In a land of butterflies and horses

Yesterday we took a trip to Butterfly World. It was nice to be inside the warm butterfly enclosures on such a cold day. They also had otters, goats, guinea pigs and lots more.

Watching a butterfly having a banana for breakfast.
It is Caligo sp. from South America I think.

Looking at leaf cutter ants through a magnifier

Leaf cutter ants 

Papilio sp. from South Asia

Greta oto from South America

Idea leuconoe from South Asia

Looking at the guinea pigs

Heliconius charitonius from Central and S. America

Cousin It

One of Alvin, Simon or Theodore

The amazingly curious otters. They are Oriental
small-clawed otters and were very noisily chirping
and meowing to each other.

Isla found a puddle! Her new shoes
are fairly waterproof.

Pig! She is called Winnie.

And back to the otters again. They wanted to come home with us.

Pinkdinosaurus barnei

Today Isla and I went to HorseWorld. We met up with Isla's friends Jack and Chloe there. Chloe had been before and showed us round. Isla said 'biiiiiig neigh neigh' quite a lot while we were there. The shire horses in particular were HUGE. There were lots of donkeys, ponies of various kinds and lots of other animals. The horses were all rescued, it is a charity. Isla stroked the nose of a brown pony while there was a talk about the horses in the main ring. She was very excited by this!

Also TRACTORS. For children to ride on. Isla, Jack and Chloe were in their element. There was a stable full of wood shavings with wheelbarrows, rakes and buckets and spades for the children to play with. The three toddlers could happily have stayed in there all day if we'd let them.

The shire horse who looked a bit like Charlie

Looking at the donkeys

Bubbles the pony. Not at all like her
Little Britain namesake thank goodness

Yay Tractors!

Isla very bravely inside a combine harvester

Digger!

Just chillin' by another horse....

A donkey called Mimi.

Doing a spot of mucking out

A lovely shire horse with only one eye.
He was HUGE! Friendly though, and very into his carrots.

Back home with crayons and stickers!