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

The Isle of Man was great. We walked by freshwater, the sea and in the woods, so all habitats covered.

We went to a wildlife park where I bonded with a Magpie Goose, it nibbled my hands and tried to remove my ring! It let me stroke it lots and then followed me to the gate! It was a lovely creature, I want to go back now.

That night was Samhain, we were debating whether to go out for midnight, when a huge spider crawled over my bed. I havn't seen a lovely big house spider like that for years. It sat on my hand, I popped it outside knowing it would come straight back in! That was the answer, of course we were going outside. Very dark and peaceful, but we saw no stars the entire trip.

Visited dads (in laws) grave for the first time, felt very detached from it.

Also went to a fantastic grave yard with grave stones from the Viking ties. I took so many photos of celtic crosses covered with lichen. Its the basis of my next photo exhibition.

Talking of photo exhibitions, put a small one up last night of fungi, in the same book shop.

We also had our night in London. We were in a 5 star hotel and we were upgraded, to a jacuzzi which didn't work and the biggest bed I have ever seen. A pleasent afternoon, shopping in Piccadilly, and drinking in the Japanese tea shop. Then off to see Zohar, turned out it was a private gig which was nice. Had a quick word with the lead chap (brother of Ali G) about playing at the next Pagan Federation Convention and he was interested. Got to email him and he will give me his number.

Tried a Momo special (Momo is the restaurant/bar/club owner, also owns Sketch). £10 each, lots of alcohol and mint leaves. A fun night then off to see some PF friends about a project plan.

Got a cold now, can't shower as its leaking into downstairs flat, oh well!

Nice that you had a good time. I wondered why you hadn't posted in a while. A holiday seems to be just want you needed.

Great description of nature ,glad you had a good time Kaz.

Nice Upgrade! Sounds like a lovely holiday.

Hi Mina and Abbi

hows things going with you two?

Glad you had a great time

YAY!!! Photo exhibitions.... and all sorts!!!

Hi, Kaz, I'm glad you had such a wonderful time in the Isle of Man and in your classy hotel. Too bad the jacuzzi didn't work!

I think it sounds like fun petting a magpie goose. A spider in my bed would make me nervous -I'm allergic to THOSE, too- but how nice that it visited you!

I'm sorry to hear you have a cold now. I hope it doesn't turn bronchial on you, and that you're feeling well very soon.

Kaz I am OK, thanks for asking.
Computer is stil not
Could whine but too exhausted, all well a small one -

Exhausted due to living in a construction zone!
They do not keep to my regular hours which are admitedly weird.

I usually having a short chat or sharing art work with Ellen at 1 or 2 or 3 am. The crew comes at 7am

Yay, let's here it for us nightowls! Too bad construction crews do not keep the same hours, lol.

Kaz, that sounds cool petting the goose, what a sweetie.

JEllen

Hi Kaz and everyone else!

The Isle of Man has always seemed like a very cool place to me. We used to have a wonderful cat, a Manx - in other words from the Isle of Man. She lived with us for 17 years!

Petting a Magpie Goose - wonderful! They're great creatures. I've not yet seen one! You're so lucky to be able to see one up close and actually touch it. I love ducks and geese and so forth! We have some cool ones here in South Africa. A distance out of town there's the Meropa Entertainment World, and there they have parks with very tame geese and ducks, even Australian Black Swans ... very tame, but still not so tame as to allow you to touch them!

Interestingly ... Black Swans, and Magpie Geese, both come from Australia!

Spiders ... they are nice too!

Those viking graves and lichen-covered celtic crosses sound extremely cool and I would love to see your pictures of them Kaz!

Today we walked throug the local park and saw a lot of rats by the river, they were lovely! We fed them banana chips, thought it would make a change. They were running around for all to see, but no-one else saw them.

Also saw a programme a squirrels and it mentioned Olney the home of the white squirrel in Illinois, wonders whether PC has been there?
http://www.olneypd.org/CITYOFO.htm#CITYLink

But whilst looking on google, I saw many counties that claim to be the home of the white squirrel
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/squirrels.html

We had one in Beddington once, no wars over it though.

Then there are the Black squirrel wars
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/set/squirrelsblack.html
which includes a photo of a black and a white squirrel together.

Nice to have you back, love.

Jez

awww, they look as if they are hugging!

Oh, those squirrels are so adorable!

To answer your question, Kaz, I have been to Olney once, a long time ago when I was young. We passed through on one of our hellish family road trips and it was neither the first nor the last stop on our trip.

I checked MapQuest, and it's a four hour twenty-four minute drive from Chicago to Olney. It's 244.48 miles (393.5 km) south of here.

I don't recall having seen any white squirrels while there. I would have really liked that!

Black squirrels? So I *wasn't* hallucinating that time I saw one in Massachussets! That's one in the eye for all those people who laughed at me. "They only come in grey and red," they said.

Yes black squirrels!
Not everywhere in the US though,
there is a town or two that are known for them.
It is like a shrine to them

I thought I'd heard the UK had the most.

hi abbi, wish you best of luck with computer, Eastbourne susse uk
has white ,red and grey squirrels ,(tree rats)been lucky seen all of them in wild dont know about black but.
possible some at drussillas animal park petting zoo.
spent many an afternoon watching them dig up bulbs, impudent little fellows.

Back squirrels are melanic (sp?) - a disorder caused by a problem with melanin.

White squirrels the same, caused by an absence of the same pigment.

Same as the white blackbirds we sometimes get.

Happens in areas as it is a genetic problem.

Doesn't affect them much physically, though white ones tend to die through predation as they are too obvious.

Jez

You said "rats" by the river, they may have been water voles. When i lived on the boats, we initially saw loads, lovely animals & in fact now a protected species. I never ever saw a rat near the canals or on a boat.

The water voles are declining mainly because they can't nest in canal banks which have been reinforced with iron pilings, these are put there to stop the banks eroding, caused by ididotic people going too fast on their boats; if they want to travel fast, get on the motorway in your cars & leave the waterways to those of us who think 4mph is a sensible maximum speed & lets you actually see what's going by;& does no damage to the riverbank.

*rant over*!

zdt