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Cut your hair - I did.

It was while the lockdown was still on, we had a heatwave and high humidity. I usually have my hair cut every 6 weeks - it's quite short - but it hadn't been cut for 3 months and I couldn't stand it any longer. I cut the front and sides and my husband cut the back. OK, it's a bit messy but at least it's short again. For now.

Hairdressers are now open again but mine has gone. All in darkness and everything stripped out from the shop. I have to find a new hairdresser.
 
Krib32 said:
Sweet I just got a bow myself. I have spooked many moose while out mountain biking, I have learned to keep my eye out while flying down the trails.
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Yeah, hitting a moose on a downhill would ruin your whole weekend. What kind of bow did you score?
 
AdoraBelle Dearheart said:
Those pictures, the area, beautiful!
The main thing I'd like to visit the states to see is all the different wildlife. No elk, raccoons, cougars or bears wandering the woods in the UK.
The most dangerous encounter I had with a wild animal here was a badger. I was when I was wandering through a trail in some long grass at dusk, and this badger jumped onto the path right in front of me, and huffed at me, clearly not happy that I was disturbing him! I turned and beat a hasty retreat. If anyone would have the bad luck to be savaged by a badger, it would be me, and it would be mortifying.
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I saw some red deer when I was in Scotland--they are almost the same as the American elk. And a smaller deer too, a roe deer maybe?

We do have a lot of wildlife, and it's pretty common to see antelope or mule deer, but for most animals it's like @Retired Viking said about the moose--the animals are around, but you don't see them too often. I usually hear or smell elk before I see them (and they are big!). Mountain lions/cougars are quite common around here, and I've only seen two in my life. Most wild animals live by staying out of sight, and they are very good at not dying. :)

That's funny about the badger. I was out driving dirt roads in the mountains with a friend one time when we saw a badger emerge from a culvert pipe and start hunting. We got out of the truck and watched it from about 30 yards away. It shuffled back and forth, grunting and casting sidelong glances our way. After a minute or two, it turned toward us, shook itself and squared its shoulders, and started determinidly in our direction, as if to say, "Alright, I've had it with you clowns."

We decided, hey, maybe it's time to get back in the truck. ha ha ha
 
WhistlingBadger said:
I saw some red deer when I was in Scotland--they are almost the same as the American elk. And a smaller deer too, a roe deer maybe?

We do have a lot of wildlife, and it's pretty common to see antelope or mule deer, but for most animals it's like @Retired Viking said about the moose--the animals are around, but you don't see them too often. I usually hear or smell elk before I see them (and they are big!). Mountain lions/cougars are quite common around here, and I've only seen two in my life. Most wild animals live by staying out of sight, and they are very good at not dying. :)

That's funny about the badger. I was out driving dirt roads in the mountains with a friend one time when we saw a badger emerge from a culvert pipe and start hunting. We got out of the truck and watched it from about 30 yards away. It shuffled back and forth, grunting and casting sidelong glances our way. After a minute or two, it turned toward us, shook itself and squared its shoulders, and started determinidly in our direction, as if to say, "Alright, I've had it with you clowns."

We decided, hey, maybe it's time to get back in the truck. ha ha ha
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We do have some beautiful deer, and some lovely native birds. I'd love to see hummingbirds and cardinals in my back garden though! We don't have those. Most of our native birds are large corvids/gulls/pigeons, (and I see jays every now and then which I love, but they're different from the jays in the US), or a variety of little brown-ish birds, like thrushes, sparrows, wrens etc. They have a charm to them, and there are some very pretty smaller birds like goldfinches, bullfinches and the tits (ha), but we all tend to take out native wildlife for granted, right? I'm just so charmed by hummingbird feeder videos.

Love big cats, so I'd like to see a cougar. Gorgeous creatures, but I'd also be pretty scared if it was close, lol. I know attacks are very rare, but have seen some of those survivor stories where they were almost killed and pretty badly mauled. An American friend I chat with told me about a time he went onto his front porch to smoke, heard a low growl, and there was a cougar standing on the top of the porch. I have a feeling he was bullshitting though. I don't think cougars tend to wander close to houses, let alone sit on one, do they?

I'd love to visit and see some of the snakes and things too, we only have grass snakes and adders here, and I've never seen either in the wild. I have a fondness for garter snakes, and know they're super common there, but they're hard to find here. Obviously they're not native or found in the wild in the UK, but they're also pretty rare in the pet trade and pricey. While I'd love to see the native ones there, also pretty happy that we have no venomous snakes or spiders! None that can really harm a human anyway.

I tell the badger story because that's about the most dangerous wildlife you can run into here! Which is hilarious, they're so adorable. You guys have to worry about snakes, cougars and bears! My badger story hardly lives up to that ;) They can do some pretty good damage if they want to though, gotta respect that, they're mean little buggers when they want to be. But they're not exactly looking to attack, lol. That huffing thing they do is pretty cool! Even if you know nothing about badger behaviour, they make it pretty clear that they're not happy and that you'd better back off!
 
AdoraBelle Dearheart said:
You guys have to worry about snakes, cougars and bears!
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Well, worry might be too strong a word. I've had a couple of very close encounters with mountain lions where I never saw the cat but knew it was there, and both times the cat had me dead to rights if they had wanted me (stories for another day), but they just wanted me to go away. I sort of quit worrying about them after that. Those stories you hear about lion attacks or lions hanging out at people's houses are almost always either cats that are wounded/very old/sick/otherwise unable to hunt normal prey, or they are solitary males that have been forced out of their normal habitat (usually by human encroachment) and they're just trying to make a living. And those stories are extraordinarily rare, all things considered. And wow, they are absolutely magnificent. I'm glad we have them here.

Same thing the couple times I've run into black bear mothers with cubs; they were way more scared of us than we were of them. And our rattlesnakes try really hard to stay out of your way, and if you do blunder into one, they have the courtesy to let you know they're there before they bite you. Quite considerate, really. The only animals I really worry about are grizzly bears, which are usually scared of humans but sometimes just get too big and territorial to care. Those can really wreck your vacation. Fortunately they're still very uncommon around here--the only one I've ever seen was up in the Tetons, near Yellowstone. But up in northwestern Wyoming they cause some problems.

That's interesting about garter snakes being rare and valuable in the UK. The Badgerling and I could catch a dozen a day if we wanted to...maybe we should set up a side business?
 
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