Axolotl Babies Update

The babies are growing, at one and a half weeks old they are now nearly 2cm long and clearly distinguishable between leucistic and wild types.

They are eating the daphnia more quickly than they can breed so I will start a separate daphnia breeding tank this weekend and transfer them in batches.

Munich

During the weekend before Christmas I visited Munich to see the Christmas markets.

There were some beautiful things at the market, particularly Tollwood which we visited in the evening and which had huge tents with stalls and live music inside.

We ate lost of sausages and waffles and drank lots of gluhwein.

We also got a train out into the countryside to see the castle Neuschwanstein. Its somewhere I've seen pictures of in the past and it was just as magical in person. The inside was very quirky and even had a man made cave! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos inside.

Axolotl Hatchlings

The axolotls hatched at the weekend! Here they are at about 1cm long (5 days old).

At the moment they have no arms or legs and swim around in quick bursts using their tails. They are eating live daphnia which I have been breeding in the tank for a couple of weeks (they can only manage the baby daphnia though, as the adults are larger than their heads!)

You can see in the next picture that the one to the left will be a wild type (brownish green speckly) and the one in the centre will be leucistic (pink)

4 babies in the photo above in total. Did you spot the little fella hiding on the facing surface of the rock? I didn't see him until I uploaded the photo!

You can see the gills quite well in this picture.

Axolotl Eggs at Two Weeks

The babies are growing! I will expect them to hatch any day now. I've got a good stock of daphnia for them to eat so they should be happy.

Knaresborough

At the weekend I visited Knaresborough. It was very pretty, I'd like to go back when its a bit warmer, particularly to see Mother Shipton's Cave which is closed in winter where different object have been turned into stalactites by the dripping water.

Winter

A lovely sunny, frosty morning.

Axolotl Eggs Developing

Darwin and Smaug's eggs are developing into babies! Here they are at just over a week old.

Eggs!

On Friday evening I introduced Darwin and Smaug for the first time. They seemed  very excited to meet each other and when I got home today I found the tank full of eggs!

I have moved one plant (about 30 eggs) to another tank to hopefully rear babies!

Ariel

This is the first proper oil portrait I have done purely for myself :)

It is of the singer of the band Icon For Hire, her name is Ariel.
You can see a video of me painting it here: Link

Gothenburg

I was very lucky to be taken to Gothenburg, Sweden as a birthday present.
Instead of taking photos I decided to take video footage and I put it together in this video using music by two Swedish bands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o-saSCXOKo&feature=youtu.be

The music is by Crashdiet and Hardcore Superstar.

Cartoon Fashion

I found this artist recently who creates catwalk fashion designs based on cartoon characters. I thought it was a really creative and unusual thing to do.

Windowsill Produce

I came home from a weekend away to find that my chilies and tomatoes have started to ripen.

Sadly, I over-watered my chili a few months back and the leaves have started to drop off but hopefully it'll survive long enough for the other two chilies to ripen.

Does anyone know why my tomato leaves have gone purple?!

Smaug: 6 Months

Smaug's getting bigger. Hopefully in a few months he'll be big enough to join Darwin in the big tank.

Steve Harris Painting

I did this painting for my boyfriend's birthday. It's Steve Harris who is the bassist of Iron Maiden - who is a bit of a hero of his.

I also filmed myself painting it which you can see here: Link
It is done using oils and took around 3 days.

Fabric Sculptures

While searching for ways to repurpose old clothing I came across this image. It wasn't really what I was looking for but I thought it was interesting. this post explains more. I liked this one too:

Sushi

I made prawn and avocado sushi for dinner this evening. I used the chopsticks and shoyu saucer that my housemate bought for me in Hong Kong. (The patterns on them match the living room: link)

Smoothie

I handed in my MA yesterday so today, after setting up part of the exhibition, I came home for a rest.
I made myself this smoothie out of some fruit which was going soft.

Ingredients:
a handful of soft raspberries
a handful of soft red grapes
a couple of soft strawberries
1 banana
enough lemonade to cover

Sunflowers Update

My sunflowers have flowered!

I planted them back in May (link) and moved them outside in early July (I think)
I'm not sure if they were supposed to grow taller - they are about my height - because the weather has been weird, but I quite like them at this height because now I can see them better.

Strange Shoes

I was looking at shoes online and found these inward curving heels which I thought were very strange and looked impossible to walk in!
I did a quick image search for strange shoes and discovered these curiosities:

Some are a bit gimmicky (the dogs and bananas) but some are quite interesting!