A Trip to the Zoo

A huge weird flower

A couple weeks ago I was having a bad time, so I took a little trip to stay with my oldest DD and grand D. I had to put down one of my jack russell terriers so I just had to “run away” so to speak, and not be in the house where I knew it would be tough. I wanted to go to the San Francisco Zoo with them as I hadn’t been there in many years. In fact my youngest DD and son were tiny the last time we went, maybe 12-14 yrs ago? I was a little dismayed as alot of the exhibits were closed and areas of construction were evident. But there were many new exhibits/enclosures that were modern and soo much better for the animals. I'm sure it will be really nice once they finish.


The giraffes had a 1 yr old and a 5 mo. old baby. We watched them at feeding time and talked to the keepers while we watched.



These were all juvenile gorillas, doing much of nothing. They had a nice enclosure with a viewing window.



The last flamingo was doing this dance in the water where he/she stompped his feet each in turn and then spun around while doing it. I told the grandbaby that the flamingo was dancing for her!


This prairie dog sat at the viewing window for the longest time, like it was in a trance. Then all of a sudden just turned and ran away. Cute!



I could watch the meerkats for hours, they're such characters.







I don't remember this "island" with birds of prey from before, everyone rushed to the edge when they saw this bald eagle emerge to drink. I had to wait until it was clear of people to get a decent pic.





The female lioness was down in the corner of the "moat" grooming! (because she can!)


I had the best time with my granddaughter!

July 4th and other stuff

little patriotic cutie

I had a great 4th. Oldest DD brought the grandbaby (she’s just about 2 ½ now) up and we all went to the hometown parade, fairgrounds and that night the fireworks display. So glad it was a mild day, unlike last year—hot! We actually live in the country but 10 mins. either way are small towns that have festivities going on. The grand D played on those air blown jumping things until she was covered in sweat! She had a great time. When it was time, we went just outside the fairgrounds to watch the parade, we usually are farther up on the route and there are usually a ton of people, but not where we were. It came really close to us at the edge of the lawn. Grand D wasn’t too sure about being so close to noisy fire trucks and extremely large horses, but she did really well. Afterwards we found a place on the grass, spread our quilt and waited for the fireworks. When they started granddaughter was scared. She covered her eyes and kept saying she wanted to go home. Mommy and I tried to reassure her and get her to look, and finally I said we should cover her ears. Mom did and grand D slowly peeked thru her fingers to watch, but she kept her hand up to her face pretty much the whole time. Towards the end she started falling asleep! She actually fell asleep for awhile all the time the loud Booms! were going off! Who can figure out kids? Lol.











I finally broke down and bought some glass glitter. I’m not one to use much glitter, but I’ve been making some things that just seem to say “glitter me”. I bought a pound of clear to be able to sell a little in my etsy shop.

I also found a couple more clear glass containers to store arty supplies on my shelf. I got the pretty little lead crystal dish for $2 and the large canning jar for a buck more. The canning jar has some French words around the top which I think is so cool! I needed a large jar to keep the little bits of trim I have so I can see what’s there. I’m always forgetting I have some stashed here and there.


This little metal pan I found all rusty and I had the green spray paint so I now have a little tray to store all the little things that seem to accumulate on my desk. Now they won’t be knocked to the floor and lost in the corners. See I’m trying to stay organized.