Polar Bears and Other Such Things

Over my winter break I went to the highland wildlife park. I saw a polar bear there and got closer than would be safely possible with one in the wild/a town in the Arctic circle. 

The bear who is currently there is called walker and his favourite toys are hard hats like this one

the bear that was there before was called Mercedes and she was a repeat offender in the act of coming into the town of Churchill in Canada where they have a polar bear prison

the prison operates in a three strike rule. if they catch a bear in town they knock it out and take it to their detention building where they are released when winter starts and they can hunt on the ice again.  if a bear is caught a third time they are put down as it means the prison is not working as a deterrent to them entering the human settlement.

Mercedes had been caught a third time in the town and either had to be put down or sent to a zoo. Edinburgh zoo had a lone male at the time and offered to take her as a companion for him.  The car company Mercedes sponsored her travel from Churchill in Canada to Edinburgh in Scotland so her name was changed from "number 39" to Mercedes.

Mercedes stayed in Edinburgh for many years before coming to the highland wildlife park in 2009. The first winter she was there she saw snow for the first time since coming to Scotland and was apparently very confused by it.

Unfortunately Mercedes had to be put down last year because she was in severe pain from arthritis but the other polar bear, walker who joined Mercedes from a zoo in the Netherlands in November 2010 is still up there but many visitors call him Mercedes because they don't know that it's not her.

The wildlife park has other animal such as tigers, wolves (who were displaced by Mercedes), Arctic foxes, wildcats, monkeys, beavers, a capercallie, three types of owl and red pandas (who were sooooo adorable!). 

Polar bears (Ursus Maritimus) are mostly found within the Arctic circle and are the only bears who will actively hunt and kill humans for food. This is one of the reasons they are so dangerous when they come into towns and villages.  People living in areas with polar bears all carry rifles when going anywhere near the edge of town and are completely prepared to shoot a bear.  The reason polar bears are endangered is not as a result of hunting but rather from a loss of habitat as they can only hunt when there is sea ice covering the majority of the Artic Ocean.


You can find out more about the Highland Wildlife Park here and more about polar bears in general here.

I feel really bad for not taking more pictures but the SD card in my camera was completely full up by the time I got round to the tigers.

I got most of my information from these sites:
BBC News article Mercedes death
STV News on the same story
Mercedes' Life story

Some nice pictures can be found at:
Guardian Newspaper website Walker Joining Mercedes
A Flikr users shots of Mercedes first snow

How to Make a Star Jar

These look really pretty sitting on a shelf or on a table ready to be tipped out and played with when you feel blue.

First of all, Assemble your materials!

You will need
Paper (I like it best if there is a selection of colours but single colour jars could work)
A jar or bottle or your choice (smaller ones are easier to finish but bigger ones look very impressive) Charity shops can sometimes yield real gems for these so keep your eyes open (the bottle I use here came from from an Oxfam shop for 99p).

A pair of scissors (optional but I think you get a better look using them)
Glue (again, optional. It can be any sort but I find the tippex mouse style dry glue dispensers work best here)

If you don't know how to make origami lucky stars this video is good (it's not in English but there is subtitles)

For my bottle I used two sheets of A4 printer paper cut into 1cm and 1.2cm strips which I then coloured in with promarkers.

The 1cm strips worked well when cut both length and width ways whereas the 1.2cm strips worked best when they were cut length ways but were manageable when cut width ways (It is good to remember with this is that the wider they are the longer your strip will have to be).

Fold your paper strips into the stars and 'puff' them up (you may want to have a pin on hand in case some don't puff up and instead crush themselves into oblivion).

like this!

Fill your jar with the stars but make sure youhave room for the lid if you are using a cork. Sit the jar in a place where you can see it and feel proud at what you have done.

A lot of the time I dislike simple origami as they tend not to look very good but the lucky star model is very simple and looks very nice.  I got the idea for this after seeing it online and I wondered if it would work as well in real life.  I think it did but what do you think?

I'm so very sorry

I have been woefully neglegting this blog for the last few weeks. My whole course at uni went a little crazy because of the assesment load that ment there was five assesments due in the last two weeks of term before the exams.

I have been more active on tumblr by doing live blogging revision and being caught up in the fangasm that has been the Avengers. I was so happy I got to see it before it came out in America and I will not spoil it for anyone (other than the fact you should go see it, like, right now). What I am even more happy about is the fact that I'm going to see it again tomorrow and possibly in IMAX... (insert uncomrehensable high pitched fangirl noise here) I can't stop grinning when I think about it.

I have got an idea for a post in the very near future: a star jar tutorial and maybe I'll finish the Dublin trip post that has been sitting in draft form since november...

I just realised as I was typing this I have ben blogging here for over a year!

Happy (very belated) birthday to surrounded by pretty things!

I will be doing more posts in the next few months as I have some projects that I want to do and several book reveiws that need finishing.

Dee-con report

sorry this has taken so long I've had an assessment avalanche at uni but I finally found some time to sit down and write this post.

I didn't take many pictures because I was in a really crowded area of the dealers room/artist alley so I couldn't stop people without causing a huge blockage.

I did however get a picture of my table (but then again this was a little difficult because the table opposite me was incredibly popular even before the doors opened)

you can see my battalion of cream egg chicks on the right

 
I managed to sell the Knives chau scarf (don't look at me like that, I was never going to wear the thing) I also know for a fact it's gone to a very loving home.

I think I made a couple of mistakes with my table layout as people tended not to buy things from the stands I had... which I felt was kind of a shame as when I showed people the things from them they generally reacted positively rather than with polite disinterest.

I bought a little red octopus keyring from sakurasweetcake (It's just too cute!) she then bought one of my rose headbands.

I had so much fun doing it and I have already got ideas for stuff I want to do for next year (I'm gonna be diversifying).

Dee-con

I'm going to Dee-con on the 7th of April (this Saturday!).  I have a table in artist alley again this year selling similar things and a few new things.  Please come by to say Hi and buy some knitted accessories.

I will also be doing quick repairs for things bought last year (things like buttons or pins coming off or snags in the knitting).

There will be a lot more of the cream egg chicks and some more flower headbands but no bow headbands as well as a selection of fingerless gloves.

I'd love it if people who got something last year tell me what you think of yours a year on.

Maybe see you there?