On the first day of Christmas...

OK so that may be jumping the gun a little bit but it snowed today so I think I'm allowed.

Today was a busy Christmas day. I put out my advent calendars, one is filled with Cadbury's Roses and earrings; As it is my first Christmas having pierced ears I intend to enjoy it.

This morning I walked to church in the sugar coat of snow we had. Enough to look pretty but not impede movement, although it was quite cold (in the American sense of the word meaning especially cold not the usual English meaning of not quite cold). At church we hung fake greenery with plastic baubles and ribbon bows as well as putting up a few Christmas trees and some truly beautiful banners. The Plaster of Paris Mary and Joseph are in place on the altar patiently awaiting the arrival of their son towards the end of the month. For a few moments today the Pastor set them up with a substitute in the form of a fluffy toy dog but someone has now removed the offending canine.

Pikes Place Market during the sunset

This afternoon I set off for the 'Magic of Christmas' at Pike's Place Market. I have to say there wasn't that much magic for most of the afternoon but walking around the market is always fun. I settled into place by the dark Christmas tree at about 4:40pm and listened to some carol singers. By 5pm the crowd had grown a bit larger and Santa gave us all of five seconds to count down to the Christmas lights being turned on. Christmas count down starts soon...

Traditional 'r'mers market with Carol Singers

 This video is a bit quick but you get to hear a bit of the carols...

Santa begins the countdown...

 Counting down and lights on...

Pigs might fly... if they had evergreen antlers...

... and a red nose! These were my favourite lights

The A to Z of Autumn at the Zoo

Alligators; that is to say I think it was an alligator I spent 15 minutes drawing... I enjoyed his textured skin and he sat still the whole time I was drawing...

Bears; this was probably my favourite part of the day. I've not seen any bear in the wild here, which is probably a good thing! Every time I've been to a zoo the bears have been asleep in their concrete enclosures. These bears lived in a little wilderness, small to be sure but green at the very least. Perhaps because of this or maybe because of the temperature these bears were not asleep but moving... Also the zoo used a little optical illusion of a deep pit/moat. So it felt like the bears were feet away but they couldn't actually eat you! I spent happy minutes watching them and waiting for them to stroll over for the perfect photo...  which I missed every time! 

Canaries; Canaries + seed sticks = fun. This was a chance to interact with the animals; in a large room with lots of perches and squawking you could buy a seed stick for a dollar, then commenced a little feeding frenzy as one bird, then another, perched to eat. I imagine if you we're the only one in there it could be quite overwhelming but there was a little crowd when I was in there so I wasn't mobbed.

Disappointment; I had left the best to last. The best obviously being the red pandas. I made my way to their cage my steps quickening as I neared my destination and I was greeted by this sign.


Enough said!








Elephant; I only saw this single Indian elephant munching hay.

Fall; It was a lovely autumn day. Crisp in the morning and sunny by the afternoon. Some of the fall colours has tumbled to the ground but many trees were still decorated with the shades of the season.

Gorillas; There are several families of gorillas at the zoo. One included a juvenile who came bounding at the glass teeth bared, a little scary as they can run fast. Meanwhile the Silver-back sat placidly back to the cameras.

Hippos; it turns out hippos really love pumpkins, who knew! Never have I seen a hippo out of water. I'm fairly sure I have a picture taken at some zoo somewhere of a hippo swimming but never have I seen one on land. Tempted by seasonal pumpkin delights Seattle's hippos were dining topside. Munch... Munch... Munch...

 

In; a tree. At first I didn't spot this tree kangaroo but then I looked up and their he was just hanging out. Look at his amazing tail!

Jaguar; I had fun trying to get a photo of this big cat as it paced behind the waterfall. This is when I wish I had a better camera where I could control the point of focus properly. 

Kangaroos; or possibly wallabies? The ones I had just seen huddled in the warm were Kangas but for whatever reason this little guy was out on his own. I liked the tableau of him with the pumpkin and autumn tree.

Lions; I saw Mr. Lion at the corner of the his enclosure sitting down. A few minutes later something must have unsettled him because I got to hear his roar, Roar, ROAR.

Meerkats; These guys were cute but I can not look at them without seeing comparethemeerkat.com adverts. British advertising at it's best!

Natural; enclosures. I realise that nature has some very dry and barren landscapes and for many zoo animals that is what home is like but one of the things I enjoyed most about the enclosures at Seattle zoo was their lusciousness. The pacific northwest is nothing if not lush, green and healthy looking and it was nice to see animals, especially wolves, bears, otters in something more than a concrete jungle. 

Otters; There were Asian small-clawed ottters and river otters. Both sets were gambolling. I particularly enjoyed the river otters, they had an underwater viewing point. I loved the bubbles rising up from their fur as they dived.

Asian small-clawed otters

River Otters (N. American)

Pumpkins; In a bit of seasonal flare the zoo likes to give the animals pumpkins to play with or eat, as you can see on many of the photos. So much for natural! 

Quiet; It was a long week and it took a while to unwind. Zoos are not the best place for quiet with small animals running around, not to mention the occupants of the cages. Sometime after lunch, having done a bit of exercise I started to enjoy myself more and absorb the moments of peace. 

Regeneration; of limbs, as commonly studied in the Mexican Salamander (Ambystoma mexicanum). The information above this little guys tank informs me that although very common in labs around the world their native habitat barely exists any more. 

Snakes; I have decided not to put online the lovely video I have of a snake flicking his tongue in and out and tasting the air. I enjoyed watching him though. I also enjoyed watching to see if I could see the massive python take a 'breath'. 

Tortoise; this little guy was busy eating... yum salad! 

Underwater; There was a chance to see the otters and the penguins under the water. There was even an underwater viewer for the bears if they had chosen to take a dip. 

V; a formation of turtles. 

Wolves; were busy pacing through their wooded enclosure.

X-ray vision; required to see this lone Orangutan (his 'friends' were inside) huddled under his cardboard shelter. Can you spot him? 

Yule tide; or at least in Decmeber I am going to return to the zoo in the evening to see the zoo's Christmas lights. Already in place, but not lit, were light sculptures of gorillas, salmon, butterflies and much much more, but that is a blog for another time. 

Zoobiquity; Whilst I was at the zoo there was a conference in progress. I heard snatches of the talks which sounded really interesting. Do gorilla's experience Seasonal Affective Disorder? How do bears manage their blood sugar during hibernation? There is an entire book on the topic which I just purchased so I'll let you know if it's good. 

Of Ducks and Diabetes

Ducks

One of the things I have been meaning to do for a while is try out some of the Seattle sight-seeing tours. One of the ladies at church wanted to try out the 'Duck tours' so we got together one Saturday in September and headed into Seattle Center on the bus. It was mid September so we hadn't booked up, turns out this was a mistake. We caught a tour 40 mins after we had hoped and had to sit separately.The trips are famous for being very silly; loud music, crazy guides, plenty of opportunities to cheer along, and 'duck attacks'. There are 'quackers' for sale in the shop, these can be used, by the entire bus-boat, to scare unwitting pedestrians or cyclists.  

On the boat-bus with our hat wearing driver/captain

 The first part of the tour is around Seattle center and down town Seattle. You then sit on the freeway for about 15 mins. Not particularly exciting!

By far the best thing about the tour is the boat bit. All the drivers have to be certified captains because they drive you around on Lake Union. The lake has three different types of dwelling. There are floating homes, house boats, and boats. The number of floating homes is limited by the city, but houseboats (with a motor) are not so restricted. The deal with house boats is that you have to be able to show they are navigable so the houses have to take occasional trips around the lake. 

On the water

Downtown Seattle and Seattle Center from the lake

Gas works park - what do you do with a toxic waste dump?
 Make it into a public park of course!

Seattle is famous for it's water, both that which falls from the sky  and that which flows through the lakes.
Consequently there are many many bridges. 

Diabetes

One of the other things I've been meaning to do in Seattle is get involved in some of the public events that happen in the diabetes world. So one weekend in October I took part in the ADA's walk for diabetes which happened to be happening at my local park - very convenient. The walk had a few routes for a mile, three miles, or for the enthusiastic you could do the three miles twice. There was the pre-requisite free goodies on site from sponsors. I availed myself of the free coffee but  who wants to walk with arms full of bags? I walked the first three miles with ladies from work then was one of 10 or so fools who decided to do another route. This was a little anti climatic. None of the stewards were left the second time around, no-one was waiting with water, no-one was waiting at the finish line, all the stalls had closed down. Other than that I had a good time and found my six miles, quite literally, were a walk in the park.

The cheering crowds after my six miles

 World Communion Sunday

Finally, for world communion Sunday at church, we were encouraged to dress up with clothes from our 'country of origin' or a country we admired. I couldn't really figure out what to where to represent England but eventually I settled on Union Jacks (realising that this represents the whole of the UK not just England). I painted myself a a T-shirt with crayola fabric pens. I was a little disappointed to open the box and find the blue (pictured on the box as a royal blue) was actually lilac, but it turned out OK in the end. I also spent a few hours in failed attempts to paint my nails before finally getting the job done.