Squirrel Spirits

After I put yesterday's post together about the poll I realized something. I've been holding out on you! I dug around in my archives for some appropriate pictures to go along with the post, and one of them was a little different than the others. The last picture was more than just a tree. It also had a black squirrel in it.

I'm pretty sure I never showed you these pictures before. After moaning about how I never get any good pictures of these little forest ninjas, there they were in my archives all along. Oh sure, these are good compared to some of the others I have, but I've seen better pictures of black squirrels. Who knows? I might even have some that I haven't told you about.

These are still pretty good though. These dark little creatures are very hard to catch on camera. They are almost nothing but shadow even when I am seeing them with my own eyes. Speaking of eyes, you can see the shine in this squirrels eyes in these pictures. Their fur is so dark that it's like they're shadowy spirits or something.

Hmm, tree spirits was the subject of my post yesterday. These little tree squirrels seem to consider themselves the protectors of trees. They make their homes in trees just like many tree spirits. It was my friend from WillOaks Studio that first compared these black squirrels to tree spirits. It got me thinking.

How do we know that all of these squirrels are really just ordinary squirrels? Maybe some of these little watchers are the tree spirits themselves, disguised as normal everyday squirrels so that us mortal humans would never find out. This isn't just idle speculation I'm making either. I have something very interesting for you to think about.

One favorite food of a squirrel is an acorn. You can see an acorn in this black squirrels mouth. An acorn is actually the nut of an oak tree. That means if you plant an acorn it might grow to become a mighty oak tree. Here's where it gets good now. Oak trees are the clue to all of this strange stuff, so keep reading.

One thing about tree spirits and fairies, especially nymphs and dryads, is that they are thought to come from another place. Where? Elsewhere! Some call it fairy land. There are other names for it, but it is a place not of this earth. In many legends different types of trees have different functions. The function of the oak tree is that it is the portal to that other place!

So either these squirrels are very close friends with the tree spirits, or maybe they are even the tree spirits themselves. Think about all of this. This might give you a whole new perspective on those cute little squirrels, or maybe tree spirits. That little black squirrel in these pictures may just be much more than he seems.

And take a very close look at the trunk of that tree. I think I see a gnarled face looking back at me.