Zoo Day.

At least talks are being held though Putin's track record does not fill me with confidence.

Street art in Paris.

We had a warm though grey start to the day. It was was mild enough for me to spend the morning working without my coat. Rain set in at lunchtime and later the afternoon became bright and sunny but very cold. The forecast is for frost tonight so I've moved the tray of aquilegia seedlings into the garage for the night.

We both slept well and were awake and drinking tea at 7.00. This good start meant I was on my way to the zoo early (just a little bit) and had to wait for the train at the crossing.

I didn't take any photos at the zoo because it began raining as I was finishing but I had a good morning. First off I increased the width of the flower bed I dug last week and dug it all over again to check for grass roots. The building wall behind hasn't been painted so I've offered to do it myself next week if there's the paint available as it would be better to get the painting done before I put the plants in. That didn't take long and then I moved to some of the outdoor rabbit runs to prune buddelia bushes. I don't think they were pruned last year so I had to cut them back quite drastically. They can put out 3ft-6ft of growth each year so will recover quickly but that didn't stop me from worrying that I'd overdone things. Having checked that goats can eat buddelia safely and double checked with the zoo staff I gave most of my giant heap of branches to the goats. It was quite funny to see the dozen pygmy goats racing from one end of their enclosure to the other as I brought them armloads of branches or as it is known in the animal keeping world - browse.

I was chatting to another volunteer about what could be done with a narrow strip of weeds by our feet at the bottom of the fence when he spotted movement in the soil. A mole was moving just below the surface. Never seen that before. It moved along about a foot before everything went still again. Then came the best part of my morning, and the rain. The chap I was talking to said he was going to feed the animals in the annex to the zoo and did I want to come along? The annex is further up the track and currently closed to the public as that's where some of the animals we're not allowed to have on display are kept. There's a large very secure enclosure where the lions lived up until 18 months ago and a number of other enclosures. I fed the emus which used to be by the goats and I'd thought were rheas. There are two rheas as well, one a very tottery 25 year old which I also fed. They live with two types of wallabies including one with a joey looking very cosy in its mum's pouch. The other animals I saw were; Mr Moo a large Jersey steer, racoon dogs and civet cats.

Back home I cycled on the exercise bike, completed the homework for tomorrow and had a rest. No time for music as I've still got my second bike session to do.