CCC: Tortoise Race

Better sense of scale in large ("L").

I so wanted to blip the gosling today... I've put some photos up on Flickr (right from here) as I had a lovely time by the river, and it was wonderful to see how much they'd all grown.

BUT, today was the annual Tortoise Fair at Corpus Christi College: it was a charity fair with cake stalls, a barbecue, Pimm's, a raffle, live music (a brass band, and a jazz band), and the main event "The Tortoise Race"! The entrants came from various Oxford colleges, as well as a pair of tiny tortoises (Hope & Faith) that came from an independent source. St. Peter's tortoise, Aristurtle, was unfortunately unable to attend this year. The tortoises start in the middle of a large circular course with iceberg lettuce at the edge (and hundreds of spectators), and the first tortoise to the edge wins.
Corpus's tortoise (Foxe) was disqualified very early on for showing too much interest in one of the other competitors, and the race was over in seconds as one of the Worcester tortoises dashed to the edge (was it Zoom, Speedy, or Shelley?), followed about 10 minutes later by the last place tortoise.

I've put up a flickr album here. I'll link to highlights in tomorrow's blip...

Gosling highlights:
"Wait, what's behind me?"
Largest gosling's little wings
Largest gosling preening
Largest gosling echo
High-key greylag gosling