Tropical Wings Zoo

This week, a friend had decided she wanted to go back to Tropical Wings Zoo with her 2 year old and 4 month old.  I had never visited before, so I decided to tag along.

Tropical Wings is a zoo in Essex, where the main attraction is probably the indoor butterfly house, hence the name.  But I'll get to that later.  We decided to start with the 'furry friends' session.  Here they had a guinea pig and a rabbit in a long run that the children (or adults) could pet.  Next to this was the enclosure for the goats, and the visitors were given food to feed them - they were very friendly indeed.  Up in this farmyard section there were also a number of chickens and other rabbits and we spent a little time looking at these.

Rabbits

Chickens

We started a slow walk back.  The next thing we came across were the Meerkats.  They were having a lot of fun digging holes and looking around with their inquisitive faces.  Always fun to watch.  Just around the corner and the next thing on the schedule was the Lemur feeding.  The 2 year old was a bit apprehensive at first, but you are able to go right inside their enclosure.  They had bags of energy and there were quite a few youngsters jumping around.  When the zookeeper came out to feed them they walked along a rope right in front of us!  There were also some giant tortoises in the enclosure.

Lemurs

The next thing we knew, it was absolutely throwing it down, so sadly we had to give Tractorland (there is also a Diggerland) a miss as they were all locked up.  Instead, we decided to eat our picnic.  We found that there were quite a few areas outdoors for a picnic, both out and undercover. We stopped in the area next to the huge playground - a real shame that it was too wet to go on as it looked like a lot of fun.  There was also a sandpit with many plastic toys.  There are also toilets nearby so this was indeed a good place to stop.

Outdoor Playground

Sandpit

Following lunch, we had a look at the many birds.  There were a wide variety of colourful birds chirping away and we probably spent about 10 minutes looking round them.  Then the rain was starting to get heavy again, so we headed back to the main building.  There is another seated area next to a lovely kids softplay with areas for both the younger and older children and a coffee machine to revive the adults.  According to the website, there is a largish looking cafe, but we didn't stumble across it as we were going round and we didn't need it since we brought lunch with us.  There is also a fairly large shop in this main building selling stuffed animals, toy bugs, books, and snacks.

The 2 year old currently has a fascination with bugs, so next to the indoor play area we stopped in Discovery Kingdom to look at the cockroaches, millipede and other creepy crawlies.

Finally, we definitely saved the best until last - the Tropical House, with its fish pond and butterflies. Absolutely beautiful with lovely flowers and heaps of butterflies fluttering by and a couple of caterpillars walking around.

Overall, we had a lovely day, despite the weather.  There is still quite a lot to do which is inside, although I think we could have made a much longer day of it had it been sunny as there were a few animals we didn't see and the outdoor playground would have been fun - however because of the weather I think it was fairly quiet which was great!  There are loads of signs giving info on the animals which is really useful and the whole place looks really well looked after and neat.  Everything is accessible for buggies and wheelchairs, which makes life easier. If I lived closer and had children, I think it would definitely be worth buying the annual pass that they offer.  I'm definitely looking forward to visiting again!

Sledmere House

A month ago, on the way back from a visit to the Yorkshire coast, we stopped off at a place called Sledmere House.  Since my sister has a dog, we try to look for places that we can stop where the dog can have a nice walk and we can sit down in a cafe.  Sledmere House was a good choice as it was a lovely hot day and we could sit in their terrace cafe.  The food was really delicious and they also had a sweet little shop on site.

Obviously we couldn't go in the stately home with the dog, but we decided that after our lunch, it would be worth paying to go through into the gardens as they seemed quite substantial.  I'm so glad we did, they were absolutely beautiful, well cared for and I though I'd show some of the photos that I took whilst we were there.  Next time I hope to go inside the house, it looks just as wonderful as the outside.  Definitely worth a visit if you are closeby!

It felt a bit like we were going into The Secret Garden

Beautiful things inside

Stunning layouts

so many beautiful roses, the red was so vibrant!

The chapel in the grounds

Beautiful colours in the garden behind the house

Flashback... Rottnest Island

Still one of the most stunningly beautiful places I've ever been to.

All photos copyright Robert May

Written 13th March 2011

Absolutely amazing day out today on Rottnest Island, about 30 minutes from Fremantle on the coast.  It is possible to stay on the island, but just a day trip for us since we had so many other things to see!

Looking out towards Perth
(can you spot it in the distance?)

 There are so many beaches and bays on the island, and hardly any people on them all, despite the boat having been pretty full.  We bought a bayseeker bus pass from the visitor centre for later on and set off walking (plenty of other people had hired bikes).  We did a few km before realising we should get out of the sun for a while. There wasn’t much in the way of food and drink stops outside the main ferry stop/village centre, so we caught the bus a little further while we cooled off under their air conditioning and took in some more gorgeous beaches.

Beautiful clear waters

We decided to get off and have a walk a little further on, in fact when we got down to the beach we managed to get down to the clearest sea I’ve ever seen and it was beautifully cooling on the feet which were rather hot at that point and glad to be out of their sandals.  We walked on the beach in the water for an hour or so and it was so amazing and perfect.

Empty long sandy beaches

After that, we hopped back on the bus, back to the main centre again and saw some of the native little furry Quokkas just hanging around. We had a bite to eat and a mojito each in the bar, while we looked out onto the gorgeous greeny blue water and waited for the ferry to take us back to Fremantle.

Refreshments after a long day in the sunshine

A perfectly relaxing and beautiful day, couldn’t have asked for anything better.

BINTM Live

This weekend, a friend and I went to the Britain and Ireland's Next Top Model live show at the Excel centre in East London. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it sold itself as a great girls day out. There were various tickets available, but at £49, I thought that VIP was a little too much to fork out so instead we opted for the Premium tickets for £28. This included a ticket to the live catwalk show. There was also a £20 ticket for entry and a seat further back in the show or £12.50 just for the shopping and no catwalk show.

I have to say I found the whole day out a bit disappointing. Having been to Excel a few times before and knowing how big it is, I was sad that the actual shopping area took up so little room, and I think this made it feel like it wasn't worth the ticket price. There were a lot of makeover stands to get your hair or nails done, but these had big queues and quite a lot of the same things appeared multiple times and not the variety that I would have liked.

The live catwalk show was really impressive, and it was good to see the girls from this year's show put on such a great display and to demonstrate why they were in the show, and they all looked truly stunning in real life. The male dancers (mostly topless) and live music made it more of a spectacle, and I thought this redeemed the day out a little.

But overall, I have paid a lot less money to go to much better shows than this - I don't think I'll be returning next year.

Out of This World

In an attempt to get out and about more in my time off, I decided to visit the Out of This World exhibition at the British Library and headed down there on Monday morning in searing heat.

After grabbing breakfast at the cafe outside, I headed in to the free exhibition. I wasn't very sure what to expect, but in front of me were a variety of works from centuries ago up until the present date, highlighting stories of people from other planets, travel to other planets, time travel and a whole lot more besides.

There were detailed excerpts and you could actually see the original books and illustrations of what these authors and illustrators thought might have been possible, alongside the more recent comic book superheroes, through to Doctor Who's TARDIS. (I don't think The Doctor is ever in the TARDIS, I've seen it quite a few times now!)

I think I read through most of the exhibition and it took just over an hour. Given that it was at the British Library, it shouldn't really have surprised me that the focus was primarily written material, but it hadn't occured to me that I'd be able to see the original books and manuscripts, which was lovely. It made a change for me as I am used to Science Fiction via the TV shows or films, so to see some of the inspiration behind these gave me a different perspective.

Out of This World is open at the British Library until 25th September 2011.

Chatsworth Estate

On my last day in Yorkshire we decided to take a little day trip into Derbyshire to visit the Chatsworth estate. Again, we were really lucky with the weather, sunshine instead of the predicted rain!

A few minutes from the house is the Garden Centre with its colourful array of plants, lovely big gift shop and of course the family favourite, the cafe. We stopped here for our morning break, well, it was close enough to lunch that I managed one of the most amazing pork and stuffing pies with a bit of salad. A wander round the gift shop and then we got back in the car and drove towards the house.

Disappointingly, the view of the house as you drive up was obscured by scaffolding, so the photo I wanted to take I couldn't. Chatsworth will always be one of my favourite places to go and visit, as you drive up to the house you cross a bridge, and it was a painting of that bridge that my Grandad painted that has hung in my parents' house for many years.

Although I've visited the grounds many times, I don't remember visiting the inside of the house since I was little, and I couldn't remember what was inside. I twisted my parents arms to get the ticket for both and in we went. And I'm so glad that we did. I can't even count the number of times that my jaw dropped as we went round. Everything was so decorative, I couldn't stop snapping with the camera. Ceilings were painted in amazing ways, there was so much beautiful wood carving on the staircases and walls, and the whole design of the place was just spectacular.

I was also impressed with the current Duke and Duchess of Devonshire's willingness to incorporate new art amongst all the existing. There were a number of modern pieces throughout the house, and although they stood out a little, the willingness to encourage and commission new artists was something that I thought was really wonderful.

After the house, we went for the compulsory walk around the stunning gardens. So much work has gone into these, and there are many different points in the walk where you get a really impressive viewpoint of the house, or the fountains, the planted gardens or there's even a maze.

A really fantastic day out, well worth a visit if you get a chance, and on the way out, we always call at the farm shop to stock up on tasty food.