Eee, it were a grand day out (again)!

[catspaw]

nicci_mac came over today and we went out on a jaunt :-) We went to the Butterfly Farm and had the greatest fun, spraffing in general and snapping away like a pair of demented Litchfields in particular *g* And here are some of the results.



Lord, those butterflies were *gorgeous*. The butterfly area isn't big, but you walk in amongst them as they flit around doing butterfly-type things - sometimes they land on you, which is cool. They're apparently afer your sweat, for the salt, which ain't cool so much *g* - you can point and laugh and say 'oooh, look at *that* sweaty bugger' LOL! And some of them are huge! They have these spectacular big blue ones which are larger than my hand - but these are particularly camera-shy, it seems, and it's well nigh impossible to get a decent photo of them :-( But others are more obliging, and they're equally spectacular, if slightly smaller scale:

Pretty black and white butterfly gorging on nectar




Two butterflies sitting on a leaf




Close up of a lovely black and white wing



They seem to feed mainly on rotting fruit - in fact, I'll swear one of them was pissed as a rat because it was lying on its back in one of the feeding trays, waving its little legs in the air. I took a soft hearted turn and rescued the poor wee mutt, and I have to tell you, it had a helluva hard time staying upright when I put it on a leaf to sleep it off LOL - but there are flowers there too, for those who prefer their food au naturel





When we got there, we found we were just in time for an animal handling session. So, nothing ventured yadda - long and short, we decided to just go for it. There was a marvellous python, and a giant millipede - both totally great :-) (I'm keen on snakes and bugs of all kinds, so nae bother at a' for me). Third thing up was a tarantula, and those of you who know me, know that I'm *not* keen on spiders. Just a ba' hair shy of being totally phobic, in fact. Anyway --

Phobes do NOT scroll down

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Phobes turn back here - last warning!

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Nicci is seriously bad for my health. But she's a game bugger, I'll give her that. She tried holding everything, including the spider, despite the fact she really doesn't like creepy crawlies. I would have loved to, but chickened out when it came right down to the bit. Until ---

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OMG!!!! I actually HELD A TARANTULA!!! And DIDN'T DIE OF ANYTHING!!!

I still can't believe that I did that! But man, I'm telling you, I was shaking like a leaf (that's why the pic is a little blurry *g*). But then I went back and I DID IT AGAIN!!!! And somehow, I don't think I'm going to be quite so worried about the big skelpers that run across the living room carpet in August ;-)

::is such a big brave girl::

Tomorrow - alligator wrestling. Film at 11. :-D

So that was my day. How was yours? *g*