Morning all…Playtime with mum.Vance Creek, Washington. How can he sit there?Don’t suppose you’ve got any nuts about your person?Stairway to heaven?Snuggles.Siargao Island, Philippines.Virginia Opposum.Family day out?Aren’t I handsome?Impressive puffed up feathers, buddy.I know it’s a bad picture, but does anyone have any idea what this is, all alone on a Scottish hillside?The Rhino Bus Company.Dar es Salaam, upmarket…… and the other end of town.Cliffs of Moher, Eire.Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.Not far from Munguin Towers.I’m forever blowing bubbles…Well, that’s it. Tris has had to go tidy Munguin’s bedroom, again, so no more Soppy Sunday for you lot.
Rats beaten by 11 minutes. Anyhoo Judi dench doc this week she’s in Borneo. I wonder if there are any cute animals she can be filmed with. Red live in trees have rescue centre s…
Douglas……If lions are anything like domestic felines, their climbing up skills far surpass their climbing down skills. Firemen apparently spend considerable time rescuing cats that climbed up trees and then discovered that they never learned how to get down. Cat rescue is always a good human interest story on a slow news day.
Tris……They solved the problem with Dexter the lion getting stuck in the tree by building him a box he could step down on. Not sure how that solves the problem actually, since they made the box almost as tall as the little tree. But it seems to work OK. Maybe Dexter feels he has a better footing to make the jump from the flat surface.
Visited the cliffs of Moher when I was in my early twenties – about half a century ago.
I wanted to look over the edge but I was (and still am) afraid of heights, I did something I had read about. I lay flat on the ground and crawled forward to where I could just see over the edge.
While I was in this position a bus full of German tourists pulled up. Some of the elderly ladies saw what I was doing and did the same, much to the delight of their tour guide.
The thing I remember though is being concerned that the would get marks on their smart (probably wool) suits whilst I was wearing an easily washable cotton dress.
White flower on Wikipedia: Trientalis europaea is a flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae, called by the common name chickweed-wintergreen[1] or arctic starflower.[2] It is a small herbaceous perennial plant with one or more whorls of obovate leaves – likes acid soil in Scotland.
Possibly?
The now abandoned Vance Creek Bridge in Washington State, at 347 feet (106 m) in height, is the second-highest railroad arch in the United States. It’s not open to the public, but thrill-seekers apparently like to walk it anyway.
Tris…….Thanks for noticing that. Now I see how it works.
If you click on ANY of the JPG images that WordPress inserts into text as actual images, it takes you out of WordPress to the URL of the internet image itself. In this case, the URL internet image is right side up as it should be, but in reformatting it to fit into text, WordPress had to turn it sideways for some reason; probably because it’s too large, or is an oddly formatted digital file.
This is never an issue for anything but JPG images, since WordPress doesn’t automatically reformat other types of image files. For anything other than JPGs, the URL of the image appears only as a clickable link, and you have to click the link to see the picture.
Cool to know how that works! 🙂
(BTW, Blogspot wouldn’t even insert a link, much less format and insert JPG images. I’ve come to like WordPress for its ease of handling links and images.)
Cute little possum!
Lots of them in Missouri, but I didn’t know the name “Virginia” was attached to them as “Didelphis virginiana.” I did remember that the Australian possum is not the same thing as the North American possum. (I’ve never heard anyone use the “O”
when talking about a “possum”, except the teacher in one of my science classes.)
It appears (from Wiki) that the Virginia opossum was the first such animal named.
Wiki:
The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), commonly known as the North American opossum, is the only marsupial found north of Mexico.
The Virginia opossum is the original animal named “opossum”. The word comes from Algonquian wapathemwa meaning “white animal”. Colloquially, the Virginia opossum is frequently called simply “possum”. The name opossum is applied more generally to any of the other marsupials of the families Didelphidae and Caenolestidae.
The possums of Australia, whose name is derived from a similarity to the opossums of the Americas, are also marsupials, but of the order Diprotodontia.
Possums are a protected species in Australia but in New Zealand they’re vermin. I asked a local about all the roadkill splotches and he was only too happy to explain. “Possums. Never to swerve to avoid them. They’re just our little speed bumps.”
There’s an estimated 30 million of them in NZ and munch their way through swathes of indigenous vegetation at the expense of birds and other species. Mixed with merino wool, their fur makes beautifully warm gloves, though. Much needed in the Kiwi winter, and it was supposedly spring and relatively warm when we were there for rugby world cup a few years ago.
John……In the states, possums are often considered wildlife pests in urban areas. But this may not be justified (see below.) My experience is that they can seem a little menacing when they open their mouth, show their sharp teeth and hiss at you when they feel threatened. But they’re apparently pretty harmless, and will usually roll over and “play possum” if they feel more seriously threatened.
Hedgehogs by contrast seem to have a good reputation in the UK, but Wiki says that there are no hedgehogs in the Americas or Australia, but are in New Zealand by introduction. I wonder how New Zealand feels about hedgehogs.
Fascinating reads. I had no idea that hedgehog numbers in the UK had dropped so dramatically. I’d love one for the garden to get rid of the snails and slugs in an environmentally sensible way.
Hedgehogs may have a fundamental advantage over possums simply because hedgehogs are cuter. I remember Horace the hedgehog from an earlier Soppy Sunday. Very cute!
My view of Australia, is that EVERYTHING is probably endangered that is not a deadly, world-class venomous serpent or spider, or salt water crocodiles which are big enough to eat people and other large animals whole. In this regard, surely possums don’t have a chance to become numerous enough to be a pest.
It’s hard to imagine how PEOPLE even manage to survive in Australia. In the states on the other hand, we can deal with the occasional rattlesnake. Although the recent story of a lady who was bitten on the foot by a rattlesnake in an up-scale Phoenix restaurant does give one pause. 😉
LOL……Yes Tris, a rattlesnake under your table is surely enough to spoil an evening of fine dining. I’d certainly not go back there for quite a while. 😉
An adult elephant can consume around 300 pounds of food each day. They have the largest brain of all the land mammals. Elephant ears radiate heat to keep themselves cool. They generally mate during the rainy season. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING UP THERE, BRIAN? pic.twitter.com/Uhp1jxw7Vs
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Life reaffirmed, so job done, and I got in before PP hahahahahahahahahahaha!
I so love the orangutans. The flooer – something in the anemone class of thing, maybe? Seven petals, by my count.
It’s past my bedtime. Happy Sunday!
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Rats beaten by 11 minutes. Anyhoo Judi dench doc this week she’s in Borneo. I wonder if there are any cute animals she can be filmed with. Red live in trees have rescue centre s…
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Ah Judy… That should be good.
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LOL.
Ah, could be. It was totally on its own, on the hill above Lair Loch at Knapp. So beautiful.
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Lions can climb trees!
Oh! OK!
My lion avoidance strategy is mince!
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Not great photo, taken over 30 years ago with a just a normal camera. A lioness up a tree in Mikumi National Park about 3hrs outside Dar es Salaam.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xCPNGvK48swEPHVw8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/DjtGkXokTfURc2kC8
PS – hope the links work
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Worked fine Tatu,
I wonder if they had to call the fire brigade to rescue them as they seem to do from time to time hereabouts! 🙂
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Brave of you to take them though 🙂
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Douglas……If lions are anything like domestic felines, their climbing up skills far surpass their climbing down skills. Firemen apparently spend considerable time rescuing cats that climbed up trees and then discovered that they never learned how to get down. Cat rescue is always a good human interest story on a slow news day.
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Ah, they do it in the States too, Danny! 🙂
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https://www.voscreen.com/life/17037/02j12py15gt3z34/tr/
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Conan…….. 🙂 Thus, the tradition of calling a fireman when a tree has your cat. Firemen have ladders and policemen have guns.
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LOL. I’d forgotten about the Police Academy films. The first ones were good.
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Love the video. What a baby that lion is!
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Tris…..Yes, that Lion was even frightened of the height of the vehicle that “rescued” him from the little tree. 🙂 🙂
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The animal’s a wimp… a bit like me!
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Tris……They solved the problem with Dexter the lion getting stuck in the tree by building him a box he could step down on. Not sure how that solves the problem actually, since they made the box almost as tall as the little tree. But it seems to work OK. Maybe Dexter feels he has a better footing to make the jump from the flat surface.
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PS: The other possibility is that he’s slyly getting the humans to build him some multi-level playground equipment. Swings and slide to follow?
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I suspect you got it right the second time, Danny. Dexter is one crafty kitten!
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For those of you wot are interested, I’d translate that “Hakuna mpaka” at the end of the video as “No limit”.
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Very interesting Ed! In what language?
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Douglas: I’m not sure that they are good at burrowing though! So get yourself a shovel.
🙂
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Visited the cliffs of Moher when I was in my early twenties – about half a century ago.
I wanted to look over the edge but I was (and still am) afraid of heights, I did something I had read about. I lay flat on the ground and crawled forward to where I could just see over the edge.
While I was in this position a bus full of German tourists pulled up. Some of the elderly ladies saw what I was doing and did the same, much to the delight of their tour guide.
The thing I remember though is being concerned that the would get marks on their smart (probably wool) suits whilst I was wearing an easily washable cotton dress.
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Ohhhhhhhhh, BJS.
I couldn’t even do that. I’m absolutely terrified of any kind of sheer drop.
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What a lovely memory, BJS! Thanks for sharing it. Did my heart good.
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White flower on Wikipedia: Trientalis europaea is a flowering plant in the primrose family Primulaceae, called by the common name chickweed-wintergreen[1] or arctic starflower.[2] It is a small herbaceous perennial plant with one or more whorls of obovate leaves – likes acid soil in Scotland.
Possibly?
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Thanks, Sheena. Sound like it could be. My photograph is really poor so the details aren’t clear.
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This site can be handy in identifying UK plants:
http://www.botanicalkeys.co.uk/flora/index.html
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Excellent, Jake. Bookmarked.
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The now abandoned Vance Creek Bridge in Washington State, at 347 feet (106 m) in height, is the second-highest railroad arch in the United States. It’s not open to the public, but thrill-seekers apparently like to walk it anyway.
From the bottom:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vance_Creek_Bridge
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WOW…….it looks a lot more dangerous the way WordPress orients the picture. 😉
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I got vertigo just looking at the chap sitting on the edge of the viaduct.
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marcia…..Me too! 🙂
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You wouldn’t catch me near it!!
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If you click on the picture, it rights itself. Oddly!
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Tris…….Thanks for noticing that. Now I see how it works.
If you click on ANY of the JPG images that WordPress inserts into text as actual images, it takes you out of WordPress to the URL of the internet image itself. In this case, the URL internet image is right side up as it should be, but in reformatting it to fit into text, WordPress had to turn it sideways for some reason; probably because it’s too large, or is an oddly formatted digital file.
This is never an issue for anything but JPG images, since WordPress doesn’t automatically reformat other types of image files. For anything other than JPGs, the URL of the image appears only as a clickable link, and you have to click the link to see the picture.
Cool to know how that works! 🙂
(BTW, Blogspot wouldn’t even insert a link, much less format and insert JPG images. I’ve come to like WordPress for its ease of handling links and images.)
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I’m glad someone likes it, Danny! 🙂
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LOL Tris……..If you want to post a picture or easily provide additional internet info via a clickable link, WordPress is the way to go. 😉
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Cats getting massaged.
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you mention trees and cats of all types take over the blog comments… All good I like cats and loved the cat massage video!
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Cute little possum!
Lots of them in Missouri, but I didn’t know the name “Virginia” was attached to them as “Didelphis virginiana.” I did remember that the Australian possum is not the same thing as the North American possum. (I’ve never heard anyone use the “O”
when talking about a “possum”, except the teacher in one of my science classes.)
It appears (from Wiki) that the Virginia opossum was the first such animal named.
Wiki:
The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), commonly known as the North American opossum, is the only marsupial found north of Mexico.
The Virginia opossum is the original animal named “opossum”. The word comes from Algonquian wapathemwa meaning “white animal”. Colloquially, the Virginia opossum is frequently called simply “possum”. The name opossum is applied more generally to any of the other marsupials of the families Didelphidae and Caenolestidae.
The possums of Australia, whose name is derived from a similarity to the opossums of the Americas, are also marsupials, but of the order Diprotodontia.
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Ah interesting. Like you, I’d only heard them referred to as possums.
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Possums are a protected species in Australia but in New Zealand they’re vermin. I asked a local about all the roadkill splotches and he was only too happy to explain. “Possums. Never to swerve to avoid them. They’re just our little speed bumps.”
There’s an estimated 30 million of them in NZ and munch their way through swathes of indigenous vegetation at the expense of birds and other species. Mixed with merino wool, their fur makes beautifully warm gloves, though. Much needed in the Kiwi winter, and it was supposedly spring and relatively warm when we were there for rugby world cup a few years ago.
LikeLiked by 2 people
John……In the states, possums are often considered wildlife pests in urban areas. But this may not be justified (see below.) My experience is that they can seem a little menacing when they open their mouth, show their sharp teeth and hiss at you when they feel threatened. But they’re apparently pretty harmless, and will usually roll over and “play possum” if they feel more seriously threatened.
Hedgehogs by contrast seem to have a good reputation in the UK, but Wiki says that there are no hedgehogs in the Americas or Australia, but are in New Zealand by introduction. I wonder how New Zealand feels about hedgehogs.
https://www.humansandnature.org/a-tale-of-two-countries-and-two-species-the-hedgehog-and-the-opossum
https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/what-do-about-opossums
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Fascinating reads. I had no idea that hedgehog numbers in the UK had dropped so dramatically. I’d love one for the garden to get rid of the snails and slugs in an environmentally sensible way.
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I suppose even cute wee critters can be a burden if there are too many of them.
Who, apart from man, is a predator to them… and why are they not a problem in Australia?
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Hedgehogs may have a fundamental advantage over possums simply because hedgehogs are cuter. I remember Horace the hedgehog from an earlier Soppy Sunday. Very cute!
My view of Australia, is that EVERYTHING is probably endangered that is not a deadly, world-class venomous serpent or spider, or salt water crocodiles which are big enough to eat people and other large animals whole. In this regard, surely possums don’t have a chance to become numerous enough to be a pest.
It’s hard to imagine how PEOPLE even manage to survive in Australia. In the states on the other hand, we can deal with the occasional rattlesnake. Although the recent story of a lady who was bitten on the foot by a rattlesnake in an up-scale Phoenix restaurant does give one pause. 😉
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That’s the explanation, Danny.
They are endangered because almost everything else eats them!
As for the lady in the Arizona restaurant… I’d not go back if I were her!
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LOL……Yes Tris, a rattlesnake under your table is surely enough to spoil an evening of fine dining. I’d certainly not go back there for quite a while. 😉
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I’d have a stern word with the management!
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speaking of animals up trees, poor tree!
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Is that an elephant nest???
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There’s some corkers on that site!! Thanks PP. I’ll follow!
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Mind, I think there’s an element of photoshop going on with the elephant nest!
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Tris……I suspected as much. 😉
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The Elephant
The Elephant is a bonny bird
As it flits from bough to bough
It makes its nest
In the rhubarb tree
And whistles, like a cow.
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Ed…..Excellent! I love poetry that rhymes. 😉
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