A bit further afield: Finding opportunities to interact with farm and zoo animals. Meeting some new-born lambs, visiting Jimmy’s farm and finding some extra ones on the way to meeting the babies at London Zoo.
298 – Lambs
Sunday 9 March. Sunny. 13°C
It’s a gorgeous sunny day and we’re off to see the lambs at St Fagans National Museum of History. They allow access to the lambing sheds and you can see the newborn lambs and pregnant mums as well as slightly older ones out in the fields. It has taken a little bit of persuasion to get B to come. We came last year and saw a lamb being born and she did not appreciate it. I reckon it’s probably a good thing to be familiar with though.
Maps come to the rescue. They have a lovely one at St Fagans and I challenge B to find her way to first the bread shop and then the lambs. She’s still working maps out and it takes a bit of effort but she enjoys the process and gets us there. The baby lambs and mums are much appreciated as are the chickens who are also loitering about. B gets bored looking at them after a while though and we return to the map to make our way home.
Afterwards I kick myself for not getting her to explore the map and corresponding areas more. We have a few things to do today but I suspect, with a separate motivation, she’d have happily spent far longer.
268 – Visiting a farm zoo
Tuesday 8 April. Sunny. 15°C
We’re on holiday near Ipswich with family and looking for somewhere we can all go together so we head off to Jimmy’s Farm. Three generations covering pretty much every decade (we’re low on thirty-somethings), B is having a ball and everyone enjoys. It’s one of those farm zoos where you can feed farm animals and see more exotic ones and has a relaxed laid back feeling.
We’re greeted at the door by a male peacock shuffling his feathers and progress to feeding lambs, goats, and a zebu… which is my favourite of the day. B is ecstatic because they have raccoons, arctic foxes and brown bears and she has never seen any of those.
Before we left home B had made a checklist ‘for today’s challenge’ of easy, medium and difficult animals to find with points for each one. She completely forgets about it in the first five minutes though – too much to do, too much excitement. There’s a stamp trail and an Easter egg hunt – both of which we completely fail to pick up. It doesn’t matter. B has fun just working her way through the map and making sure she’s seen everything and being with her cousins.
The best bits: Definitely being able to feed the animals. B has always loved doing this (it’s a joy watching toddlers doing it for the first time) and I suspect neither of us will ever tire of it. Seeing animals we haven’t seen before was a treat too. Another highlight was watching a kite circling overhead while we ate lunch outside. We don’t know what it was watching but something definitely appealed to it and we had fun pondering what it was and if it had ever tried to get it!
219 – Checking in on the babies at London Zoo and finding some wild ones on the way
Tuesday 27 May. Rainy. 16°C
We’re in London for a quick family visit and are checking in on the babies at the zoo on the way home. We’re regular visitors but missed it the last few times. We need to check in on the baby gorillas who are now almost 18 months old. I say ‘we’. It’s mainly me. B is not sure she wants to go to the zoo anymore. We’ve probably over visited; it’s walkable from my mum’s flat which makes it essential visiting. I sense baby animals will get her there if anything will.
Me: “You need to see the baby gorillas. They’ll be climbing and running around now. You don’t want to miss them…” Sensing B is still not won round I play my ace card. “And there are baby otters! They’ll be out and about now”.
The otters do it. They were too little last time we visited. Walking along the canal again on the way, we’re on the look out for baby birds. We haven’t seen any yet. Last year there were baby geese under the bridge but it’s nest free this time.
Finally, when we’re almost there, we get lucky. A goose family is wafting down river. The goslings are pretty big; I’m worried we might have missed our baby window watching them. B is very excited. At the zoo the baby otters are indeed out and about but are now also pretty big. We may have missed the ‘cute’ window there too. Baby gorillas make up for it though. They’re swinging and play fighting and being generally entertaining. Happy B.
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