Landlocked Mermaid

  Have a lovely Christmas and New Year. Stay safe! This is me signing off for the remainder of the year. I have some very exciting updates to share with you but they can wait until the new year. Don't forget, the Christmas Quiz is still happening on Monday 21st! The questions are all queued up and ready for your answers. And GIFs. Because we love a GIF round. All that is left to say is, see you soon! Merry Fishmas and a Splashy New Year!

With winter in full swing, it is no wonder that things are getting a little dark and gloomy. I have always felt the Seasonal Affective Disorder ( SAD ) during the winter, but this year it seems to have hit me like a ton of bricks. I have my theories as to why: between foster dogs, big (good!) changes in my life draining the energy, and my usual blend of over caffeinated and under slept.  All in all, I have very few spoons to spread across the things I need to do! SAD is one of those conditions that people bandy about without really knowing the symptoms. Myself included. This is what the NHS website lists for the symptoms. Symptoms of SAD can include: a persistent low mood a loss of pleasure or interest in normal everyday activities irritability feelings of despair, guilt and worthlessness feeling lethargic (lacking in energy) and sleepy during the day sleeping for longer than normal and finding it hard to get up in the morning craving carbohydrates and gaining weight Persist...

  Name: Wolf Eel Kingdom: Animalia Class: Actinopterygii Conservation Status: Stable, but not classified. Location: The wolf eel lives in rocky, shallow waters. They can be found in caves, reefs, and crevices in the Japan Sea and the Bering Sea up to North California. These areas are part of the North Pacific Ocean. Size: These bad boys can grow! Adults can measure up to 2.4m (that's nearly 8ft!) and they weigh a whopping 18kg. Appearance: Well, the wolf eel is certainly serving up a lewk. They possess the dappled, spotty look throughout their lives but start out with a brighter range of colours. Juveniles are orange with dark spots and they become greyer and darker colours as they age. As they are not true eels, they have large heads. Some of you may have noticed a few pouts in the selected pictures. Those are the males! The males have much more pronounced lips than the female wolf eel. All wolf eels have protruding teeth, which are very sharp and live inside an even stronger jaw...

Who fast forwarded November? Go on, own up! Has November whizzed by for anyone else? Well, never mind. As we are within 30 days before Christmas, I am going to resist the temptation to Grinch it up and just go with it. So have my top five Christmas films which I shall be indulging in over the coming weeks. 5. Edward Scissorhands This movie is beautiful and such a lovely origin for why it snows. It's not specifically a Christmas film, but I feel it qualifies because the climax of the story happens at Christmas. Plus, the whole "this is why it snows" thing. I am a big fan of Tim Burton, if that hadn't come across already. His wacky view of the world and strong stylised imagery has always delighted me. Even before I knew about auteurship, mise-en-scene, and all those other film student phrases. I remember watching Edward Scissorhands at Christmas every year when growing up and I do believe it has led to a lifelong appreciation of Tim Burton and Vincent Price. (He plays ...

Once again, December is barrelling towards us at great speed. It seemed like only yesterday we were lamenting the end of summer and now the end of the year is nearly here. I doubt many people will be lamenting the end of 2020 though! (Personally, I believe it is naive to think 2021 is going to miraculously fix everything and it could be even harder, but that's the pessimist in me.) With the days getting much shorter and the heating finally on, I guess it's time to start thinking about Christmas. I had planned to get a head start on my gifts this year as I plan on making them all. However, between falling out with my sewing machine every time I use it and helping my brother in law-ish, all that time I gave myself in September has shrunk considerably.  Having not decorated at all for Hallowe'en it feels weird that I will be getting the Christmas decs out soon. There were a few contributing factors to the lack of Hallowe'en decorating, not all covid related, which make me...

Name: Vampire Squid aka Vampyroteuthis infernalis aka Vampire Squid from Hell Kingdom: Animalia Class: Cephalopoda Conservation Status: Not Evaluated Location: Deep sea, from 600 to 900m (2-3,00ft), in the OMZ (oxygen minimum zone). Temperate and tropical oceans. Size: Vampire squid grow to be about 30cm in length, roughly 1 foot. Half of this is made of its gelatinous body, the other half its tentacles. Appearance: The vampire squid is dark and velvety in colour. Something that separates it from other cephalopods, the exception here being the Blanket Octopus, is the webbing between its tentacle. This gives our cute little MCotM a caped look! Each tentacle is lined with fleshy spines, known as cirri, and they only have suckers on the halves of their tentacles furthest from their bodies.  The vampire squid have large eyes which are blue or red in colour, depending on how the light catches them. These eyes are the largest eyes, proportionally, in the animal kingdom. Upon their m...

In case you missed any during the week, here are all the pictures shared for my virtual spookfest. All the posts are still live on my Facebook and Instagram so feel free to comment there or down below if you have any burning thoughts. Happy Hallowe'en folks!   26th 27th       28th           29th   30th   31st Listening to: Ultimate Halloween

Final Friday Top Five Villains   5. Ursula Naturally, Ursula had to make this list. She is a badass sea witch with an awesome villain song. She's dramatic, body proud, and not afraid to be herself. And like every good villain, she is just charming (and seductive!) enough to lure our unsuspecting heroes in. Villains for the sake of villains fall a little flat, but a good villain is endlessly fascinating. If Disney wanted to do a live action treatment for Ursula like they did Maleficent, I would very much be behind that! 4. Norman/Norma Bates I blame Norman Bates for my fascination with serial killers in movies. Between him and another on this list, I went through a phase of loving serial killer films. Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates (in the 1960 film, not the TV series) with an endearing awkwardness which is often left to the "geek guy who is really nice and secretly hot" character. He is a complex character with more meat to him that merely someone obsessed with killin...