i don’t know why but surveying an area is so exhausting!! went down near Chorlton water park today and had to walk ages to get to this meadow where they’re building a tram over an area of scientific interest- we spent about 3-4 hours walking about. it was effort to walk around this place because the ground was super uneven, very inviting to rolling ankles but i managed to stay upright :P that HIIT i did last night didnt help- quads and bum were dying.
we found some pretty cool spiders and even saw a hawk type bird :)

in any case here’s some boring pictures of plants :P

had to buy. there was no other option.

i’m back in the good old US of a once more, with about 2 weeks before i’m due to set off for manchester yettttt again :P The test went quite well in the end, i answered 46/50 questions which was a good amount more than the first time :P i passed in my summer coursework and got 80% which is an A woooo :D so i’m quite pleased with that!

Whilst in manchester i had some vegan food adventures with my dear friend Molly
 

here’s an awkwardly resized picture of us in Scotland with an orange and some tea :P you can see why we get along…..

But yes, we made lots of delicious vegan foodsies (not all squeaky clean or healthy but we were revising so cut us some slack :P) and i shall be happy to link you to her fantastic blogpost about the very delicious but not fantastically healthy (though not THAT unhealthy thinking back on it…) Pancakes that we made! her pictures are a lot nicer than the crappy quality phone ones i offered up.

so you can see our pancake adventure here: http://veganconvert.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/american-style-pancakes-blueberry-and-choc-chip-pancake-recipe/

as for fitness, i havent been doing much cardio for the last couple weeks mostly due to revising and whatnot and not being able to ride being in england. i have been working a lot on  upper body, as i mentioned a few posts back my current focus is being able to hold a tucked planche and then raise into a handstand. progress is slow but the frog-stand to tucked planche poses have helped me get a little better at balancing my handstands and holding them for longer which is a great thing! 
today i rode 2 horses so that was pretty good and i’ll be continuing riding all week :) hoping to maybe get some biking in at some point maybe, possibly a run but i havent been in so long so i’m probably quite out of shape. Eating hasnt been stellar but again revision doesnt help, being sat around the house all day studying molecular genetics makes one prone to treating oneself with chocolate and quick easy meals…

i AM feeling a bit blech and tubby and out of shape but i know it wont take long for me to get back to being all good and active now that i’m free of stress :) a week of good eating and riding/exercising daily will whip me right back into shape!

anyway i may be baking tonight (portion control of course, but i owe my friend a decent batch of vegan cupcakes :P bad experience, dont ask) so if i do i’ll send a post out your way. i doubt i’ll make anything interesting for dinner i’m afraid as laziness prevails, but oh well. i’ll try to bring ya something interesting this week!

incoming possibly a video of me but we’ll see how i’m feeling :P

peace

as if these live in america ??? i need to find one!

(Source: our-lips-locked, via dont-panic-zoology)

allcreatures:

A diver swims with a huge ocean sunfish off the coast of San Diego, California

Picture: Daniel Botelho / Barcroft Media (via Pictures of the day: 3 August 2012 - Telegraph)

bigggggg fishy!!!

mothernaturenetwork:

Fish of Great Barrier Reef get skin cancer similar to human melanoma
Scientists suspect that more fish may have developed cancer, but that it had moved beyond the skin and made the fish actually ill.

=/

(via allcreatures)

So, took my camera out today cause we had some free time :) thought i’d put up some pictures whilst i embrace my rare alone time. i’ve cycled around the island every day since i’ve gotten my bike- yesterday i did it twice! so that’s about 48 miles of biking thusfar as the island is about 12 miles around. anyway i’m off for a hike now! peace :)

so as you all can see i’m in scotland and have internet! so i will try to keep you updated with pictures and whatnot throughout my stay :) Today was pretty good, a long day of travelling but it’s great to be by the sea! Despite the roaring wind and overcast skies it’s rather gorgeous up here, and the sun’s only just set at like 10:30 which is madness. Food wise it isnt so bad, they serve up massive salads which are delicious and the vegetarian option happened to be vegan tonight (spaghetti bolgnaise but with chickpeas and mushrooms and carrots rather than beef…rather nice actually! though i avoided the mushrooms a bit)

So yeah i should survive to some extent. We shall see! Tomorrow we are getting our bicycles which i’m really excited for, as me and some others are gonna bike around the island for a couple hours to see what it’s like. The place was built for cyclists really- not much in way of cars/buses. So that should get my workout sorted, eh?

i kinda binged on some mixed nuts this evening but ah well. Had a pretty harsh walk in the cold crazy wind to the pub and back (30 min each way) and jogged some of it so i’ll let myself off. I’ll stay in control from now on though :P have a good feeling about losing weight whilst i’m here if i keep myself in check foodwise.

also we had a short intro lecture and it was very interesting :D i love marine biology so i’m looking forward to learning more woo.

anywayyy i’m off now! peace

here’s where i’ll be for the next 10 days, so dont expect to hear too much from me! :)
It’s a field course so it wont be all fun and games i’m afraid :P but it should be good fun. I’ll have loads of pictures to show you guys when i get back!
( It’s Lake Kastoria, in Greece :) Freshwater Biology field course.)