Outing to Paignton Zoo

This morning we made a really early start, to arrive in time for breakfast at Paignton Zoo. It was a church event, with the Bishop of Exeter attending. We had a choice of continental or full English breakfast (we both had the former) and it was delicious. There was a good crowd of people there and we made some new friends and met up with old ones too. After breakfast, the bishop spoke most entertainingly and movingly – I had not encountered him before and I was very impressed.

After this we decided to take advantage of where we were, and went round the zoo – it’s some time since we went. The weather was very overcast and showery but it didn’t spoil our enjoyment. Lots of photos follow! I also took some video clips but these need editing.

Pretty flamingos. Lots of ducks kept them company too.

Arum lilies growing beside the stream.

I love this elephant’s bottom! Unfortunately his front half isn’t the other side of the wall!

We can never visit the zoo without calling on the tigers. They are my favourite animals in the zoo, and today they really gave us a show. We thought they’d stay in their house because it was drizzling, but they came out and walked past us, and then played and rolled around together! They are sooo beautiful!

We found this plaque of a poem written by a six-year-old boy.

A Ural owl.

The lions were all out and about too, some on the roof of their house.

 

This funny little creature is a capybara from South America. It looked like an over-sized guinea pig!

Two camels, four humps. I think the further one has just told a joke because the nearer one looks as if he is laughing! What extraordinary looking creatures they are.

Here are the giraffes in their outside enclosure, enjoying an elevated snack. They are so slow and dignified and do everything in slo-mo, it seems.

The elephant came out to say howdy to the giraffes.

We went inside the giraffe house because we’d been told that a baby was born a couple of weeks ago – isn’t she absolutely adorable?

Beautiful giraffe fur.

Our little baby learning to groom herself.

She doesn’t have a name yet, and apparently they are running a competition to name her on Facebook.

Bluebells.

Black rhino. One lugubrious old gentleman.

Here is a creature I’d never heard of before, called a Coati. Not sure where it came from. It was trotting about, showing off its beautiful striped tail.

Suddenly it grabbed hold of some leaves and dashed off with them, disappearing inside its house. Making a nest perhaps, or wanting a snack in private.

When we were furthest away from the exit, my buggy battery decided to die intermittently – my hubby said he probably hadn’t charged it up for long enough. It had got very flat because I haven’t used it lately. It was fine going down hill but climbing the hills it kept cutting out so my hubby had to push me to give the battery a helping hand! NOT what we wanted – we got the buggy in the first place so that he wouldn’t have to push my wheelchair when I got too tired to do it for myself. We got back OK, and we swapped it for the wheelchair.

We went back to the restaurant and had lunch, and then had a lovely wander around the shop. I photographed a gorgeous little metal hanging fish, beautifully painted with an ombre effect. I edited out the background to show it off better.

Back view.

I fell in love with this painted metal chicken.

I thought there was lots of design potential in these – maybe to make in fabric or mixed media? Or just to draw, colour or fill with Zentangle.

Outside the entrance was this painted gorilla,

and also these banana trees.

Then back home, and I needed a rest!

Treats and Tigers

Only a few more days to go to my surgery, and today was a day full of treats.

We decided to go out for a meal to one of our favourite restaurants so that I could have a final steak until goodness knows when! We were getting ready to go out when the delightful Indian lady who with her husband owns our local corner shop rang the bell and presented us with some samosas she had just made, still warm from the fryer! How very kind. We were unfortunately not able to eat them while they were so fresh or we’d have had no appetite for lunch, so saved them for this evening.

We had a wonderful meal – we both had steak, my hubby had salad with his, and I had vegetables, and both were served with chips and sauces. My hubby had cheese and biscuits to follow, and I had a crème brulee served with Baileys ice cream, a shortbread biscuit and garnished with three raspberries. It was all exquisitely served, as always, and quite delicious. We always enjoy eating there, and who knows how long it will be before I am fit to eat out again?

They took quite a long time to serve us as the place was busy, it being Saturday, so we didn’t leave till getting on for mid-afternoon. This meant that we had very little time at the zoo, which was our next destination!

I said to my hubby that it would be great to have a tiger fix before I went into hospital. I have always loved tigers. You can read about the pages I made in my Recycled Mini-Album last year on the subject of the tiger cubs my dad operated on, back in the 1950s, here. Here is the tiger picture I painted in my little leather art journal (I used a scanned version of this picture in the mini-album):

After I scanned it, I edited it to remove the fold down the centre:

and this was the finished mini-album page:

We had very little time at the zoo so we went straight past the lions and found the tigers! It was quite a steep climb, and we were glad that we had arranged to hire one of the zoo’s buggies for me – it was  quite similar to my own, which is too big to go in the car. (We have paid the deposit on a small folding one which we will be able to take with us for outings such as this.)

Here are the pictures I took.

Then my hubby took a photo of me looking at the beautiful tigers:

It was amazing being able to get so close to them.

As we went further up, we came across a couple of display boards, the first giving the details of the tigers. They are Sumatran tigers, and in the wild, these magnificent creatures are on the verge of extinction, being trapped in a horrifically cruel fashion by poachers who sell their bodies for Chinese medicine and on the black market.

The work of our zoo, and other zoos around the world, helps to preserve the tigers through breeding programmes, and also through education, and fund-raising to provide wardens in the jungles of Sumatra to fight the battle to save the tigers.

Here is the board with the tiger’s footprint, and a plaque for brass rubbing.

Aren’t they the most beautiful creatures? I have always loved them.

Here is a picture of my own little tiger – sadly no longer with us. She was Phoebe’s sister Chloe. lying flat out and displaying all her beautiful tigeriness. I think she was the most beautiful kitty we’ve ever had.

We had to make a fairly quick dash back to the reception to return the buggy 15 minutes before closing time, but managed to get the following pictures on the way. Here’s my hubby with a peacock.

The peacock made his way towards me.

You can see how nicely the zoo is laid out, with walkways and landscaping and lakes.

Ducks on the lake.

The main zoo buildings. The further one is where the reception and shop are situated, and the nearer one is the restaurant. We have been to a wedding reception here – a really fun place for a wedding! They have excellent facilities inside.

Opposite the buildings is the railway for the little train. After the reception, the wedding guests all had a ride on the little train that goes round the entire zoo complex! You can imagine all the wedding guests in their finery, taking their seats on the train for the tour around the zoo!

Some interesting tangled tree roots.

We had a quick dash through the tropical house – entering this hot and humid atmosphere, our glasses, and my camera lens, instantly steamed up!

No time to take photos in the desert house which led off the tropical house, but I did manage to catch a quick shot of the flamingos on the way back to the reception.

You can see what an overcast and dull day it was today. It was also very cold, but we were fortunate that it didn’t rain. We are going to return to the zoo when the weather is better and hopefully in the sunshine, when I have recovered from my operation, and when we have got my new light-weight buggy. We will spend more time there, and hopefully get lots more photos – we saw very little today but at least I got to see my tigers!

Finally, I have at last managed to get my hubby to take a photo of my new hair colour which I had done at the end of February just before I was originally due to go into hospital!

Altogether we had a brilliant day out together. After a quick cup of tea at home my hubby left to go out for the evening, and I have spent the rest of the evening on the recliner, watching TV and being on the laptop, enjoying my samosas, sorting my photos and thinking about this special little oasis of time that we have been granted, to rest and relax without Mum in the house, and to prepare for Wednesday when I go in for my surgery.