Chester Zoo Day

Today Scott and I went to Chester Zoo and we had a wonderful time! We last went over a year ago and thought it would be something fun to do before i go back to uni next week. As you all can probably tell, I'm a little bit in love with animals, so the Zoo has always been one of my favourite days out.

Firstly we saw the elephants, They're one of my favourite animals at the Zoo, the way they plod slowly around and do little funny things. What made them extra special this time was that there was a little baby Elephant which had recently been born. He was so adorable and I spent a good 20 minutes just gawping at how cute he was!

He's so tiny in comparison to his mum!

I know I shouldn't say it, but I really love this picture of us both :) 

I really like the spectacled bears at the Zoo, but the last time, and this time they haven't been there! :( However, Scott decided to cheer me up and we both had a got at being speccy :) The problem is.... Scott can do it really well and i'm awful!

My fingers are just too small :/

I poked my self in the eye and snotted a little. The glamorous adventures we have!!! Again so flattering...

This is our hand comparison. No wonder I can't blooming do it :P

I loved these orange mushroom/fungus' growing on a log in the zoo. The colour was so vivid.

This is my awesome Satchel I got for my Birthday last month. I'm in love with it, however I'm used to having a small bag and not carrying much around but Scott now takes advantage and stuffs things in it :P But its really nice having a proper leather satchel. (Cambridge Satchel company). As i've had my cheapy version H&M one for a year now and wishing for this :) 

Flamingo's are also a favorutie of mine! They're colour is just so random compared to all the other aniamls ! Also they remind me of the plastic ones that are stereotypically in American people gardens. i really want a plastuic one too actually... but anyway! They also amuse me when they stand on one leg?! Why do they do that?!

Here's my imitation of the flamingo's ;)

I bought a 'grabber' in the shape of a flamingo form the gift shop. I've always LOVED grabbers, and they've always been my toy of choice in zoo's/ aquariums since I was young. Here is Seabear looking rather confused by the contraption. I wanted to take her to the Zoo and even googled 'Can you take dogs to the zoo' but unfortunately you can't.

Scott and the flamingo :)

The penguins are also awesome, but hard to take pictures of as they don't stand still for two minutes. Also I was a complete dope and had my camera on the wrong setting for half the walk round so I apologise for the poor photography this time!

Scott likes reading all the plaques! I liked this one showing the skulls of the zebras.

Finally the butterflies! They're very pretty but my camera steamed up in their enclosure with condensation so I couldn't take pictures. I had to use my phone which worked better than anticipated :) i'd really recommend the Zoo for a day our with families, boyfriends etc as we both thoroughly enjoyed it! 

My gorgeous man, Alfred

Just a little update of how Alfie, Alfred,Alfredo, Alfie Moon, Moon man (I like naming my animals with nicknames) is getting on :) 

He's just over 5 months and really settled into the family. I't embarrassing to admit, but I actually miss him when I go out for the day?! How sad is that!!! I just love cuddling him a 

and that awesome smell kittens and puppies have. 

The dogs are still not big fans, but he has been edging closer and closer to them, so it is only a matter of time before they make friends...

He loves drinking out of the fish take worryingly, and squeels every time he needs to go to the toilet which is very weird to witness...

 

 This was Alfie chewing and playing with the ball of wool I was using to knit something for my college work, I was half quite irritated and half in awe at how cute he was, so I let him pull and tug while I knitted a womb (long story).

 This picture really tickles me, it sums up hispersonality, Alfred the ninja cat. 

And lastly this cutie of a pic, my dad and Alfie having a snooze before we went out for a meal. 

Tadpoles Progress - 9 weeks

Just a little update on how the tadpoles (Poles) are doing...

They are roughly 9 weeks old, Ive had them for 8 weeks and they were born roughly a week or two before that, so that's roughly how old they are!

They've doubled in size since I last documented them for the blog, but I'm still waiting for the legs to start growing, which hopefully isn't long now.....

They have fully formed mouths and you can see in some of the pictures their little eyes are more obvious. They are still eating fish food, but I've also been collecting little dead insects and slugs and leaving a few out for them to try too.

Just in case you were wandering, the little thing at the start of his tail unfortunately isn't a leg, that's his erm, bodily waste.. I always get excited thinking they're legs, but they disappear again and I realise I was mistaken.

At this age they still have gills, and their lungs for breathing outside the water are pretty poor, so they still have to remain in the water until the lungs are fully developed. I only took this chap out for a few seconds to photograph, then he was put straight back into the water.

Tadpoles like to eat algae and plants, but they also like to use the pond plants to cling onto and rest on. Eventually when their legs start to develop I will have to include slanting rocks and more plants so they can start to climb out of the water, which I'm really excited for!

I like the curly plant here, it reminds me a bit of lamb's lettuce.

I think their skin is so pretty. It's lightly transparent and at different angles you can see some of their insides developing. I especially like the almost golden speckles they have on their skin at the moment.

This picture is just to highlight the difference in size between the tadpoles. Although they were all laid at the same time, some tadpoles hatch and develop faster than others, I guess that's the same with humans and other animals too, but it's fascinating to watch it through a first hand account! They live in the same conditions, eat the same food etc, yet some are significantly larger and stronger.

 

This guy has a very beady eye.

They are still eating fish food flakes, and getting through a heck of a lot too! I will keep you updated with their progress :)

Blue Planet Aquarium Day

On Saturday Scott and I went to the Blue Planet Aquarium in Cheshire Oaks! It was a really lovely day out, a little expensive, but very interesting! It's really hard to take photo's in the aquarium due to the terrible lighting, but I gave it a go and here are a few pictures of what we saw and got up too!

Shark's are awesome. Pretty scary, but incredible animals! I love this guy's beady little eyes, and his mega fang teeth!

Scott was quite impressed with the sharks too ;) I really like this picture! The coral is pretty, Scott is being... well Scott! And the glistening blue water is lovely.

Sting Rays have the cutest little faces! We got to pet some little rays in the petting area (my favourite surprise surprise) they're skin is very coarse but their little noses are lovely and bob out of the water.

I was really happy to see the crocodile! Can you spot his beady eyes below? It was interesting to see his head on the surface, then look below the tank where the water had refracted his body. He was floated perfectly still for 30 minutes!

Fish, sharks, rays, crocodiles, lobsters, and even snakes, spiders and FROGS! This pleased me greatly. Here are two very chunky looking fellas (toads).
 

I've always had a thing for frogs, especially the blue ones. My grandad took me to the museum in Manchester when I was younger to see the poisonous blue frogs, and I had the poster, along with the Titanic film poster on my bedroom walls for years. They always remind me of him and I love finding them in museums and zoo's.

They had some very small frogs that were incredibly quick at jumping, and a bit of a pain to photograph, but they were beautiful.

Seabear wanted to come... Scott took a few snaps before we left, and this one made me giggle.

They fed the clown fish (nemo fish) when we were by them so they were all fanatically trying to eat the shrimpy white blobs that you can see at the top of the picture.

The yellow and blue colours work so lovely together.

This is the bottom and feet of a duck that was on top of the trout tank. I liked that they included the ducks as part of the display.

Scott likes to read each sign and information card meticulously, whereas I like to dash round quickly to see as much as possible as fast as possible! So this was one of the few pictures I managed to pry him away from the information.

 I really dislike the shops in Cheshire Oaks, I don't think I've ever bought anything from there other than food, however, the Cadbury Factory shop is awesome. And they sell Snapple which I had when I was in America, and it's delicious!

I fell in love with this little fella! He was an inflatable 'Bath predator' and was made of a Matt plastic-y material, SO COOL!! But he was £12 so we had to leave him behind, but one day, I will have a bath predator.

Winter Walking

Scotty and I took the ladies a walk in the woods in Manchester.

Not the best idea to wear Doc Martins for muddy dog walking, but they were very waterproof and only needed a little bit of a clean aftwerwards.

The air was pretty chilly, but it added this lovely crisp fresh feeling to the scenery.

This is Ella tryi ng to chase a duck.... need I say more .

And seabear slowly trotting behind, as usual.

We are trying hard to stick to the new year's resolution of walking, and as it gets warmer i'm sure we'll be doing it a lot more.