DAY TRIP

 Today a small group of the family are going on a little day trip.  I might even pack a picnic for all of us too.

We do know where we are going, but I'll keep that to myself for now.  

ABOVE:  Our lovely 'rusty bird bath' is not holding up well in the wet weather.  Or having water in it 24/7.

ABOVE:  I went to drain some water out of it during the week, and could see it was falling to bits.  So yesterday afternoon we visited Bunnings and found something to replace it with.

ABOVE:  A Terracotta bird bath bowl.  It's not as funky as the rusty one, but it's still OK.

ABOVE:  I asked Stew to put the old rusty bit on the front fence.  Which he did.  

I hope it stays there and doesn't rust more and fall off.

ABOVE: There's piles of fabric all over the place!  What a mess.  But, luckily I do have masses of fabric to choose from for all the flowers, leaves and stems.

I am going to have to do a big tidy up after this runner is finished, that's for sure.

ABOVE:  I worked on the Flower Runner till dinner time last night.  Then I was just done.

I will get back to it tomorrow I think.  Today is 'family time'.

Right, I'm off to start me day.

Catch ya later.

It is now 4 pm.  We just got home from our day trip.  I have several hundred photos to weed through and download a 'few' to put on here.

I will be doing two  lots.  Some today and some tomorrow.  We went to two different places.

We had a really lovely day.

Lots of laughs and just enjoying being together.

Right... off to edit photos ....

Right.  Editing took exactly an hour!  

First place we went to today was... the Hamilton Zoo.

It was Steve's suggestion.

We met up with Steve, Bex and the boys at the Zoo.

ABOVE: We were very surprised when we arrived to find so many improvements!  New car parking, viewing tower, new playgrounds, and so many other good improvements.

ABOVE:  We arrived at 11 am, so were there before all the animals had been fed.  Once they are fed they literally go to sleep and you hardly see any of them.

We saw most of the animals that were there today.

ABOVE:  Sorry ... I had to.  Steve spotted a recumbent wheelbarrow.

Riveting.

ABOVE:  The boys pointing out a picture drawn on a panel.   It was a 'Hunting Dog'...

ABOVE:  Funny.

We all felt very sad for the Hunting Dogs.  They have to sit in their enclosure, right beside another encloser that holds their 'normal' food.  Gazelles.  I would call that torture!

I bet they never get Gazelle for dinner.

ABOVE: Sorry, I have to throw in pretty scenery ones sometimes.

ABOVE:  We stopped by the Savannah and had our picnic lunch of Chicken and Cheese on buns.

It was wonderful.

Every now and then we would hear an announcement over the speakers, informing everyone about what animals were about to be fed.

ABOVE:  Stew said "Thank You for visiting Hamilton Zoo today.  If you proceed to the Savannah, you will be able to witness the Harvey Family enjoying their lunch".

*snort*

ABOVE:  I didn't want to bore anyone with copious photos of animals, but as the Rhino is my FAVOURITE animal... I just had to.

ABOVE:  Taken from the Viewing Tower, which is new.  Quite a few steps to get to the top, but worth it.

You get a 360 degree view of Hamilton and it's surrounds.

Probably the funny story of the day:

We were approaching an enclosure, and I heard Steve say "Look for the Lemurs", so I presumed there were Lemurs in the enclosure.

So, I'm looking and looking, but can't see any.  

By the way:  There's a Zoo Attendant standing by the enclosure too.

Then I spot an animal moving on a tree... but ???

I say " I can see it, but that does not look like a Lemur, it looks like a Red Panda!"

I turn to the Zoo Attendant and say, "That's a Red Panda, NOT an Lemur".

He looks and me and almost laughs at me.  The sign right beside him says RED PANDA.

Then Steve and EVERYONE starts mocking me.

The shits.

The LEMURS were in the next enclosure.  Derrr.

After walking around the entire zoo, we left for our second destination.

Steve, Bex and the boys did not join us there.

More on that ... tomorrow.  With photos of course.

It was a really, really lovely day.  And now, it's back to just Stew and me.

And we will have our usual 'Darby and Joan' evening.

ABOVE:  Forgot this photo!  Miss Muppet, totally knackered after a long day.

9 pm:  And that's it for the day.

Catch ya tomorrow.

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