Rowan Tree and Red Thread

A pool of sunlight nestled in the trees, a slight breeze runs over the
brightly-lit grass and the sleeping cheetahs. A flick of an ear, the twitch
of a tail, and the breeze passes by.

Another sunny day out in Fota Wildlife Park and Arboretum. The weather has
held for this bank holiday weekend and we're revelling in it. So too are
most of the other residents of Cork so it was an early start this morning,
with sammywol putting together a picnic in short order and
piling us all into the car.

At the park we've seen all sorts of animals in the wildlife park and had our
souls soothed by the green quiet of the gardens. There will be more photos
up on our Flickr site soon but for the moment you'll have to imagine us
sitting in a little wooden garden seat (or possibly a gazebo), drowsing in a
pleasant summer heat and watching the sunlight flit through the leaves of a
splendid sweet chestnut tree.

This is a photograph of Rowan taken on the little wildlife 'train' at Fota Wildlife Park, where we spent a lovely Thursday in the sun last week.

The rest are up at our Flickr site.

Seeing an opportunity in yesterday's glorious weather, I took today off work
and we've all come out to Fota for a picnic and fun in the wildlife park.
The animals are looking well, includng a new male guanaco who will, after
the naming competition, rejoice in the name of either Fozzie, Paco or
George. Poor kid.

Things are enlivened by a goth in shorts. The ornately elaborate fishnet
tights don't hide the fact that she's wearing shorts. Do they take away your
Goth badge if you're caught? I suppose she's save enough. What other goth
comes out in full daylight to a playground and wildlife park?

Fresh strawberries now. Ripe, full of juice and flavour, they taste extra
good when Rowan presses one into my mouth. "I'm sharing" she says. Sunshine
and sharing is perfection

We were out in the Fota arboretum today with Sally, the mother, who came down for one of her patented flying over-night visits. I drove and found that Fota is a lot closer than I had thought. We should go there more often. Rowan had a great time dashing about amidst the trees, and we had a very pleasant picnic in the shade of a great, shaggy tree (a cedar?) that Rowan found she could hide inside. The branches, heavy with foliage, came down to the ground and made a brilliant hideaway round the trunk. The bark had a lovely papery feel under my hands, and fragrant strands curled away from it like little feathers.

We also saw a peculiar pavilion made of steel and wood, placed in front of Fota House. Rowan had a great time there, running about yelling and chasing with other, older kids. One family of two younger boys and an older girl played with Rowan, or at least amused her by dashing about her in a tangle of thin, tanned limbs.

It was a brilliantly sunny day, with ice cream, a few playful clouds and a refreshing breeze to moderate the sun's heat. Glorious.