Flight of the Turtles

Happy Ostara everybody - the Spring Equinox (the earliest since 1913) has arrived bringing some quite severe weather with it. As I type this, I'm looking out of my window at a blanket of snow on the ground and flurries in the air. By most areas standards, it's not a thick fall, but considering that we are smack bang in the centre of our little island and the weather in our little Shire is never very extreme, it's a big deal! I love the way that snow manages to transform even the most mundane view into something pretty. Since it's a Bank Holiday weekend, the first of the year, M and I decided to 'do something'. As you may remember, I've been wanting to visit the National Sealife Centre in Birmingham for ages. They have giant sea turtles there and a seahorse breeding programme. Stupidly, we didn't think to pre-book and therefore spent an unexpected hour queueing outside in near arctic conditions. I was so cold I was near to tears. We formed a 'blitz' like camaraderie with our neighbours in the queue, most of whom had young children. We let one guy, who actually had travelled from the same town as us, out of the queue to get his young daughters hat from his car and let him back in when he returned, and when we finally got to the cash desk, he unexpectedly gave us a voucher giving us £5 off the entrance fee. It was worth the wait though. I was a little disappointed that the otters were all bundled up together in a little ball fast asleep, but I couldn't blame them!

This is a leopard shark

A seahorse

A poisonous lion fish

M lost in the mirrored maze of Atlantis

And the highlight (for me anyway), the underground world of the sea turtles.

Check out this video I took with my camera - I could have stayed there for hours!