Landlocked Mermaid

Pizza is a staple in my household. Between my partner's Italian heritage and the fact that pizza ticks all my boxes (cheese, carbs and tomato), it's a miracle we don't have it every night! As with most of our food, we try not to get the shop made stuff. Sometimes it's unavoidable, feeling poorly or lazy or pressed for time. But most of the time we make our own. Dough and everything. And if you follow my personal instagram account, you'll see we make it rather regularly! We like to use Jamie Oliver's dough recipe, with a couple tweaks and a variant my own salsa recipe for the sauce. My favourite thing about home made pizza is overloading on the toppings. Yeah, shop bought and takeout pizzas have structural integrity but they never have enough toppings. I have been overloading pizzas since university. Sometimes they don't always come out circular. DOUGH INGREDIENTS 500g plain flour or OO flour. (The OO is finer, but Morrisons have stop...

This #MCotM is going to be a little different as I am still not quite 100%. As much as I would love to do an in depth study of this month's creature, I just don't have the brain power for it. But I can squeeze out 10 fun facts for you. So enough about how crappy I am, here is the creature for July... Mantis Shrimp Photo from Fact Animal Fun Facts   Mantis shrimp are colourful little things. Their colours include blues, greens, reds, and oranges. They are usually between 5-17cm (2-7 inches) long, though some species can be larger. Mantis shrimp have incredible eyesight and the ability to move each eye independently. They can also see in ultraviolet and polarised light. They attack foes and prey 50 times quicker than the blink of an eye. Their punch packs the power of a .22 calibur bullet. Mantis shrimp are either Spearers or Smashers. Spearers have spiny appendages for stabbing prey or foes. Meanwhile, Smashers have club-like appendages for smashing prey...

This weekend we celebrated all the birthdays, maybe a little too much as original plans had to change due to over-tired party people. So this post was originally going to be a fun video of us making fools of ourselves at the Crocky Trail. However, we ended up not going so maybe another video. We did have some fun playing frisbee at the local cricket ground. Getting ready to throw. Running to fetch the frisbee. Thumbs up from Addy. I thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce the new and improved Sharks @ 7 & 3/4. The kids thought it was high time the name changed, especially as Dylan is nine now! (Jeez, that makes me feel old.) So starting next month, the kids and I will be bringing you... SHARK EXPERTS! Each month, I will give the kids a mission. It will be their task to complete the mission and film their efforts. I will put together what they find and share it here, a lot like the last few videos on Sharks @ 7 & 3/4. The kids alway...

Today it is Dylan's 9th Birthday! So to celebrate, I decided to let him pick this month's Final Friday Top Five. He wanted to go for his Top Five... Photo from WildAid Sharks! Honestly, we are not surprised. So here are Dylan's top five sharks, with a couple of facts to go with them. 5. Mako Shark Photo from Discovery Why does Dylan like them? Because they are super fast and cool! The shortfin mako can reach speeds of at least 31 mph. Male and female mako sharks avoid each other until they are ready to reproduce, so that the females do not get harassed. 4. Great White Shark Photo from Oceana Why does Dylan like them? Because they are really big and have awesome, sharp teeth. Great whites are the largest predatory fish on the planet. They have 300 triangular teeth, which are all sharp and arranged in up to seven rows! This creates the conveyor belt effect when they lose a tooth, it just gets replaced by one behind. ...

Capernwray Over the last six months, Chris and I have been training for our Sport Diver course with Shrewsbury Sub Aqua and BSAC . The Sport Diver qualification means that we can dive up to 35m and lead less experienced divers. It takes the knowledge we learned on our Ocean Diver course and takes it to the next level, as you probably could have guessed! It began back in January with...  Ready to learn! BOOT CAMP Over the course of a weekend, back when it was faaarrrr too cold to dive in British waters without a drysuit, myself, Chris and about four or five others learned everything there was to know about Sport Diver theory. We covered six modules over the two days. It was very information intensive, but a good way to learn as we could discuss the more difficult bits with less of a time constraint than when we learned before the practical session.  The modules were taught by members of the club, sharing their expertise and experience which makes ...

Last year, Carole introduced me to the 30 Days Wild challenge, run by the Wildlife Trusts . She invited me to join her and her kids on a litter pick around our town, and explained to me what the #30 Days Wild project was. Litter picking on a sunny day For the last few years, Wildlife Trust have run the project during June challenging folk to do "something wild" every day for the month. This can range from eating your lunch outside, to going on a big woodland adventure. Anyone can sign up for free - which they are still offering, twenty-one days into June! The digital pack includes downloads of the wall chart and the Random Acts of Wildness booklet. I'm guessing the posted version would be hard copies of these. All wild acts are encouraged to be shared across media platforms with the #30DaysWild hashtag and there is a Facebook group open all year round! I am a member of that group and people share some pretty amazing wildlife pictures. And the odd tip on goi...

My partner and I like to watch a lot of SORTEDfood . It's funny, there are some great recipes, and I little love them all. They have a food made three ways video and recently we found their one on ice cream which reminded me that I used to make ice cream all the time! I know it has done nothing but rain these last few weeks, but it is June after all. And if that is not the perfect time to start making ice cream again, I don't know what is. A summer treat In the past I have made a raspberry ripple, chocolate, and bubblegum (at Dylan's request before they went vegan). Last weekend at the Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park I had a caramel and honeycomb ice cream. I decided I wanted to recreate that, as I know how to make honeycomb . But feeling a little more decadent, I decided to go for fudge instead of caramel. I kind of messed up the fudge by getting impatient and not heating up enough, so it did not set properly. But hey, it was going into ice cream and...

Ancient Seas Basilosaurus Photo from  Earth Archives Kingdom: Animalia Class: Mammalia Conservation Status: Extinct (EX) Era: Late Eocene (40-33.9 million years ago) WHAT WAS IT? The name would suggest that this creature was a dinosaur, an ancient lizard. But that was a mis-classification when first discovered in the US. Further fossil discoveries and study into the creature determined that this was in fact a mammal and a whale. It is even believed to be on the evolutionary line for modern dolphins. The Basilosaurus is one of the largest creatures to have existed in the time after the mass extinction event which wiped out the dinosaurs. It was 18-20m (59-66ft) long, which means it was not the largest sea creature to have ever lived but it is up there! It had a long, eel-like body and small hind limbs. Being only 35cm (11 inches) and made of three fused tarsals (or digits), these hind limbs did not have much function. With limited movement, it is pos...

A couple years back, I pilfered one of my mum's aloe vera plants. I'd seen somewhere that they promote good sleep because of the amount of oxygen they kick out, or something of the like. Since taking on the aloe, it has spawned many a baby plant to the point where I have gone from keeping it in one pot to at least three. With bare minimum gardening too. Imagine how much more I would have if I actually looked after it and watered it more than when it goes brown! I still keep one plant in our bedroom, to help with the sleep thing. But the mama plant, Mama Aloe*, lives downstairs in the kitchen and looks a little like this: One floppy Aloe Mama. I decided it was high time to do something with her. Maybe lighten the load. As I have mentioned before, I am a pale kid. I get sun burnt inside. Next to an open window, of course, but still indoors. If we get anything remotely close to a summer this year, I am sure to go a little pink. I use sun screen, but even factor ...

Marine Creature of the Month Southern Right Whale Dolphin Photo from The Scuttlefish Kingdom: Animalia Class: Mammalia Conservation Status: Least Concern (LC) WHERE DO THEY LIVE? If the name wasn't a give away, these dolphins live in the Southern Hemisphere. They are found in temperate waters across the globe, from coastal Chile to waters near New Zealand. They have seen sighted often around the Faulkland Islands and even in the Indian Ocean. Their range is often associated with the cooler currents in this region.  WHAT DO THEY LOOK LIKE? The Southern Right Whale Dolphin does not look like a traditional dolphin for it lacks a dorsal fin and a pronounced beak. They have slim, graceful bodies with dark tops and light underbellies. This is a common colouration for aquatic creatures because it provides good camouflage against predation from above and below. The Southern Right Whale Dolphin has a two distinct colours rather than a faded blend which is mo...