ohmygodz

look at this!

I took that photo, I am now a published photographer and that, muahaha!

snowy day activities

In the spirit of those "rainy day" activity books that were always shoved at me when I was younger and bored, I took the oppurtunity of a snow day a couple of weeks ago to MAKE SOMETHING.


Oh yes that's right- a decorate your own mug kit. It involves two of my favourite things- making a mess and drinking tea. Can't really lose here surely?

So I began by preparing my workspace and adhering to the strict rules laid down in the instructions (put down paper on your workspace, don't consume the pens, only bake your mug between 2.30 and 3.45 on a thursday but not if there is a full moon the previous night) .

(Here is where you would expect to find a "before" shot of my mug. I forgot to take one.)

So... I carefully coloured in my mug, making sure to stay within the lines and all that, and then left for 24 hours to dry. After this I baked my mug :)


So... The results. Well it was a good use of snowy day time, and did produce an adequate tea-holding vessel (surely half the point of this activity).


However, the green and brown colours have come off a bit since washing it for the first time, where the pink and yellow seem to be fine. I think I will need to give it a second coat, but as a stuck-indoors activity and bearing in mind the final product I will give it... 6.5/10. I would have given it an 8 if Percy's friends were Aardvarks. The cow looks a bit evil to me :-/

snow day :)

I suppose you noticed it was quite snowy today then?
I woke up to this sight and decided not to bother trying make my way across to camden, which turned out to be a good decision as the zoo was closed, with only emergency staff coming in (lions still need feeding and all that...).


Birds in the garden were performing nicely in the garden, particularly three long tailed tits who hung around all day. They can be very photogenic when they want to be... Also some very confused blackbirds hunting leaves amongst the snow, and bizarrely a blue tit checking out the nest box by the window (note to self- clean out nest box).


We ventured outside a bit later to see my grandparents, make some snow angels, chase around some ducks in the snow and build a snowman. Some awesome views of blizzardy goodness :)



We have at least 7-8 inches of snow on the ground this evening, so may well be facing snow day: the sequel tommorrow. We will see...


Meanwhile, here is a nice photo of a long tailed tit in flight :)

tortoises are awesome

Especially giant ones.

This is an Aldabra giant tortoise (Geochelone gigantica), the Seychelles equivalent of the Galapagos tortoise.


She lives next to the komodo dragon, and so maybe somewhat overlooked. I am now officially a fan of her though, and thought you should be too.


I've always liked tortoises, but these damn reptile enthusiasts have even almost convinced me to get a snake. Worrying.

Now I am going to go watch some program about Darwin. See, topical and everything...