End of an era

My regular readers, and friends, will know that for the last eight years my Tuesdays have been taken up with looking after firstly, one of my grand-daughters and secondly my great-nephew Will.  Yesterday was the final day with Will as he starts school next week, so for the last day I decided to go to Woburn Safari Park, a place I have known for years. I remembered that we went there for my eldest son's third birthday when there was not much to see.  He will be 50 next year so they have had plenty of time to improve!

If you decide to go buy your tickets online as it saves time and is slightly cheaper.  On arrival you see various forms of deer some of whom I can't identify

Fallow deer that roam the whole estate

 


Is that a Gnu on the left?

 

No idea this one but I loved his colouring!

We saw White Rhino

and then entered the Carnivores enclosure

A tiger  - one of about 4-5 we saw

I also loved the gnarled tree next to it.  Next area were -

Timber Wolves

 

Black Bear....

 

….. and a cub

and then Will got excited by -

 ….. the lions

There appeared to be four lionesses but the male was in a different enclosure and difficult to photograph.

Suddenly Will shouted out; his favourite stuffed, and rather sorry looking, animal is 'Giraffey' and he was shouting "Giraffey, Giraffey" - 

This adult stood in the middle of the road whilst the traffic
piled up behind him!!

Will wanted this photo as there were lots of baby giraffes.

Then into the monkeys who took no notice of the cars at all.  My memory of this enclosure was monkeys swarming over the cars removing anything that could be, usually radio aerials, but they were much better behaved now.

Sat beside the car scratching himself and eating fleas!!

BUT there is always one

We were about to exit the enclosure when this Safari Park vehicle came in front of us with a monkey on the roof who was trying to make a swift exit, but he was spotted and left the roof pretty quickly.  Will was in fits of laughter at this!!  Not a good photo but I was driving and taking photos!!!

We parked the car and went and watched the Humboldt penguins being fed,

then into the lemur cage where they were also being fed

and leapt amongst the visitors.

This goat was in the last stages of pregnancy and she was huge

Finally, we watched the elephants and I could have stayed for ages because this one was being so clever.  Look at the bent front foot - he was pushing the earth into piles and then sucking it up in its trunk and either blowing it under its tummy or over its back

 

"Ooh, that feels better"

I am sure this photo shows him laughing!!!

So after a very long day we went home for tea.  My Tuesdays are now my own!!

I have been working on my new Project that I mentioned in July, the Marathon t-shirts of No 2 son.  These have been cut up and I have been using iron-on Vilene to stabilise the picture and fabric.

There are some interesting ones

 

Florence

 

 

 

and some smaller pieces

Examples from the London and New York marathons

and I have saved some of the "Go faster" stripes

though I am not sure how to use them.  

I am still left with this bag of off-cuts which I may use for the binding.  Ideas are still going round and round but I will need to bite the bullet soon!!  One thing I do know is that I have enough to make the front and the back.

Summer Holiday 2018

I have just returned from my summer holiday spent in the Vendee in France.  I was invited to spend a week with my younger son and his family at La Garangeiore.  We had a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom chalet and I was lucky enough to have my own room.  This is a very popular place where my sister and her whole family often go and for the first three days of my visit my niece, her husband and their children were also staying.

The owner's house

 

Our chalet (my room on the very right behind the posts)

We all met up for dinner in the main restaurant on my first night and we had a very convivial night, with the children going off and playing between courses.

Next day we all went out together to O'Gliss Water Park arriving at about 10.00am.  We didn't leave until 6.00pm because there was so much to do.  It was brilliant, possibly helped by a temperature of about 33^oC.

Some of the high slides

 

Very steep slides!!

 If you look at this picture you will see a white cone top left.  People stood there and the floor dropped away and they went straight down the pipe that you can see going out at the right side.  My niece and two of her children did this slide - completely mad!!

More my style

The children went off and did their own thing, after we had found a central spot for them to return to for lunch, drinks, snacks etc.  I did go down one of the slides on a giant triple ring with my son and grand-daughter but I really enjoyed this swimming pool which was quite deep near that giant ball, that I discovered was the source of the wave machine.  I have no idea how it worked but sometimes the waves were small and sometimes big and gave me such enjoyable swimming.

The next day was Le Grand Defi where great fun was had at the Laser Maze -

My son 'skulking' in a hideout trying not to get hit!!

 

Two of the children

I have taken part in a Laser Maze before, which is not so painful as paintballing, but I didn't have a go this time.  There are also tree top adventures here, but we didn't do these this time, but my family went back for that after I had left.  As my niece was returning home the next day ,we entertained everyone with a family BBQ at our chalet that was so much fun.

On Sunday it was decided to go to a market at Bretignoles-sur-Mer, only 15 minutes away, and after looking at all the stalls I found Les Halles, where all the food stalls were.

Above and below were all the same stall of fish!!!!

Look at the size of the prawns!! 

 

Ready meals

 

Brochettes for the BBQ - all different meats

 

I didn't buy any of these but just drooled over them!

 

Huge loose tomatoes

Next stop was the beach itself and lucky for us the tide was going out so

we managed a paddle and a look in the rock pools and I saw this cockle moving very fast through the water.

I didn't know they had horns like a snail!

Next day was the Le Lac de Jaunay where we hired a 6 person pedallo, so that we meant we all got a turn to have a go.  First time I was with my grand-daughter but that was hard work, but much easier when my son and I sat together.

Photo courtesy of my daughter in law

After lunch we went for a walk and 'Mad dogs and Englishmen' sprang to mind as it was soooo hot -

 
but our reward at the end were crêpes so that was OK.  Back to base and we went off to the camp's swimming pool, that was not as busy as I was expecting.
 
The rain came overnight and the temperature dropped but for my final full day I wanted to go back to the beach.  We arrived just as the tide was going out and after shouting 'Last one in is a cissy' I was the first in the water and enjoyed myself so much.
 
All too soon I had to fly home from Nantes, but not before we had a stop on the way so I could take a picture of the Chateau d'Apremont and its church

 

 In Nantes we visited the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne where the Edict of Nantes was signed in 1598, allowing protestant worship in France.

 We followed an audio trail going right top of the building - all 98 steps.

Grand-daughter listening to the audio by the well

After lunch we visited a exhibition about the Vikings that was fascinating and so we left the Chateau but not before son and grandson had come down the castle walls very quickly -

Grandson's exit

and had I known what they were doing I would have had a go, but never mind another time perhaps.

After a very speedy drive they dropped me off at the airport for my flight home, (only 50 minutes) and the Heathrow Express to Paddington (only 15 minutes), I was back home in record time with many happy memories of a great holiday and a fantastic tan!!!