassy wiggle of the backside as they walk. Unique and altogether endearing.