Marsupial.....

In Australia they have koalas, kangaroos, wombats and all sorts of other cute marsupials...........In North America we have the Virginia Opossum. One of nature's scavengers. A walking "garbage can". Hmmmmm....I think we got cheated!

When I posted a possum before, I discovered that those of you overseas weren't familiar with the possum, so this time I tried to get better photos. They are about the size of a housecat.
Look at those toes and toenails! Yuck. Sort of pre-historic looking creature. They are actually fairly gentle (although they have lots of sharp little teeth) and come at night to eat anything they can find that might be around to eat.....left over bird seed, bugs, leaves, small rodents, whatever. As you can see, I was able to open the front door and take photos and it totally ignored my presence! I have taken a broom to them, and they don't like it, but slowly go away.....to return later when I am not looking, I am sure! I have never seen one with babies, which are carried in a pouch to begin with like all marsupials and later they carry them on their back.

I really dislike the tail.....very rat like! This one seems to have a small bloody spot on his. They are noted for falling over and playing dead when startled, but I have never seen one do it. They seem to be the number two roadkill that I see in the country, (following my fox squirrels which have a bad habit of dashing right out in front of a car at the last minute). Skunks are third. Possums move very slowly.

With the nicer temperatures we spent some time over the weekend, beginning to clean up the mess left from the ice storm in February. Clean-up throughout the city has been very expensive and still isn't finished. Where we live in the country, you clean up for yourself and dispose of it yourself.
This is more or less how it looked to begin with.....a large Mulberry tree had to be cut down because it was overhanging our one-lane road during the storms and keeping the neighbors from getting in and out. A neighbor and his crew chopped it off for us and threw it all off the road, but now we have to do something with all of it.

Mike has made a good start here of chopping up the large pieces and I was stacking the small stuff to be put through a shredder later.

I was trying to figure out if we could take the chainsaw and turn the trunk into something artistic :-) Hmmmmm........

Lots of sawdust and there will be mulch that we can put on a muddy place between our garage and the neighbor on that side, so that might actaully be a plus when we get it all chopped up!

The "Surprise" lilies are sending up their green leaves. You will have to come back in July or August to see the flowers. I really need to move these to a better location, but always forget where they are.

A "wooly worm" that was crossing the yard. I picked him up to try to take a photo and dropped him. So he got mad and curled up in a ball :-)
Will get back to birds tomorrow !