{"id":2357,"date":"2025-11-17T09:13:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/archives\/2357-play-time.html"},"modified":"2025-11-17T09:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:43:00","slug":"play-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/archives\/2357-play-time.html","title":{"rendered":"Play Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- s9ymdb:3026 --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"serendipity_image_center\" width=\"685\" height=\"1024\" src=\"\/serendipity\/uploads\/land_photos\/146-_G2A5311-Edit.jpg\" alt=\"\"><br \/>\n<br \/>\nOn this occasion, I\u2019d free-dived quite deep and found myself looking up toward the surface as mother and child swam into view.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nNoticing my strategic position below them, I\u2019m sure I had just become the subject of that day\u2019s lesson in playful showing off.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nAs the two approached, the mum rotated as she glided by and continued swimming upside-down. The youngster, swimming tail-to-nose in front of her, followed her lead, and together they drifted down to me and then alongside.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nAt first, I thought they would simply swim on, bringing an already beautiful encounter to a close. But then something unexpected happened. In a movement worthy of some exquisitely choreographed ballet, the young orca completed a full turn, circling back around its mum. The pair spiralled around each other up toward the surface before slipping off into the blue beyond.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nHow humbling, if only for a moment, to feature in their awareness, to be the focus of their attention, and to witness so playful a gesture.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<br \/>\n#arctic #fjords #MarineMammals #norway #oceanlife #orca #Skjervoy # OrcinusAter #mother #baby<br \/>\n<br \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this occasion, I\u2019d free-dived quite deep and found myself looking up toward the surface as mother and child swam into view. Noticing my strategic position below them, I\u2019m sure I had just become the subject of that day\u2019s lesson in playful showing off. As the two approached, the mum rotated as she glided by &#8230; <a title=\"Play Time\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/archives\/2357-play-time.html\" aria-label=\"Read more about Play Time\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertrath.com\/serendipity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}