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; going for a riding lesson at Liege Manor Equestrian; Feeding the wallabies at Manor Wildlife Park; Flying an owl at the British Bird of Prey Centre; visiting SeaLife Birmingham; Walking ‘Yeehaw’ the Alpaca.

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.

151 – Horse riding lessons

Sunday 3 August. Rainy. 21°C

B and friend F are having a joint horse riding lesson at Liege Manor Equestrian. It starts badly. We’ve gone through all the shoes and boots and found some with a distinct heel as requested. It turns out it’s not distinct enough. Wellies are not ok. B has had quite a few riding lessons in wellies but we bow to the right of the teacher to make the rules. It’s agreed they will ride without stirrups, which is challenging but also, potentially, fun?

B gets on the horse and remembers she loves horse riding. I have a worrying feeling she might want to do this again soon. F is newer to horse riding and the stable is different from the one she knows but she’s not miserable… which is probably as much as we can hope for. The instructor is great after the first hurdle and definitely teaches them stuff. It’s pours with rain throughout but the girls don’t seem to notice and they love their cob ponies, who are very steady and stable and look after them. Shout out to the amazing girls who led them in the pouring weather. Real dedication!

122 – Feeding wallabies at Manor Wildlife Park

Thursday 28 August. Rainy. 21°C

B has been pestering for weeks to go to Manor Wildlife Park just outside Tenby. She read in the local paper (I’m quite impressed by this – the photo on the front helped) that they have FOUR tiger cubs. It turns out they also have baby Red Pandas. We’ve given in. I’ve warned her neither of the babies have to be outside on a rainy day but we’re in luck. The rain stops just before we arrive and the tiger cubs are out. They’re very cute, as are mummy and daddy red panda, but the best bit is without doubt the wallabies.

We’re rationed to one little bag of wallaby food which B takes and we head into their enclosure expecting aloofness. Not at all. The wallabies are sociable and hungry and happy to be admired. B is in her element. She quickly works out that while they like the bought food, they prefer the eucalyptus (?) leaves spread around the enclosure and she takes to detaching those and offering them. I enjoy watching them bounce about.

117 – Flying an owl (and watching birds of prey being flown)

Monday 1 September. Mixed. 21°C

We’re at The British Bird of Prey Centre at the National Botanic Gardens of Wales and B is flying an owl. It’s a regular stop for us on trips back from West Wales. It’s a lovely place – they do two public flying sessions a day and you can turn up on the day for £10. A year ago B declined the flying and instead chose the temporary option of handling four baby kestrel chicks and a baby tawny owl instead. We have pictures of her covered in balls of fluff listening wide eyed to the tales the falconers tell of the difficulties bringing up chicks. This year we’ve found that two of the chicks have grown up and stayed at the centre. Fforest – the Tawny Owl – is now being flown and B is delighted and one of the kestrel chicks has a starring role in the bird flying show.

B loves flying the owls and the kites but I like the show more. It’s amazing seeing the birds fly, watching them disappear and come back and hearing about how they live in the wild. We’ve learnt to sit at the back by a post so they fly over us (we’ve learnt no point ducking – you just have to trust them).

81 – Visiting an aquarium

Sunday 12 October. Foggy. 13°C

We’re in Birmingham visiting the Sea Life Aquarium. We’ve done a few aquarium visits before but never to this one. B is interacting far more than she used to do. I don’t know if this is because she’s getting older or because the 365 Day Nature Play Challenge is getting her to focus more on the natural world. She notices everything. She finds little sea snake things, and anemones and the funny eyes on stingrays that look sewn on. I remember taking her a few years ago and she walked past most of it, noticing the pathways and the environment far more than the sea life she was meant to be looking at.

I stroke a starfish but B refuses – it’s ‘icky’- that’s a getting older thing too! The fish that shoot water out of their mouths are a big thing. We’re sad not to see the otters and discuss the brooding piranhas quite a bit. The highlight is definitely the tunnel through the big aquarium. We watch the giant turtle swooping over our heads and laugh at the upside down stingray. B says it has grandma teeth (with apologies to both of hers who certainly don’t!).

66 – Walking ‘Yeehaw’ the alpaca

Sunday 26 October. Cloudy. 9°C

I was usurped for this challenge. My lovely cousin, also an ‘L’, took B to walk alpacas at the Sheriff Alpaca Walking Experience and they both had a brilliant time. B walked ‘Yeehaw’ and L, ‘Pinto’. Both insisted theirs was the loveliest. They had a lot of praise for Hannah, who led them all. They were particularly amused by all the alpacas peeing at the same time! It sounded like a lovely day.