I Made It Monday

I've decided that I will take a break from my "I Made It Monday" series. I find that the summer is not a time I am very focused on crafting and while I have a few projects I am working on right now, they are intended as gifts and as such, I will not post them here until after they have been, you know, gifted. "I Made It Monday" will return in late August or early September.

I am thinking however on doing a Strange Florida Saturday...so many day trips to so many odd places in this creepy state!

I don't want to leave you without any photos though, so here is one of a scarlet ibis I took at the zoo. Scarlet ibises freak me right the heck out because 1) look at that eye! Can you not hear the ibis' thoughts? "Just one little step closer and I can jam my beak straight through her eye! 2) They are far too flashy. Kind of egotistical if you ask me (and as a Leo I totally know all about being egotistical). 3) I once got into a near shouting match with my 9th grade English teacher because of the short story "The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst. I held the older brother accountable for killing Doodle and the teacher disagreed. Really?

"I will cut you if you don't give me some fish. Right. Now."

Heart of Flame

We have a zoo membership to the local zoo and as much as I love the antics of the animals and listening to the keeper chats (seriously, Cyra can give her own keeper chats about the bald eagles and has, on many occasion, corrected zoo visitors she overhears talking about the eagles. Obnoxious, yes. But also so freaking cute).

But the zoo is also a botanical garden and every spring the gardens burst with such fantastic colors and flowers, I often spend more time taking photographs of the flora rather than the fauna.

This past weekend, the girls and I went to the zoo with Cyra's Girl Scout troop. Ashleigh and I lagged behind quite a bit and often got sidetracked which happened to be a very good thing because otherwise I would never have found this:

This is a Heart of Flame. It is a South American flower which is weird because it was planted in the Africa section of the zoo.

And it is so very orange!

As a new gardener, I am finding that I am more fascinated than I ever was by flowers. And I must have one. Or three. Or twelve. They make me smile all over my face they are so bright and orange and cheerful! And also slightly pointy and spiny.

Friday Photo

Many bloggers do a Wordless Wednesday, so I'm going to try a Friday Photo(s). I'm not sure how often I'll do this but let's give it a whirl!

One of my favorite places to go is the zoo. Any zoo will do. While on one hand it is sad to see animals cooped up in cages, the little kid in me squees with delight at getting the chance to see animals that otherwise I’d only ever see in a book or on TV. The girls and I go to the zoo often enough to justify getting a zoo membership every year. 

Some of my favorite memories are of the Catskill Game Farm in upstate New York. The Game Farm closed its doors in 2006 (you can find a couple articles here and here and here if you are interested). At least once a year, my dad would bring me to the Game Farm. My favorite part was the petting zoo area. In one section herds of deer roamed around anxiously waiting for an unsuspecting child to start handing out deer crackers. The Deer would swarm like piranhas. In the nursery, goats and sheep and little pot belly pigs crowded around to get small bottles of milk.

The Game Farm was unique in how close you could get to the animals. Now to get close to the exhibits you either have to pay for a “behind the scenes” tour or invest in a really good camera. I certainly don’t have the money for a personal tour, nor do I have a really good camera, but occasionally I capture some really good pictures at the zoo.

"Awesome! One more flash from that stupid camera and I am coming right through that glass!"

My favorite "people" exhibit! The zookeeper was very nice to play along when Ashleigh got excited about seeing a "real people on display!"

"You know I'm about to peck your eyeball out, right?"

Practicing his GQ poses.



We love this bird. He is so photogenic. Ashleigh named him Dexter.



By far one of the best pictures I have taken at the zoo, this little guy looks stunning in black and white!

One of the very few times I have ever seen the lion move. He strutted all over the enclosure like he was all that! Well, I guess he was from the size of the crowd that "oohed" and "ahhed" over him.

The zoo has a lovely lorikeet exhibit where you can feed them. Some days they flock all over you. Others, like this day, they are very stand-offish.

I felt a bit uncomfortable snapping this photo as it appeared to me that they needed a private moment...

"Feed me." Such a demanding man! This one wouldn't let any of the other giraffes anywhere near the feeding station.

Enrichment day at the zoo means toys and puzzles for the animals. This jaguar loved his bucket of frozen fishicles!

"Ommm... Ommm"

She looks so fierce...too bad she was just yawning.