Har! Love hodgepigs.

Martin and Sophie found a baby one on their walk last week. It looked like it had fallen off a wall. They googled to see whether it is advised to leave them for mum or take them in. Take it in apparently. So now they have a hodgepig in their menagerie:P

Mum & Dad took one to a local wildlife hospital the other week. But it was hurt (they think by a council mower) and definitely needed treatment.

The hospital gave them a good prognosis on initial viewing and asked for a donation. Good tactics - get people who care to cough up when they're vulnerable (not being sarcastic). Mum strong-armed Dad into £10 and felt good for the rest of the day.

Poor vulnerable lickle things. Spines are no match for ride-on garden machinery.

I know. So tiny!

I see lots of hedgehogs around here. From time to time I see a dead one on the road, but not so often considering how many there appear to be bumbling about the village of a night time.

Chops (love that btw :p) and I somtimes just stand and watch one doing its hodgepiggy thing when we go for our last walk. They're so cute.

I am very hungry today. I've already had a big bowl of cereal. I think I need to eat something else. :(

I had some more cereal, then a glass of milk. Now I feel stuffed...and I need a nap. :(

Saw 38 perseid meteors tonight. It was pretty awesome, especially since I have never seen a 'shooting star' before tonight.

Seriously? Never saw a shooting star?

They are cool. In Maine one summer I watched the Draconids (I'm pretty sure) I lost count.

What's your position on NorthernLights?

Havent seen those yet either.

I went back out again to see Jupiter and Venus rise with the crescent moon and I saw 20 more meteors. A few of them were fireball types, with the thicker tails that last a little longer.

The night sky in Arizona is just amazing to me. Its just not something Im used to having grown up in suburban northwest Indiana (only 30 miles southeast of Chicago).

<-- envious.

Very poor conditions for viewing the Perseids down under this year. Sounds like you had a great view.

Yeah, I think so...a lot of them were directly overhead, so most of the time, I was just lying down in the lawn chair looking up. And this was in my Mom's backyard.

I heard an interesting term on the radio today:

"spin-loaded question"

Made me think about asking neutral questions in an effort to get a higher quality answer (that is, one that has more objective content and less subjective/opinion/persuasion/insulting hostility) I realize there is a whole universe of good questions for which this is difficult or impossible or inappropriate.

Socratic questioning illuminates the importance of questioning in learning (indeed Socrates himself thought that questioning was the only defensible form of teaching). It illuminates the difference between systematic and fragmented thinking. It teaches us to dig beneath the surface of our ideas. It teaches us the value of developing questioning minds in cultivating deep learning. Integrating Socratic questions this the following manner in the classroom help develop active, independent learners:[2][unreliable source?]

Getting students to clarify their thinking

e.g., ‘Why do you say that?’, ‘Could you explain further?’

Challenging students about assumptions

e.g., ‘Is this always the case?’, ‘Why do you think that this assumption holds here?’

Evidence as a basis for argument

e.g., ‘Why do you say that?’, ‘Is there reason to doubt this evidence?’

Alternative viewpoints and perspectives

e.g., ‘What is the counter argument for?’, ‘Can/did anyone see this another way?’

Implications and consequences

e.g., ‘But if...happened, what else would result?’, ‘How does...affect...?’

Question the question

e.g., ‘Why do you think that I asked that question?’, ‘Why was that question important?’, ‘Which of your questions turned out to be the most useful?’

Well, you could go old school.

I will return to Griff's post soon.

In the meantime, I've run *out* of gas for the lawnmower, and I'm perilously low on motivation. I still have plenty of sweat though. 85 degrees is plenty hot to be wrangling a mower through the high grass, catsears, rhododendrons, blackberry canes and english fucking ivy.

I've got a couple hundred pounds of stinking billy goat for your greenery.

ooohhhh baby... I *love it* when you talk like that!

I'm away from the location of my pictures documenting my latest deforestation ordeal. The companionship of stinking billy goats would never have smelled sweeter. Pics to follow.

Turns out I had no more motivation than I had gasoline. I have since replenished my reserves of both. Still have plenty of tall greenery to shorten.