BLOGGER TEMPLATES - TWITTER BACKGROUNDS

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Pitstone Windmill

Pitstone Windmill stands in the north east corner of a large field near the parish boundary of Ivinghoe and Pitstone in Buckinghamshire. It is thought to have been first built circa 1627 as this date is carved on part of the framework. This is the earliest date to be found on any windmill in the British Isles. It should be remembered that such a structure would have had to have frequent repairs made to it, so it is quite possible the mill predates 1627.

The design of the mill is what is known as a post-mill. This means the whole superstructure of the mill rests on one main post. This post arises from ground level through brick and a foundation chamber; the post then acts as a pivot for the timber built structure above with the sails. Consequently, the upper section of the mill and sails could be turned towards the direction of the wind. The mill machinery in the upper rotating section was reached by a long flight of external steps.

For many hundreds of years grain grown in the two adjoining villages was ground at the mill into flour. In 1874 the mill was bought by Adelbert Wellington Brownlow Cust, 3rd Earl Brownlow who owned the nearby Ashridge Estate. He subsequently let it to a local farmer, who ran a successful milling business from the mill.

What Is Resort?

Resort:
A resort is a place used for relaxation or recreation, attracting visitors for holidays or vacations. Resorts are places, towns or sometimes commercial establishment operated by a single company. Such a self-contained resort attempts to provide for most of a vacationer's wants while remaining on the premises, such as food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping. The term "resort" sometimes is misused to identify a hotel that does not provide the other amenities required of a full resort.

Destination Resort:
A destination resort is a resort that contains, in and of itself, the necessary guest attraction capabilities—that is to say that a destination resort does not need to be near a destination town, historic site, theme park, or other to attract its public. A commercial establishment at a resort destination such as a recreational area, a scenic or historic site, a theme park, a gaming facility or other tourist attraction may compete with other businesses at a destination. Consequently, another characteristic of a destination resort is that it offers food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping within the facility so that guests have no need to leave the facility throughout their stay. Commonly these facilities are of higher quality than would be expected if one were to stay at a hotel or eat in a town's restaurants.

All-inclusive Resort:
An all-inclusive resort is a resort that, besides providing all of the common amenities of a resort, charges a fixed price that includes most or all items. At a minimum, most inclusive resorts include lodging, unlimited food, drink, sports activities, and entertainment for the fixed price. In recent years, the number of resorts offering "all-inclusive" amenities has decreased dramatically; in 1961, over half offered such plans and in 2007, less than ten percent do so.

Golf Resorts:
Golf resorts are resorts that cater specifically to the sport of golf, and include access to one or more golf course and or clubhouse. Golf resorts typically provide golf packages that provide visitors with all greens and cart fees, range balls, accommodations and meals.

Ski Resorts:
A ski resort is a ski area plus amenities that generally make them a destination resort. This includes accommodations and other amenities adjacent to the ski area. Some ski resorts offer lodging options on the slopes themselves, with ski-in and ski-out access allowing guests to ski right up to the door. Ski resorts often have other activities, such as snowmobiling, sledding, horse-drawn sleds, dog-sledding, ice-skating, indoor or outdoor swimming, and hottubbing, game rooms, and local forms of entertainment, such as clubs, cinema, theatre and cabarets.

Seaside Resorts:
Seaside resorts are located on a coast. Many seaside towns have turned to other entertainment industries, and some of them have a good deal of nightlife. The cinemas and theaters often remain to become host to a number of pubs, bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Most of their entertainment facilities cater to local people and the beaches still remain popular during the summer months. Although international tourism turned people away from British seaside towns, it also brought in foreign travel and as a result, many seaside towns offer foreign language schools, the students of which often return to vacation and sometimes to settle.

Luxury Resorts:
A luxury resort is an expensive vacation facility which is fully staffed and has been rated with five stars. Luxury resorts often boast many visitor activities and attractions such as golf, watersports, spa and beauty facilities, skiing, natural ecology and tranquility. Because of the extent of amenities offered, a luxury resort is also considered a destination resort.

Mega Resorts:
A Megaresort is a type of destination resort which is of an exceptionally large size, sometimes featuring large-scale attractions casino, golf course, theme park, multiple accommodations. The hotels and casinos along the Las Vegas Strip are often considered megaresorts due to their immense size and complexity.

Historical Resorts:
A famous resort of the ancient world was Baiae, Italy, popular over 2,000 years ago. Capri, an island near Naples, Italy, has attracted visitors since Roman times. Another famous historical resort was Monte Ne near Rogers, Arkansas, which was active in the early 20th century. At its peak more than 10,000 people a year visited its hotels. It closed in the 1930s, and was ultimately submerged under Beaver Lake in the 1960s.

TROPICAL FRUIT FOOL

INGREDIENTS:
1 medium ripe mango
½ tsp finely grated lime rind,plus extra to decorate
½ tsp vanilla essence
2 kiwi fruit
2 passion fruit
1 medium banana
2 medium egg whites
2 tbsp lime juice
425g/15 oz can low-fat custard


1.To peel the mango, slice either side of the smooth, flat central stone. Roughly chop the flesh and blend the fruit in a food processor or blender until smooth. Alternatively, mash the chopped mango flesh with a fork.


2.Peel the kiwi fruit, chop the flesh into small pieces and place in a bowl. Peel and chop the banana and add to the bowl. Toss all of the fruit in the lime juice and rind and mix well to prevent discoloration.


3.In a grease-free bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and then gently fold in the custard and vanilla essence until thoroughly mixed.


4.In 4 tall glasses alternately layer the chopped fruit, mango puree and custard mixture, finishing with the custard on top. Leave to chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.


5.Halve the passion fruits, scoop out the seeds and spoon the passion fruit over the fruit fools.


6.Decorate each serving with the extra lime rind and serve.

VARIATION
Other tropical fruits to try include papaya puree, with chopped pineapple and dates,
and tamarillo or pomegranate seeds to decorate. Or make a summer fruit fool by
using strawberry puree, topped with raspberries and blackberries, with cherries to finish.

PAN-COOKED PORK MEDALLIONS WITH APPLES & CIDER

Ingredients:
- 8 lean pork medallions, about 50g / 1¾ oz each
- 2 tsp vegetable oil
- Medium onion, finely sliced
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp dried sage
- 150 ml / 5 fl oz / 2/3 cup dry cider
- 150 ml / 5 fl oz / 2/3 cup fresh chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 green-skinned apple
- 1 red-skinned apple
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
- Fresh sage leaves, to garnish freshly cooked vegetables, to serve


STEP1
Discard the string from the pork and trim away any excess fat. Re-tie with clean string and set aside until required.

STEP2
Heat the oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onion for 5 minutes until softened. Add the sugar and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden.

STEP3
Add the pork to the pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side until browned. Add the sage, cider and stock. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

STEP4
Meanwhile, core and cut each apple into 8 wedges. Toss the apple wedges in lemon juice so that they do not turn brown.

STEP5
Add the apple to the pork and mix gently. Season and cook for 3-4 minute until tender.

STEP6
Remove the string from the pork and serve immediately, garnished with fresh sage and accompanied with freshly cooked vegetables.


COOK’S TIP
If pork medallions are not available,
Buy 400g/14 oz pork fillet and slice
it into evenly-sized medallions yourself.

PEACHY UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

Ingredient:
-4 tablespoons butter or margarine
-½ cup Imperial Golden Light Brown Sugar, packed
-2 cups (29-oz. can) peach slices, drained
-4 maraschino cherries, halved
-2/3 cup butter or margarine
-1¼ cups Imperial Granulated Sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-2 eggs
-1½ cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
-1/3 cup cocoa
-½ teaspoon each baking soda and salt
-½ cup buttermilk or sour milk

Method:
1.Melt 4 tablespoons butter or margarine in 9-inch square pan.
2.Sprinkle Imperial Golden Light Brown Sugar over butter. Place rows of peaches on mixture.
3.Add cherries randomly, cut side up.
4.Cream 2/3 cup butter or margarine, Imperial Granulated Sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl.
5.Add eggs, beat well.
6.Combine next 4 ingredients alternately with buttermilk to creamed mixture.
7.Pour into pan then bake it at 350’F for 60 to 65 minutes or until cake tester inserted comes out clean.
8.Invert into serving plate immediately.
9.Serve warm.
10.Can be serves up to 9 people.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Creamy Sweetcorn Soup

Creamy Sweetcorn Soup
Ingredients:
-1 large onion
-1 large potato, peeled and diced
-1 litre / 1¾ pints / 1 quart skimmed milk
-1 bay leaf
-½ tsp ground nutmeg
-Salt and pepper
-450g / 1 lb sweercorn kernels, canned or frozen, drained or thawed
-1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
-3 tbsp natural cold water
-4 tbsp natural low-fat fromage frails (unsweetened yogurt)

TO GARNISH:
100g / 3½ oz lean ham, diced
2 tbsp fresh chives, snipped


STEP 1:
Place the onion and potato in a large pan and pour over the milk. Add the bay leaf, nutmeg and half the sweetcorn.
Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes until the potato is softened.
Stir occasionally and keep the heat low so that the milk does not burn on the bottom of the pan.

STEP 2:
Discard the bay leaf and leave the liquid to cool for 10 minutes.
Transfer to a blender and process for a few seconds. Or, rub through a sieve.

STEP 3:
Pour the smooth liquid into a pan.
Blend the cornflour (cornstarch) with the water to make a paste and stir it into the soup.

STEP 4:
Bring the soup back to the boil, stirring until it thickens, and add the remaining sweetcorn. Heat through for 2-3 minutes until piping hot.

STEP 5:
Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Stir in the fromage frais (yogurt).
Ladle the soup into warm bowls and serve sprinkled with the diced ham and snipped chives.

VARIATION:
For a more substantial soup add 225g / 8 oz flaked white crab meat or peeled prawns (shrimp) in the step 4.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Wine Tasting Method

How To Taste Wine
Wine tasting is a sensory examination and evaluation of wine. A professional wine tasters use a constantly-evolving formal terminology which is used to describe the range of perceived flavours, aromas and general characteristics of a wine. A wine overall quality assessment, based on the examination, further careful description and comparison with recognized standards, both with respect to other wines in its price range and according to known factors pertaining to the region or vintage if it is typical of the region or diverges in style or uses certain wine-making techniques, such as barrel fermentation or malolactic fermentation, or other remarkable unusual characteristics. Whereas wines are regularly tasted in isolation, a wine quality assessment is more objective when performed alongside several other wines, in what are known as tasting flights. Wines may be deliberately selected for their vintage or proceed from a single winery, to better compare vineyard and vintages, respectively, in order to promote an unbiased analysis, bottles and even glasses may be disguised in a blind tasting, to rule out any prejudicial awareness of either vintage or winery.
To ensure impartial judgment of a wine, it should be served blind that is without the taster having a look at the label or bottle shape. Blind tasting may also involve serving the wine from a black wine glass to mask the colour of the wine. A taster’s judgment can be prejudiced by knowing details of a wine, such as geographic origin, price, reputation, colour and other consideration in the wine tasting.
The vertical and horizontal tastings are wine tasting events that are arranged to highlight differences between similar wines. In a vertical tasting, different vintages of the same wine type from the same winery are tasted. This emphasizes differences between various vintages. While in a horizontal tasting, the wines are all from the same vintage but are from different wineries. Keeping wine variety or type and wine region the same helps emphasize differences in winery styles.
There are five basic steps in tasting wine; colour, swirl, smell, taste, and savour. It is also known as the five Ss which are See, Swirl, Sniff, Sip, and Savour. A taster must look for clarity, varietal character, integration, expressiveness, complexity, and connectedness. A wine colour will also be judge by putting it against a white background. The wine glass is put at an angle in order to see the colours. Colours can give the taster clues to the grape variety, and whether the wine was aged in wood.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

How Pudding Can Be Bake

Pudding most often refers to a desert, but may also refer to a savoury dish. Pudding can be refers to rich, fairly homogeneous starch or dairy based desserts such as rice pudding and Christmas pudding or any dessert. The original pudding was formed by mixing various ingredients with a grain product or other binder such as butter, flour, cereal, eggs, suet, resulting in a solid mass. These puddings are baked, steamed boiled. Depending on its ingredients such a pudding may be served as a part of the main course or as a dessert. Boiled pudding was a common main course aboard ships in the Royal Navy in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pudding was used as the primary dish in which daily rations of flour and suet were prepared. Suet pudding is a steamed pies consisting of a filling completely enclosed by suet pastry are also known as puddings. These may be sweet or savoury and include such dishes as steak and kidney pie.
Creamy puddings the second and newer type of pudding consists of sugar, milk, and a thickening agent such as cornstarch, gelatine, eggs, rice or tapioca to create a sweet, creamy dessert. These puddings are made either by simmering on top of the stove in a saucepan or double boiler or by baking in an oven, often in a bain-marie. These pudding are easily scorched on the stovetop which is why a double boiler is often used, microwave ovens are also often used to avoid this problem and to reduce stirring.
Creamy puddings are typically served chilled, but a few, such as zabaglione and rice pudding may be served warm. Instant puddings do not require boiling and can therefore be prepared much quicker. This pudding terminology is common in North America and some European countries such as the Netherlands, whilst in Britain egg-thickened puddings are considered custards and starch-thickened pudding called blancmange.

What Is Pop-Corn

Popcorn is a type of corn which explodes from the kernel and puffs up when heated. Corn popping was originally discovered by the Native Americans but became popular as snack especially in movie theatres. Corn is able to pop because unlike grain its kernels have a hard moisture-sealed hull and a dense starchy filling. This allows pressure to build inside the kernel until it explodes “pop” as a result. Some strains of corn are now cultivated specifically as popping corns. There are many techniques for popping corn. Commercial large-scale popcorn machines were invented in the late 19th Century. Many types of small-scale home methods for popping corn also exist, with the most popular with being pre-packaged microwavable popcorn. As a snack food, popcorn has both advocates and detractors. Some consider it to be a health food while others against it for a variety of reasons. Popcorn can also have non-food applications, ranging from holiday decorations to packaging materials.
The nutrition value of popcorn is naturally high in fibre, low in calories and fat, contains no sodium, and is sugar free. This can make it an attractive snack to people with dietary restrictions on the intake of calories, fat, and sodium. For the sake of flavour, however large amounts of fat, sugar, and sodium are often added to prepared popcorn, which can quickly convert it to a very poor choice for those on restricted diets.
There are some health risks in popcorn. Popcorn is recommends not to serve for children fewer than 4 years old because it has a risk of choking. Special “hulless” popcorn has been developed that offers an alternative for small children and for people with braces or other dental problems which otherwise need to avoid popcorn. Microwaveable popcorn represents a special case, since it is designed to be cooked along with its various flavouring agents. One of these common artificial-butter flavouring, diacetyl has been implicated in causing respiratory ailments.

The Characteristic Of Honey Bee

Honey bees are a subset of bees in the genus Apis, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis. Currently, there are only seven recognized species of honey bee with a total of 44 subspecies though historically, anywhere from six to eleven species have been recognized. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees.
Honey bees as a group appear to have their centre of origin in South and Southeast Asia including the Philippines, as all but one of the extant species is native to that region, notably the most plesiomorphic living species. The first Apis bees appear in the fossil record at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, in European deposits. The origin of these prehistoric honey bees does not necessarily indicate that Europe is where the genus originated, only that it occurred there at that time. There are few known fossil deposits in the suspected region of honey bee origin, and fewer still have been thoroughly studied. There is only one fossil species documented from the New World, Apis neartica, known from a single 14 million year old specimen from Nevada.
The close relatives of modern honey bees like bumblebees and stingless bees are also social to some degree, and social behaviour seems a plesiomorphic trait that predates the origin of the genus. Among the extant members of Apis, the more basal species make single, exposed combs, while the more recently-evolved species nest in cavities and have multiple combs which have a great facilitated their domestication.
Most species have historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and beeswax by humans indigenous to their native ranges. Only two of these species have been truly domesticated, one at least since at the time where the building of the Egyptian pyramids and only that species has been moved extensively beyond its native range.

Friday, March 26, 2010

What is Milkshake

Milkshake is a cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream or iced milk and also it got flavourings or sweeteners like fruit syrup or chocolate sauce. Milkshakes usually served in tall glasses with straw and whipped cream can be added as a topping. There are several popular milkshake flavours like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. In the United States, milkshakes are made without ice-cream. If there are milkshake made with ice-cream it’s commonly called a frappe. Full-service restaurants usually prepare and mix the shake by hand from scoops of ice-cream and milk in a blender or drink mixer using a stainless steel cup. Most fast food outlets do not make shakes by hand with ice-cream. Instead they make shakes in an automatic milkshake machines which freeze and serve a premade milkshake mixture consisting of milk, sweetened flavouring agent and thickening agent.
Hand-blended milkshakes can be made from any flavour of ice-cream and can add flavourings like chocolate syrup and malt can be added prior to mixing. This allows greater variety compare to the variety that available in milkshakes machine. A milkshake-like recipes which use yogurt, crushed ice and fresh fruit which all are made without ice-cream usually called smoothies. When malted milk is added, a milkshake will be called a malted milkshake or malt.
The restaurant has the highest volume of customer that is coming so they often use pre-made milkshake mixtures that are prepared in automatic milkshake machines. The machines are stainless steel cylinder with beaters that use refrigeration coils to freeze pre-made milkshake mixture into a drinkable texture. The number of different flavours that a restaurant with automatic milkshake machines can serve is limited by the number of different tanks in their milkshake machines and usually fast food restaurant only offer several type of flavour for the milkshakes.

Honey Badger

The honey badger is a member of the Mustelidae family. The honey badger is distributed throughout most of Africa and western and south Asian areas of Baluchistan, southern Iraq, Pakistan and Rajasthan. It is the only species in the genus Mellivora and the subfamily Mellivorinae. The badgers have been named the most fearless animal in the Guinness Book of World Records. The under parts, sides of its body and face are usually dark brown or black in colour, while the top of its head, neck and back are light gray or white. This coloration makes the honey badger particularly conspicuous in daylight. Some honey badgers, especially in the Ituri Forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, are wholly black.
Honey badgers are similar in size and build to the European badger, Meles meles. They are heavily built, with a broad head, small eyes, virtually no external ears, and a relatively blunt snout. The head and body length ranges from 60 to 102 cm, plus a tail of 16 to 30 cm. The animal height at the shoulder can be from 23 to 30 cm. Males sometimes weight twice as much as females. The weight range for female is 5 to 10 kg, while males range from 9 to 14 kg. Their small size can be deceiving to many would be predators. There have been numerous accounts where lions, tiger and bears have been killed when trying to eat a honey badger.
The honey badger can be found in grasslands and savannahs. Honey badgers are fierce carnivores with a keen sense of smell. They are known for their snake-killing abilities, they use their jaws to grab a snake behind its head and kill it. Honey badgers can devour a snake in less than 15 minutes. Badgers have a large appetite for beehives. Commercial honey producers do not take kindly to this destruction and sometimes shoot, trap, or poison badgers they suspect of damaging their hives, although badger-proof commercial bee hives have been developed.
A bird, the honey guide, has a habit of leading badgers and other large mammals to bee’s nests. When a badger breaks into the nest, the birds take their share. Honey badger is among the fiercest hunter in its range, with prey including earthworms, insects, scorpion, porcupines, hares, ground squirrels, meerkats, mongooses, and larger prey such as tortoises, young crocodiles, young gazelle and snakes. They also take lizards, frogs small rodents, birds and fruit. The badger’s ferocious reputation reflects its tendency to attack animals larger than itself, it is a seldom preyed upon.
Adult honey badgers rarely serve as prey for pythons, wolves, bears, lions, tiger and leopards, their ferocity and thick, loose skin makes it difficult to grip or suffocate them. It is able to twist inside its own skin and bite whatever is holding it.

What Is Forest

A forest can also be called a wood, woodland, wold, weald or holt is an area with a high density of trees. There are many definitions of a forest, based on the various criteria. These plant communities cover approximately 9.4% of the Earth’s surface or 30% of total land area, though they once covered much more about 50% of the total land area, in many different regions and function as habitats for organisms, hydrologic flow modulators, and soil conservers, constituting one of the most important aspects of the Earth’s biosphere. Although a forest is classified primarily by trees a forest ecosystemis defined intrinsically with additional species such as fungi. Woodland with more open space between trees is ecologically distinct from a forest.
Forest can be found in all regions capable of sustaining tree growth, at altitudes up to the tree line, except where natural fire frequency or other disturbance is too high, or where the environment has been altered by human activity. Forest sometimes contains many tree species within a small area as in tropical rain and temperate deciduous forests, or relatively few species over large areas. Forest often home to animal and plant species, and biomass per unit area is high compared to other vegetation communities. Much of this biomass occurs below ground in the root systems and as partially decomposed plant detritus. The woody component of a forest contains lignin, which is relatively slow to decompose compared with other organic materials such as cellulose or carbohydrate.
Forest are differentiated from woodlands by the extent of canopy coverage in a forest, the branches and the foliage of separate trees often meet or interlock, although there can be gaps of varying sizes within an area referred to as forest. A woodland has a more continuously open canopy, with trees spaced further apart, which allows more sunlight to penetrate to the ground between them.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms arranged in a variation of the face-centred cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions. Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any bulk material. Those properties determine the major industrial application of diamond in cutting and polishing tools.

Most natural diamonds are formed at high-pressure and high-temperature conditions existing at depths of 140 to 190 kilometres in the Earth mantle. Carbon-containing minerals provide the carbon source, and the growth occurs over periods from 1 billion to 3.3 billion years. Diamonds are brought close to the Earth surface through deep volcanic eruptions by a magma which cools into igneous rocks known as kimberlites and lamproites. Diamonds can also be produced synthetically in a high-pressure and high-temperature process which approximately simulates the conditions in the Earth mantle. An alternative and completely different growth technique is chemical vapour deposition. Several non-diamond material, which include cubic zirconia and silicon carbide and are often called diamond stimulants, resemble diamond in appearance and many properties. Special gemological techniques have been specially developed to distinguish natural and synthetic diamond stimulants.

Monday, March 22, 2010

The Blue Whale

The blue whale is a marine mammal belongs to the suborder of baleen whales. It can grow up to 33 metres in length and 180 metric tons or more in weight; it is the largest mammals know to have existed in the ocean.
The blue whale body, long and slender can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter underneath. Blue whale was abundant in nearly all the oceans until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over 40 years, the blue whales have been hunted almost to extinction by whale hunter until they are protected by the international community in 1966. Some report on the 2002 estimated that there were 5, 000 to 12, 000 blue whale in worldwide. It can be located in at least five groups. Blue whales are from a family that includes the humpback whale, the fin whale, Bryde’s whale, the sei whale and the minke whale. The family Balaenopteridae is believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Oligocene. However, it is known when the members of those families diverged from each other.
The blue whale has a long tapering body that appears stretched in comparison with the stockier build of the other whale. The head is flat and U-shaped and has a prominent ridge running from the blowhole to the top of the upper flip. The front part of the mouth is thick with baleen plates which are around 300 plates handing from the upper jaw, running 0.5m back into the mouth. Between 60 and 90 grooves run along the throat parallel to the body length. These pleats assist with evacuating water from the mouth after lunge feeding.
Blue whales can reach speeds of 50 kilometres per hour over short bursts, usually when interacting with other whales, but 20 kilometres per hour is a more typical travelling speed. When feeding, they slow down to 5 kilometres per hour. Blue whales most commonly live alone or with one other individual. It is not known how long travelling pairs stay together. In a location where a high concentration of food is, there will be as many as 50 blue whales will scattered over a small area. However, they do not form the large close-knit groups seen in other baleen species. Blue whale feed almost on krill, though they also take small numbers of copepods.