Zoo Day.

Pretty wild and windy today. Normally I'd be enthusing over the fearsome waves and handfuls of sea foam flying past the window but after last weekend's Force 11 severe storm today's Force 6/7 gale is not quite so impressive. The storm came to a sudden stop at 6.00. What a start to what is officially the first day of winter.

Definitely too wet for a walk up to the Memorial but it was mostly dry when I was at the zoo.

I only needed to shelter from the heavier rain a couple of times as I checked for weeds in the gravel by the wolf-dogs. Not that there were many weeds but I like to keep on top of the weeding. I mainly found myself picking up wet leaves from the surrounding trees. That might seem a little pointless but leaving them for the worms to drag down creates compost for yet more weeds to grow. I did more tidying up of path edges and moved on to clearing the weeds from a narrow gap between some cages and the safety fence. There I met my bete noir or should I say bete blanc, long white bindweed roots.  A long time later most of them were in my weed buckets and I could head for home.

Not before a quick walk around. Here's Buddy, the elderly shetland pony with his windswept mane.

While craning over the stable door was Pablo a young and naughty pony begging for treats from the volunteer who spens a lot of time with him.

And here's part of the fence that took the brunt of the wind. It had a temporary fix on Saturday and now a more permanent repair is being carried out. The storm gave the turkeys a bit of a surprise, they had been shut in their shed due to  avian 'flu restrictions when the wind blew out the back wall of their shed and the next morning they were found wandering about in the road.

Although the rest of the animal cages are tall the wire fencing lets the wind blow through and there was no damage done.

I got home later than usual and straight away helped Peter put up the extra support for the curtain pole over the front door. We also swapped the bowed pole for one of the new straight ones as I can use the bowed one for a different project. Finally I was able to have a proper sit down. My current viewing is old series of The Great British Sewing Bee. I find it very relaxing and I'm in awe of the contestants' sewing skills. Unlike mine which are very haphazard. After that I pinned up the hems of the curtains over the front door. I need to re-do one tomorrow as they don't quite match  and then I can get out the sewing machine.