Landlocked Mermaid

Plesiosaurus Photo from Wikipedia Kingdom: Animalia Class: Reptilia Conservation Status: Extinct (EX) (Unless you count Nessie.) Found: Worldwide, number of skeletons found in the UK Era: Jurassic Lived: 135 million years ago Diet: Piscivore/Carnivore Weight: 450kg (992lbs) Size: 3.5m (11ft) Habitat: Ocean The plesiosaurus is an icon marine dinosaur, as it is often how we depict the Loch Ness Monster. It has a long slender body, small head and wide flippers on its side. The term plesiosaur covers all dinosaurs with this combination of features, and they are closely related to pliosaurs (which is the dinosaur I was initially researching and getting confused about the spelling of, you can see how.) This dinosaur was discovered in 1823 by Mary Anning, a Victorian woman who collected fossils on British beaches. She is a fascinating woman who discovered a number of different dinosaur species and what a bezoar stone was. Fossilised poop if you are ...

This was supposed to be an Ancient Seas post. I was researching that on my break at work and realised I was getting confused because I was looking up the wrong animal! So that's coming soon. Instead, I decided to give you an update on my plastic reduction efforts, what with it being #PlasticFreeJuly. With the job I have, I sometimes feel like the problem - god damn straws! - so it's nice to remind myself of how much I am achieving in my household. Got to balance my plastic footprint somehow! 1) Switch to Shampoo Bars   One of the few vanities I have is my hair. I can get fussy about what shampoo I use as I have quite a lot of hair. It is long, it is curly, and it is coloured. It's my ginger waterfall, I love it. I was a little worried that with the bars, I wouldn't be able to lather them up enough to clean my hair properly. I have had some success, though, which has encouraged me to get some more and try different styles. I struggled with the conditioner,...

This post has been a long time coming as I started filming it before going to Italy - in May! I hope you enjoy what we finally came up with. It was fun to film - a lot of chaos, laundry and background cooking noise. But that is the way this mermaid grew up! Let me tell you a little about Bananagrams . It is a letter game, a little like Scrabble, where you have letter tiles and you need to make conjoining words. There isn't a designated board, meaning you can re-arrange as many times as you need. Each player is given 12 tiles and the remaining tiles are face down in the centre, which have to all eventually be put into play. When they run out of their immediate tiles, the player yells PEEL and everyone takes a tile. A player can opt to DUMP a difficult tile and pick up three. Once all the tiles are in play, the player who runs out first yells BANANAGRAMS and wins! (And if you are me, you get your words checked by your sisters because they don't trust I can spell, for good re...

In case you missed it, I have been learning to dive since March with Shrewsbury Sub Aqua Club , a branch of BSAC , at Shrewsbury Quarry Swimming Pool. In a rash vest I bought especially. So why do I want to learn to dive? Well, I am a self proclaimed mermaid and what kind of mermaid can't explore the deep? It's more than that, though. I have always loved swimming, despite swimming slower than a Greenland Shark, and have always wished I could see what lies beneath the water. Underwater nature documentaries were always my favourite, as they are a window into that world. But I want to go through that window and see for myself! So, I have learned how to scuba dive. I chose to learn with Shrewsbury Sub Aqua Club as they are my local BSAC branch and I felt like I was in good hands learning with BSAC. The combination of theory, practical and 8 nice long weeks to learn it all over seemed like the right fit for me. And I didn't need to take massive amounts of time off...

I was hoping to have the next Sharks at 7 & 3/4 s filmed and edited by now, but the boy ran off half way through filming and then told me he doesn't want to do it because it was too stressful! So that is still in the works right now. Instead, have a #MCotM! Manta Ray via GIPHY Kingdom: Animalia Class: Chordata Conservation Status: Vunerable (VU) Found: International waters Diet: Zooplankton Weight: Up to 1,350kg (2,980lbs) Size: From 5.5m (18ft) to 7m (23ft) Habitat: Temperate, subtropical and tropical waters; pelagic waters. Manta rays, known online as majestic flap flaps (!), are huge and beautiful creatures. Just look at it flap along - look at it! Fangirling aside, they are incredible. There are two species of manta ray: M. birostris (the larger of the two) and M. alfredi (named after Prince Alfred). They are both very similar in appearance, with a few key differences. As already mentioned, M. birostris are larger, but they are also darker...

Dear Shropshire County Council, I'm sure you are well aware of the recent media attention plastic pollution has been recieving. Between David Attenborough's Blue Planet II and charities such as Surfers Against Sewage , the desire to turn the plastic tide is becoming greater. While I am aware we are landlocked Shropshire - our plastic waste is still an issue and is contributing towards the ocean pollution as roughly 80% of all waste in the ocean comes from the land. But to bring the issue back home, our streets are covered in single-use plastics. With the recent good weather over the Bank Holiday weekends, I, personally, saw a massive increase in litter spread far and wide across my town. Water bottles, lolly wrappers, cans, take out containers. It was everywhere. Just a small example   While I do not blame you for the publics' wanton littering, all this rubbish begged the question: Where are all the bins? Some context for you, I live in Market Dra...

*cough* Rivers *cough* Sarcosuchus Photo: Max Thomas Kingdom: Animalia Class: Reptillia Conservation Status: Extinct (EX) Found: Africa (sometimes South America) Era: Cretaceous Lived : 112 million years ago Diet: Fish Weight: Up to 8 tonnes* Size: 11-12m (36-39ft)* Habitat: Tropical regions, freshwater rivers.  *Estimates The Sarcosuchus is a giant crocodylian which lived over 112 million years ago, during the Cretaceous era. It is a distant relative of the modern living crocodylians, but has no direct living relatives as they are technically a pholidosaur.  Fragments of this gargantuan "croc" were first found between 1946-1956 by French paleontologists. More complete speciemens were not found until the late 20th century. From the fragments, scientists were able to extrapolate the estimated 11-12m size of the Sarcosuchus, which is over twice the size of the largest modern crocodile. The initial fragments were from the skull and p...

In case you missed it, cutting out plastic from my life sent my brain reeling somewhat. I rambled incoherently for a lot of words and didn't really make any concrete plans. Things have changed. A little, I mean it is still colossally overwhelming. I just have to keep remembering, I am but one human, at this juncture I can only take baby steps. But baby steps add up, especially if I can inspire some of you to follow in my tentative steps. And that is exactly the ethos behind the source of my newly gained confidence. The #2minutesolution book: No. More. Plastic. by Martin Dorey. I got this book at the beginning of the week and I have already finished it. By the founder of the Beach Clean Network and #2minutebeachclean. I found this book massively helpful because it has an easy reading tone. It's not agressive or preachy; it just talks sense. And the best bit? It offers help. Excuse me while I sing a chorus of heavenly hallelujahs. It has a logical progression ...

Suggested by Carole , who is a fan of this month's creature ! Which is... *drum roll* Nudibranch Photo credit: Dive the World Kingdom: Animalia Class: Gastropoda Conservation Status: Not Evaluated (NE) [As far as I can tell] Found: Worldwide; salt water, occasionally brackish water Diet: Carnivorous Size: 0.25-12 inches Weight: Up to 3.3lbs Habitat: Seabed, depths from intertidal zones to 700m (2,300ft) Nudibranch are a vastly diverse species inhabiting our oceans, with 3,000 valid species so far. They are everywhere, in any type of sea. They are found in tropical waters, temperate waters, even the cold (cold) waters of the both Poles. New species are even being found at depths of 2,500m (8,200ft). Everywhere! While they are most diverse in shallow, warm waters, there are two main types of nudibranch: Dorids and Aeolid. They have distinct defining features, which I shall get into later. (I feel you need a little more information first!) Most...

This post has been a long time coming for me. It has even taken me three days to write it. I wasn't sure how to approach my own plastic comsumption, let alone blog about reducing it. This post has been pushed back and back and back... My beautiful handwriting But I guess the reason why  I was having such trouble is because plastic is just so problematic . It's everywhere! So much of my life seemingly depends on the substance suffocating our planet. Grappling with this warrants blogging about, so I am diving in. Problematic Plastic will no doubt become an on-going series as I figure out how to undo nearly thirty years of bad habits. It's all part of the journey. My starting point was the Earth Day Plastic Pollution Primer , which was both inspiring and a little infuriating. It pushes the core message: Reduce, Refuse, Reuse, Recycle, Remove . All good, these are all things I can do. Reading further it even has a plastic calculator to figure out how much you use...