On Monday, my good friend Jayne and I visited to Chester Zoo. The weather was glorious, sunshine, temperatures 30+ °C and not a cloud in the sky. It was so warm that Jayne and I were grateful for Chester Zoo’s unlimited refillable drinks cups for sale at around £10 each.
Jayne hadn’t been to Chester Zoo for years. These days Chester Zoo is massive and I’d recommend that you do visit the zoo over two days to see everything.
Here are photos from the day, click on any photo for full size image:
The elephant family.
A close up of the baby elephant.
The smiley bull elephant.
Exotic squirrels.
An exotic squirrel eating a grape upside down.
My new lover! He’s the strong, wooden, silent type.
Deer.
Butterfly (1).
Butterfly (2).
An Okapi.
The Giraffes.
This gorgeous beauty came to say hello and flirted with me (by winking with her big eye and long eyelashes) when I said ‘Hello Gorgeous.’ to her as she passed by.
Facilities: toilets, restaurants, refreshment stalls, gift shops, experience days.
Chester Zoo is a brilliant day out. It was great to see volunteers around the zoo.
However it’s a large zoo with not enough big animals. Jayne and I saw quite a number of empty enclosures for larger animals. They should put better signage up on the Islands Exhibit to direct visitors back to the main part of the zoo.
The zoo is so huge now, that they really should consider transportation methods in the zoo. The monorail is too limited. Perhaps they could look at golf buggies for hire or something similar. This would enable visitors to get around and see the whole zoo in one day.
Read & Review at least 20 books. I have read 19 books this year and reviewed 17 of them. The two books that I have not reviewed yet, will be reviewed in January 2017. See my Book List 2016 for a list books that I’ve read this year, along with links to reviews I’ve written for each book.
To create more time for creative projects. I am more than happy with my creative output this year. I’ve reduced my working hours, so that I can still afford to live, but so that I have more time for creative projects. I have also been careful about how I use the limited time and energy I have to get the most out of it. This combination of working less and using my time and energy better has significantly increased my creative output.
To complete 2 creative projects. I’ve completed 12 creative projects this year. This is a massive achievement when compared with my creative output in previous years. For more details of my creative projects see: 11 Creative Projects That I Never Intended To Do… This Year and The Finished Project (candle making project).
To get up-to-date with my financial obligations and continue to reduce the balance on my debts. I am up-to-date on my mortgage and other household bills. I have continued to reduce the balance on my debts. I have paid monies back to family that I owed monies to.
Save up for and buy a new rug and corner sofa for the living room. I still need to do this. The sofa is getting in desperate need of replacement. Both of these will be goals for 2017.
To give up smoking. I’m still working on this on a semi regular basis.
Monthly Goals
January
Start a new creative project. I published my latest short story Soulmates, here is an excerpt:
Treat yourself to a reiki treatment. I haven’t had a single reiki treatment this year. At the start of the year it was due to lack of money. Towards the end of the year it has been due to my Reiki Practitioner changing where she works.
April
See a sunrise. This has been a goal for the last few years. I think I need to take a day of annual leave off work to experience this next year. So this will be a goal/new experience for 2017.
May
Celebrate your 30th in style, including a night out in Newcastle and a family meal. I didn’t manage the night out in Newcastle, but did do the family meal which was wonderful. I blogged about the family meal here: My Thirtieth Birthday.
June
Visit Chester Zoo Islands Exhibit. I actually did this in May, as part of my birthday celebrations. See A Day Trip to Chester Zoo. Start a new creative project. One weekend in June I wrote, edited and then published an article on The History of the National Health Service (NHS). It was a creative project that I have been thinking about for sometime and I was proud of myself because I had finally done it.
July
Spend time in nature. Go for walks in places of natural beauty. I visited Astley Hall Park with my friend Simon. I would have liked to spend more time in nature during July, but the variable weather influenced what I was able to do. Visit a botanical gardens. I visited Southport Botanic Gardens (Churchtown) with Simon in August.
August
Visit a castle, one that you haven’t been to before. Okay, technically I didn’t visit a new castle this year. But I did do a tour of acient sites along Hadrian’s Wall with Simon. See The Hadrian’s Wall Adventure (Part 1) and The Hadrian’s Wall Adventure (Part 2). A goal/new experience for 2017 will be the finishing off of The Hadrian’s Wall Adventure, meaning that Simon and I will have followed the wall from one end of the country to the other.
Celebrate Samhain. Celebrated Samhain in style with my friends Simon & Chrys. Great food, drink, fire, music and company.
November
Take it easy. I tried to do the bare-minimum in November. This was probably why there were only a few blog posts in November.
December
Bring people together to celebrate Yule. Yule fell on a Wednesday, which made it difficult to arrange a get together. Perhaps I will put this on future goals when it lands on a weekend.
This year I’ve completed 14 of 22 goals/new experiences for 2016. That’s over half and not at all bad when you consider the 12 creative projects I’ve completed this year, along with how busy the year has been otherwise.
As the dark, cold, winter nights draw in and signal the end of the year I’ve took some time out to reflect on the places that I’ve visited this year.
Birdozwald Roman Fort – Photo Opportunities, especially on the outside of the fort.
In May, my good friend Simon and I did the first half of our tour along Hadrian’s Wall.
We started at the Cumbria end of the Wall and worked our way along, stopping at several historical sites along the way. In one day managed to enter Northumberland, stopping at Walltown Quarry and Vindoland Roman Fort & Museum.
Unfortunately not many people could make it on the day to share the experience. The Islands Exhibit was also rather disappointing.
But the well-established exhibits were great. My favourites were: the Elephants enclosure, the Butterfly house, the Giraffes, the Chimps, the Flamingos, the Lions, the speckled Bear and the Black Rhinos.
Astley Hall Park/Grounds (3)
In July Simon and I set out to one of our favourite places – Rivington. But unknown to us, there was some sort of cycling event and with many roads closed we couldn’t work out how to actually get there.
So instead Simon directed me to Astley Hall Park. It was a place that I had never been to before and is beautiful.
We had a walk around the park, stopping to take photos. Then we had coffee and cake in the on-site cafe.
I have wanted to visit a botanical gardens for sometime now. I wanted to meander inside a giant glass greenhouse full of exotic plants and trees. I even put it as a goal for 2016. So I did a Google search looking for my nearest botanical gardens, found Southport Botanic Gardens (Churchtown) and dragged Simon along.
It wasn’t exactly what I had in mind. No giant glass greenhouse. But the weather was sunny and warm and in its own way it was totally charming. The small park was filled with trees from across the world. I just wish there had been some sort of guide to what species the trees were and where in the world they had come from.
There was an unexpected aviary and a small yet delightful Victorian gardens. There was another cafe, so of course we stopped for coffee and cake.
The Victorian Garden (1).
York is known for its iconic Abbey and shopping. It’s a place that I had never been to until this year.
Simon and I visited York and Knaresborough. York is architecturally splendid and has building from various times in its long history. We did visit The Shambles, but didn’t really buy much.
Probably the greatest thing about our visit is the fun we had together. We talked and laughed lots. Here are two photos of me being silly (click on any image for full size):
York Abbey (from a distance).
Me racing on a wooden sheep.
My arrival at Knaresborough Castle.
So these are the places that I’ve visited this year. I think it’s time to start planning for 2017.
Reading Time: 4minutesChester Zoo Invite To Friends
On Saturday some good friends and I visited Chester Zoo. It was a belated birthday celebration event. It was lovely to see the friends and the Watts family that came along. I was super excited to see the new Islands Exhibit.
The day before I got this email below, telling me about the return of the dinosaurs. Last time I visited Chester Zoo was 4 years ago, when the dinosaurs were last there.
The day before I got this email about the return of the Dinosaurs, on the very day of our visit. I love dinosaurs! Yey!
I love the dinosaurs and had no idea that they were even coming back. That’s lucky I immediately thought and then remembered that I’d recently burned the Hot Damn candle created by Dorothy Morrison (for more info on this see Dorothy Morrison’s Wickedly Wonderful Magical Mystery Packages). This isn’t the only lucky thing that’s happened to me recently, but that as they say: is another story.
Here are some photos from the day trip to Chester Zoo:
Islands Exhibit SignIslands Exhibit – Was well designed but lacked good signage to direct visitors.Islands Exhibit – Mask with smoke.Me in a makeshift tent on the Islands Exhibit.Islands Exhibit- Hogs (1).Islands Exhibit- Hogs (2).A ginormous exotic plant.The Elephants.A Donkey.The best photo of the day – a butterfly in the Butterfly House.The Giraffes (1).The Giraffes (2).The Chimpanzees (1).The Chimpanzees (2).Turtles having a Mother’s Meeting.The Flamingos.Dinosaurs have returned! The dinosaurs and display were exactly same as we saw 4 years ago.Lioness.Lion.Penguins.Fountain.I finally got a photo of the Speckled Bear (1). I tried last time I visited the zoo (4 years ago), but the bear walked off and went behind a bush before I could get a photo.Speckled Bear (2).Black Rhino (1).Black Rhino (2).
I was fortunate to see and watch an Eastern Black Rhino majestically eating. As I watched and videoed I reflected the sad realisation that generations to come might never see Black Rhinos alive. Nor will they see the thousands of animals that are already extinct. I reflected on the cruelty of human poachers. Poachers have hunted Black Rhinos close to extinction, hunting them for their horns and for sport.
Here is an edited video of an Eastern Black Rhino’s eating:
Edited 30/05/16 @ 15:25 – Changed information about Black Rhinos. There are two subspecies of Black Rhino, the Western Black Rhino and the Eastern Black Rhino.
The Western Black Rhino that has been declared extinct in the wild and there are only a few left in captivity, all of which are the same gender, so they will be unable to breed.
Chester Zoo has the Eastern Black Rhinos. There are only 500 Eastern Black Rhinos left in the wild and a good number in Zoos around the world.
The post above has been changed to reflect this fact checked information.
Read & Review at least 20 books.
To create more time for creative projects.
