Keep Calm and Carrion

I started finding and collecting animal skulls a while back.

It's not a fascination with the macabre, rather I find the skulls a beautiful reminder of the here and now.

I love the look of bone.

I have a mallard duck, two opossums, a lizard, a cat (a treasured skull my husband found under a client's house), and a squirrel skull along with a partial skeleton and full tortoise shell.

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Several years ago we found ourselves in the middle of a very rural West Virginia on a 1,000 acre sheep farm.

My kids had full run of the place. And my two eldest took full advantage.

They took off for the woods and did some two hours of hiking before I once again began hearing their voices bouncing off the mountain walls deep in the holler.

When I looked out on the front porch I could see them coming out of the woods, carrying something large between the two of them. It wasn't until they got closer and spotted me, waving wildly that I saw what they had.

They were so proud to add to the skull collection: an absolutely perfect large buck skull complete with antlers.

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One day when I'm long gone, they'll get the skull collection with the full tortoise shell and the cat and the deer and the opossums and the squirrel and the dainty lizard skulls and whatever else we manage to add between now and then... all a beautiful reminder of the here and now.