Stop, Thief!

The first thought of the morning is about the wondrous harvest of walnuts I expect to be collecting today. After hot coffee and a very satisfying breakfast, I walk out into the backyard and see…

To be fair, I also suspect two bird species of participating in this massacre, but I have the evidence of my eyes that this is, in fact, the work of a large rodent-like animal. Evidence:

But will you look at that pretty face?

Weeelll… Jury’s still out, I guess. There’s crows and jays around, and I have seen real squirrels creeping around the walnut tree.

In other words, I think this is a conspiracy of animals dividing the spoils without consulting us humans. How dare they!

Jack’s Walk

The sun is hiding behind gray and gloomy skies today and the forecast says that we can expect rain for the next 5 days. Five Days! That means that I won’t see the sun until next Thursday. And the dampness. Oh Dear, my Fibro does not like the dampness. I’m already having a double gravity kind of day. Everything I do gets slower and more deliberate and requires more energy. I feel like I’m moving like a sloth. I call it The Creeping Jim Jams because my speed is set to creep and I’m all jammed up. Even my thinking gets slow. I think I might just ask the Mr. if he’ll go to Dairy Queen and get me a large cherry Blizzard. I’m going to go put on my jammies and binge watch A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix.

At the Zoo d’Amnéville

No particular order:

Prairie dogs, wallabies, secretary bird, kid (goat version)

Wanna come in for a cuppa?
©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved
Yes, we had to visit the goats three times. There#s something about them that draws the kids (human version) to them like a magnet

Friday Feathers: Flying

While on land, penguins are rather clumsy and funny, but underwater they turn into graceful hunters, flying through their adapted medium.

[Read more…]

Jack’s Walk

The sun has come out of hiding and it’s a lovely autumn day. Just warm enough that you don’t need a jacket, but still cool enough that Jack wants to frolic. I’ve been playing with my camera and the scratches don’t seem to impact my photos too badly. That means that I can take some time before I buy a new lens. This is good news because at the moment my money has more important things to do. Jack will be needing surgery soon to remove a lipoma (fatty cyst) on his right elbow. It’s grown to the size of a baseball and we’d like to have it removed before the snow starts to fly. The surgery is planned for Halloween, which can be winter-like around here so let’s hope autumn decides to stick around for a while.

At the Zoo d’Amnéville 3: Gorillas

I love gorillas and I will not apologise for the amount of pics I took. You get 17 of them, most below the fold.

[Read more…]

Funny Animals

The finalists of the 2018 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are out, and they’re a blast. Here’s a couple of my favourites:

And lots more…

Today’s piece of music is more of a dance showcase, in the theme of colourful animals. Below the fold because spiders.

[Read more…]

Jack’s Walk

It’s another damp and dreary day around here and the weather forecast is for more of the same for days ahead. There wasn’t even moody fog today, just dull skies and soggy ground. Even worse, I tripped and dropped my camera and scratched the lens. The camera seems to be working fine, but for the next while my pictures may have a bit of scarring. I’ve been thinking about getting a better lens and perhaps this is the universe’s way of telling me not to wait any longer. In fact, it might just be time for an early Christmas/Festivus present for voyager. I’ll see how bad the damage is over the next few days and if it’s only minor I may try and wait. I think I might need to save a few more pennies to get the quality I want. I’m using a Canon T5i with an EFS 18 – 135mm lens. Any suggestions?

At the Zoo d’Amnéville 2

With no particular selection: Lion, bear, bunny, grey parrot, Amur leopard, Arctic wolf

Wednesday Wings

Zoos aren’t just for “exotic” animals. They are often the favourite spot for the local wildlife as well.

Jack’s Walk

The setting for our walk this morning came complete with mood setting mist and the intermittent caws of a murder of crows. Very film noir, so Jack and I pretended we were on the run from the mob and that we had to find a cache left somewhere in the forest for us. We searched high and low with our eyes and our noses and I’m almost certain I heard the crack of a pistol and the swell of violins, but alas! we could not find the cache. My trusted familiar, Jackson Brown, proved his worth yet again, though, leading us safely to the motorcar left for our conveyance to safety.

At the Zoo d’Amnéville 1

It’s the autumn holidays here and we decided to go for one nice family excursion before we’re bogged down in postponed work again. We’d been promising the kids to visit that zoo in France for ages and finally decided to go. I know, for Americans 100km one sounds like your weekly shopping trip, for us it isn’t.

The zoo is in a smallish town near Metz that seems to consist of a thermal fountain, an amusement park, and a giant complex with restaurant, hotels, cinemas, parking and the zoo. The entrance fee is prohibitive, because in France most zoos are private enterprises and not public institutions, but we decided that we can afford it for a special trip, especially since we always bring food and drinks and therefore don’t have to pay the prohibitive prices inside.

To be honest, I don’t regret the money. It was a wonderful day and the zoo is amazing. There are no holidays in France, it was a Monday in October and there were at the most 150 visitors in the whole zoo. I guess in summer the people push you through, but now we had the leisure to enjoy the animals and the shows.

Of course I took a ton of pics. Original count was 2200, after weeding out the really bad ones there are 1300 left. I won’t post them all ;).

First part is the white lions. They are gigantic, at last 30% larger than the “normal” lions in the next enclosure. The couple has some juvenile cubs and as you can see, in the pics, the male was very interested in making some more…

After his third attempt ended like this he threw himself against the glass of the enclosure…

Jack’s Walk

It’s been rainy for days with cool temps and even though I don’t like the weather at least the trees have finally started to change colour. Around our neighbourhood the first trees to turn are the birches with their bright yellow and gold leaves. Even on a dull, rainy day those birch leaves shine like sunflowers on a summer’s day. I suspect that the maples will colour up quickly now that the weather is decidedly set to autumn. I’m looking forward to getting lots of autumn trees to post from all of you, hint hint. I haven’t had any tree submissions in a while and I’d like to see what you’ve got.

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Stop, Thief!

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Jack’s Walk

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At the Zoo d’Amnéville

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At the Zoo d’Amnéville 3: Gorillas

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Funny Animals

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At the Zoo d’Amnéville 2

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Wednesday Wings

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At the Zoo d’Amnéville 1

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