h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Do chippies bite, if cornered?

I don't think squirrels bite, but maybe rats do. We often get visited by a rat or two in our communal bin and recycling shed. The last fella I saw was totally massive.

This being an urban area, the management have to call Pest Control.

I talked to some people last year, they'd seen a mouse in their garage, and transported him to the countryside, about two miles up the road. The Pest Control chap told me that this is well meant but unfortunately it was an urban mouse, not a fieldmouse, and would probably last about fifteen minutes in the countryside.

I remember the Aesop tale about Town Mouse and Country Mouse, but I can't remember the meaningful ending. I think Aesop's tales always had a meaningful message.

We also had a mouse in our flat for a couple of weeks, the first winter here. Albert we called him. He didn't eat anything, apparently he was just curious, had scuttled up a wall shaft, attracted by warmth. He scuttled out again before the shaft was blocked at the base, and we never saw him again.



End of rodent posting. Phew. I'll start seeing chippies scuttling across the carpet, and we don't even have them here.

Aesop's Fables! Not tales. If there's a difference? Always known as Aesop's Fables though. I had a copy. The Goose With The Golden Egg. I remember that one..

I suspect Aesop was Greek, and that the Fables are ancient, like they were parables, teachings, but of course I'm now going to have to find out.

Aesop was North African. And the stories were popular in ancient Greece. They had 'morals'. The moral of the city mouse and the country mouse is still relevant today - city people prefer their own hazards to those of the country, and vice versa...

Chipmunks and squirrels will bite if cornered. Don't corner them, you might end up in the emergency room. Normally, though, they are pretty harmless. Mice will chew up your wiring, you don't want them in the walls.

My nephew said the farm has a lot of squirrels these days. I wondered at this because of all the cats. He pointed out that grey squirrels are larger than many of their cats...

What??

About Aesop being North African? Ah right. I must find out more. Morals! Yes!

About chipmunks and squirrels biting if cornered. About grey squirrels larger than cats?? Eeeek!

Off to watch the best of Glastonbury Festival, which should have been this weekend, so the BBC are doing repeats of better times to cheer us all up.

Have fun!

Mulberries look like blackberries. They taste a little like them, as well, though blander in flavor.

I did not know that. I've heard the word 'mulberry' all my life, but I don't think I've ever seen one.

Just don't walk around the Bush pre noon, especially if it's cold and frosty!

You probably won't see any mulberries unless there's a mulberry tree nearby. If there is, watch where you step!

My neighbor's mulberry tree is about five feet form my shed. The branches hang over into my yard. Whenever I want to nibble on mulberries, I bring a bowl, hold it under a branch, and jostle some ripe berries into falling into it.

Good advice, both.

(breaks off from watching amazing Chemical Brothers set from a Glastonbury Festival gone by, to consider the even more important mulberry conversation with h2g2 friends)

Yes!

Ah right, paul, so that's what a mulberry is, and how it tastes. Interesting. Thanks!! I never ever knew.

And .. oh, wait ...

Mulberry Bush ...

Back inna

Another type of mulberry tree has white berries. I went on a class trip and tasted some at Fruitlands (a commune started by the Alcott family and some others). Ralph Waldo Emerson and Thoreau were also visitors.

Ah, right! So watch where you step? Because there's mulberries on the ground? The mulberry bush sounds rather enchanting. Does it have a place in American folklore?

Does it have thorns, like the blackberry bramble?

I just saw my life flashing before me.

What???



You see, what FWR was referring to was this ... which I haven't thought about in 140 years ..



(from memory)

Here we go round the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush, the mulberry bush

Here we go round the mulberry bush, on a cold and frosty morning



There it is! Embedded in my brain! Is it a nursery rhyme?? I even remember the tune.

And why did British kids sing it? We don't have mulberry bushes. I don't think. Do we??

Hmmm. Mrs Mulberry. So that's where I heard the word. The nursery rhyme. I thought Mrs Mulberry was a messenger from another dimension. heheh. Of course, she still might be. An Imaginary Friend. Mrs Mulberry, I love you. Bring me wisdoms from your world.

How very interesting.



Oh! Now on TV we have the late, great David Bowie on the Pyramid Stage, Glastonbury Festival.

But here I am, still, h2g2, your power is great and hallowed.

Fruitlands? White mulberries?

How very amazing

Victoria female prisoners used to excersise around the mulberry tree in the yard at HMP Wakefield, sadly with their kids who were imprisoned with their mums!

The tree was still there til 2017.

Really??? That's the origins of that nursery rhyme, then.

How very extraordinary.

You never know, eh?

Thank you for the knowledge, sir.

A lot of nursery rhymes had very dark origins, I do believe.

How come the kids got to sing them?

In some ways, its good that the songs were written, the suffering of the people concerned is not forgotten, but why through kids' songs? Better surely through folk music?

All very interesting.

I've spent quite a while on Youtube trying to find the City Mouse and Country Mouse record from my childhood, and failing.

But I happened upon this little gem from my schooldays, and thought you might enjoy it. It's about shooting stars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7xUkMFmy4o

The h2g2 Post is up at A87980205 - come and see!
NEW Create theme! Find out what we want to know about your public art.
A high-level discussion of AI and its issues with Robbie Stamp and the Core Team. Ponder the puddle.
Ducks, other birds. Flowers. Jokes about FWR's EPIC garden.
Copper mining in Alaska, baby bird raising in Austria, gardening everywhere.
Jokes, opportunites for jokes, cinema, and more! Also, a new fiction serial from Reefgirl!
This issue is brimming with summer fun!

Black mulberries are not native to England. How they got there probably depends on the Roman invaders. Mulberry seeds have been found in ruins in London.

"Roman settlements near the Thames suggest that the Romans planted black mulberries for their fruit."

http://www.moruslondinium.org/research/timeline#:~:text=AD%2043%20%2D%20410-,Londinium,black%20mulberries%20for%20their%20fruit.&text=In%20this%20case%2C%20mulberries%20would,before%20the%205th%20century%20CE.

Later, King James (of Bible fame) imported some mulberry trees to start a silk industry (silkworms eat mulberry leaves). The Romans probably beat him to it by about 1500 years.

"White mulberry is native to eastern and central China; red mulberry is native to areas of the central and eastern United States; and black mulberry is native to western Asia (“Mulberry” – CRFG, 1997)."
http://www.agmrc.org/commodities-products/fruits/mulberries#:~:text=White%20mulberry%20is%20native%20to,%E2%80%9D%20%E2%80%93%20CRFG%2C%201997).

Jokes about my garden? Really? Tsk Tsk.