Zoo Day.

Though cloudy at times there was lots of sun and wind today.

It was a perfect day for going to the zoo. It took a while to get there as there was traffic snarl up along the High St. I sat in the car for almost 10 minutes by the RNLI without moving at all. It was all due to 2 bin lorries working their way up the road.

I called in at the pharmacy for my prescription but their driver was still sitting in his car unable to even get to the surgery. They have a half day on Wednesdays (that's a thing from the past) so I'll walk down tomorrow morning. It's so convenient having a pharmacy in the village even if they do mix things up every now and again. 

 

The zoo was really busy today as it was one of the 6 VIP days when they are allowed to let the public see the 'private collection' of exotic animals. These include the reptiles, insects/arachnids, wallabies, racoon dogs and emus. For the rest of the year the public can only see domesticated animals. Even George the cockatoo lives in an aviary by the food prep room. 

So there were families everywhere. I went straight to the gravel by the wolf-dogs where thankfully I didn't see anymore plant losses. I placed the beach stones with their entreaties to not pull up the plants, in prominent positions and then went on to weed and clear away the leaves from the neighbouring tree. (Sometime I wish I could take a chainsaw to that tree.) These were so dry I had to pick them up very carefully to avoid them crumbling into tiny unmanageable pieces. Once all the dry leaves were removed the plants were more noticeable so possibly won't get trodden on so much.

Before I moved on to weeding the large play area I spent some time with the pigs. They love their scratches though Truffle nearly sat on Otis' head in his attempt to get closer to me. While I was with the pigs I could see swallows swooping low into the nearby stable block and later I got some good photos of the young swallows being fed.

As part of the VIP day there were lots of talks and handling sessions. I happened to pass by when there weren't many too people there and had a chance to hold Goo a 3ft long Boa constrictor. The markings along one side spell out goo or possibly goop. I had his tail end in one hand while he wrapped his head around my other wrist. He was using his tongue to smell my t-shirt which was still dusty from the crumbled woodchip of the play area.

It was only when I went to sign out that I realised I had spent five hours at the zoo. Time flies when you're having fun. Before driving home I walked along the lane and picked a bag of sloes for my Christmas sloe gin. I think they are ripe enough and I've put them in the freezer as insurance in case I have difficulty find more later on.

I've just returned home from choir. We had a nice relaxed evening, no new songs and none of the more difficult songs we learnt for Sing For Water. Right at the end we sang This is home, where I belong. which I think sounds better acapella.