Long time no blog.

Hello! Yes, I'm alive and thriving. After my long absence from this blog, I am determined to pick up my routine of blogging regularly again. The aftermath of a busy Christmas is just about fading, and a rather anticlimax New Year (that involved us sitting and watching the clock in high anticipation and then finally going to sleep). I have only just started remembering to put '2016' in all the dates. It feels unnatural.

As you can see, she's only a baby.

But, in 2015, I received a tiny, sleepy (...scaly) baby on Christmas Eve. If you haven't been keeping up with my Instagram posts, she is named Otis (when we chose the name, we didn't know she was a girl and it just stuck) and she's a tortoise, born on July 1st, and she is adorable. I'm pretty sure my life will revolve around her pretty soon - my muse and all that. Otis art will become a trending hashtag. My blogs and feed will become positively reptilian, shedding their past skin.
Here are some pictures of her. If you're not a fan of these animals, just keep scrolling.

Enjoying her breakfast...

Basking happily. God, she's photogenic.

So this is her, my little bundle of joy. I got her from a local breeder and she has settled in wonderfully with me. I've started to notice little antics she has since growing used to my presence - she will chase my fingers if I wiggle them in front of her (but not try and eat them), will fall asleep on my chest (especially if I've just had a shower) and eat from my hand. She burrows in the same place each night and wakes up with a small mound of soil on her shell each morning.

Anyway, I'm veering off topic. I also, for my birthday, was given a Canon camera. It's beautiful and this weekend is going to be my real chance to get some lovely photos, as lighting has been dark and dismal out here as I've realised I can't prevent winter's greying skies. Some of the photographs I like have been posted on my Instagram, but not all of them. Some I kept to share primarily on this blog, as I figure it would be boring just to highlight all the same ones that you've likely to have seen already. I don't know if this "random" topic for a blog is actually entertaining, but hey ho, my effort is still effort and should not be scrutinised.

Here is my camera in all its glory. Since so many of you have been asking, it's a Canon SX530 HS, and it is wonderful. I am truly in love. Discovering all of its nifty settings and tricks and qualities has been enthralling and I am still of course following that beginner's road. My phone, such a useful ally, seems to be neglected now in terms of taking photographs. My newfound awe of the zoom, focus, quality, appearance and size has not been squashed. It is a newfangled device I am determined to learn how to properly use. With this camera, I am hoping my photography will blossom, and I'm hoping you'll all be able to see it and like it.
Among other things, I received an enormous Lush Experimenter package, a glitzy present full of 10 bath bombs. Some of them were exclusive, for example, Cyanide Pill and Guardian of the Forest (I can't get these in my local Lush) so expect some more Lush blogs and pictures, both here and on my Instagram. I am scared to use them though, in fear they will rapidly vanish before my eyes, like once I've started I won't be able to stop. Like a recovering alcoholic. A Lushaholic.
(Did I really just describe my urge to have lovely scented baths in comparison to a real, raw, traumatising condition?)

I am aware these sort of blogs are written in pure boredom, and that they have no specific topic, and that they switch to different subjects upon my own accord. But I am hoping that reading my ramblings may interest or amuse you whilst I gather photographs and try to compose a helpful, intriguing blogpost. (Haha).
Till then,
Olivia