Good afternoon team,

What a great animal seals are. They get their own Fem Fri today, you can scroll down for the links but first I want to tell you my favourite memory of this lovely critter. You might remember that I went to Lindisfarne last year, and I and my holiday friend were walking along the coast of the island, chatting and sometimes stopping to admire the things other people had build with the rocks. Then, there a seal was! Bobbing along next to us, as close as you can get when two of you are land based and the other sea based. And we said, "hullo seal!" and kept walking, and she kept bobbing along next to us. When we stopped to admire a particularly fine maze, she stopped and bobbed next to us on the spot. When we started walking again, she started bobbing along with us again. This kept going for about half an hour until we got to a corner and had to turn right (or be in the sea) and she kept going. It was magical to have a seal pal for so long. I love seals.

And so does Scottish island folklore! How about selkies, the charming half-seal-half humans with whom the fully human are constantly falling in love:

the selkie-folk have come to be regarded as gentle creatures, with the ability to transform from seals into beautiful, lithe humans […] If a girl went missing while out on the ebb, or at sea, it was inevitably said that her selkie lover had taken her to his watery domain.

http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/

Here's a selkie story, if you want to know more. It's not all in dialect, I just like this bit (also all the dialect is glossed if you are not Scottish):

"O bonnie man! If thur's inny mercy in thee human breest, gae me back me ain selkie skin! I cinno live in da sea withoot it. I cinno bide amung me ain folk waythoot me selkie-skin."

http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/wastness.htm

Back to actual seals, and weirdly topically the news this week, how about the working USB drive some volunteers found in leopard seal poo. Obviously I'm covering this because the seal researcher who runs the institute that found it is a woman. You can read an interview with her here, and if you have lost a USB drive in the last couple of years maybe get in touch. Krista Hupman, people:

Even if you aren’t doing the most glamorous volunteer work [for example, defrosting poo], remember that the reference you get from your time is what will count towards your next opportunity, which could be something amazing.

https://www.wiseoceans.com/an-interview-with-wiseoceans-krista-hupman/

And finally, some music to see you into the weekend: it's Nina Simone's Sea Lion Woman! It might be not actually about sea lions/seals but there is much to enjoy here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVO_LlGtY5Q

Happy weekend!

Alex xx.