The legend of Sant Jordi

23th of April is an important day in Catalonia, it's like our St. Valentine's day.

Men give a red rose (sometimes other colour) and women give books to their lovers.

The legend copied from Here:

Once upon a time, the dwellers of a small village were terrified by the menace of a dragon that lived in the nearby caverns. They had been afraid of the huge beast for lots of years, since it had once come down to the village asking for food. First, they gave it their chicken, but these were far too small to soothe the dragon's hunger, so it soon asked for more. The villagers thus decided to give away their sheep and goats. Still, these were not enough to fill the stomach of the beast. Desperate, the people gave away their cows, but they soon finished too. The dragon was never fulfilled and it was greedy for food. Some time passed in which the villagers could offer it nothing, so it went down to the village and made this dreary request:

-You shall give me one of your children everyday. Should you not fulfil my desires, this village will be swept away forever by my fury.

And to demonstrate its power, he set one of the village's houses in flames with the fire blowing from its nostrils.

There was nothing to do but to obey. However, who was to be given away? Sure enough everyone was scared and unwilling to be eaten by such a beast. Therefore, something was to be done.

Someone proposed that fortune should choose who was to be given to the dragon. The king of the village approved this solution. The names of all the young people of the village were written down and put into a bag. The king himself took one of the pieces of paper and went suddenly blank. He was to give away his very own daughter, the most beautiful lovely girl the world had ever seen.
When she knew the sad news, the princess cried desperately, but she bravely accepted her destiny. So she said goodbye to everyone and set for the dragon's den.

Soon after the princess had left, a handsome knight clad in a white costume with a red cross on it and armed with a sword and a white shield with a red cross (Catalan version: the shield has a Catalan flag), reached the village. When he saw the gloomy looks in the villagers' eyes, he quickly asked the reason they were so sad. The king, who was clearly the one that looked more depressed, told him about the beast and the terrible fate that was about to fall upon his beloved daughter. The knight did not hesitate a second about what he should do. He promised the king he would bring his daughter back safe and sound and rid the village of the dragon’s menace. He then galloped to encounter the beast in its lair.

And no sooner could he have arrived. The scene he saw as he approached the cavern was terrifying: the beast was slowly moving towards the princess, its eyes fixed in the beautiful girl as he imagined what a tasty meal she would be. Jordi -for this was the knight’s name-pushed his horse forward, as he drew out the sword that had served him so well in the right hand. With the sound of metal and Jordi’s war cry, the dragon’s attention was distracted. It swayed its head towards the knight and with an angry look, it blew a ball of fire towards him. Jordi had expected this, and his shield was ready to stop the first attack. Fear had now left him, and courage was the only guide of his acts. He was a fast and experienced swordsman, so he gave a quick blow that the dragon could hardly avoid. However, the beast quickly reacted and threw his mighty long tail towards our hero. His horse was badly hurt, and he fell down from it, but he immediately regained his position. The dragon was now looking him right in the eyes. 

Jordi then took a risky decision, which was in fact his only possibility. He threw himself towards the dragon's mouth, as it prepared the definite fire blow. However, Jordi “quickly” moved to the right side and down under the beast's body and-with all the strength he was able to gather-stabbed the dragon right into its heart. The dragon screamed with all its might and collapsed. Jordi was only inches away from being killed by the enormous falling body.


The princess ran to aid his saviour and embraced him. And then, magic happened: from the pool of red thick blood coming from the dragon’s heart, a rose tree sprouted. Little by little, the tree drank the dragon's blood and brilliant wonderful red roses appeared. Jordi approached the tree and, carefully avoiding its spines, took the biggest and more sweetly-perfumed rose to give it to the king's daughter.

This is the reason why, from that day, the 23rd of April of every year, when spring bursts, Catalan men give their beloved princesses a red (sometimes multicolour) rose. As to why girls offer books to their knights in return that same day, there is no legend as far as we have been able to discover.

References

All about Catalonia-Sant Jordi - The legend

Legend and tradition- The legend of Sant Jordi and the dragon

Saint_George's_Day#Catalonia

FELIÇ DIADA de SANT JORDI a TOTS i TOTES! 

Tan de bo que la persona que més desitgeu us regali la rosa o el llibre que espereu!

Helena

Què faig en el lab?

Protocol de cria de marietes

Marietes

El cicle de vida (Holometàbol) comença amb ous (de color taronja), normalment agrupats

en clutches. Les larves, quan surten dels ous són allargades, grises amb sis potes i sense

ales (larva oligopòdica campodeiforme). La larva passa per quatres estadis (instars), mudant per canviar dʼestadi.

Dos espècies de marietes són criades en el laboratori de la Universitat:

Adalia bipunctata, coneguda com a Two-Spot Ladybird, coleòpter carnívor de la família Coccinellidae.

Adalia bipunctata, commonly known as the two-spot ladybird, is a carnivorous beetle of the family Coccinellidae.

Adalia bipunctata

Harmonia axyridis, coneguda com a Harlequin Lardybird, gran coleòpter carnívor de la

família Coccinellidae.
És natiu de lʼest dʼÀsia, però va ser introduït a Amèrica del Nord i Europa per controlar àfids i cotxinilles (Hemípters), i va ser escampada ràpidament i ara és una espècie invasora.
Abans de la seva introducció, les poblacions dʼàfids eren aliment per molts depredadors diferents. Hi havia neuròpters, hemípters (mírids, redúvids, antocòrids), mosques i aranyes. Recents estudis han mostrat que H. axyridis és el depredador dominant sobre les poblacions dʼàfids i les altres espècies estan molt reduïdes. Només aranyes i redúvids són detectats amb la presència de la marieta invasora.

Harmonia axyridis, commonly known as Harlequin ladybird because it occurs in numerous colour forms. It is a large bettle of the family Coccinellidae.

It is native to eastern Asia, but has been introduced into North America and Europa to control aphids and scale insectes, and has spread rapidly and is now considered an invasive species.

Prior to the addition of H. axyridis, aphid populations reached high numbers with other ladybeetles the most frequently observed predators. Other common predators included neuroptera, hemiptera (mirid, reduviids, anthrocorid), flies and spiders. Recent samplies showed H. axyridis to be the dominant predator of aphids populations. The other species were dramatically reduced, only spiders and reduviids were detected with H. axyridis.

Estadis de desenvolupament de l'espècie Harmonia axyridis

Diferents colors de la marieta Harmonia axyridis.

Materials i mètodes

Les marietes són alimentades amb àfids vius (Acyrthosiphon pisum), que són cultivats en veça (Vicia sativa). Les plantes són cultivades en un hivernacle en petits testos d'una 10 cm, i sʼinfesten dʼàfids (uns 20 per planta) en el laboratori i es col·loca una bossa de baguet a sobre perquè els àfids no sʼescapin. Es guarden a una incubadora en safates de 12, etiquetant el dia de la infestació.

Les marietes estan en plaques de petri, tancades amb parafilm i guardades a una incubadora en diferents safates on es separa adults de larves, de pupes i segons espècies. Perque us en feu una idea...arribant a tenir 320 adults d'una espècie + 80 larves de l'altre + 50 adults...

Tres vegades a la setmana, adults i larves són alimentats. Sʼutilitza un pinzell per moure lʼindividu a la tapa de la placa i es gira perquè no sʼescapi. Es neteja la placa amb paper humit, es posen els àfids dins, es torna lʼindividu i es tanca la placa amb parafilm.

Tot això ho he estat fent per ajudar a una PhD (doctorant) amb el seu projecte, i així aprendre la metodologia. D'aquí poc anirem al camp a buscar més marietes i començaré el meu experiment! I'm so excited!!

Helena

Cookie or Biscuit?

What is the difference between Cookie and Biscuit in UK? This might be a common question if you speak catalan or spanish, because we use the same word galeta o galleta, respectively.

In United States they called cookie both, and a biscuit is small bread with a browned crust and a soft interior, in spanish is like a Panecillo and in catalan Panet. (I think...)

Sarah taught me the difference in UK! Thank you sweetie!

BISCUIT is small, flat and baked, usually containing flour, eggs and sugar and it use to be crunchy. There's many varieties: 

-Chocolate biscuits

-Malted milk

-Custard cream: vainilla inside.

-Cocconut-flavoured biscuit (NICE)

-...

COOKIES are bigger, softer and have pieces of chocolate (chocolate chip cookies).

I know...sometimes there are cookies that are little and cruncky and we could call them biscuits... but wtf! it doesn't matter! everybody enjoy eating them! isn't it?

Crec que la diferència perquè ens entenguem és que les galetes "Maria", "Principe" i les sosetes que no tenen res a sobre, torradetes i primetes són Biscuits, i les que tenen trossos de xocolata com les "Chips Ahoy!" són Cookies.
Maria B, tu que ets la pastissera, què n'opines? i la Rusi què diu?

Bé, en realitat és igual, ofereixis una Cookie o ofereixis un Biscuit, ningú es pot resistir!! i el 95% de les vegades te l'accepten segur, perquè tan una com l'altra estan boníssimes! i sempre ve de gust! i m'alegra que la gent les accepti amb un somriure :)

Marina, PER MOLTS ANYS!! Et dedico aquesta entrada a tu! Que sé que t'agraden les coses dolces, eh sweetie pie?? Dolces com tu!! No deixis de ser tu, que vals molt!

Espero que hagis passat un bon dia d'aniversari! T'estimo petita!

Mother's day in UK

Today, 10th March, is Mother's day, the fourth Sunday in Lent.

Dates around the world: Here.

Avui aquí és el dia de la Mare, el 4t diumenge de Quaresme. Bé, tot i que jo crec que cada dia és el dia de la Mare, perquè no sé a les altres cases, però la meva es mereix un monument :)

Una abraçada,

Helena

P.D. Minnow, tu avui també et mereixes un petó ben fort!! 

The Monkey Sanctuary

The Monkey Sanctuary is managed by the charity Wild Futures. They are working to rescue all the monkeys from the threat of the pet trade, from malnutrition, mental, physical and emotional suffering. The centre is home to 36 individuals, 3 species: 
    
That's the main objective, but also there are Wildlife Gardens that can be attractive to visitors and an amazing landscape! You can see the sea! Map Here

http://www.monkeysanctuary.org

Capuchin Monkey eating. By Helena.

Woolly Monkey. By Helena

The Woolly Monkey is one of the largest South American monkeys. They live high above the ground in the green world of the canopy (the upper zone of the trees), inhabiting the humid rainforest of the Amazon.

Monkeys fur acts as a waterproof coat and an insect repellent. The silver hair reflects the light which helps camouflage the monkeys.

They live in colony. When a female woolly monkey mate with several males in her colony. As a result all the males concerned believe that the baby could be theirs and help in the upbringing of the infant. This also explain why infanticide has never been decumented with this species.

//La mona llanosa és un dels micos més grans d'Amèrica del Sud. Viuen a la part alta dels arbres, evitant les zones humides de la selva de l'Amazones. El pelatge d'aquests micos és impermeable i el color platejat reflecta la llum i ajuda al camuflatge.
Viuen en colònies. Quan una femella s'aparella amb més d'un mascle de la colònia, tots els mascles creuen que el fill pot ser seu i l'ajuden amb el petit. Això explica perquè no hi ha infanticidi documentat en aquesta espècie.



This place is like Fundació Mona (Centre de Recuperació de Primats), in Catalonia. 
They rescue primates: discovering illegal possession and/or abuse of primates, rescuing and transporting the primate at the centre. There are Chimpanzees and Macaques.

http://www.fundacionmona.org/ca/

Those Centers also do tasks of information and education.
There are a lot of ways to help Mona: Adop a chimp, Donations, Membership,...and others!  (click the links)and The Monkey Sanctuary too: Adoptions, Donations,...


Vaig anar aquest lloc a fer de voluntària! Vam ajudar a preparar l'enriquiment que els donen: pipes dins de caixes amb palla, cacauets embolicats amb paper i així passen una estona entretinguts. També vam ajudar en alguna tasca de jardineria. A més ens van fer una volta pel centre explicant algun dels casos més rellevants.


Marina cuqueta, ja pots estar contenta :) 

Una abraçada!


Helena

Tamar River

Diumenge vaig fer un viatget en barca pel Tamar River, un riu al costat de Plymouth. La ciutat més gran més propera a on visc. Mapa A una hora i mitja més o menys.

El nom de l'esdeveniment: Tamar Wildlife Birdwatching Cruise. Al pujar ens van donar un paper amb una llista de les espècies perquè apuntèssim les que veiem.

Tothom a la barca anava amb binocles i càmeres amb objectius de mínim 300mm. Una cosa bastant impressionant! 

Feia un dia mooooolt fred però amb solet, cosa que es va agraïr quan va sortir.

Port de Plymouth. Middle tide.

Tamar Bridge. Pont que comunica Devon i Cornwall. Hi passa el tren i una carretera.

Avocet. Bec d'alena. Recurvirostra avosetta. 

What did we see?

-Mute Swam. Cygnus olor.

-Shelduck. Tadorna tadorna

-Mallard. Anas platyrhynchos
-Wigeon. Anas penelope.
-Teal. Anas crecca.
-Red-breasted Merganser. Mergus serrator.
-Little Grebe. Tachybaptus ruficollis.
-Great Crested Grebe. Podiceps cristatus.
-Cormorant.  Phalacrocorax carbo.
-Little Egret. Egretta garzetta.
-Grey Heron. Ardea cinerea.
-Spoonbill. Platalea leucorodia.!!!! 
-Buzzard. Buteo buteo.
-Oystercatcher. Haematopus ostralegus.
-Avocet. Recurvirostra avosetta.
-Golden Plover. Pluvialis apricaria.
-Sandpiper. Actitis hypoleucos.
-Redshank. Tringa totanus.
-Greenshank. Tringa nebularia.
-Godwit (both)
-Curlew. Numenius arquata.

Maybe it's missing some Waders...


Ens van ensenyar els diferents aliments...

Blow lugworm (Arenicola marina)

Lovely hugs,


Helena