Lions and tigers and...meerkats

We had a day out yesterday with Jenny, Philip and their foster children, to Yorkshire Wildlife Park. None of us had ever been, so it was an adventure. It's only been open a couple of years, but it's excellent, with a good variety of animals, and nice settings. My particular favourites were the meerkats and lemurs; they also have three lion prides, an 'African Plain' full of zebra, ankole cattle, and the like, a tiger enclosure under construction, birds of prey, and a wetlands opening later this year.

Meerkat sentry; Yorkshire Wildlife Park © Ian (2011)

The children, predicatably, were as excited by the slides and adventure playground as the exotic animals, but there you go. Today's been foul weather (strong winds, a couple of inches of rain, and—at one point—hail. Which was being blown horizontal. Accordingly, we stayed inside, instead of doing the garden tasks we had in mind (nothing exciting, but some weeding needs to happen, and I'd like to plant up the new hanging baskets). I've patched up some plastering in the kitchen, and removed some rotting window-sill in the study. The windows stand on a stone lintel, which, while exposed outside, is boxed inside. The wood has started to decay, however, so I've removed part of the case and sealed the window-frame to the lintel. When we come to redecorate, I'll need to replace the window-sill, and decide whether or not to replace the lintel casing. Possibly not; we'll see what a stone 'feature' looks like.