One obvious thing that gets you more or less as soon as you arrive here is wildlife. People talk about snakes not as abstract entities carefully explained by David Attenborough (or ripped out of trees to Steve Irwin’s shouts of “crikey! looka this bloightah!”), but as everyday threats you need to beware of through the summer.

And even in the relative calm of early February, there are obvious striking differences between Californian fauna and the relatively tame stuff we get in Britain. (more…)