A zoo with a difference

I, like most adults, am normally not a great fan of zoological parks. But Dunnells on Jersey is a zoo with a difference. I remember watching documentaries about the monkeys at Dunnells, so even though I am not a fan of zoos generally, I really wanted to see the monkeys and the monkey enclosures in real life. So when I had the chance to spend a day on Jersey the zoo was a must. Here are some of the great animals I encountered!

Talk to the hand!

Look I can eat with both my right and left hand!

Hide and seek

Meditation in progress

Where are you?



Oh, there you are!

A bouquet from Bretagne

There can never be too many flowers in a blog, so here is a bouquet of those I found in Bretagne!

And here's some lavender from Jersey!

Souvenirs!

Not only did I eat well when I was in Bretagne, but I brought some souvenirs with me back home. Forgot to take the photo immediately so the Saint Nectaire is already a distant memory! But here's what's still there!

Paté breton with chestnuts; rillettes (a kind of pate) one with red mullet (and wild fennel) and one with scallops (and crispy seaweed); marinated salicorne; beurre au sel fumé (butter with smoked salt); two kinds of dried seaweed (nori and wakamé); croutons with nori; spring honey; and edible lavender and also a bunch of fresh lavender from Jersey (Channel Islands - yes, I was there too)

I have found a piece of heaven on earth!

I just love this place! LOVE it!

Views of Normandie and Bretagne

Back from Bretagne

Came back yesterday from a lovely week in beautiful Bretagne. It rained 6 out of 7 days... but that's summer holidays for you! :) At least I got to test the new rucksack before I leave for Vietnam and Laos later this year.

So enough said, lets post some holiday snaps! First I went to Mont St Michel, because I had heard so much about it. Beautiful, yes, but a bit too touristy for my liking. Anyway, voilà:

Blogging By Mail is back!

A new edition of Blogging By Mail has been announced! This time the theme is "A Few of My Favorite Things". It's great fun so join in now!

Orchids!

The fourth selection (and the last one today) of flowers from Chelsea are of my favourites - orchids. I only meant to buy one or two, but somehow there were six of them in the bag on the train home.

Even more flowers!

This year's challenge - that is what my two auriculas will be! I have never owned one before, and have long been fascinated by them. Ideally they should live in an alpine garden, but my experiment will take place on my back balcony, in a basket full of rocks and stones. Will I succeed? Maybe, maybe not. Time will tell. But I will enjoy every day I have these pretty flowers greeting me in the morning!

More flowers!

One of the show gardens deserve a special mention - Garden of clouds. A city garden designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara. I passed it many times during the day, and the peacefulness that surrounded the garden was breathtaking. Double-click on the photos and enjoy!