Stylish Panda

It has looked like this for at least a half hour now, and at this point I would swear that it's slowly turning to face me...

Shadow cast across a snowy valley forming the silhouette of Count Olaf, played by Neil Patrick Harris, in A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

Norwegian folklore includes the belief that if you see a face in the mountains, it's a troll.

I am concerned that the troll in question is the well known Count Olaf, from A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

🎶Look away, look away...🎶

Dog1 has been on a diet, since the transition from working to retired. Nothing drastic, about a 5% drop in calories.

Today, she got into the freezer and ate 4kg of frozen dog food. She is approximately spherical but apparently happy.

Guess she likes the diet life?

And as video alt-text is still deader than social support on Svalbard:

A fox investigating various scraps and smells by the side of a road. Cars are parked behind, and the shore is visible behind them. The fox runs down a slope out of view after a bus comes past

I'm often asked why I choose to live in a tiny high-arctic town.

Because some days, waiting at the airport to greet new guests, I get to take videos like this.

I have regularly informed the dogs that "by feet or by face, we are continuing" if they spend too long reading the newspaper.

Maybe they learned too well?

a cartoon cat wearing a black hat and a black scarf says " eh " ALT: a cartoon cat wearing a black hat and a black scarf says " eh "

I mean, I love them, but the _attitude_ is unimaginable!

We are applauding Dog2 for protecting his food. Dog1 is rolling her eyes and grumbling at the ceiling.

Huskies are _the worst_

Partner has picked "The House" for movie night. Suffice it to say that shit got real weird, real fast.

@Estonia, what on earth 🤣

Does tagging an entire country even work?

It's only "unsafe" if you dislike the taste of Legionella, chlorine or manganese.

I've been referring to them as "bleats" since my long-suffering partner first introduced me to this platform.

I think murder is plotted regularly.

An extremely small gecko on a white background, namely a plastic seat. The gecko has a reddish-brown tail, olive-green skin elsewhere, and some evidence of moult around the base of the tail. The gecko is at most 25mm, or one inch, nose to tail

He is so very tiny!

Only about 25mm long, or approximately 1/27th the width of a washing machine for those who use anything except metric.

On the assumption video alt-text is still far more dead than the lizard:

A juvenile goshawk failing to eat a small lizard, both species unknown. The lizard escapes periodically and hisses loudly when recaptured by the goshawk who doesn't seem to know what step comes next.

I am a firm proponent of "the best camera is the one you have with you", but sometimes a mobile phone just doesn't feel as though it cuts the mustard.

Enjoy this truly awful quality footage of a juvenile goshawk utterly failing at eating the lizard it has managed to catch. Possibly by accident.

Head of a lion, facing slightly to one side of the camera. Most of the lion's face is obscured by leaves, with only the mouth clearly visible. The mouth is slightly open as the Lion pants in the heat.

We've been in the Kruger National Park for less than 24 hours and have already seen lions.

Thankfully it was just taking a quick break in the shade and not waiting for us to come past to pounce.

One of the 4 lions spotted by @paisleystars.bsky.social in, as is my wont, a less than flattering pose.

Magazine article, picturing a leopard's head visible between the branches of a tree. The article headline is "Pachyerms on parade"

In today's "I don't think that word means what you think it means", I would like to present leopard.

Apropos of nothing, do you know you get really, really strange looks from people if you shout "That's not a fucking elephant!" at the top of your voice on a plane?

Regrettably, Tromsø airport continues to be the _absolute worst._

I'm told the city itself is lovely, vibrant and with plenty to see and do.

I'm starting to doubt I'll ever visit. I fear having to deal with the airport any more than absolutely necessary.

Ah well. Off to South Africa!

“You’ll be visited by three spirits.”

The three spirits:

Timelapse of the night sky over Longyearbyen, with green aurora visible early on as well as through the clouds in places.

At approximately 52 seconds, the camera falls and shows a brief view of a large, lit structure, before being buried in snow.

Good morning Bluesky, and God Jul!

SkyPro has been retrieved after yesterday's escape attempt and is now under house arrest, pending upgrades to prevent a repeat.

See if you can spot the point that the box fell off the roof and got buried in snow...

They surely did. It's a musical now, and it is _absolutely unhinged._

Highly enjoyable, though!

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Because I ate it this morning for breakfast.

Heavily cropped image of a snowy roof with a skylight and some chimneys. Small red smudge near the skylight is a GoPro in an upcycled plastic box.

Welp.

SkyPro has gone for a little trip in the 20+m/s wind we got for Christmas.

It is still running, though! That reddish smudge in the middle of the image is the little camera that could.

Tomorrow's clip is likely to be unusual and/or seasickness inducing. Apologies in advance.

Chachalaca (am extremely distant relative of the chicken) staring directly at the photographer and looking unimpressed with the view.

Meet the Chachalaca, an extremely distant relative of the chicken (and furious about the fact) photographed in Mexico, 2023.

For Christmas Eve we have watched:

The Grinch (2018) - Mutant survives a heart attack and does good with his second life
Mortal Engines (2018) - London moves to China and tries to blow it up with a singularity
Matilda (2022) - Child goes to school

Guesses as to which one is batshit insane?

Alt-text: Heavily accelerated time-lapse, 24 hours compressed into 47 seconds.

Night sky with almost continuous auroral display, including red-tinted dayside, diffuse slow clouds and bright green fast waves.

Stars rotating counter-clockwise around the North Star in the upper right corner.

Good morning Bluesky!

SkyPro has given an early Christmas present and I fucked it up especially for you.

The whole damn day yesterday was aurora and I can only upload 60 seconds, so I sped it up even more.

May it bring you slightly more joy than pain.

A tin with a ring pull, in a box labelled "burnt figs" in Norwegian. Box is sat on a faux wooden table.

Scandinavian countries catch a lot of flak for some of their cuisine.

I will go to the barricades to defend many of their decisions.

Consequently, I was perhaps overconfident that our burnt figs would be appropriately festive.

Imagine my surprise when I opened the box to find a fruit claymore.