Mystic Aquarium

The aquarium has beluga whales in a very large outdoor enclosure. At one end of the enclosure is a glass wall where people can interact with the whales. And interact they do. The whales see you very well, and they swim by the window almost constantly. I'm pretty sure they nod their head if they catch you waving but I didn't exactly do a scientific study on it!

Mystic aquarium

In contrast to the chilly weather (it was 8F this morning) this creature lives in perennially warm water. It's a spiny lobster, close up. This is his face, from his right side.

My Bahamian Mum calls these guys crawfish.

Natural light - I felt strange using a flash right next to these guys.

The Mystic Aquarium is located in Mystic, Connecticut and has some nice outdoor exhibits including penguins and beluga whales. These particular penguins are warm-weather birds, and go inside when the weather is below about 20F. The lobsters stay inside where it's nice and cozy. There's a touch tank for the litle ones, and several larger tanks (enclosure is a better word) for larger species like sharks and rays.

The tooth!

The little guy's second tooth came out (he was quite brave about this one!) and he insisted on taking its portrait. I had to take several, actually, as he was so excited he couldn't keep his hand still!

The tooth faery is going to make a visit. He'll place his tooth under his pillow with a note, and the tooth faery will 'write back' and leave a coin in place of the tooth.

I wonder if other cultures have this tradition?

Christmas lighting

Some people decorate their houses and shrubbery with lights for Christmas. There are all sorts of ways it's done: some people put up as many strings of different colours as they can, with Santa Clause full sized in his sleigh on the roof, to boot!

This neighbour was not quite as... exuberant as that, preferring a more delicate touch with miniature white lights instead.

There's certainly room in the world for both, but this one came out better in the photograph!

Snow on sedum

This is the front garden, with Sedum 'Herbstfreude' - Autumn Joy. There isn't much colour left out there now but this is a neat picture, reminiscent of the gentle hills surrounding the valley.

Snow

I'm late posting; apologies! Had a bit of snow Sunday afternoon. It was mostly gone by Tuesday morning, but it was enough to make snowballs!

Theme day: Circles/spheres

Every month, City Daily Photo encourages bloggers to post a photo based on a common theme. This month, it's Circles/Spheres. Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

A few days ago I attended my 30th reunion of my high school - Mont Pleasant class of 1978. It was a last-minute sort of thing, but it was a lot of fun. I didn't take all that many photos, spending the time chatting and even dancing. For my classmates who knew me back then, yes, it's probably a surprising thing to imagine me dancing but life is fun when you try new things!

Our school colours were red and white, and the great people who decorated the hall remembered that, putting up red and white balloons at each table. This particular photo is intentional. The balloons were moving slightly in the air currents and I thought they'd look cool if I left the shutter open a long time - here a full second. I braced the camera on the table and hoped for the best. 'Manual' is cool, even on point and shoot cameras like my Nikon CoolPix 950.