just saw someone say online that they’ve never seen mountains irl and lost my mind. is this an experience you guys have had. are there some people who havent seen mountains
ok i’m not going to make this a whole thing but i am REALLY shaken that i’ve gone through nearly two decades of life just assuming that mountains were a Universal Life Constant. more than anything, i have to blame the media. just how many shows and books have i been subjected to where characters wax poetic over having never seen the ocean or wanting to see the snow? but never in my life have i seen a holiday episode or cutesy fanfic dedicated to a character’s first mountain
My family is from the Louisiana bayous. My brother has spent most of his adult life around San Diego. When I go to visit him and his family, I spend a lot of time marveling at the cliffs and tall hills. My visits have stuck pretty close to the coast, so I don’t think I’ve seen anything that is technically considered a mountain yet. When his family comes visit us, my sister-in-law spends just as much time wondering how land can be so flat.
Seeing actual mountains is very much on my bucket list.
I’ve lived where there are at least tall hills visible everywhere at all times (and big mountains on sunny days) for most of my life, and being a place that’s totally flat can be sort of unnerving; you feel strangely exposed, and you don’t feel like you’re in a specific place. You could be anywhere in all that flatness.
Going through the notes on this post, I’m apparently not the only one.
And it’s not so bad if it’s a slow change–like, riding my bicycle across a good portion of the continent, the flat stuff (and hooboy parts of the Canadian prairies are really, really flat) didn’t bother me much because I’d gone through mountains and then rolling hills and then to totally flat. There was a transition.
But flying–I’m using to being surrounded by hills and even feeling kinda protected and held by them (which is funny when you remember some of them are dead volcanoes) and I go into a metal tube and then come out the other side and they’re gone! I think some older part of my brain finds that confusing as hell!
Anyway. Come visit the Pacific Northwest and see our lovely mountains! Some of which are still active volcanos! But summer is usually better; in the winter sometimes it’s rainy for enough days on end that you don’t see them so much!
Can report in: growing up in areas where you always have the ocean and big mountains has made flat places very alarming. Anywhere where you /can’t/ immediately turn around and find a big goddam mountain on the horizon gives me an illogical sense of claustrophobia, as though without mountains and seas there to weigh down the edges of the map, the whole world map may just roll up and squash me.
Ditto the lost feeling @aprillikesthings mentioned. It feels like you’re playing a video game where the skybox never loads. Hill country like Virginia is actually worse because you keep expecting the hills to lead up to an actual mountain, and when it doesn’t, it’s like living in a partially loaded video game. I’m always vaguely anxious about what else hasn’t loaded (Gravity? Magnetic north? Tides?).
When I travel on vacation I can’t figure out where north is. Growing up north was always where the mountains were so all I had to do was look and I knew immediately. When I was in London and was asked about detections I spun in a cercle while looking to the horizon before remembering that only works in Vancouver.
It’s worse when you live on one coast your whole life, and know the ocean = specific compass direction. Then fly to the other coast and be lost always.
Mountains are very much an exotic wondrous thing to me lmao I could count on one hand the number I’ve visited. Going to Colorado (first time west of the Mississippi) last fall was an astounding experience, both for the omnipresent mountains and for the stretches of utter flatness, which we have neither of here in northern New England. Here, it’s forest. Everywhere. On the side of the highway, you can’t see past the road, because there’s a wall of trees. Is it hilly? Is it flat? You don’t know, because there’s trees covering the land no matter where you look. Don’t get me wrong – I love it! But I do wonder how someone who isn’t used to such a high density of forest and lack of mountains would think of it.
(That being said, from an evolutionary standpoint, humans prefer wide open plains and having a high vantage point on them to see out as far as possible in order to spot predators. Bipedalism evolved so we could walk long distances on flat ground instead of in the trees!)
I’m someone who’s surrounded by mountain ranges which sport sheer cliffsides and dizzying heights, and has never been to a place where it’s completely flat or has endless trees. (exception, southern Idaho which is somewhat flat but it has mountains you can see at a distance still) Like even the thought of being somewhere like that makes me nervous lmao.
I grew up in a valley, surrounded by forested ridges on all side. I’m used to not being able to see the other side of a 400 person town. Moving somewhere flatter was…an adjustment. It still wigs me out to be able to see so far in any direction.
I can’t imagine life without mountains. When I visited Florida I spent the whole time being unnerved by how flat everything was. It made me feel oddly vulnerable, since I’m so used to being surrounded by tall hills at the very least.
Also I was one of the weird kids that grew up roaming around outside so. The mountains are like a home to me.
I’ve seen mountains before, small ones. But I’m from Singapore, which is mostly flat. Do you have any idea how badly mountains screw up my estimates for distances? I legitimately cannot tell how far any given landmark is from me if I or the landmark are on any part of a mountajn. I can’t tell at all.
It always seems a little unreal tbh. Just – mountains. I’m used to flat land. Who looks at a steep slope and goes “Hmm yes this is a good place to live?” A lot, apparently.
This is the world’s largest flying Engine of Murder marveling at the fact that it can actually have its tummy rubbed.
I feel like this is the next step up on “loose your fingers” roulette from petting a kittie’s tummy, but just below belly rubs for say a lion.
Can someone who knows birds better than I do tell me whether this eagle is as happy as it looks? Because I want it to be happy. It looks so happy. Bewildered by having a friend, but so happy.
Just popping on this thread to confirm: yes, the eagle is happy about the belly rubs. Golden eagles make this sound when receiving allopreening and similar affectionate and soothing treatment from their parents and mates. It’s the “I am safe and well fed, and somebody familiar is taking good care of me” sound. Angry raptors and wounded raptors make some pretty dramatic hisses and shrieks; frightened raptors go dead silent and try to hide if they can, or fluff up big and get loud and in-your-face if hiding isn’t an option. They can easily sever a finger or break the bones of a human hand or wrist, and even with a very thick leather falconer’s gauntlet, I’ve known falconers to leave a mews (hawk house) with graphic punctures THROUGH the gauntlet into the meat of their hands and arms, just from buteos and kestrels way smaller than this eagle. A pissed off hawk will make damn sure you don’t try twice whatever you pulled that pissed her off, even if she’s been human-imprinted.
If you’re ever unsure about an animal’s level of okayness with something that’s happening, there are three spot-check questions you can ask, to common-sense your way through it:
1. Is the animal capable of defending itself or making a threatening or fearful display, or otherwise giving protest, and if so, is it using this ability? (e.g. dog snarling or biting, swan hissing, horse kicking or biting)
2. Does the animal experience an incentive-based relationship with the human? (i.e. does the animal have a reason, in the animal’s frame of reference, for being near this human? e.g. dog sharing companionship / food / shelter, hawk receiving good quality abundant food and shelter and medical care from a falconer)
3. Is the animal a domesticated species, with at least a full century of consistent species cohabitation with humans? (Domesticated animals frequently are conditioned from birth or by selective breeding to be unbothered by human actions that upset their feral nearest relatives.)
In this situation, YES the eagle can self-defend, YES the eagle has incentive to cooperate with and trust the human handler, and NO the eagle is not a domesticated species, meaning we can expect a high level of reactivity to distress, compared to domestic animals: if the eagle was distressed, it would be pretty visible and apparent to the viewer. These aren’t a universally applicable metric, but they’re a good start for mammal and bird interactions.
Pair that with the knowledge that eagles reserve those chirps for calm environments, and you can be pretty secure and comfy in the knowledge that the big honkin’ birb is happy and cozy.
Also, to anybody wondering, falconers are almost single-handedly responsible for the recovery from near-extinction of several raptor species, including and especially peregrine falcons. Most hawks only live with the falconer for a year, and most of that year is spent getting the bird in ideal condition for survival and success as a wild breeding adult. Falconers are extensively trained and dedicated wildlife conservationists, pretty much by definition, especially in the continental USA, and they make up an unspeakably important part of the overall conservation of predatory bird species. Predatory birds are an important part of every ecosystem they inhabit. Just like apiarists and their bees, the relationship between falconer and hawk is one of great benefit to the animal and the ecosystem, in exchange for a huge amount of time, effort, expense, and education on the part of the human, for very little personal benefit to that one human. It’s definitely not exploitation of the bird, and most hawks working with falconers are hawks who absolutely would not have reached adulthood without human help: the sick, the injured, and the “runts” of the nest who don’t receive adequate resources from their own parents. These are, by and large, wonderful people who are in love with the natural world and putting a lifetime of knowledge and sheer exhausting work into conserving it and its winged wonders.
reblogged for excellent info, I’m so glad that big gorgeous birb really is as happy as it looks!
Today’s bit of positive activism: A reminder that, although the world may contain many bad and awful things, it also contains an enormous winged predator clucking happily as a human gives it a belly rub.
can we just… take a moment and apreciate the iconic gay film Barbie and The Diamond Castle? I mean
Look
At
Them
Are you seriously going to tell me that two girls who live together ALONE out in the country, far away from society, ARENT GAY????
LOOK AT THEM!!! LOOK HOW ALEXA IS LOOKING AT HER!!! And then there is this scene
and im just…out of words
look at them go, ridding away on a FREAKING RAINBOW from their supposed “love interests” (who are literrally the same dude, come on). And you know what they did in the end? They didnt stay at the castle with the guys, no no, they went back to their little house on the country and continued selling flowers!!!!
in conclusion: this movie was actually very gay, but people though that they were just “gal pals” and you’re all sleeping on it. (also the songs are very gay too because, i mean, “if i could wish for one thing, i take the smile that you bring”? this is gay, you guys, not just friendship positive, but GAY)
some food blogger: My childhood home was full of wind and light. On a brisk Autumn evening, it often felt as if the outside was in. My younger sister, my mother, our favourite cousin, our dog, our other dog, our dog’s sister, and I would sit on the floor in the living room for hours, lit only by the moon and candlelight
me: *scrolls for several minutes*
some food blogger: It was at that moment, with my tiny hands clasped tightly around a mason jar filled with fireflies, that I realised the true value of family. My dog and my dog’s sister came and sat quietly at my feet. We stared up at the sky together, and I felt truly connected to both the Earth at my feet and the ancestors who shared the blood that ran through them, for the first time realising that
me: *scrolls for several minutes*
some food blogger: and when we finally made it home, our cheeks flushed with laughter and cold, there were warm mashed potatoes waiting for us. I will always remember their fluffiness, perfectly mirroring the light feeling I carried with me for the entire next week. This is my favourite cousin’s recipe from that very day, modified slightly to not be fucking awful. Boil an potato and smush it up with fork and botter. NOT A RAW, Salt, pepepr. In it
FantasyBoudicca 