I've just been talking to one of my close friends via that fabulous invention of Skype and asked her what I should pick as my theme this week. She didn't really know what I was talking about when I said 'theme' but asked if it could be anything, like... for example...giraffes? Well yes, yes it can be a shout out for giraffes! This week's Etsy shout out is dedicated to you Shannon of MosaicGeek fame - I hope that next time we speak on Skype you sing me the song I've added at the end...!
Anyway, for those of you who don't know, I do a weekly shout out of some lovely things I've found on Etsy based around a theme. This week's theme is giraffes, of which there are many cute examples on Etsy. Do go and have a search yourself but also visit the shops I've featured - they are great!
What little snippets of giraffe information shall I add?
A giraffe can clean its own ears with it's tongue. Personally I wouldn't want to but always a good party trick I suspect... Their tongues are about 2 feet long.
Because they are always on the lookout for predators, giraffes sleep very little. They average about 30 minutes a day. And other animals use giraffes as lookout posts for predators.
Giraffes can eat about 35 kilos of food a day. They are herbivores and have a strong liking for accacia trees which have all the nutrients they need bar calcium and salt. Because accacia stores water in its leaves, it also helps in keeping giraffes hydrated.
However, when giraffes do go and find some water, they can drink up to 12 gallons of water in one go.
A baby giraffe is about 6 foot tall at birth.
If they are attacked and cannot run away, giraffes will kick at their predators - and their hooves have been known to sever a lion's head!
Giraffes can run at 35 mph although only for a short period of time.
It is illegal to tie a giraffe to a lampost in Atlanta. Which makes me wonder when giraffes were so prevalent there that they had to introduce that law...?!
Giraffes cannot cough. Must be a real pain if they get accacia leaves stuck in their throats...!
Giraffe markings are all individual - no two giraffes have exactly the same markings.
Today's YouTube clip is verging on the ridiculous but for some reason I don't know many songs about giraffes... can't think why! Anyway, it MUST be fun to be a giraffe!
Brrrr, I know it's only November so the proper cold, snowy months have not yet started but I haven't been able to feel my toes for days now! I am soooooo cold! So what better theme for this week's Friday Feeling than Winter? Here are some of my favourite finds of the week - please do go over to Etsy and have a look at some of the shops I've featured (click on the links in the captions) and also go and have a search generally. It's that time of year when we start thinking about Christmas presents (I said it, the dreaded C word) so Etsy is a good place to start looking. Lovely handmade gifts all round!
I'm not sure whether I want to share any wintery facts with you today... they might make me feel even colder! I'm presently wrapped up in a scarf AND a cowl in a cafe which technically should have heating. And when not typing I'm clutching a mug of hot tea! OK, OK, here are your fun facts for the week:
Icicles most often form on the south side of buildings
The record for most snow angels at one time was made in Ontario, Canada in 2004. A number of schools joined forces and 15,861 were created.
Wind chill is a measurement of heat loss on exposed skin
The coldest temperature ever recorded was in Antarctica (no surprise then!) of -129 Fahrenheit (-89 Celsius)
Snowflakes fall on average at 3.1 miles per hour
The tallest snowman was given a name! He was called Angus and measured 122 feet (37 metres)
Ten inches of snow melts down into 1 inch of water
A single snow storm can drop more than 40 millios tonnes of snow, which has the energy equivalence of 120 atomic bombs.
Apparently if squirrels start building their nests on the lower branches of trees it means we're going to have a really cold winter. The same goes if ants build higher than normal mounds or birds start migrating early.
Wooooooooh! It's that spooky time of year again when bats and cats, witches, skeletons and ghosts are all on the prowl for All Hallows Eve. So what better time to have Hallowe'en as a theme? I have made one item for Hallowe'en - a pumpkin keyring:
But there are LOTS of lovely Hallowe'en themed items on Etsy this week - feel free to go and search yourself but here are my picks of the week.
I'm sure we all know quite a lot about Hallowe'en already but, here are my snippets of information for the week...
Hallowe'en celebrations date back thousands of years (well between 2000 and 6000 years depending on your source).
The tradition of wearing masks comes from Celtic tradition. On Samhain the spirits of the dead return to earth and visit the living. The masks are worn to prevent the dead from recognising the living. The tradition of costumes is American and dates from harvest celebrations where people wore costumes, ate sweets and played practical jokes on each other.
The tradition of playing practical jokes got out of hand and a bit ugly in the 1930s and, as a substitute for it, the tradition of going door to door to collect candy was introduced. Although trick or treating is also a continuation of the tradition of putting treats outside the door in Celtic tradition to ward off bad spirits.
Jack O'Lanterns originated in Ireland and were originally hollowed out turnips with candles placed in them to ward off evil spirits on Samhain.
If you see a spider on Hallowe'en it is said to be the spirit of a loved one watching over you. So they are actually good luck!
About 99% of all pumpkin sales are used for hollowing out and making Jack O'Lanterns.
Bobbing for apples is a Roman festival tradition - it was played at feasts to the goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit.
In Scotland, unmarried girls supposedly see the face of their future husband if they hang a wet sheet in front of a fire on Hallowe'en.
The name bonfire night originates from 'bone fire' - in the run up to the harvest, fires were lit to persuade the sun to return after the cold, dark winter. Often cows and sheep were thrown in as sacrifices hence the 'bones'
England tends to celebrate Bonfire Night (5th November) instead of Hallowe'en because the date (31st October / 1st November) are Catholic feast days (All Saints and All Souls) and Protestant England wanted to distance themselves from the Catholics. Celebrating the execution of Guy Fawkes (a Catholic) who tried to blow up parliament and put a Catholic king on the throne was a good way of keeping the festivities but putting a different slant on it.
This week's YouTube video had to be Ghost Busters because it's such a classic. Enjoy and HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!
"Oranges and lemons,' say the bells of St. Clement's
"You owe me five farthings," say the bells of St. Martin's
"When will you pay me?" say the bells of Old Bailey
"When I grow rich," say the bells of Shoreditch
"When will that be?" say the bells of Stepney
"I do not know," says the great bell of Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes and chopper to chop off your head!
I've had this famous nursery rhyme in my head all week for a good reason. I've been making things with an oranges and lemons theme this week. First of all, there's the Oranges and Lemons bag:
So it seems only fitting that this week's Friday Feeling theme should be Oranges and Lemons. There are some lovely items available on Etsy but here are my picks for the week:
The phrase 'Oranges and Lemons' may be traced back to the 1600s when there was a square dance called 'Oranges and Lemons'. The actual tune and lyrics are not known but it's suspected that the lyrics are similar to those that we presently know.
The 'bells' referred to are all the names of churches within the city of London.
You are a 'cockney' Londoner if you are born within earshot of the Great Bell of Bow - which is not actually located in the area of Bow, but is actually the bells of St Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside. The original church actually burnt down in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt and destroyed during the Blitz and wasn't rebuilt again until the 1960s. As it's actual location is within the heart of the City of London, it is unlikely that anyone is actually born within earshot of the bells as it's not a residential area. And for a number of years it was impossible to be born within earshot as there were no bells! So Cockney Londoners are usually thought of as those from the East End.
The tune of the nursery rhyme is meant to sound like the indvidual bells ringing which all have their own distinctive tune and pitch.
There are various theories as to what the rhyme means, including representing the difficulties that Henry VIII had with his many wives, describing public executions and references to child sacrifice. However these are mostly totally unfounded as the last two lines about the execution were added at a later date to the original lines.
It is thought that the last few lines may have been added by children around 1783 when public executions at the Tyburn gallows drew crowds of up to 100,000.
St Clement Danes' church bell now plays the tune of Oranges and Lemons as it's ring.
In Orwell's 1984, Winston cannot remember the whole of the nursery rhyme, with different parts provided by different characters throughout the novel with the final two lines coming very symbolically at the end of the novel.
Yet again I'm apologising. This time for the lack of Friday Feeling posts that I've been doing. I seem to have lapsed badly and haven't done one of these for nearly three weeks! There is an excuse though - I've been a really busy busy bee recently and don't feel like I've touched the floor in the last few weeks. So as a homage to how busy I've been, I thought today's theme should be about bees. There are some seriously cute items on Etsy if you search for bees but I thought I'd go for some fun and happy items I liked this week. What do you think?
What little snippets can I find for you this week?
Honey bees have been around for nearly 30 million years.
No other insects produce food that man eats.
A honey bee visits between 50 and 100 flowers in a single trip to collect nectar.
In its lifetime the average honey bee only makes about a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
Baby bees don't know how to make honey - they get taught how to do it by experienced honey makers.
A bees wings beat about 11,400 times a minute, they travel at 15 miles an hour and can fly up to 6 miles at a time.
A queen bee lays her own weight in eggs a day and can lay about 200,000 eggs a year. Despite that, honey bees are endangered due to man's interference with their habitats.
Male honey bees are called drones and all they do is mate with the queen - they have no stingers and do no work.
Which means, yes, all the worker bees are actually female, albeit sexually undeveloped females.
The Dance of the Bumble Bee by Rimsky-Korsakov has to be this week's YouTube video. At the school I used to work at, our 'Flying Club' used to do a gymnastics routine to this music. It was pretty impressive.
Today is the last day of my holiday! Boo. This evening I get back on a plane and fly via the Bahamas back to the UK where I'm sure it will be raining ready for my return. I've had the most amazing time here in Grand Cayman - from swimming with sting rays and snorkelling on the reef to drinking rum cocktails on the beach and spending time with my sister, brother-in-law and nephew. I thought that a holiday theme would be the most appropriate theme for today's Etsy shout out - my one is coming to an end but it is the traditional time of year for summer holidays to commence. So here are some lovely things that I have found that you might want to take with you on yours...
And you'll need a gorgeous shoulder bag for all your accessories. Why not this one by Saysie?
How many random facts can one find about summer holidays? It was a bit of a hard one this week but here you go:
The tradition of summer weddings was begun by the Romans who would choose Juno's month, June, for weddings as this would bring on her blessing.
August is the busiest month for travel and tourism.
The Dog Days of Summer refer to the period between July 3rd and August 11th when Canis Major's star Sirius was believed to be closest to the sun and was blamed by the Romans for the intense heat, droughts and sultry weather.
The summer solstice in the UK is on June 20th. It was celebrated with dancing and bonfires and couples would jump through the flames. The tradition held that crops would grow as high as the couple could jump.
What I call a holiday, Americans would call a vacation. In the US a holiday refers to time off due to a national celebrations whereas in the UK a holiday is just any time that you aren't necessarily at work.
Today's youtube clip could only really be Summer Holiday. I prefer the Mike Redway version to Sir Cliff Richard's one.
Wow, who else watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday? Wasn't it fantastic? From all the pre-opening cafuffles I was convinced it would be a total flop but I actually think that London has done us proud and that was a fantastic start to what will be some very exciting games. I've just watched Lizzie Armistead win silver for Team GB in the Women's Road Race and that last sprint down the mall had me at the edge of my seat nearly shouting at the TV! I'm in the Cayman Islands at the moment so wasn't there for the live event but I'm actually looking forward to going back and seeing what is happening.
Anyway, here's this week's finds from Etsy - there are some fabulous things and as always I really recommend you go over and do your own searching.
The Olympic rings represent the 5 major areas of the world (Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania) and the colours represent every flag in the world - all flags have at least one of the 5 Olympic colours in their flags.
Gold medals haven't been made of pure gold for nearly 100 years - they are actually silver with gold plating.
Mahatma Gandhi covered the Olympics as a news reporter at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.
At the first Modern Olympics, silver medals were the top prize and winners were also presented with an Olive branch. There were bronze medals for second place but nothing for third.
In the 1900 Paris Olympics, winners were presented with paintings instead of medals! - To be fair they were probably more valuable.
The first drug suspension at the Olympics was in 1968 when a Swedish pentathlete tested positive for a banned substance: alcohol. He drank several beers before participating. The idea of doing a pentathlon drunk is pretty daunting to start with!
The 1908 London Olympics lasted 187 days - they started in April and didn't end till October.
An American gymnast, George Eyser won 6 medals in the 1904 Olympics (3 gold, 2 silver and a bronze). Pretty impressive, but even more so because he had a wooden leg!
The Olympics have never been held in Africa, South America or Antarctica. The US has hosted the games 8 times (including summer and winter games) and London is hosting the games for the third time.
So there you are - I am sure there are plenty of other random facts but those were the ones I found most interesting. Oh and there are a number of sports that haven't managed to survive - my favourite being pistol duelling.
Woohooo! It's Friday 20th July and today is not only the last day of school, it's my last day at work! Tomorrow morning I will be jumping on a plane and heading out to the Cayman Islands to go and spend 2 weeks with my sister, brother-in-law and my gorgeous little nephew. I know it's only tomorrow but seriously... I CAN'T WAIT!!! One of the things that the Cayman Islands are famous for is Green Sea Turtle Farm - which breeds green sea turtles and releases them into the wild every year. At any one time there may be approximately 16,000 turtles at the farm so today's post is dedicated to turtles. Yay. I still have plans to make a turtle mosaic at some point, but I haven't yet managed to get around to it... one day! Anyway, on to some things that I have found on Etsy this week...
Most turtles cannot retract their head into their carapace (shell)
Green sea turtles are named that after the colour of their skin, not their shells.
Green sea turtles can stay underwater for up to 5 hours. However if they are kept underwater for too long, they will drown. Awww, poor turtles.
Turtles can become obese - if food is around they will just keep eating whether or not they are hungry. This results either in them vomiting into the water or putting on loads of fat. Who knew?
The first known turtles existed about 200 million years ago. Nowadays there are about 300 species of turtle. They exist in all continents bar Antarctica but tend to prefer warmer water.
Turtles can store sperm, which means that they can produce fertilised eggs up to 4 years after mating.
The smallest turtle is the Speckled Padloper at 4 inches while the largest is the Leatherback Sea Turtle which can reach 10 foot.
Aquatic turtles must be in water to be able to eat.
Sea turtles can swim up to 35mph and some land turtles can outrun an average human.
This week's YouTube had to come from Finding Nemo...
One more week before I go off on my summer holiday... Wimbledon is over, the Olympics are nearly upon us and it's about time I stopped avoiding the whole season theme and embraced the fact that we may not actually get a proper summer. So in order to encourage the weather to be a little nicer, this week's theme is dedicated to summer. Obviously I am going for the sunny side of summer, not the more temperamental side which we see all to often in this country. Come on sunshine - you can do it! Maybe if we all just concentrate on long summer days the weather will improve? Here are some bright summery things I found on Etsy this week.
Definitely thinking of summer with this print by TonyMax
Today's random 'facts' (as always, take them with a slight pinch of salt... I'm not really an expert!)
The first swimsuits were designed by the Ancient Greeks in 350BC. The first ladies' bathing suits were introduced in the early 1800s - they were dresses with woollen bloomers underneath to weight them down. At the time women didn't do more swimming than the occasional paddle or jump of a wave and it would have been inexcusable to have a sun tan.
The hottest British summer on record was in 1976 when the average temperature was 17.8 celsius, the coldest was in 1725 when the average was 13.1 degrees.
The Eiffel Tower grows in the summer! On hot days the iron expands so much that the whole tower can grow up to 17cm taller.
In 1816 North Eastern US and Canada did not have any summer at all - in fact they had snow and icy winds for an entire year. It was most likely due to a volcano eruption in what is now Indonesia, disrupting weather patterns.
The Chinese invented and wore the first pairs of sunglasses more than 2000 years ago.
According to scientific experiments, an average single scoop of ice cream in a cone takes 50 licks to consume. I need to test this one myself...
Yet again I have failed to update my Friday Feeling post on an actual Friday, but for those of you who have been wondering where it is... better late than never, right?
What with the European Cup final on tomorrow night, there could only really be one theme for this week's post - football. As I'm sure some of you have gleaned already, it's not my favourite sport but hey, millions of people disagree with me so it's definitely worth a mention. As you British readers will know, England got knocked out last week and my other team to support (Germany) is also out of the running. Which means that tomorrow's final is between Italy and Spain. I don't have any close Italian friends but I do have some Spanish ones so, for the sake of friendship, I am supporting Spain in tomorrow's match. Not that I'll be watching it... Sorry for any Italians who I may inadvertently upset by announcing that. Anyway, on with what I found on Etsy today:
Football was actually invented in China and there are writings about it dating back as far a 476 BC
Gordon Ramsey, Julio Iglesias and Albert Camus were all nearly professional footballers but due to injury / illness none of them continued their careers.
Aston Villa football club was actually started by cricketers from the Villa Cross cricket team in 1874 - apparently the team were discussing how to keep fit during the winter months when they spotted a football match happening in a nearby field and decided it was a great solution.
In 1975 a football match between Uruguay and Chile was abandoned after 19 players were sent off.
In 1980 the Liberian team narrowly escaped imprisonment when they drew 0-0 against Gambia. They had been threatened with imprisonment by the Head of State if they lost. Although I've also read that the former Zaire were threatened with exile if they lost by more than 3 goals to Brazil so I'm not sure if I believe either of them!
Apparently in 1950 the Indian team withdrew from the world cup when they realised that the team were required to wear boots and were not allowed to play barefoot.
The word soccer comes from university slang - it was an abbreviation for association football.
In 1990 the entire Albanian team were held in custody at Heathrow airport after a language misunderstanding: they thought that 'duty free' meant help yourself...
In 2001 the game of football was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize due to its ability to bring nations together.
In 2001 Archie Thompson scored a whopping 13 goals in Australia's 31-0 defeat of American Samoa.
Did you know that today, June 8th is World Ocean Day? I didn't but I do now! You can find out more about World Ocean Day and some things you can do to support / participate here: http://worldoceansday.org/ I thought I'd go with an ocean theme this week, although obviously oceans are fairly vast so... I went with some ocean-inspired colours and ideas. What do you think of this week's Etsy finds?
The oceans provide most of the earth's oxygen that we breathe.
94% of life on earth is aquatic. We are still learning about species that live in the oceans but one thing we can thank them for is pharmaceuticals. A lot of modern day medicines have their origins in plant and mineral extracts from the oceans.
The largest ocean is the Pacific - it covers about 30% of the world's surface. The Atlantic covers about 21% and in total the oceans cover about 70% of the world's surface.
The largest mountain range on Earth lies under the oceans - and we had sent men onto the moon before we discovered the Mid-Ocean Ridge in 1973.
There are more human artifacts of history in the oceans than there are in any of the museums of the world all combined.
The average depth of the oceans is about 12,400 feet. Photons (light) can't travel further than 330 feet under water which means that a huge amount of life in the oceans is always in the dark.
Sadly I've already used Under the Sea from the The Little Mermaid in a previous post (see here) so this week you get Dory from Finding Nemo speaking whale... Enjoy!
There could only be one theme for today's Friday Feeling: the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. 60 years on the throne is a pretty long time to be a head of state so congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II. We've just celebrated at work by holding a Jubilee party in the playground with parents, children and local residents alike all invited for food, music and a chance to catch up. We had a raffle and a quiz and... I won the quiz!!! (well, I came third, but still, I'm impressed with myself) It was a commemorative spoon, but as I had the help of one of my year 6 boys, I gave it to him to keep. It was a nice afternoon - the children had all made bunting and table decorations and our year 6s (my year-group) all acted as hosts and servers. They did a fantastic job (Thank you to any of them who may be reading!)
Like all of the rest of the country, Etsy is a little jubilee mad at present. Interestingly a lot of the items there tagged 'Jubilee' or 'British' are actually made by people in the US. And lovely items they were too. However, I'm being patriotic this weekend so I'm afraid one of the criteria for making it into today's Etsy shout out post was that you had to be a British or Commonwealth seller. Here are today's picks:
Are you doing anything for the Jubilee weekend festivities? I actually don't know what I will be doing as my plans seem to keep getting scuppered by people left, right and centre. If it's nice I might go on a long bike ride somewhere, but there are some street parties quite close to me so I might go and see some of those. I'd quite like to see the flotilla on Sunday but I actually don't know where I'd go to watch it... maybe I'll cycle down to the Isle of Dogs and watch from near Canary Wharf (if it passes that way!)
What little snippets can I find for you today?
Elizabeth was the elder daughter of King George VI and was born on April 21st 1926.
She was 25 when she became Queen Elizabeth II in 1952
When she was born, Elizabeth was third in line to the throne, although it was not expected that either she or her father would ever succeed to it.
Elizabeth married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten in November 1947 in Westminster Abbey. The UK was still recovering from the war so it was a fairly simple affair - and Princess Elizabeth had to collect clothing coupons for her dress as there was rationing for the royal family as well as the rest of the country.
Elizabeth II is the 40th monarch since William the Conqueror and is Queen Victoria's great-great-granddaughter.
The first regional tour that the Queen made was to Northern Ireland, after which she toured all of her Kingdom.
Two videos this week... God Save the Queen is not the most exciting song ever so thought I'd add a party themed one too!!
Argh, there hasn't been a Friday Feeling post for a few weeks - I am so sorry! Not sure quite why I have failed so miserably in my mission to bring my favourite Etsy finds of the week to you, please forgive me! Anyway, some of you will have noticed that this week I am slightly obsessed with ninjas... so this week is of course dedicated to the ninjas. Of the cute variety...
The Surprise Ninja makes an appearance on this cute badge by TheHappyWhale
And this ninja is lurking on a card ready to strike with his shuriken by CompassionCardCo
YAY! I love these little guys! So I guess I should find some interesting facts about ninjas for you...
Ninjas have been around since about the 14th Century. The art of Ninjutsu means the art of stealth and ninjas were traditionally spies, saboteurs and assassins.
Ninjas aren't called ninjas at all - they were called Shinobi meaning 'to steal away'. Apparently the name ninja only came about after the Second World War when Westerners couldn't pronounce shinobi so started calling them ninjas.
Ninjas and Samurai are totally different - the Samurai were mostly of the nobility, while Ninjas came from mountain villages. Samurai fought in the open while Ninjas were more covert in their operations.
The traditional ninja uniform was not black. It's kind of conspicuous when you are a hired assassin to go around mountain villages wearing black so they would have worn whatever anyone else was wearing to blend in. They may have worn dark colours in the dark to help with concealment but that's about as far as it gets.
While searching for interesting facts about ninjas I came across all sorts of websites stating wonderful things about ninjas, from 'Ninjas don't sweat' to 'Ninjas can predict the next tune on their iPod shuffle'. Obviously most of them are not true... or are they?
OK so Kung-Fu and Ninja are not related but hey... when else will I have an opportunity to have Kung Fu Fighting as the song of the week here? Sorry for being totally incorrect (and in the wrong country) here, but I couldn't resist:
I've just got back from an amazing trip to Scotland (watch this space tomorrow for a post about it) and thought it was only fitting to have a Scottish theme today. I have to say, I absolutely loved Scotland - it is much more beautiful than any of the photos / pictures / postcards you see of it make out. I spent a fair amount of time walking around with my mouth hanging open in awe. Anyway, here are some lovely pieces that are either Scottish or Scottish-inspired that I came across on Etsy this week.
I really like this gorgeous cup by JuliaSmithCeramics. It reminds me a little of Manx ceramics too.
What little snippets of information can I find for you today?
Not only is Edinburgh the capital city of Scotland, it was also the first city in the world to have it's own Fire Brigade.
The official animal of Scotland is the unicorn. I love that!
Scotland is more than just the mainland - there are about 790 islands as well although only about 130 of them are inhabited.
The highest point in Scotland is Ben Nevis at 1,343m and the lowest is the Bed of Loch Morar at 300m below sea level.
Modern inventions owe a lot to the Scots - it's the place where television, penicillin, tyres, video cassettes and golf were all invented.
Scotland was not always on the same continent - there are two very distinct areas of Scotland: the Highlands and the Lowlands which were originally on different tectonic plates. Several million years ago 2 continental plates met and eventually fused together forming the Highland Boundary Fault and much of the scenery we now associate with Scotland.
The Loch Ness Monster is obviously a well-known international celebrity, although the legend is relatively new (dating from 1933 or thereabouts). I went to Loch Lomond in the hope of meeting one of Nessie's cousins but sadly only saw deer, no monsters. Oh well. Here's a song from one of my favourite TV cartoons when I was little... There isn't just one Loch Ness monster, the Family Ness have all sorts of characters and I used to love them all:
It probably hasn't escaped your notice that today is Good Friday and this weekend is Easter weekend. I'm off to Scotland in a few hours which I am very excited about, but before I go I thought I'd better do today's Friday Feeling post. And because it's Easter, what could be more appropriate than... bunnies? You know, those cutesy little bundles of fluff? Oh... wait... this week my finds are not 'cutesy' but they are stunning and eye-catching and I love them! What do you think?
A few random facts I came across in my search today...
Rabbits have large eyes but a blind spot right in front of their face, but they can see behind themselves without turning their heads.
Rabbits can run about 35mph and jump about 36 inches.
Rabbits don't like being picked up, can't vomit and the wrong food can kill them.
They need to exercise about 4 hours a day or osteoporosis can set in.
The Easter Bunny has its origins in the ancient pagan festival of the goddess Eostre. Her symbols were the hare and the egg because both symbolised new life, and of course hares (and rabbits) are very prolific in their production of offspring. Much of Early Christianity's success was due to the fact that they amalgamated local festivals into Church festivals, using the same dates, symbols etc but changing the focus to a Christian event. Over time the pagan gods and goddesses were replaced by Christian worship but certainly in the case of Easter, the name of the festival and the symbols remained.
The Osterhase (Easter Hare) was first written about in the 1500s and was already by then a tradition whereby the hare brought eggs and hid them. The tradition was taken over to America by early German and Dutch settlers.
The Easter Hare eventually became the Easter Rabbit because most people talk about both generically as rabbits, even when they are hares (think: Jack Rabbit) and over time the rabbit was turned into a cute little fluffy bunny who brings children eggs.
As a child, one of my favourite books was 'The Velveteen Rabbit' by Margery Williams. It's a beautiful story about how one boy's toy rabbit comes to life because he loves it so much. I spent a fair amount of time as a child trying to make my toys come to life too... If you haven't read it, here's Meryl Streep reading it for you:
This week's theme is London. Why? Because on Sunday I'm going to be going south of the river, not to visit friends in an area I know well, or to get on a train from Waterloo... no, I'm going all the way to Balham for my first ever craft fair. I'm quite excited but at the same time have not been there for at least 10 years so don't know what to expect of the whole area. LOL - that sounds as if I think of Balham as a whole different country, not a different part of this amazing city! But one of the things I love about London is that each area has its own different vibe and feel. So I'm looking forward to seeing more of the south. Anyway, as I always learn something new when I do a Friday Feeling post, I thought I'd have London as a theme this week to see what I can find out. But enough of that... here are some lovely things I found on Etsy this week.
So here are the promised facts I found out about...
London is not only the biggest city in the UK, it's also the biggest in Europe with 12% of the British population living there.
The first bridge across the River Thames was London Bridge - it was built by the Romans and was probably made of wood but there has been a bridge at the same place ever since.
About 80,000 umbrellas are lost on the London Underground every year. I know that at least 5 of them are mine!
The first asparagus grown in Britain was grown in Battersea Park in 1850
Blackheath (near Greenwich / Dulwich) has both the oldest hockey and rugby clubs in the world.
Greenwich's Millenium Dome is the largest dome in the world - and it's measurements reflect Greenwich's long-standing relationship to time (through the Royal Observatory) It's diameter is 365m (days in a year), it's height 52 m (weeks in a year) and there are 12 supporting poles symbolising months. I didn't know that before today!
The Queen is not allowed to enter the City of London without prior permission from the Lord Mayor. But the City of London is actually only a square mile - it's the area between Bank and Aldgate and is the financial heart of London. The touristy bits of London are actually part of the City of Westminster. Yes, London is made up of 2 cities.
Soho - the area just south of Oxford Street around Tottenham Court Road used to be heavily wooded area - or rather it was in the time of Henry VIII. It used to be a favourite hunting ground and when someone spotted a deer they'd cry 'Tally-Ho' for lesser creatures they started saying 'So-Ho' which is where it got it's name from. I'm not sure I'm convinced by that one...
The Mayflower Pub in Rotherhithe is the only place in the UK licensed to sell both English and American postage stamps. The pub used to be called The Shippe, and the Mayflower (yes, the famous pilgrim fathers ship) sailed from just outside in 1620. It stopped in Plymouth to pick up more passengers and supplies before going on to America.
The skull and crossbones flag, famous for its pirate connotations, may have been inspired by St Nicholas Church in Deptford. It has a skull and crossbones on its gates and was a well-known place of worship for many sailors. The flag could have originated in being a means of letting other pirates / sailors know that they were from the same place.
Christ Church in Lambeth has a spire decorated with stars and stripes... because it was half funded by American and it commemorates Lincoln's abolition of slavery.
New Scotland Yard, built in 1888 is actually built on the scene of an unsolved murder. While they were excavating the foundations they discovered the head and torso of a woman but despite huge investigations neither the woman's identity nor her murderer were ever discovered.
