SoCal Pool Party

[uwe]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/07/bears-house-pool-los-angeles-california

Goes to show that male gay couples are just more appreciative of the needs of a single mom with two children and no swimming pool!

[morrow]

I've come across bears on the West Coast and up north in the Yukon. The cubs are around this time of year and mamma bear is protective , so one has to be careful. I have a sister-in-law that lives in Squamish , and also has a fishing camp close to Carcross.

Beautiful places , but lots of bears.

[uwe]

She doesn't seem to be aggressive, just inquisitive, but with two cubs to protect that can of course change quickly. But as long as the human inhabitants stay on their side of the window, all seems to be well, give or take periodic re-purchases of pool floats obviously not designed to withstand brown bear claws and teeth.

I've seen black bears this oblivious to human civilization, but not brown bears (I've learned that a Grizzly is a brown bear sub-species, but Californian Grizzlies as another sub-species are extinct, so she and her cubs are brown bears, not Grizzlies).

If this happened in Germany in the few regions where we still have brown bears a state of national emergency would have already been called.  West Coast relaxation about things can be admirable sometimes.

[Alanko]

Scotland has been bear-free since the middle ages, though somebody is always planning to bring them back!

[morrow]

I've been told that as long as grizzleys have an escape route they will generally leave you alone , but many of the black bears had become garbage hounds and were unpredictable.
Also met a native woman who was a guide. A bear had attacked two German tourists one was badly mangled , she beat the bear off with a folding shovel , and carried him back to be looked after. She was about five foot two.
Bear paws are frightening looking things , one swipe would easily rip your face off.

[ilan]

Wait until they go in the pool.

[uwe]

Ilan, but mama bear already did in the vid! And no, she did not take a dump in the pool water, brown bears aren't hippos! 

Alan, you Limeys are pretty much terrible at preserving wildlife, no bears, wolves, golden jackals or lynx on your barren island - and that was even before BREXIT! Instead invasive pests like North American squirrels of hideous size.



At least you managed to bring back the white-tailed eagle.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/18/white-tailed-eagle-chick-born-in-england-for-first-time-in-243-years



In fairness, your voting habits have somewhat improved lately!

[uwe]

Wait until they go in the pool.

And knock on the window pane asking for pool-served drinks.

[Alanko]

We Limeys don't even like trees. Scotland was stripped of trees to make room for sheep farming and big hunting estates. The UK as a whole has much less tree cover than equivalent EU countries. We have virtually no natural habitat of any want beyond some fragmented alpine habitat in the tops of the Cairngorms. The rest of the country has been exploited or ruined in one way or another.

[uwe]

Sherwood Forest is a myth? You don't say!

[Pilgrim]

I remember reading some time ago that one (1) tree of the Sherwood forest had been preserved alive.  I can't recall the source.

[uwe]

https://www.visitsherwood.co.uk/explore-the-forest/the-major-oak/#:~:text=Probably%20the%20most%20famous%20resident,that%20absolutely%20cannot%20be%20missed.



Reputedly 800 to 1.100 years old, i.e. when you guys weren't even seasick on the Mayflower yet. Alan used to walk by it on his way to school when it was still a seedling.

[4stringer77]

The UK needs their own version of John Denver.

[uwe]

More trees died from the cheesiness of this song and vid than were ever planted.   

I tend to be benevolent toward most of Henry J. Deutschendorf Jr's work, but this is bad enough to send a light airplane into a stall.

But Leaving On A Jet Plane was an ingenious composition, verse, bridge and chorus all over the same three chords, yet each part sounds different, but similarly catchy and - suiting the song's theme - longing.

[Pilgrim]

One of the first albums I had was PP&M. Great tunes and performances.