Today's theme is: RAINBOWS! It's been a bit of a weird week weatherwise - from getting sunburnt in my flat to sitting under a blanket shivering I think we've had it all since last Friday. And what happens when you get sunshine and rain? Rainbows of course. This week's Etsy shout outs are rainbow-coloured inspired and aren't they so cute? LOVE!
In order to see a rainbow you need to have your back to the sun - it's the effect of light being split through drops of water making the waves of light bounce off in different directions. You can only see a rainbow if your eye, the sun and the centre of the rainbow's arc are aligned.
Rainbow was one of my favourite TV shows when I was a child - I liked Zippy best.
In Greek mythology the rainbow was used as a path between the Gods and Earth by the messenger Iris. In Norse mythology the rainbow is said to connect the two worlds of Humans and Gods.
I have never understood the song 'I can sing a rainbow' - for a start the colours are in the wrong order but also how do you listen with your eyes? Just doesn't make sense to me...
A simple way to remember the colours of the rainbow is this mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) You can also say: ROY G BIV
It's possible to see a double rainbow - the colours of the outer rainbow will appear reversed. These are actually quite common but we don't look out for them most of the time. If you do see a double rainbow, promise me you won't have the reaction that the guy in this video does... Every time I see a rainbow now I think: 'What does this mean? It's so bright!' (I don't make the noises though!!)
I love penguins. I think they may be my favourite animal - from the cute but totally silly waddling on land to the grace and ease with which they move in water. My favourite kind of penguin has always been Rockhoppers because anything that has such a great tuft of hair must be pretty cool, right?
Because I like penguins, I am totally cold towards seals - yes they have cute eyes, but they EAT my favourite animal, and therefore they must just be evil. So today's Friday Feeling is dedicated to my favourite animal... there are LOADS of penguins over at Etsy so you should probably go and check them out. But for the moment here are few of my favourites:
I love all of these - but I have to admit I did initially have about 10 penguins in my shortlist of items to feature this week. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the little critturs. Thought I'd share some penguin facts with you too...
Penguins and Polar Bears don't mix: penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere while Polar Bears are Northern bound.
While we all know penguins live in Antarctica, they actually live in much warmer climes too... the Galapagos breed live close to the equator and they are not alone: lots of penguins live in more temperate zones.
The largest penguins are Emperor Penguins - they grow to the heady heights of about 1.1 metres and weigh around 35kg. I remember being quite shocked by how small they were when I first saw one!
Penguins and puffins are NOT related. It's like saying a bagel and a doughnut are the same. Yes there are similarities but they are totally different species.
The penguin got it's name from Auks (pingouin) but there seems to be a lot of dispute about why penguins kept the name - some people think it was a case of mistaken identity: a penguin was mistaken for an Auk chick! Whether it's penguin because the word 'pinguis' meant fat is possible but improbable.
There are about 20 different species of penguin - and some of them are pretty small.
