Birthday

My First Holiday

Thursday 28th May 2009Sunday 1st January 2017Baggie

As you can probably guess from the title of this entry, Éowyn (and her parents) have just returned from a week’s holiday in Devon as a break for Lucinda’s birthday. This was Éowyn’s first holiday (we are counting the trip to Colchester as a mini-break) and so an important stage in anyone’s life and the furthest she has ever been from her place of birth. To ease her (and us) into the idea of family holidays we hired a three bedroom cottage from one of the guys from work. It is in the South Hams village of Noss Mayo overlooking the Newton creek and Yealm estuary along with it’s twin from across the creek Newton Ferrers.

The Devon and Cornish peninsula always appear (to an outsider like me) to have peculiar microclimates and towns only separated by a few miles can experience very different weather. This is in no small part to the geography of the area, high moorlands, V-shaped valleys and numerous coves and inlets, providing shelter or acting as a funnel depending on the direction of the winds. And so it was the case with our trip. The forecast wasn’t good according to the national weather reports and we feared the worse. The week did start a little wet but soon gave way to warmer, drier weather.

Noss Mayo and Newton Ferrers sit either side of a V-shaped valley and as such walking anywhere was hard work and kept you fit. There is a voss that links Noss Mayo to Newton Ferrers which is accessible at low tide else it is a longer walk to Bridgend to cross the creek . Due to the timing of the low tides we only managed to cross the voss once, and then only just. The tide came in quiet quickly and by the time we had crossed to the other side the voss was completely under water.

We took it relatively easy on our holiday and didn’t really do too much driving once we were there. We spent a day in Padstow to meet up with a friend of Lucinda’s from university. Ruth was down on holiday with her boyfriend Rob and their dog Rooney. It was the first time that they had met since leaving university, although they have kept in touch regularly via snail mail. They have vowed to keep in touch via letters instead of e-mail/ text message/ instant messaging/ social networking sites and a plethora of alternative ways of communication that permeate modern living.

One of my good friends Andy popped down for a day or so and took the headland walk out of Noss Mayo. We took it very gently and took most of the afternoon, especially pushing Éowyn in her pushchair. The views were spectacular and would highly recommend it for anyone spending sometime in the area. The walk ends at the Ship Inn which is the perfect place to end such an adventure. The staff were very friendly and the food fantastic, if a little pricey but you could not grumble about the size of the portions!

The only other major excursion we did was to visit Delamore House in nearby Cornwood. It had an exhibition of sculpture and paintings. Not usually my kind of thing but some of the sculptures and you can see on the Flickr pages were excellent, especially the work by Oxfordshire artist Daren Greenhow, anyone that can make a Veló-ciraptor out of old bicycle parts (get it? Veló – ciraptor. Oh, forget it) gets my vote.

Éowyn seemed to really enjoy herself during the whole holiday and, apart from the first night, slept through the night. This is probably due to the fact that she had both her parents undivided attention for a week. She also took another big step on her development is so much that we stopped her dream feed. Now she is regularly taking solids the need for that extra feed disappears but we were still nervous to stop it. However, there has been no adverse reaction and the fact that she hasn’t woke is proof that she no longer needs it. She is now an adept at crawling, and has been readying herself for the next stage: walking. She regularly pulls herself up to her knees but as yet has not found the strength to stand. Yesterday that changed and for the first time she pulled herself to a standing position using the pouffe. Her latest entertainment though is to crawl into the kitchen and watch the washing machine. If it isn’t on she gets quite annoyed and bangs her hands on the floor. I suppose it is better than being a telly addict…

They told me this was a telly!

Can’t work this straw thing

Mid-crawl

Mommy and Éowyn at the harbour

Noss Mayo boats

Noss Mayo at night

Cheeky smile

Veló-ciraptor

Mommy and Éowyn

Unfortunately upon our return we have had some bad news. Éowyn’s Great Great Auntie Iris has passed away. She had a bleed on the brain caused by a cerebral aneurysm and although initially it did not seem life threatening she contracted an infection and her condition worsened. She passed away on the morning of Sunday 24th May 2009 at the age of 88, one week short of her 64th Wedding Anniversary. Our thoughts are with her husband, my Great Uncle Albert. Rest well Auntie Iris.

At the Zoo

Monday 11th May 2009Sunday 1st January 2017Baggie

As you may recall my birthday present from the family was to be a keeper for the day at Colchester Zoo. That day was Friday. As Colchester is quite a distance from home then part two of the birthday surprise was a couple of nights at the nearby Five Lakes Golf, Country Club and Spa. Therefore we headed to Maldon after morning rush hour on Thursday to take full advantage of the facilities. This was also Éowyn’s first mini-break away. She has stopped at Nanny Fran’s but not since her new awareness has developed and never in a hotel without all of her familiar things.

So after unpacking and settling in we headed to the spa facilities to take Éowyn swimming for the first time. She has grown to like the bath especially since she has discovered splashing but we were unsure how she would take to a swimming pool. This was probably the best introduction since the swimming pool was all but empty so there were no waves from the other people and more importantly there was little noise. Swimming pools can be extremely noisy places especially when they are busy, and we were conscious that this could be a problem when we first took her swimming and we hoped that this would not put her off. Another benefit was that we could take our camera in to capture her first swim, something that public swimming pools will certainly not let you do. As you can see from the pictures below she thoroughly enjoyed it.

She did not enjoy sleeping in a strange cot in a strange room however and awoke in the middle of the night screaming. It took us a while to calm her down, hopefully we didn’t disturb any of the other guests.

Friday was ‘Zoo-Keeper for the day‘ day! We arrived early at Colchester Zoo in the middle of an icy downpour. The day had started brightly but soon deteriorated into a real winter shower. This meant that the zoo was quieter than usual as a day at the zoo is usually a fair-weather day out.

As you can see from the Colchester Zoo website there are three different schemes for the ‘Keeper for the day‘ experience; Lucinda had booked scheme B – the Carnivores, she knows me so well. There were two of us on the scheme, myself and a lady called Jane. We were to report at the Customer Services desk at 11:00am sharp ready for our first task with zoo-keeper Carrie.

We headed straight to the meerkats where we were to feed them live mealworms. We were warned not to pet them (as with most animals at the zoo, they are not pets) as they will bite and have needle sharp teeth, as well as long claws on their forefeet. Meerkats have a varied diet but the mealworms encourages them to forage, since the mealworms when scattered on the ground attempt to burrow into the soil (and who can blame them). However, meerkats have an acute sense of smell and can smell invertebrates up to a metre below the surface. What did surprise me, what that they were smaller than I expected, only about the size of my foot. They were very inquisitive but when they realised that we were out of mealworms they headed back to the warmth of their ‘caves’.

Another tub of mealworms (poor mealworms) in hand we headed to the squirrel monkey cage. Very cute but highly mischievous we were not allowed in the enclosure with them but fed them through the bars of their cage.

The next stop was to an animal that most people have never heard of. The Binturong is a relation of the civet that lives in the forest of Asia. It is also known as the bearcat although it is neither. It is has a thick long prehensile tail with which it can support its own body weight and big strong claws that it uses for climbing trees. As we walked into the cage it came up to greet us, somewhat like a dog and you had to resist the urge to bend down to stroke him. It is amazing how friendly an animal can get when you have a big bowl of its favourite food, it this case fruit, animals pellets and sprats. He definitely had his favourite food: bananas, followed closely by grapes and turned his nose up against anything else until they had all gone. A very cute animal that I recommend that you all go and visit when you next visit a zoo.

We then headed from the small mammals to the carnivores and from Carrie to Vickie. The first carnivore on the list was the Fossa. A very agile relative of the civet that is found only on the island of Madagascar, it is especially adept at hunting lemurs. As with the next few animals on the list we were unable to enter the enclosure for our own safety but the presence of the keeper (with food) brought her to the front of the cage so that we got a good view of her.

Again, the next beast on the list was too dangerous for us to enter their enclosure. The Amur Leopard Dende, is one of the 35 or so Amur Leopards in the world. Probably the rarest big cat in the world, their numbers are threatened due to poaching (both of the cats themselves for Chinese medicine and their skins, protection of livestock in the leopard’s territory and of their prey), deforestation, and genetic inbreeding due to such low population numbers. Vickie however has built a relationship with the leopard such that they are training him to present himself for medical examinations, so that they can listen to his heart (very difficult because he gets so excited when his is interacting with Vickie that his purring deafens the vet) and take blood samples, all without resorting to anethatising him. Dende is so happy to see Vickie that when she approached his enclosure he ran to greet her at the glass, pawing it as a large and over-affectionate moggy. It was great to be so close to such a beautiful cat.

Next on the list was to clean the lions’ bedding. Ensuring that both lions were in the open the shutter was released so that we could safely enter their indoor enclosure. We changed their straw bedding and washed down the area so that their bedroom was fit for a king.

Our final stop before lunch was to feed the margays. Small spotted cats from South America they spend most of their time in trees and so to provide enrichment we hung portions of rabbit from trees in their enclosure hidden in toilet rolls, so that they had to work to get their food and sprayed perfume in the branches of the trees. We entered their enclosures while they were there but they were far too wary to approach us. As soon as we left though the male was straight after the food, while the female found an irresistable urge to rub herself against the perfume. Apparently they like the perfume and rub their own scent into it.

An hour for lunch and we were picked up by Sarah the keeper of the African savanna mammals. The first task was to feed the Red River Hogs, so called because they are red, live by rivers and are hogs. Although omnivores, we fed them their fruit and vegetable course. They displayed a preference for apples, and would not touch the others until they were sure that all the apples had been thrown. Due to their unpredictable nature we were not allowed to enter their enclosure but we could lean over the fence and pet them, always bearing in mind that their jaws are strong enough to crush coconuts and they are quick enough to catch rabbits.

We then walked round to the main enclosure and Sarah told us about their giraffes, rhinos, kudus, zebras and ostriches. Again their unpredictable nature means that we were unable to enter the enclosure. However we were taken to their bedding quarters where we made a bed for the kudus, then we were handed a bunch of leaves and taken to feed the giraffes. It is amazing how big a giraffe is. I think we all accept that giraffes are the tallest animals in the world, but it is not until you are standing next to one that you realise just how big they are. See the photos below.

The last but not least encounter for the day was with the aardvark. Famous for being the first noun in the English language, the aardvark (Earth Pig in Afrikaans) is a medium sized burrowing mammal. Colchester Zoo has the enviable honour of being the only zoo in the UK that has successfully bred aardvarks and their fourth baby aardvark, Draco, was born in January. Aardvarks are relatively peaceful and so we were allowed to enter their enclosure and were encouraged to stroke them. The adults seemed nonplussed as nocturnal animals they barely roused from their slumber. Draco though, as any child was fascinated by the visitors and came over for a sniff and stroke. Sarah even demonstrated how ticklish he is. As she tickled his sides he rolled on his back for you to stroke his belly. What a fantastic way to end a fabulous day.

So if you have ever entertained the idea of being a zoo keeper I thoroughly recommend the Colchester experience, it is without doubt one of the best presents that I have ever had and would jump at the chance to do it again.

Please enjoy the photos below and more on the flickr pages too.

Peace and love

Baggie!

This is what I’ve been reading

Sitting with my dad!

Peep-po!

Swimming with Dad

Splashing with Mum

So relaxing

At the hotel!

I’ve got your back Mum

This week, I have been mostly eating: leaves

Baggie feeding the Giraffes

Draco the aardvark

Dende, the Amur Leopard

Family Time

Monday 6th April 2009Baggie

We have had a week of catching up with friends and family. Friday night was my first night out on the town since Éowyn came along. Getting into bed at 0100 in a morning to be woken up by a crying baby at 0530 is not conducive to assisting in hangover recovery. Quite rightly sympathy was in short supply and you just have to get on with it. I think Éowyn could sense there was something not quite right and therefore was in one of her fiesty moods especially when Daddy was on his own, and I was on my own for most of the morning. An NCT organised ‘Nearly New’ sale had Lucinda sharpening her elbows for the mêlée that ensues at these events, while I took primary care responsibilities. Her foraging proved fruitful as she came back with armfuls of toys for a fraction of the price of their retail value and Éowyn no longer looks like a deprived child.

Saturday afternoon we met up with good friends of mine, Andy and Máire and their daughter Éabha. We haven’t seen Andy and Máire for well over a year and it was the first time that we had met Éabha, who was born a couple of weeks after Éowyn. We met for lunch near Sheen Gate, Richmond Park in a nice pub called the Plough. While the weather continued its display of extremes we took advantage of the catering facilities, but managed to squeeze in a walk in the park between showers. It was good to catch up and reassuring that all new parents go through the same problems and insecurities. We will not leave it as long to meet up, next time. You have read it here and so shall it be.

As avid readers will recall Lucinda’s cousin Alex and his wife Sally and daughter Isabel are currently over from Australia and we were hoping to meet up with them on Saturday night before the big family meeting on Sunday. However due, in part to Éowyn’s fiestiness but also our own exhaustion we shamefully cancelled and took them for a walk around Savill Garden in Virginia Water on the Sunday morning instead. Then it was back to Lucinda’s parents for a big family get together. Éowyn was on her best behaviour which was nice and entertained everyone by blowing raspberries at each in turn. It is nice being part of such a close family and it will be excellent for Éowyn as she grows up.

Wednesday saw a flying visit to West Bromwich (my only day off this week, so we couldn’t stay overnight) to visit our solicitors (nothing bad, just a re-mortgage!) with the added bonus of seeing Nanny Fran. We also popped in to see Éowyn‘s Great-Grandma, as it was her birthday. I don’t think that we could have given her a better birthday present, as although Éowyn was tired and due a feed she kept her Great-Grandma entertained. It is a shame that we don’t life closer so that we could see more of my family, but hopefully they will pop over during the Easter break.

The dream feed of hungry baby milk is doing its job. We have had 5 nights of uninterrupted sleep this week, and Éowyn is waking up in a much better mood too. She also is taking her morning naps easier too, however she still fights sleep if she thinks that there is something interesting going on. At least I and especially Lucinda can feel a little more human again now that our sleep is not being disturbed. We will see how long this lasts before the routine is altered again. Perhaps we should try some of these albums to help her to sleep.

Hope that you all have a good week, or so and plenty of Easter eggs.

Love and Peace

Baggie!