Longleat Part 3 - Cats and Dogs

One of the great things about safari is getting so close to such amazing creatures however if you do this on a sunny day MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AIR CON! The air con in my car isn't working properly which wasn't a problem for much of it as we could have the windows and sunroof open but for several of the enclosures (one after the other) we had to keep them shut. 4 people in a clio on a sunny day results in sweaty uncomfortable people! However it's worth the discomfort rather than risk what could happen when this is waiting for you just outside!

Drive-thru meals!

These big cats are so amazing, when you see the young ones playing around with each other it does make you think of kittens playing with each other, they are so cute.

But when you see the grown ups chomping down on a big chunk of meat it reminds you what those little 'kittens' will grow into and a degree of fear and respect creeps into you.

My favourite big cats are tigers, funny really as I've had several nightmares involving these chasing me!

They are so gorgeous up close, beautiful coats, beautiful faces yet such powerful animals.

Still on with the big cats we got to see the cheetahs, they were in quarantine at the time so I didn't get to challenge one to race my clio and see who could get up to 70mph first. This handsome chap kindly posed for a photo through the fence.

When talking about cats its natural to progress onto dogs and thats what we did, well wolves actually.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see any wolf pups but the adults were great to see up close. They are so much like dogs to look at.

My granddad has a beautiful dog which is a German Shepherd crossed with a wolf, he looks quite similar to some of the wolves we saw but is bigger and gentler.

That's about it for part 3, hopefully you've already seen Part 1 and Part 2.
The final part will be out tomorrow - Monkeys!
Until next time
Jem
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Longleat Part 2 - All creatures great and small

Welcome to Longleat Part 2, if you missed Part 1 you can see it here.

The great thing about this place is the variety of animals both large and small. Whilst driving around I saw Anne the Elephant

Anne isn't just any elephant, she's famous, sadly not for the right reasons. Anne was a circus elephant who hit the headlines when secret filming showed her being attacked by the groom who was supposed to be looking after her. The story caused outrage and there is a website dedicated to Anne which you can find here. Luckily Anne was rescued and is now living happily at Longleat.

From the very big to the very small...


After the safari drive we went into the Jungle Kingdom where we got to walk through the Meerkat enclosure.

There were warning signs up that these little critters have a fascination with painted toenails so I was glad I was wearing trainers! They have such character and they may be small but they're not afraid to tackle animals bigger and spikier than them,

Who's that creeping up behind?

These guys were cooling in their shelter minding their own business when a group of the little rascals came running in and pushed them out of their bed!

In another enclosure was an anteater, fascinated by her nose it took me quite a while to notice something a bit different about her

Can you see it?

Yep that's a baby anteater clinging to her back! How sweet!

Further around the park we found a bird enclosure we could walk through. We bought a couple of pots of some type of liquid food and these feathery friends descended onto us to drink it.

Here's my sister with her new best friend (at least until it had drunk it all!)

The more I write about Longleat the more I remember! I've had to break it down so part 3 will be out tomorrow.
Until next time
Jem
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Longleat Part 1

As I said before I spent the last weekend at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire having an amazing time. Unfortunately it didn't start great.
I woke up Friday morning and after getting all my stuff together I went outside to load the car to travel down South and found this

That was not there when I parked it up! To say I wasn't happy was an understatement, they hadn't even left a note so i'm stuck with the bill to repair it.
Anyway, onto Longleat!
We went on Saturday morning and went around the safari in my dented little car. I love giraffes and was most looking forward to seeing them but they were in a side area with the zebras as their zone (?) is currently having a refurb.

I was a bit upset at this but its part of a new change that Longleat are doing, they're creating a watering hole where you will be able to handfeed the giraffes! I will definately be going back there when this opens.
We carried on around and I couldn't believe how close we got to some of the animals.

There was one part where you could buy deer food and hand-feed the deers from inside your car. Well we had to buy some and the deer were keen to come and eat

Maybe a bit too keen sometimes!

On the Saturday when we went through the rhino and camels paddock they all seemed to be quite far away but on the Sunday they were a lot closer

The camels were chasing each other so much so that a ranger on a tractor was driving between them trying to split them up

This seemed to put the wind up the rhinos who also had a bit of a run around and got quite close to my car

I had visions of a rhino shaped dent in my car ("Hello car insurance? a rhino wrote off my car") although it would have made a better story than the damage I found on Friday morning!
I tried to stay near the longleat landrover hoping that if Mr Rhino chose to charge he'd go for the vehicle that looked most like a zebra!

There was so much to see that I can't fit it all into one post so i'll pause this one here and start working on part 2.
Until next time
Jem
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My Easter Safari Mothers Day Weekend!

A different kind of wild weekend to the one I went on a few weeks ago.
This weekend was very random, so much so that i've named it the 'Easter Safari Mothers Day Weekend'
I know what you're thinking, Mothers Day was last weekend, Easter is next month and Safari? Allow me to explain!
Last weekend was indeed Mothers Day but thanks to work commitments and the distance between my mother and me being 250 miles I didn't get to see her so we arranged this weekend instead. Whenever I ask my mum what she wants for Mothers Day I get the same reply each year, "It's a gimmick don't waste your money". Well if I can't waste my money on my mum who can I waste it on? So I suggested doing something for a weekend as she's not close enough to just pop round for a home cooked dinner. This is where the Safari part comes in, I thought about where we could go that wasn't too expensive but where we would all enjoy ourselves. The answer? Longleat Safari Park

Longleat is less than an hour from where my mum lives but i'd never been despite me spending most of my life so close.
On Friday I packed up my car and set off for the long journey from Yorkshire to Wiltshire. The child in me bouncing up and down asking the sat nav "Am I nearly there yet?" but the grown up in me cursing myself for never visiting when I lived so close! After 4 hours I arrived at the Travelodge in Wiltshire and was able to kick off my trainers and de-stress after the hecticness of the motorway. Then all I had to do was wait for my mum, sister and littlest brother to arrive.
That evening we went out for a late Mothers Day meal in a little village pub, which was delicious, then returned to the hotel to tuck into some handmade cupcakes,

I'm really not sure whats going on with that rabbit!

I made these myself and its the first time i've ever made anything out of icing! It reminded me of polymer clay although these tasted much nicer! I have to say though that I have a newfound respect for cake makers. My ideas of beautiful iced flowers became... well you can see what they became!
The next morning we woke up bright and early and set off to Longleat, I have a lot of photos and stories to tell you but it was such an experience over 2 days that i've decided to do a couple of seperate posts about it throughout this week so please check back later in the week (or you could click to follow my blog so you don't miss it!)
Finally I just want to tell you about the Saturday evening, we went to legoland last year for 2 days and knew how shattered we were at the end of each day so we knew this would probably be just as exhausting so we decided to celebrate Easter on Saturday evening (I'm working for Easter weekend this year so I won't see the family) my other brother drove down to join us for the evening and we got a delicious takeaway (well several - subway, chinese and indian!) which we ate in our PJs tucked up in the hotel beds watching Britains Got Talent! Just when we thought we'd had enough out came the easter eggs and we suddenly found a bit of extra room in our bulging tummies!
I arrived back home today and I have to say i'm more tired than my colleagues who had to work night shifts over the weekend! I'm going to have a nice bath then settle down in bed with the laptop to browse through the other blogs taking part in Handmade Monday.
Please come back soon to find out about the safari.
Until next time
Jem
x

Mums Rule!

My mum rules, she rocks, she is simply the best!

Although today is Mothers Day that doesn't mean you can take a break for the rest of the year, oh no! When you think of all the things (little and big things) they've done throughout your lives it seems wrong to only appreciate them for one day a year.
So as today is the official day I thought i'd show you my latest creation which I have rushed to make sure I was able to show you today, its a 'Mums Rules Board'

Mums Rules Board

I used the same theme as I did with my last kitchen board as I love these colours but i've plenty more design ideas for these too.
As its Mother's Day I thought i'd add some Mothers Day rules to it, standard simple rules that most children can follow!

Mothers Day Rules

I hope all you readers who are mothers have a great day and all you readers that have mothers make sure they are spoiled rotten. Unfortunately I won't be seeing my mother today as she lives quite far away and I have to work but we have arranged a get together next weekend to celebrate which i'm really looking forward too.
As usual i'll be linking in with Handmade Monday so once you've finished here pop over and see what everyone else has been up to.
And remember, Mum knows best!

Until next time
Jem
x

A little treat for me!

Another week gone, Handmade Monday sure does make the days pass quick. Once you've finished here make sure you go over and take a look. Bath Bomb Creations are also beginning to host linky parties every Sunday and could really do with your support so please visit them too.

So what have the past few days held for me? A few night shifts (boring!) and i'm now on a weekend off (hooray!) I finally managed to meet up with the friend who ordered the Jessica photo frame a few weeks ago and she was delighted with it. Pretending to be 'ladies who lunch' we went out for a nice healthy-ish meal which I finished off with a big helping of black forest gateau, It didn't help my diet but it sure did taste good!

Onto the handmade stuff, an idea popped into my head for a little plaque, I make different designs for little boys and girls bedrooms but what about the adults? I decided to make one for mum and dads room

I'ts not turned out how I was hoping but after a bit of tweaking I think I can improve it.
Next is something I've made for myself. I made a couple of kitchen boards as Christmas presents but one design stuck in my head. I wasn't sure who to make it for so I decided to treat myself and i'm glad I did

I really love these kitchen boards, there are so many designs possible and I think the caption at the bottom really finishes them off (even if I did forget to dot the I's before taking the photos).

You can have it made with any persons name and the caption can say anything you wish. Even the design can be made to suit any personality.

That's all I have to show this week, next weekend will be Mothers Day so I hope you'll all be remembering it.
Until next time,
Jem
x

Hen doooooo!!!!!

How was your weekend? Mine was FANTASTIC!
Along with 18 other ladies (some of whom i'd never met) I went to Manchester for a great friends hen weekend. We arrived on Friday and stayed at the Midland Hotel. A beautiful hotel which even had a doorman in a top hat! I've stayed at a few hotels before but this was by far the nicest and classiest!

For the Friday night it was pretty tame, out for a few drinks, followed by a meal at the Rustica Italian restaurant, followed by a few more drinks. On Saturday after a great cooked breakfast we headed off to Vibe recording studio. 19 girls screeching 'It's raining men' and 'I wanna dance with somebody' is a mad experience. Kudos to the recording guy, he managed to make it sound pretty good!

After some proper food (burger and chips) in the Rain Bar we got ourselves all dressed up for a proper night out.

Dress code was glam black dress and the hen was to wear a red dress, we then got sashes and tiaras and stepped out in style. Complete with our 'friend' Jon!
So where did we go in all our finery? The Birdcage! If you've never heard of this place you should definitely check it out. The drag acts are amazing!

We had our own tables reserved and the drinks flowed whilst we watched the entertainment. It was a brilliant night which was finished off at about 3.30am as we stumbled back into the hotel clutching our shoes in one hand and a McDonalds in the other!

After what was an expensive, alcohol fueled weekend i'm feeling a little fragile today so I have nothing handmade to offer for Handmade Monday but i'm on my way over to Wendy's blog to check out what everyone else has been up to.
Have a great week,
Until next time
Jem
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