Looks like there's an errata, already :) https://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/2025/01/a-sheepish-apolog...
Cunningham's Law in action which states that if anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.
Where is London's most central sheep?
151–160 of 174 posts
Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#152We bought an old house in remote parts of southern Slovakia. There is a city nearby, not a big city, but big enough to not expect farm animals in it. I was very surprised to see sheep in the garden of the main church. Sometimes they set up a temporary fence outside of church and let them there. It really made me feel good and smile, to see them in the city centre.
Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Bristol is just crazy beautiful city to live in Curious, because of geography? architecture?
So I'll caveat this by saying we were a couple of Australians living in the UK and one of the big differences we noticed between Australia and the UK is just how damn clearly delineated the seasons are in the UK. In Australia they all kind of smudge into one another while in the UK it's really very clearly 4 very distinct phases of the year. One of the byproducts of this is that we found UK winter in London to be pre…
If we are selling Bristol I need to add one more to the list.
- Bristolians are a big part of what makes Bristol an amazing and 'gert lush' city.
It was the most laid back and enjoyable place I have lived in my time in the UK largely because the people around me were also super welcoming and open-minded.
Neighbours, work colleagues, random people in pubs/concerts, many are still long term friends.
The University openness ethos permeates the city i suppose, but it was kind of the closest I felt in a large city to the 'village/community experience'.
Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#154Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#155When my wife and I lived in Bristol we developed a metric designed to measure how enjoyable a city was to live in that we called "time to sheep". Basically it's a measure of how long you have to travel from the center of the city before you're in the English countryside surrounded by sheep and the best cities have a low (but not too low) "time to sheep" metric. It helped explain one of the reasons we loved living in…
A better metric imho would be time to a wild animal. I'd go with distance to a wild bear, or anything else that could threaten a human. That is where wilderness starts imho. For London, that measurement is likely hundreds of miles. In much of north america, it is probably be less than one. I've been to the English countryside. It is more city park than open country.
The distance from my home to a mountain lion has been documented at under a mile in the last year. They are officially spotted within a few miles every couple years, but I'm quite confident they're almost always there and just usually better at hiding. I would not consider my location in the middle of suburban sprawl to be anything like wilderness. I'd say you're looking at a 6 hour trip minimum from my location to anything anyone could argue as being wilderness.
If we're going as simple as time to a wild animal, we've had fox in the front yard and I see turkey and deer within a couple of blocks of my place often enough that I wonder if they don't sometimes order at the fast food drive thrus on either end of the neighborhood. I live as far from a cornfield as I ever have right now and that doesn't seem to phase the wildlife.
Back to the article though, they seem to be measuring the distance from town to rural surroundings. At no point do they mention wilderness, rugged landscape, or any kind of danger from the environment. They're measuring to the nearest bit of pasture. Things that can eat you don't factor into it.
Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#156Hmm, not sure where the closest sheep is to me here in the inner suburbs of Chicago, but there is a goat farm a couple miles away in the Austin neighborhood. It’s pretty wild seeing them take the herd to their pasture a couple blocks away from the house where their shed is in the back yard.
Horses are common in my part of the city. It is absolutely common to see people riding in Washington Park.
Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#157In London, you are the sheep to be slaughtered with a knife.
Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have lived my entire life in a a rural area, not even a town and it seems to me that every time I go to a city it is the same as the last. Everyone has their thing I guess.
You’re not meant to just go to a city. It’s not like the zoo.
I am not sure what you mean by that. Do cities not want people to visit them? You can't travel through a city unless you commit to live there for a while?
Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#159Earlier quoted context omitted.
If your metric is time or distance to large amounts of nature, I recommend Ottawa, Canada where the 140 square mile Gatineau Park starts 5 miles from downtown.
That's probably about a good distance. Too little distance to nature is... a thing. I'm like a half hour out of Ottawa. Gotta take it slow down the driveway because sometimes the deer like to hang out there. And in the yard. And generally everywhere. More than once I've wandered out and found a fox standing at the sliding door staring at a cat. (They are super cute though. Watching them they look like really playful…
> chewed a mouse up with the snowblower because of course.
LOL, I've done that too. I figure it must have been dead prior to being chewed up because snowblowers announce their presence fairly definitively.
We're probably much more urban than you, but we've got a ravine connection to the greenbelt, so do get all of the above. Has been a bear in that ravine, but didn't see it ourselves.
Re: Where is London's most central sheep?
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have lived my entire life in a a rural area, not even a town and it seems to me that every time I go to a city it is the same as the last. Everyone has their thing I guess.
You’re not meant to just go to a city. It’s not like the zoo.
Sometimes you can. Depends what you want out of it. I've only spent a very short time in London, but I live in New York, and some evenings all I need to do to be happy is walk to the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge and look at the lights and the people. Same reason I don't really need an itinerary if I head upstate - it's enough to find a random mountain, climb it, and look at the trees and lakes. Just getting to know the feeling of a place can be very special.