Meet the Pets - Hela and Freya

We're almost there guys! The penultimate 'Meet the Pets' post in our little mini-series introducing our blended family of 10 fur and...non-fur (?) babies! This weeks post is dedicated to our youngest and smallest members, Hela and Freya!

If you can't tell from the photos, Hela and Freya are Leopard Geckos and they are actually sisters from the same clutch. Mr H got the girls as tiny babies of around 10 weeks of age in August of 2018, which coincidentally was the same month we started talking, meaning, although we didn't get them together, I have known them most of their lives.

Quick Overview

Names: Hela and Freya

Species: Leopard Geckos

Gender: Female

Age: 2

Birthday: 15th August

Above is Hela! Hela gets her name from the Norse legend 'Hel', known as the goddess of death and daughter of Loki. She can be told apart from her sister easily due to her much darker colouring and prominent black spots, her eyes are also a super pretty blue-grey!
Hela began as the feistier girl, less interested in being handled and had a bit of dominance over Freya when they lived together. At around 8 months of having them, we separated them to live in their own enclosures after the 'dominance' turned a little bully-ish.
Since being separated both girls have done brilliantly and Hela has grown to love being handled, enjoys coming out to explore and is a great poser for photos!

And this girly is Freya! Following our naming theme, Freya is indeed also named after the Norse Goddess associated with love. I find it funny that legend says Freya rides a chariot pulled by two cats and our two cats are obsessed with watching the geckos given the chance! 

Like I said about Hela, they are easily told apart and Freya is overall the lighter coloured with lots of yellow and tan markings and greeny golden eyes.
She really has always been the most docile of the pair and will lay on your chest for hugs or have a slow amble around when she is out of her enclosure.
We have no idea why, because there are no health problems like metabolic bone diseases or anything, but unlike her sister, she prefers to walk around and chill out flatter to the ground rather than have her limbs extended and stand tall (as you can see if you compare the photos)...perhaps it's laziness haha!

We are currently in the process - and have been for over 8 months now...whoops - of building the girls their very own custom vivariums from a kitchen cabinet that we bought for only £10 in the Ikea Bargain Corner way back in December. Now that we are cancelling our Honeymoon we will have some extra funds that we can funnel into this project and hopefully (finally) get it completed!

So yeah, meet Hela and Freya, our beautiful, tiniest roommates.
Until next time!

Books I'd Like To Read, But Probably Never Will...

Yep, still no hauls here! We have bought the odd book throughout the past 3 months, however, because we are continuing to be house-bound we are obviously limited to online shopping. With no charity shop visits in sight, I've got an available week each month to write a post for!
I've had an ongoing list of 'Posts I'd like to write, but never get around to...' so here is one of them haha.

Be it from those long lists of books to read before you die you see floating around online or mentioned in shows and movies, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has accumulated a few mental TBRs that probably won't ever end up being read! Here are some of mine below.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 1867

I first heard of this on Sabrina the Teenage Witch of all places. It's not my type of genre or anything but if it's studied in schools there must be something about it worth reading. In the long run, it's far too long and boring for me to spend my time reading when I have a never-ending TBR of exciting books to read haha.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville 1851
This I've thought of since childhood and all because of Matilda! All I knew was it was about a whale until recently when I learnt the true subject of the book...I don't know if I could stomach it anymore!

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 1877

Another by Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina is probably the newest addition to this list. It was a suggested read because I had read Anne of Green Gables, Alice Through the Looking Glass and The Chronicles of Narnia. However, on further inspection that couldn't be further from a good recommendation! It seems this is more along the lines of Austen novels and the type of classics I just can't get into.

Watership Down by Richard Adams 1972
 Goodness knows where I first heard of this, but who hasn't? It's classed as a Fairy tale, Fantasy Fiction, Adventure fiction and is about rabbits - right up my street! Or maybe not seeing as it's not a happy story and I can't deal with the demise of animals...

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy 1895

So, I did say many of these were because of their inclusion in tv shows or movies and this is another from Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I literally had no idea until looking into it for this post what this was actually about. To me, it sounds a similar plot to Great Expectations which I did not like and this makes me wonder why on Earth these books are used to teach in schools.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 1960
Taught in schools, amazing reviews, showed up in my Goodreads recommended feed, the plot doesn't sound too insanely boring or depressing. I just don't think I'll ever take the time to get around to this.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin 1996 - Present
The most modern entry on this list might come as a surprise to some. It's certainly in my reading genre tastes, I watched the show from its premiere and we own most of the series but it's something I just don't see my self getting around to especially seeing as we have so many other long fantasy series to read that aren't shows.

After putting together this post and reading more into what a lot of these books I've been interested in for years, I have definitely realised I'm not as interested anymore! Have you read any of those I've mentioned in my list? Am I wrong in my initial feelings and should I give them a chance? Let me know what is on your 'Books I'd Like To Read, But Probably Never Will...' list!

Beamish Open Air Museum - 2019 Part 2

Before you continue, please pop over to the previous post - Beamish Open Air Museum - 2019 Part 1 - and get caught up there first!
Did you check it out? Okay, well as I mentioned in that post we love Beamish and in previous years I have shared photos from my visits there. However, this blog didn't exist for over 2 years and I missed posting about many trips over that time. Here in this post is the second half of my photos from our numerous Beamish visits in 2019.

Photos are so important and looking back at these reminds me of some lovely times we had in 2019. As you'll see from the above images, we went to Beamish Museum for multiple occasions from dog walks to an Althimers Memory Walk. Mr H and I got married on October 31st (Halloween) and we even spent the night before at one of the Beamish Halloween Evenings! Our last visit of the year was in December when the usual residents were joined by some Reindeer visitors, fake snow and holiday decorations.

Our plan for 2020 was to visit at least once a month. January and February were crazy months for our family and then the pandemic shut down the world in March, so that obviously didn't go to plan. I'm excited for the re-opening at the end of this month and hopefully we can at least try to visit every month for the rest of the year...that should provide plenty more photos to share haha!!
Until next time!