"San Francisco police are investigating the possibility that one of the victims in the fatal tiger mauling on Christmas Day climbed over a waist-high fence and then dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of a moat that kept the big cat away from the public, sources close to the investigation said Wednesday.
The minimal evidence found at the scene included a shoe and blood in an area between the gate and the edge of the 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, raising questions about what role, if any, the victims might have had in accidentally helping the animal escape.
The three victims, all young men from San Jose, were visiting the zoo together. They were all present just outside the tiger's grotto when the tiger escaped, killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. with a savage slash to the throat, and injured the other two. The names of the survivors, who are brothers ages 19 and 23, have not been released.
The injured victims fled, leaving a trail of blood, which police believe the tiger followed for 300 yards up a zoo pathway. As the tiger cornered and attacked one of the brothers, four police officers arrived, distracted the animal and shot it dead."
Earlier this week, zoo officials said the moat's wall was at least 20 feet tall. Today, they said it was little over 12 feet. Since the investigation began Tuesday, officials have given at least five different measurements for the enclosure, which is surrounded by a moat, two walls on either side of the moat, a small patch of grass and then another waist-high fence. Experts say that the depth of the moat and height of the walls could have a large impact on the animal's ability to escape the enclosure.
"Today we went out and measured the moat ourselves," said zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo. The tiger "had to have jumped (out but) how she jumped that high is beyond me."
In measuring the area, Mollinedo said, his staff found that contrary to information they had on file in their office, the moat wall was 12 1/2 feet high - about four feet lower than is recommended as a national standard by cat experts.
They also found that, contrary to numbers they had on file, the moat was 33 feet wide, which is sufficient to meet national standards.
The confusion over the grotto's size is only the latest headache for investigators looking into the attack, which happened shortly after the zoo's 5 p.m. closing time. The zoo has no video cameras that watch over the animals, making it difficult to piece together how Tatiana, a Siberian tiger, escaped. And sources close to the investigation tell The Chronicle that the surviving brothers have not been entirely forthcoming during interviews with police.
3) At Home with the Braithwaites, a funny/interesting British tv show that ran for four seasons and is available on DVD in the USA, has beautiful gardening in the background.
"Vichy Springs is a unique 150-year-old historic hot springs resort only two hours north of downtown San Francisco. Vichy offers the only naturally warm and carbonated Vichy mineral baths in North America."
We come here at least once a year. The last time was October 2006.
This is the hot tub outside the massage room.
And the mineral spring baths are in this building. There are four outdoor tubs as well. I like to use the outdoor tubs, but Guy likes to have more privacy. There are two tubs in each room, and a door you can latch shut.
This is how they work.
The tub fills to overflow, and the water runs into the creek below.
"The carbonation after three or four minutes dramatically dilates the body's capillaries and gives the bather a feeling of warmth and peacefulness. Tranquility follows and usually the bather begins to gently float in the bath. Due to the unique properties of the water the bather's skin is softened in the water and feels much like a baby's."Link.
The warm spring water is just above body temperature; cozy in winter cold and refreshing in summer heat. (The hot tub in the first picture is kept much warmer.) And there's also an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
I took a casual walk in the late afternoon light.
Taricha rivularis, Red-bellied newt. They were everywhere, heading away from the water as the sun went down.
I had to watch where I was going lest I step on one. They move slowly.
There was a lot going on close to the ground. Native Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana) rejuvenated by fall rains.
If I had fewer ethical restraints, I would have picked up all this beautifully rotting wood and put it in my garden.
I could have walked for hours, but it was getting late.
It seems like they've only just begun. But in fact the southern solstice happens tomorrow morning at 6:08 a.m.
It always feels like we slide into darkness much more precipitously than we stumble out of it. But that's just how it seems. In fact, by the end of next month, I will have (ahem, my garden will have) a whopping 44 more minutes of daylight than I do today.
The Bay Area's pagans, crunchies, hippies, wiccans, earth mothers, faeries, and Berkeley residents all have big parties planned. I could include gardeners, too.
I know I'm celebrating by planting out my wildflower starts. I've already started in the northern half of the garden where the sun's rays can reach over my yard's southern fence. As the sun moves back up the eastern horizon, I can extend the planting southwards. My garden is so small, and I am so obsessed with it, that I garden down to the inch and monitor the sun's tiniest movements in the sky.
The cold rainy season lasts until mid-March usually. Sometimes into April. Very rarely into May.
I wish for lots of water this year to grow those roots deep and strong for a good show this spring.
12/18/2007
The beaver dam has been a source of controversy for more than a month since the City Council considered euthanizing the family of beavers. However, public outcry caused the council to reconsider and they decided to relocate the animals instead.
After nearly a week of deliberation, and lengthy public discussion at the Nov. 7 City Council meeting, a decision was made to let the beavers stay for the time being, and to try and work out a way to peacefully coexist.
A beaver expert from Vermont has been hired, but cannot be in the East Bay city until January.
I got these all set up and installed yesterday, and one of them is already full!
And we got less than 1 inch of rain last night.
The barrel under the downspout was actually overflowing, so I had to manually wiggle the tube connecting the two barrels to get the siphon action going.
Maybe we'll buy two more. But from a different company. We ordered these on Amazon from a Texas company. These are re-purposed olive brining barrels or something. They drilled out holes in the barrel wall to install inlet and outlet joints, but they used the wrong kind of caulking material to seal the joints. I had to re-do their work. (Apparently, in Texas they're too busy bilking Californians out of money from our electric bills to learn how to properly caulk a joint! Heh, heh.) And, they left the bits of drilled out plastic inside the barrel instead of tipping them out. Take some pride in your work, people.
I don't have anything to enter in the Kew Gardens photography contest, but I've been planning to make some year-in-review posts. Why not start with my favorite pictures from 2007.
Notes: I generally do not take much care when I take pictures. I'm strictly a snapshots kind of guy. I might take two or three snapshots of a subject that really interests me, and pick the best one. But I rarely stand and compose, or consider the light, or anything like that. I certainly don't do any kind of post-picture taking processing or alteration. It is what it is. Until August, I didn't even know how to use my camera's close-up function. I have a Canon PowerShot A610 set on 'foliage'. Unless I'm running out of memory, I like to use the largest file size.
Okay then...
You know I love this one. I made it my icon. (Hmm...after a year, maybe it's time to pick a new icon.) This picture comes from a January 20 post called Pruning Class. I took a four-day pruning workshop at Foothill College. My instructor (who was super-cute) took us to his backyard orchard and had us prune his fruit trees. What a life, huh?
If I could turn back time, I would make him a cash offer for all three of the planters in his yard.
I took this picture of a professional dog walker and his charges on top of Bernal Hill last February. I think there's something kind of strange and make-believe about this picture, and that's why I like it.
(Bernal Hill is one of the few places in San Francisco where you can let a dog run, although some irresponsible dog owners frequently let their dogs run in other places too. There's a lot of tension between the pro-dog-people and the anti-dog-people in San Francisco. This year the rudeness and dishonesty of certain pro-dog-people finally pushed me into the anti-dog-people camp.)
No pictures in March qualify as a favorites, but here are four that I like.
I visited Filoli in April. Although the formal garden isn't my style, the beauty and coherence of their spring color palette left me breathless. This one reminds me of a Klimpt painting.
I like to include pictures of the funky cars in my neighborhood. While on a walk in May, I took two pictures that I especially like. One suggests sex, adventure, and mystery. The other, delight, laughter, and electronic music. You can decide which one is which.
In June, my world changed. My clueless, idiot neighbor who should be barred from owning real property cut back his yard. His workers let this 6' by 6' pile of debris fall on my side of the fence. I wasn't too mad tho'. The result of his clearcutting let full sun into my garden. Even as we approach the shortest day of the year, I currently have full sun in half my garden. This time last year, I had none.
This is also one of my favorite pictures from June. I took it during a walk. This shot really captures Bernal Heights. Houses, hills, views, flowers, and the usual urban trash.
And I was very pleased with myself when I took this picture while doing some editing.
This, from Bloom Day, is one of the first pictures I posted of my Echium wildprettii, which I grew from seed (not hard to do!). By the time I planted this out, I was astonished by how fast it was growing. This was only six months ago. Today, the basal rosette is five feet in diameter and smothers the now-dormant redbud. I'll have to rejuvinate the soil when this baby comes out. I love the yellow moons of Cotula lineariloba.
June was a busy month. We took a road-trip to Sacramento, and stopped at the UC Davis Arboretum on the way back. If I had rigid ideas about what California gardens should look like, this would be one of them. I would love to get back there soon to see this garden in the dead of winter.
We went to Sacramento to visit the Old City Cemetery which I would also like to visit again and again. No single favorites from this visit, but several that I like.
The canna + opuntia qualifies as a favorite plant pair. Imagine the opuntia shaped tall and lanky.
July. In July, I visited the San Francisco Botanical Garden several times in the evening, and I took tons of pictures.
This is my all-time favorite picture for 2007. It doesn't matter to me that the grass is over-exposed, or that the composition needs to be scooted over one inch. I love this picture.
I was there again two days later and took my favorite video of 2007.
There isn't a favorite in August. But I like this one because it shows my design efforts finally coming into focus. The key plants are still small, but everything is in place. This picture captures a certain vibe I want my garden to have. This part of it, anyway.
September favorites!
Strybing on September 15. The fog and Monterey cypress make this picture quintessentially Californian. Excuse me, quintessentially northern Californian. You want coffee and a warm coat with you here. Later today, you might have crab salad at the wharf or Italian food in North Beach.
At a party (the cucumbers on that salad came from my garden; I brought them to the hostess and she chopped 'em up and served them to everyone--I was very flattered. Honored? Whatever):
By October the Epilobium was blooming. This is one of the few reds in my garden. I feel a little insecure about using red. I don't know how. Or where. Or something.
Eriogonum arborescens; a close up in the garden of my guru.
November was a busy month, although I don't remember it that way. We went to Guerneville and Oahu (1, 2, 3). I buzzed through the Blake Garden, the UC Botanic Garden, and the Japanese Tea Garden.
Although, there are many other pictures in November that I like.
December, not so much. The year's not over yet, so this post is a little bit premature. We have a short trip coming up before Christmas. It's possible I'll have something more to add before 2008 rolls in.
