The smell of nature

   For at least the past couple of weeks I have noticed something new at Stow Lake. It's not new for what or where it is, but for its' consistency; the smell of fresh skunk scent permeating the eastern side of the lake's drive, just across from a bridge there leading to Strawberry Hill, which the lake surrounds.
   During the two or three years that I have been enjoying my morning walks in Golden Gate Park, I have smelled the scent on many, many occasions, but can't recall the frequency with which I am smelling it now, which is nearly daily. It has become something of a regular thing, but thankfully not so much so as to make me expect to smell it. I say thankfully, because I know from experience that regularity often dulls me to the beautiful in the world.
   As I walk and smell that wonderful skunk odor, I am happy, because I feel like I am somewhere very special, where wild animals live and share the space that I do. Of course there are also other wild animals here such as ducks, mallards, geese, squirrels and even herons, but I have seen them enough as to sometimes (not always) dull me to their wildness. In the case of the skunks however, and even though I have seen them quite a few times, I still don't expect to, and because I smell them so much more than I do see them, their world strikes me as a bit more hidden and mysterious.
   As a man who used to be a regular marijuana smoker, maybe there is a part of me that likes the smell because it reminds me of that drug (I recall there were strains of it that were called "skunk"), as the other people that walk past this area don't seem to appreciate it like I do, or at all for that matter. Although I don't doubt that the cannabis influence is negligent, I don't think it is the only reason; perhaps it is more because both of them are earthy, and I like pretty much everything that can be described using that word.

The earthy area

   I have been told by two people at Stow Lake (one a regular walker there, the other a park ranger) since writing this entry that it is the mating season of the skunks that inhabit this part of the park. I would assume this accounts for their increased visibility to us humans, though this knowledge does detract from my experience in the least.