A bonus trip to the Wildlife Park

 

Good Saturday Morning Ladies, 

Welcome to the weekend,  what have you all got planned??  

Whatever you are doing I hope that Storm Bert doesn't alter your plans, more importantly stay safe, I believe it is going to get extremely wet and windy!  

We got a bonus treat yesterday afternoon,  Sophie needed to take the last painting she did into the park,  it was been stored at ours while waiting for the team that puts it on on the wall in the restaurant,  it is going to be on one of the pillars in-between the cabinets where the food is served, so the visitors will get to see it up close.   

We waited for Paul to get back from work and then set off,  we got to enjoy a lovely cup of tea and a slice of cake 🎂  which was delicious 😋.  I popped one of Soph's paint brushes into my bag as I wanted to make a point,  the painting was done in oil paints which take a while to dry between layers,  while she was in the midst of doing the painting she kept getting comments about how long it was taking,  I would estimate that it took her a month's worth of hours,  her days off were spent at the dining table from around 10am to 7pm, then there were all the evenings in between,  I felt like I needed to explain how adding the detail to the fur of the animals with a brush that she had trimmed down to having basically 1 or 2 bristles.   I could see that he was surprised and had a better idea of how incredibly time consuming it is to add that level of detail. 

After our tea and cake we got to have a walk around the Wildlife park,  it was around 3.20pm and  we virtually had the park to ourselves,  now the bonus of being parents of much loved staff has it benefits.... I really wanted to see the Rhinos, with their paddock being so wet and icy they were being kept inside for their own safety,  as we were stood in the rhino indoor area Mark the keeper came in, he asked Soph if we were her parents and she told him we were,  he then invited us down to stroke and pet the rhinos, Paul's eyes lit up,  it would have been too tricky for me to get down there and I wanted Paul to be able to fully enjoy the experience rather than worrying about me,  believe me my heart was full seeing both him & soph getting to experience something so special 😍🥰, I gave Soph my phone....

This was the view from the viewing area...

Paul & Soph got to stroke all of them,  Mark got them to feel the difference of the skin behind the ears to the inside of the back left, Paul said the top area was really tough and leathery and the underside was soft and it was very warm too.     The one pictured in the last two photos is Monty, he weighed 4 tonnes!     What an incredible privilege,   I think Paul was buzzing for the rest of the day.  

We also got to see....

The Snow Leopard, he has hard to photograph as he didn't want to sit still. 

The Lions (Rana & Khana)  was very vocal and feeling a bit frisky, he didn't want to leave the lioness alone,  we were stood just by the wood (bottom right), so we were very up close to them.  When he was roaring you could literally feel the vibration in your chest. 

This is Louie, look at his awesome humps!!  We tried to get Maggie, who looks a bit bedraggled and her humps are flooped over bless her, I know how she feels with droopy humps 🤣😂,  however Louie was chasing her so it was impossible to photograph. 

By this time it was 4pm and we were frozen so headed back to the car,  however on route to the car park we passed the Colobus monkeys, who were having their tea, the one in the first photo was obsessed with the peas in his tea time selection.  The food was placed in different areas,  the Mumma with the little baby was being very selective,  she was literally pulling out the veggies one by one and tossed the ones she didn't like on the floor!  The last photo is so cute it looks like the little Colobus is wearing a Beret. 😍

What an absolute treat,  we loved every minute, definitely a memory Paul & Soph will treasure forever. 

I hope that you all have a lovely day, 

Love & hugs to all of you,

Sandra xxx