Sometimes you need to be reminded to walk in a new direction. I know we fall into the trap of going the way we know. It’s a safe, it’s known, you know what to expect around each corner. Sometimes you need to force yourself out of that rut, and make a change! So today, we went off to appreciate Spring in Rembrandt Park.
We were repaid for this decision in a myriad of little ways. Starting with this beautiful family who were out enjoying the sunshine!
It was an over cast day in which our family (het gezin) headed off to see Dr Fleur.
This is how we head to the vet now. In a backpack. I really need to re-think the whole backpack-handbag thing when going to the veterinary/dierenkliniek.
Thanks to that quick (hour) visit, our fur-kids …
… made it to Dutch/EU citizenship before we did.
Ungrateful little wretches! How come they don’t have to speak the language?!?
We went back to Artis on the weekend with a friend who we haven’t seen in months! It was a lovely way to catch up and spend the day together, running around like lunatics with cameras! If we continue going to Artis at this rate, we may as well just get annual passes!
There had been news reports earlier in the week that this is the second warmest Winter on record, and all the animals and plants were getting confused. I think this was illustrated really neatly within the walls of the zoo! There were blossoms blooming, and animals behaving like rabbits! (It was hard not to get photos of it really …) But I shall spare you all that, as the weekend we decided to end up at the zoo was determined to be the first real cold snap of Winter. Oh yeah. This meant layers and layers of clothing people! I may need to finally shop for actual winter clothes. Let’s hope I can still find some in the shops!
But on with the photos!
Many of the animals who were outside looked like this …
… huddled for warmth.
All in thick, fluffly, winter coats.
I’m including this shot of the otter because I’m in shock that he held still long enough for me to get a photo! It’s an otter after all!
All the big cats looked like they needed big warm snugly beds to curl up in. My own cats have obviously trained me well!
Being as cold as it was, we spent a fair amount of time in the “houses”. We started in the small animal house, which we had been shooed out of the last time we were at the zoo, when they found us still in there after the zoo had closed!
We then wended our way to the bird, reptile, and monkey house where you could walk around in amongst the vines and trees with the animals there with you! (So difficult to restrain yourself from reaching out and patting the tiny monkeys!)
This bird strongly reminded me of the dinos in Jurassic Park the way he looked out from behind the plants.
So many of the birds were complete cam whores who posed beautifully for our cameras!
But it was outside in the cold where I found my holy grail! We had missed them the last time we were in the zoo compound, but I got to see my flamingos!
The poor blighters looked FREEZING! They were all squished together and reduced to football shaped! I took so many photos! I’m hoping these will be inspiring for my painting later this week!
The meekats came out briefly when they heard us.
But disappeared just as quickly when they discovered how chill it was out of their house!
And though there was lots of “animals thinking it was spring” going on, this blog is child friendly, so I’ll just put here this photos of the stags fighting it out for dominance!
It was a wonderful day out, and though we have now been to Artis twice, we still have yet to see everything is has to offer! We shall just have to resign ourselves to going back again. Oh the hardships of our life! 😉
When we have a spare moment (and we have to plan make them happen) Himself and Myself are prone to strapping our favourite wheels to our feet and heading for the park.
My wheels are different to His, because I’m a klutz and may at any point need to be suddenly stationary to not run into trees or other pedestrians. I know this about myself. I’m working with it.
Yes, I’m aware this photos is fuzzy. The problem is I wasn’t aware until after we got home.
The inherent problem with strapping wheels to yourself is that it limits the amount of photos one can take. We made great time though! 😀 These were taken the day before New Years Eve. The last Sunday of the old year.
New Years Day we decided to go back to the park but walk to see if we could find some of the devastation resultant from the explosions the night before. You see, fireworks are legal in the Netherlands. And though you are only meant to let them off within about a 2 hour period around midnight … they went off all day on the 31st December. They finally quietened enough for us to sleep around 2am I think. The cats just had the best day that day!
So we left the house on the first, and found this.
And when I read up on it later, apparently ex-christmas tree bonfires are prevalent on New Years Eve too. Though it looks like they couldn’t get this one to catch.
All those little red bits are the paper of cracker casings. Don’t fool yourself into thinking someone just exploded their mother’s rose garden!
The ducks seemed to be recovering nicely though, even with the odd bang still going off.
Vondel Park was a hive of activity. So many families all out promenading along the avenues, and the local dog walking crew were getting together for a New Years Day picnic.
We saw lots of bird life. I thought they would have flown South for the Winter, but I guess it’s not cold enough? I keep forgetting to take bread to feed them too!
As the sun was setting, and the temperature dropping …
we headed off to a nearby café that looked warm and inviting enough that it was packed! We were quite lucky to get a table!
After a hot chocolate and some kroketjes we headed on home to the central heating and three very anxious cats.
Next year I hit up the vet for kitty valium!
I can’t tell you how much being this close to a tiger at the zoo, even a stuffed one one behind glass …
reminded me of this trip a year ago.
It was an amazing experience, and I’m incredibly fortunate! I’ll never forget the feel and smell of taking a live tiger for its morning walkies! *grins*
Can you believe that was a year ago?!?
ghoti industries 