Darwin... is a girl!

So it turns out that my axolotl, Darwin, is actually a girl. I've been referring to him as "him" so it will take some effort to start saying "her". Axolotl Biology Page
Because of the type of food they eat the tank becomes dirty quite quickly so yesterday I cleaned out her tank and found that scooping her up in a freezer bag to transfer her to a bowl while cleaning is much less stressful that trying to catch her in a solid tub as I had been doing. She usually thrashes around and goes crazy but this time she just floated calmly into the bag.
Here are some pictures of her enjoying her lovely clean tank.

Stuffed Peppers

I made stuffed peppers for dinner the other night, it was one of those evenings when you just have no inspiration for cooking but I realised my pepper had started to go soft so I made the effort and was very glad that I did!

The filling is mince with onion and cauliflower with grated cheese on top.

(Sorry for the blurry photo - taken on my phone)

Heston's Cheese Sauce

I made cauliflower cheese with a cheese sauce recipe I got from the channel 4 series "How to Cook like Heston"  (minus the truffle oil and other extravagances!)

It went fairly well but was richer than I had expected - perhaps next time I will make less sauce.

Crochet Patchwork

Latest update on the crochet patchwork blanket I am making. (last shown here)

Faces in the woods

While walking in the woods I found these little faces on a tree, they were made with clay of some sort and natural objects stuck in for the features - I wonder where they came from.

Chili Plant

Last month I went for dinner at Wahaca in Covent Garden and with the bill, instead of getting mints or similar we got some chili seeds. I planted them and while I was away they germinated!

I think it will be a while before I'm harvesting chilies but its a start!

Norway: Oslo

... And here are the photos from Oslo:

The Opera House

Vigeland Park

Holmenkollen ski jump

Troll!

Norway: Bergen

Last week I visited Norway for four days, we had two days in Bergen and two days in Oslo. Here are the photos from Bergen and a day trip we took to Leirvik