Enjoying the spring sunshine at Bristol Zoo

As we woke up yesterday to beautiful blue skies, it seemed rude not to go out and make the most of it. We've been members at Bristol Zoo for a few years, which means we can go for just a quick wander round, without feeling we've not made the most of the entry fee. We both took our cameras, Andrew took his macro lens and I took my zoom lens. The photos below are my favourites out of all the photographs we took yesterday.

At present there is only one lion on show at Bristol Zoo, Shiva. She had cubs before Christmas but they are currently being hand-reared behind the scenes following their father's death in November. The last two cubs, born in late 2010 have been transferred to other zoos as part of a breeding programme.

 

Despite the sun, it was a bit of a chilly day so we spent some time in the reptile house. Trying to spot the chameleons always passes a bit of time and the apparent smiles on the faces of some of the lizards amused us.

  

The red pandas are apparently one of the most popular animals at the zoo, which astonishes me, as they're normally out of sight or, as they were yesterday, thirty foot up in the air tucked up in a tree!

 

 The capybara is like a giant guinea pig, he seemed pretty displeased that there was so much mud between him and his food!

The meerkats had a huge crowd around them, partly as it was feeding time. I particularly liked the one who looked as if he was hiding behind a stone, worried about being crept up on!

The butterflies are both impressive and incredibly difficult to photograph. Although we got a few images, they really don't do them justice.

 Look out for more photos when the lion cubs are on display as I won't be able to stay away!

My favourite photos of 2012

It's become a bit of a tradition that every December I make up a calendar featuring photos we've taken of the year. It sits on our desks at work the following year reminding us of our adventures and the reason why we go to work! I've now been doing it for eight years and they're great to look back on. Initially I'd dig out twelve photos for an annual calendar, but I now have to find more than 52 as a weekly calendar seems to be the best way to keep us tapping away at our keyboards at work.

Whilst I don't want to bore you with the whole set of photos, I thought it might be nice to share some of my favourite photos of 2012. I've picked out my favourite photo from each month, as I've not always been so diligent at getting out and taking photos as I'd hoped, some of them were taken on my iPhone. None of them are going to win any prizes, but they all bring back memories when I look at them.

 January 2012

We're fairly frequent visitors to Bristol Zoo and when it's cold or rainy, the reptile house is one of the best places to be. This little gecko seemed to agree, and couldn't build up energy to do much in the heat.

February 2012

I took hardly any photos in February, the only one of any interest is of a fire drill at work. I only took it as I couldn't believe how many people work in our building. Nice to see us segregated along the street into our little work groups!

March 2012

 I'd had a macro lens for Christmas and the advent of spring meant that I took a lot of photos of flowers and insects in March. However, this is the photo that makes me laugh when I look at it. We have a long-running fued with the squirrel, frequently chasing him off the bird feeders, sometimes mixing the peanuts with chili powder to put him off. He always comes back though and secretly I admire his persistence. This is his look as he realises he's been caught in the act again.

April 2012

This photo was taken on a day's geocaching walk around Colerne and Ditteridge, east of Bath. After starting out from the village at the top of the hill opposite, I was very glad to reach the top of this next hill and took this photo of the meandering countryside whilst catching my breath.

May 2012

We went to Iceland in May 2012, I've already blogged about that holiday and posted a few photos and so don't want to be repetitive. You can read about that trip here. When we returned we took a trip to the Midlands to see Andrew's parents, it was only when we arrived that we found out that they'd got a new dog. She's called Bramble.

June 2012

We'd gone over to see a friend in Chippenham for the day, and hadn't realised it was the folk festival that weekend. We spent a good couple of hours wandering around and enjoying the traditional English Morris dancers.

July 2012

 We went to Jersey for a long weekend in July to mark my birthday. The last bit of sightseeing was a trip to Jersey lavender to see how lavender is grown, harvested and distilled.
 

August 2012

Bird activity went a bit crazy in the garden in August, but our greater spotted woodpecker kept visiting despite the influx of smaller birds. He can normally hear us in the house so it's difficult to photograph him, but I struck lucky in August.

 
September 2012


We did a day trip to Dyrham in September, I've already blogged about that here and so won't include any photographs from that day. We were volunteer marshals at the Bristol Half Marathon at the end of the month, this is one of the photos that I took on the day.

October 2012

I spent most of October suffering with sinusitis and so didn't get out much and took few photos. That said, the weather didn't help!

November 2012

 We did a short break in North Norfolk in November, I've already blogged about that here but my favourite photo is one of Andrew that I didn't include in that blog. He was picking up things from the cottage and mucking around with them and I managed to catch him in the act.

December 2012

The weather was awful in December, with rain most days and so my photos aren't very interesting. This is a shot I took of Andrew on Christmas Day with one of his gifts from his boss. He really is one of the cleverest people I know!

I've really enjoyed looking back over my photos for the year. It's made me realise that we've had a lot of laughs, seen some great sights and done some awesome things. I just hope 2013 is as good, I must remember to take more photos as I go along!