The fun of nature in an artifical place

So this is a little late in coming tonight, with about three minutes for me to post until tomorrow, I thought I'd say something about amusement parks.

Well not exactly amusement parks as in, "The rides are awesome!" though they are, or "I love the food, but it's so expensive." even though it is.

No, I went to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg and while my boyfriend and I went looking for something to eat we walked through the nature part of the park. We hadn't been back that way in forever. I mean we were little kids when we went through there last and had forgotten they had such cool stuff back there. Well, not stuff, but animals. First off almost right after we got there and rode the Loch Ness Monster twice in a row, we walked across a bridge where I stopped because something bobbed in the water. It was a turtle. A real, live turtle. And he was a pretty big turtle too. He was about his meal and the fish were swimming around with him minding their own business eating themselves. Then another, smaller, turtle came up and started eating what the big turtle was and the larger turtle got mad and took his food away from the smaller turtle. I started laughing because it was just really funny. But it was then I realized that I don't get to see that very often at my home. Mostly because I don't live right next to the river or anything and when I do go down to the river it's at night so I don't see much, but I hear the fish at night coming up for food.

Then on the other side of the park they have bald eagles. Yes, like the kind you see in pictures and America's national bird. Yes, real, live bald eagles. They are just as cool as you see in pictures. They are big birds. You know how in pictures animals always seem smaller or larger than they really are. Well these are big birds. They're pretty too. The males are just as pretty in real life as they are in pictures(though not as clean, but I know they airbrush them too.) The females are, as usual, not as brightly coloured, but even the female that was there was rather large. I didn't expect the female to be so large.

Then on our way to find more food we heard howling. I didn't really pay it any mind since they do have sound effects all over the park, but then I looked and it was a wolf. I stopped for a second because it howled and then I saw another one and it howled. But they didn't move. So for a second I thought they were the animatronic wolves that looked and sounded pretty damn real. Then they moved. And they moved too well to be fake. They were howling at nothing. No moon or anything. Just having fun. And the little boy was copying them and they howled back at him. He had so much fun I couldn't help but laugh. You could tell he really enjoyed the wolves.

Then a bit further up there were wolves so close. They were howling, playing and eating some treats. Steven, my boyfriend, read all about them. They were pretty animals.

Now they were smaller than I thought they would be, but the ones I saw may have been the pups so they were smaller. But they were just as gorgeous as in pictures. Yes, yes, they were. They were so pretty that looking at them made me feel a bit animalistic. The howling, which to some people may sound eerie, is honestly one of the prettiest things I've ever heard in my life.

They sound nothing like domestic dogs. They sound wild, natural, beautiful. The dogs next door and around my neighbourhood are sad imitations now that I think of it. They don't howl at the moon because we've told them to shut up, be quiet, pipe down, or whatever. But honestly now that I've heard wolves do it personally I think I'd never tell a dog to be quiet again, provided they were outside, as inside that would be extremely loud and make me think that someone was hurting them or break in. But outside I think that would be perfectly natural and fine.

So the tie in to paganism..... Well if it's not that obvious then I'll state it. Our animal beings are just amazing. They are really gorgeous to look at. Even the icky little insects I can't stand. I'll admit it. I'm not overly fond of a lot of nature. And yes I'm still pagan. I love four legged animals over animals with more than 4 legs, crawling, no backbones and crunchy. I think cats are infinitely cuter and more desirable in a home than a spider, but each has its own place in our world. My cat is just as important in my home(for reasons given in the last post) as the spider who traps flies outside, and mosquitoes(therefore spiders belong outside, not inside because inside they can't do their job to the fullest.)

I think bald eagles are awesome and detest flies, but even I understand that flies are important. They break down garbage and trash. They feed the awesome toads and frogs that live around my home. I'm highly allergic and afraid of wasps and bees(if stung I run the risk of dying so I'm rightly afraid) but know that leaving them alone will cause me to not get stung and that bees make the honey that soothes a sore throat. I think wasps help pollinate, but I'm not sure. I just leave them alone or hope they'll be convinced not to build nests near my home.

So while I was being amused by the "fictional" creature The Loch Ness Monster I was being taught how important and fun nature is by the animals they have there.

PS. I should also say that Busch Gardens Williamsburg has amazing landscape and the flowers and trees they have there are gorgeous and worth seeing even if you don't really ride rides. They're shady and smell pretty good after a rain. Plus I got some stones from Busch Gardens today that were just, again, gorgeous. Some amethyst, crystal, rose quartz, agate and calcite. Plus some other stones I have yet to identify like hematite.

PPS. The only animal I can find no real use for is the mosquito. Those nasty little things carry disease and drink blood and make you itch. They're pointless.