little al.

Meet 'Alan', relative newcomer and new pet of my nature-loving bro-in-law (eldest brother of lady sp33d). As you can see he's still a baby but with some tender loving care he's growing nicely and his shell is hardening every day thanks to a hefty diet of lettuce, carrots, home grown toms, dandelions, the odd nasturtium and a lucky four-leafed clover or two.

We went to visit him and babysit for a bit whilst the rest of the family were away at a wedding near Basingstoke (we couldn't make it). 'Twas a funny old thing seeing him: When i was a nipper I had 2 tortoises (the law, back in the days when Blue Peter was actually GOOD), and I loved them to bits. They were called Toby and Tim and they lived in the shed with a 'run' in our garden in the summer and in the garage in a hibernation box full of straw in the winter. Until one year when they carked it and didn't wake up :-(

After being undecided about which pic of him to post for today I eventually chose this one (which wasn't lady sp33ds favourite) simply because it illustrates how tiny he is. He won't be quite so small for much longer and I'll definately be taking plenty more photo's of him, so his cute little pink tongue and amazingscaleyskin can wait for another day.