Although common throughout the forests of Europe and Asia, the red squirrel is now rare in Britain. The exact reasons for its decline are not precisely known, but currently to blame are the competition for food from its larger cousin – the grey squirrel, and the destruction of suitable woodland habitat.
The red squirrel currently enjoys full protection in Britain today, but it was only 100 years ago that measures were taken to eradicate the red squirrel from Scotland because of the damage it caused to its trees.
Where does the red squirrel live?
Red squirrel
With powerful hind legs and sharp claws, the red squirrel is perfectly adapted to climbing slender boughs and for leaping from branch to branch in its woodland environment.
In continental Europe, the red squirrel is found in coniferous forest. In Britain, it lives mainly on broad leaved woodland and – unlike the grey squirrel - it is now rarely seen in the towns or cities.
For most of the year outside of the breeding season, the red squirrel is a solitary animal although it frequently shares its nest with others for warmth – especially during our cool winters.
The red squirrel nest is either a drey or a den. A drey is a 30cm domed ball of twigs and leaves built on a twig platform usually in the fork of a branch. The dome is packed out with leaves, soft bark and given a soft lining of feathers, thistledown or dried grasses. A den is often an old, enlarged woodpecker’s nest found in a tree hollow, lined with the same soft materials.
The red squirrel moults and grows a new coat twice a year. In summer it has a short, mainly chestnut coat. This is replaced in August to November by a thicker, dark brown coat, when its ear tufts become prominent.
It is quite easy to mistake a red squirrel for a grey squirrel in summer when its ear tufts are indistinct and its fur is partially grey.
If like me the thought of home grown English strawberries is enough to make your mouth water then now is the time to start getting to work. You can't beat the flavour of homegrown strawberries - the greengrocers just can't touch it. Of course, to get the very best flavour you will need to pick your strawberry straight from the plant, and the best way to achieve this is to grow your own strawberry plants!
How to grow strawberries
If you're starting afresh then you should be able to find a good selection of plants in any good plant retailer from the beginning of March. Alternatively you can grow strawberry plants from seed.
Although the strawberry is a heavily associated with the English high tea and Wimbledon, the strawberry is not a native of this fair and pleasant land. In fact, the strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France, in the 1750s via a cross of Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America and Fragaria chiloensis, which was brought from Chile by Amédée-François Frézier in 1714. . How to grow strawberries
How to grow strawberries
For that perfect summer flavour I can recommend ‘Cambridge Favorite’, a king amongst strawberries, but to ensure a good yield remove any runners before they start to creep along the ground as leaving them will only sap energy from your existing plants.
However if you need new plants for next year, pinch off the flowers from a couple of selected parent plants as this will encourage shoots and runners instead of fruit. Remove them carefully from parent plants in early autumn and pot them on separately using John Innes No 1 or No 2.
To grow strawberries successfully outside all you need is a little preparation. Strawberries do not produce deep roots and can be prone to damage from waterlogging so they appreciate the soil being both well drained and well-dug before planting. If you can, prepare the soil at least one month before planting and incorporate as much organic matter as possible. You can even give a little extra help hand by adding bone meal at a rate of two handfuls per square metre. Then - a few days before planting - you can apply a general fertiliser as Strawberries are greedy feeders over a relatively short period of time.
Strawberry illustration
Plant them 13-15 inches apart along the row with each row being about 30 inches apart. They will need regular watering until they establish - again don't allow them to become waterlogged at which time watering can usually be left until they come into fruit. You will also need to keep control of weeds growing near strawberries as they will compete for nutrients and can drastically reduce cropping. .
As the fruit develops their weight will cause them to drop to the ground, but before this happens it’s important to cover the surrounding soil with straw or black plastic. This prevents the fruit from rotting on the soil. In fact it’s from the traditional use of straw that strawberries got their name. Where plastic is used, punch small holes in the plastic to help drainage and to stop water pooling under the fruit.
Hardy bamboo make fantastic ornamental garden plants, however if you want to purchase a number of plants it can be become expensive. So you have a choice - you can either lift a root cuttings from an existing plant growing in the ground, or you can buy a containerized bamboo and divide it into several smaller plants.
How to take a root cuttings from bamboo
Bamboo shoots and stems
This is a very simple operation, just make sure you have gained permission from the plant's owner. Done carefully, this is a job that can be done at almost any time of year - weather permitting - but best results will be obtained during early spring and autumn.
First, dig around the outside of the clump you wish to remove with a spade. Then gently lift the clump from the soil, trying to keep the root-ball as intact as possible. If you need to, get someone to help with this in order to prevent the fibrous roots from becoming damaged by the root ball falling apart under its own weight.
Look over the clump and decide where you want to make your division. Each division should have at least 3 culms (the large woody stems), and make sure that you get a reasonable amount of root and foliage for each division. Discard any pieces that don't have both roots and culms.
Lifting bamboo root ball
Use a sharp pruning saw, divide the bamboo clump in several pieces. If you do not have a saw and your chosen divisions are big enough, you can always cut through the clump using a decent spade - but you are more likely to cause more root damage this way. If a significant amount of root is lost in lifting the root-ball, you can still save your root cutting by reducing the amount of foliage that the remaining roots need to support Remember that roots will only support a certain amount of foliage. Too much foliage and your cutting will dry out and in all likelihood die. Just make sure that when you cut back the culms, there are some green leaves left so that the new plant divisions can photosynthesize.
You can either plant your divisions directly into the ground where you expect them to remain and spread or you can pot them on into a suitable container.
You may think that 'acid rain' is a relatively modern concept, but it was actually first used over 100 years ago to describe worrying conditions in Manchester, England.
However, acid rain is certainly not a new phenomenon brought on by modern industrialization as all rainfall has a certain amount of natural acidity. It is just that pollutants released from industrialization increases this acidity a thousand fold!
And don't think it's just rain you need to worry about as acidity can also be present - and be just as damaging - in snow hail, cloud, fog, mist and even airborne dust!
What causes acid rain?
Results of acid rain
Approximately 300 million years ago, huge areas of the Earth were forested. Over time, tress came to the end of their natural life and died. Where they fell, they were gradually transformed into seams of fossil fuels such as coal and oil.
Today we mine and burn fossil fuels in enormous quantities to generate electricity, heat our homes and power our factories. Unfortunately, burning fossil fuels releases releases huge amounts of pollutants - notably sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons - into the atmosphere.
Once they are in the atmosphere, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and the hydrocarbons react with sunlight to produce a selection of secondary pollutants such as ozone.
These secondary pollutants react with the sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide to form sulphuric-acid and nitric acid in the tiny droplets of water that go to make up our clouds. In this form the acids are carried on the wind to fall as 'acid rain', often great distances away.
Today, in spite of growing environmental awareness all around the world (as is the damage caused by acid rain), large scale industrialization is still increasing.
American studies have indicated that even where forests are showing none of the easily visible external signs of acid rain damage, pollution is nevertheless limiting their growth.
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, and are native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle mostly occurring in China, Europe, India and North America.
How to take honeysuckle cuttings
The most widely known species include Lonicera periclymenum (honeysuckle or woodbine), Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle, white honeysuckle, or Chinese honeysuckle) and Lonicera sempervirens (coral honeysuckle, trumpet honeysuckle, or woodbine honeysuckle).
As attractive and fragrant as they are, honeysuckles can be expensive to purchase and you may not be able to find the varieties you want.
However, it turns out that honeysuckles are reasonably easy to propagate from cuttings.
How to propagate honeysuckle from cuttings
You can propagate honeysuckles by taking softwood or semi-ripe cuttings 5 cm-7.5 cm
(2-3 in) long from late spring to summer. Evergreens varieties - such as the Lonicera standishii - also take well from hardwood
cuttings, about 20-30 cm (8-12 in) long, from autumn to midwinter.
Softwood cuttings
Cutting material
To begin with, prepare a rooting container by filling it to the top with a good quality potting compost such as John Innes 'seed and cutting' compost. Gently water the surface of the potting soil in order to moisten the soil.
Select a stem on your chosen honeysuckle plant that is both actively growing, and showing tender growth. Remove the stem from the vine, then cut and discard the top 6 to 8 inches of the vine with a pair of clean, and sterilized secateurs.
Cut the stem into sections 1 inch above a leaf joint and make another cut at the midway point - between the top leaf joint and the next lowest leaf joint.
If the species you are propagating from has particularly large leaves then these can be cut in half in order to reduce transpiration, and helping to prevent the cutting from drying out before it is able to produce roots. This will produce a stem with one pair of leaves on it.
Honeysuckle rooted cutting
Dip the bottom inch of the stem into rooting hormone and insert the stem into the center of the moist potting soil.
Place the plastic bag over the container and secure the bag to the container with the rubber band.
Mist the potting soil every day to keep it moist. When you see new growth on the stem, you can assume roots are forming beneath the potting soil.
Remove the plastic bag and continue to keep the soil moist while the new honeysuckle plant grows stronger and larger.
Although native only to parts of Africa, the ostrich is still one of the world’s best known birds. This is partly due to its bizarre appearance, characterised by a round dumpy body, spindly legs and a long neck that extends upwards to a small head.
Ostrich eggs and next
The ostrich holds many world records. It is the world’s largest bird and it can run faster than any other two-legged animal with a maximum speed of about 70 km/h (43 mph).Furthermore, this flightless bird lays the largest eggs of any living creature. In fact, only the extinct elephant birds of Madagascar and the giant moa of New Zealand laid larger eggs!
The ostrich was once famed for its feathers, which were used as hat plumes. Now the ostrich is farmed for its meat, its skin and kept in zoos as a tourist attraction. It has also been trained to scare birds away from crops, to round up sheep, as well as to be ridden in ostrich races.
The ostrich was first introduced into Australia in the 1860’s. As in South Africa, many of those farmed managed to escape and began to breed in the wild.
What do ostriches eat?
THE OSTRICH - Struthio camelus
With its long strides, the ostrich is an efficient grazer of the scarce but nutritious plant, shoots, leaves and flowers and seeds on which it depends. The ostrich also also eats invertebrates.
Lowering its long neck, it accurately pecks up the food and then stores it in its gullet, before finally passing it down the gut in a large ball. This passage can be clearly seen, as it stretches the highly elastic skin of the ostrich’s neck.
Like many other birds, the ostrich also swallows grit and small stones with its food. These grind up the tough plant material which it eats, in the muscular gizzard – the ostrich’s second stomach – and so helps with its digestion.
While grazing, the ostrich regularly raises its long neck to scan the horizon for any signs of danger. It has acute vision and its eyes are the largest of any land animal in relation to the size of its head.
Ostrich breeding
Ostrich with family
The male ostrich makes several shallow nest scrapes in well-guarded territories. He pairs up with a female known as the ‘major hen’, who selects one of the nest scrapes and lays up to 11 eggs in it.
Now it gets a bit complicated. Up to 18, although more usually 2 to 5 ‘minor hens’ then lay their eggs in the same nest. The minor hens leave the male and major hen to guard and incubate the clutch.
However, as night falls, the male takes over the task of incubation.
The ostrich can incubate a large number of eggs, and 20 is not unusual! If there are more eggs than can be incubated, the major hen will roll some of the minor hens eggs to the edge of the nest where they will fail to hatch. Soon after hatching, the brood joins up with broods from other nests, with one or two adults guarding the whole lot. Only about 15% of chicks will live beyond a year which is when they reach their adult height. The remainder mainly fall prey to hyenas and jackals. For more information click onto: EMU FACTS OSTRICH FACTS THE OSTRICH WHAT DO EMU'S EAT? WHAT IS AN EMU? WHAT IS THE WORLD'S HEAVIEST FLYING BIRD?
For many of gardeners, growing grapes vines in the garden is usually no more than a misplaced romantic idea of producing your own wine. Whereas it is far more realistic to look at it as a concerted attempt at fruit production.
How to take cuttings of grapevines
However, the history of grape production and human kind has been entwined for thousands of years, and - to be fair - it's not a bad ornamental plant in its own right. So whatever your reasons for growing, you will get some benefit.
Unfortunately, vines can be expensive to purchase and you may not be able to find the varieties you want, but as it turns out, grape vines are very easy to propagate from cuttings.
Be aware though that modern wine production involves grafting cultivated varieties onto rootstocks resistant to the phylloxeraaphid - a major pest of commercial grapevines worldwide.
How to propagate vines from hardwood cuttings
Cutting material
To begin with, prepare a small pot for rooting the cutting by filling with equal amounts of sand, peat and perlite. You can also use fine gravel for rooting your cuttings.
If you wish to use rooting hormones, pour an inch of rooting hormone into a plastic cup and set it aside. However, vines are so easy to root, it really isn't worth the effort or cost of purchasing hormone powder.
Cut 4 to 8 inch long sections of hardwood stems from the vines you wish to propagate. Use a sharp, sterile scissors and measure from the stem tip. Make sure that the uppermost cut is sloping.
The recommended time to take hardwood cuttings is anywhere between November and February.
Remove all the lateral shoots and any dormant buds from the lower half of each cutting. Insert a pencil at a depth of about 2 to 3 inches in the rooting medium to create planting holes.
At this point - should you wish to - dip the base of each cutting into the rooting hormone and plant immediately in individual planting holes.
Rooted cuttings
Firm the soil around the cuttings and water well.
Place the pot in a warm, bright area, but make sure that they are out of direct sunlight. Keep the soil moist but not waterlogged.
Cuttings started off in January or February should by June have grown a stem 3 to 5 ft long and they will be ready for planting out in the greenhouse border or hardened off on the patio or in a sheltered place before going to their permanent position in the garden.
Ensure that the vine is well watered in when being planted outside to prevent a dry spell from dehydrating the plant.
The grey wolf - otherwise known as the timber wolf, white wolf or 'common' wolf - lives in a variety of habitats, from the Arctic tundra and open steppes of Russia, to the mountainous regions and forests of the northern hemisphere. It has a highly organised social structure which enables it to enjoy the maximum cooperation when hunting, communicating, and defending its territory.
Wolf facts
The grey wolf lives in packs of between five and ten animals. Each pack contains a family unit,consisting of a dominant male and female, and the offspring from several years.
The hierarchy that exists within each pack is maintained by dominant or submissive body posturing, as well as other behavioural patterns such as the communal care of the young.
The size of the pack's territory depends on the availability of prey, but usually covers several hundred square kilometres. The grey wolf is fiercely territorial.
It scent marks boundaries and makes its presence known by howling to other members of the pack. Calls may be answered by rival wolf packs.
Wolf facts
Wolf facts
1. Wolves are legendary because of their spine-tingling howl, which they use to communicate. A separated wolf howls to attract the attention of his pack, while communal howls may send territorial messages from one pack to another. Some howls are confrontational. Much like barking domestic dogs, wolves may simply begin howling because a nearby wolf has already begun. 2. A wolf that has been driven from the pack, or has left on its own accord is called a lone wolf. It avoids contact with packs and rarely howls. 3. The wolf is the largest of the wild dog species. 4. Wolves are generally shy of people and will avoid them whenever possible. Most of the attacks on humans by wolves have been carried out by rabid animals. 5. Wolf packs in the far north often travel hundreds of kilometre following migrating herds.
Wolf chasing prey
6. Centuries ago, wolves were 'tried' by people and burned at the stake. 7. A Wolf in a hurry can go as fast as 35 miles per hour for short distances. 8. Wolves are highly intelligent animals. Studies indicate that the domestic dog's
brain is 15% to 30% smaller than the wolf's. 9. The wolf has two types of hair: guard and undercoat. The long guard hairs repel
moisture and the undercoat insulates. It sheds its bulky winter coat in
sheets (unlike most dogs); females tend to lose their winter coats more slowly
than males. 10. A wolf's hearing is at least 16 times sharper than a human's. Wolves can hear a
sound as far as six miles away in the forest and ten miles away in open
country. The wolf also has excellent peripheral vision and
superior night vision. The outer perimeter of the wolf's retina is highly
sensitive to movement. However, a wolf's eyes lack a foveal pit that allows for
sharp focusing at long distances.
Breeding
Wolf pups
The grey wolf becomes sexually mature at about two years of age. Once a wolf has found a mate the pair will usually stay together for life. The mating season begins at the end of winter and often causes tension within the pack.
Subordinate males and females compete for a higher place in the hierarchy of the pack, for it only the most dominant wolves that get the opportunity to mate. Unfortunately, the majority of wolves do not get to breed. Instead, they get to choose to help their siblings rear pups by hunting prey for them.
Once they have paired, the dominant male and female will mate once or twice a day over a period of about 14 days.
The female wolf will give birth after about nine weeks to between 3 and 10 cubs. The birth occurs in an underground den that she would have excavated herself. However, she will sometime enlarge the disused den of another animal.
The young are born helpless and their eyes are closed. The mother will feed the cubs for 6 to 8 weeks, and - if she has to leave them - the father or another babysitter will guard them.
Gradually, the cubs will learn to eat meat brought to them in the den by adult wolves. The adult will sometimes carry the meat in its mouth, but over long distances it will swallow it, only to regurgitate it later at the den.
I was listening to a feature on Radio four this afternoon on the way back from work. It was an unexpected programme extolling the virtues of Stan Laurel's and Oliver Hardy's film career, as discussed by our very own national treasure - Ken Dodd. Yes, he is still alive.
Laurel and Hardy
Although their career spanned the 1920's, 1930's and even the 1940's, their popular black and white films were endlessly featured on our family television through the early years of my 1970's.
The Laurel and Hardy song known as 'The Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia' was performed as a duet in their 1937 film Way Out West, and this was played as part of the radio show. It brought back so many childhood memories I had to share it through this YouTube clip.
"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" is a popular song published in 1913, with lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and music by Harry Carroll. In the song the singer expresses his love for June who lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The chorus is:
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, On the trail of the lonesome pine— In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine, Where she carved her name and I carved mine; Oh, June, like the mountains I'm blue— Like the pine I am lonesome for you, In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, On the trail of the lonesome pine.
If you are talking bedding lobelia then look no further than Lobelia erinus. Available in both bush and trailing varieties, lobelia is a very popular edging plant in gardens. It has a particularly long flowering period, from mid spring to early autumn, and while it is clearly a perennial plant in subtropical climates, it is often grown as an annual plant in colder areas.
Blue lobelia flower
Although lobelia is widely available in Spring as a young plant, it must be kept indoors until all danger of frost has passed.
Numerous cultivars have been selected, either with a bushy or a trailing habit, in a wide range of flower colours, including white, pink, red, pale to dark blue, and purple, often with a prominent white eye. Some of the better known cultivars include:
'Blue Moon', 'Gracilis', 'Crystal Palace', 'Sapphire', 'Rosamund' and 'Riviera Rose'.
However, the following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:
'Cambridge Blue', Cascade series, 'Colour Cascade', 'Crystal Palace', 'Mrs Clibran', 'Regatta Midnight Blue', 'Regatta Sky Blue', 'Riviera Blue Eyes', and 'String of Pearls'.
Lobelia hanging basket
Clearly, lobelia is one of the true backbones of summer bedding arrangements.
Suitable for hanging baskets, containers, as well as island bed schemes, it will flower it's heart out as soon as the spring frosts are over and will continue to do so right up until the first ground frost of winter.
Take care though, get taken in by an early bit of sun and you could end up losing your lobelia to a late ground frost.
Not only is this disheartening, it can also end up being a costly mistake!
However, all is not lost as lobelia plants are easily grow from seed, so you could have another batch of lobelia seed waiting to germinate in the greenhouse could save the day!
Any gardener worth their salt would be familiar with begonias. Of course, there is the usual range of annual bedding, as well as a selection of 'foliage effect' houseplants, but did you know that a hardy variety existed? In fact, did you know that one begonia species above all is proper tough enough to be tolerant of the cold experienced by northern European countries? Well of course you did, as you more than likely found this article by typing 'hardy begonia' into a search engine.
Be that as it may, the hardy begonia - Begonia grandis is a tuberous-rooted, clump-forming perennial that typically forms a bushy mound of foliage to 2’ tall on branching stems. The male and female - pale pink to white and 1 inch across - flowers bloom in pendent clusters which appear in late summer and continue on into the autumn.
Begonia grandis foliage
Large, obliquely ovate leaves (up to 4” long) are medium to olive green above and reddish green with red veining beneath.
The Begonia grandis, commonly known as the 'hardy begonia', is the only species of Begonia that can be considered as winter hardy - hence the name.
It can hibernate down to below - 10 degrees celsius as bulbs or bulbils -these are formed in the axils.
Other succulent parts of the plant eventually wither to death as temperature lowers. However it is generally regarded as hardy to zones 6-7, but to be on the safe side a heavy winter mulch is advisable in these areas.
The family name honors Michael Begon (1638-1710), amateur botanist and French Canadian Governor.
Begonia grandis blooms
Its native range is found from Malaysia to China and Japan. It is best grown in moist, organically rich, well-drained soils.
The soil around the hardy begonia should not be allowed to dry out, in fact it can even tolerate being waterlogged for short periods of time. Be aware that hardy begonias can be susceptible to slug and snail damage.
The hardy begonia will perform best in part shade to full shade. Unfortunately, the soft, succulent leaves and stems can become scorched in full sun.
The hardy begonia is generally self-propagation from seed.
Sow seed or bulbils when fresh. Take basal or stem cuttings in spring; divide perennial clumps in spring.
Ranging from the frozen wastes of Alaska and as far south as Costa Rica, the coyote has demonstrated a remarkable adaptability to its habitat.
It is however, most at home in open grassland and thinly wooded bush country.
The coyote is territorial within its chosen habitat, but live more of a nomadic lie in less favourable areas.
It marks out its territory with urine and declares its residence with a variety of loud calls including the familiar chilling howl.
In some areas the coyote moves into the hills during the summer and then returns to the valleys in the winter
What do coyotes eat?
The coyote hunts mainly under the cover of darkness, and is actually a surprisingly cooperative predator, able to improvise its hunting techniques to suit the prey species and conditions available to it.
The coyote is almost exclusively carnivorous, with jack rabbits, ground squirrels and other small rodents comprising over 90% of its diet.
However, these adaptable animals will eat almost anything, happily dining on fish, frogs, insects, snakes, fruit, grass, and carrion.
Because they sometimes kill lambs, calves, other small livestock - as well as pets - many ranchers and farmers regard them as destructive pests.
Much like a fox, it stalks prey the suddenly pounces on it. The coyote will also tackle larger prey animals such as deer or moose.
However, this larger prey will require a team effort of about six coyotes. The coyote work together in a similar way to wolves by picking out, worrying, and then running down their prey.
Far less stable than wolf packs, coyote packs are usually made up of a breeding pair and their young, which - for whatever reason - have not left their parents territory.
The coyote can feed on dead animals as well as live prey. In some areas, as much as half the coyote’s diet can be made up of carrion, such as cattle and sheep.
Breeding
The coyote generally mates for life, but as its life is typically short, a longer-lived individual will usually have more than one partner during its lifetime.
During the breeding season, the female comes on heat for about 10 days.
Once mated, she will seek out a secluded denning site. Depending on the terrain, this may be in a specially prepared burrow dug by the pair, or one stolen from a fox or a badger and enlarged.
A den may also be made in a small cave, on a rock ledge, or within a dense thicket in scrubby terrain.
The pups are born after a two month gestation period and are nursed for up to seven weeks. They grow quickly and begin to eat solid food, caught and regurgitated by the parents, from about three weeks of age.
The young are fully grown when about nine months old and may breed in their first year, although a good number do not pair up until their second year.
They often disperse widely from their parents’ territory, moving up to 150 km before establishing territories from their own.
Where food is particularly plentiful, the young may well remain with their parents for a while and hunt in a pack.
Such packs seldom last long, however as the coyote’s early maturity soon leads to tension and fierce competition between individuals.
Coyote facts
1. Although the coyote’s name sounds Spanish, it comes in fact from coyotl, the ancient word for this species. 2. As well as its distinctive high-pitched howl, the coyote makes at least ten other, quite different sounds which it uses to communicate. 3. The coyote is also known as the ‘praire’ or ‘brush’ wolf. 4. The coyote is reputed to have a strange relationship with the American badger. It apparently leads the badger to the burrows of ground squirrels and other rodents which it sniffs out. The badger digs open the burrow and the pair seem to share the prey.
5. Coyotes are formidable in the field where they enjoy keen vision and a strong sense of smell. They can run up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) an hour. 6. The most common enemy that coyotes face is disease. Bears, wolves and mountain lions will also prey upon coyotes. 7. In the wild, coyotes live between 10-14 years. In captivity they are known to live much longer, as many as 20 years. 8. A coyote usually weighs between 15 to 25 pounds. They stand about 25 inches tall and are 4 feet in length.
Since my last desktop dramatically shifted its ‘mortal electric coil’ - due to an expensive and agonising viral attack, I decided that its replacement would never be used for downloading or for the kids to play online games. Nevertheless, yesterday my new (now only newish) laptop refused to go past the welcome screen however many times I turned the flipping thing on and off. It would turn off fine; it would turn on fine, and would also tell me if I tried to put in the wrong password. However, when the correct password went in it would go no further than the welcome screen and display a constantly turning buffer icon. Twenty minute later and the icon continued to buffer.
I started it in various safe modes, as well as restarting it before placing in the password once again. Again the same problem.
However, I contacted my hardware provider by phone and they believed that it was a simple problem, probably caused by one of the many windows updates.
They advised me to turn of the computer. Then, once I have turned it on again, repeatably press the function F8 button. This made a difference as it took me to a different and more complex ‘black and white’ safe-mode screen. The options I was given by the nice lady on the phone was a return to factory settings which would lose everything on the hard drive, a system restore, or a standard start up in safe mode.
We started, for the hundredth time, and no belief that it would work this time either, with the standard start up option, and ‘OH MY GOD’ it worked immediately. I asked the lady on the phone to marry me and then carried on inflicting the world with my boring articles.
The moral of this story is to check your receipt and see if your computer hardware provider has a free advisory service – and then use it.
All images of my traipsing up to the shop I bought it from and throwing the useless pies of junk on their customer service desk have all but gone.
I hope this helps. If it does, leave a lovely comment.
