It's the summer holidays and I've got to keep the girls amused so I took them to Parken Zoo in Eskilstuna Sweden. It was horrendously expensive but we had one of the best days ever!
These furry little fellas were our favourite out of all the animals there. They were cute and inquisitive and calm and clever looking, just adorable..
And I realised an important thing whilst I was there... I was so happy and content and in the moment wandering around looking at the animals.
I never felt rushed, my mind wasn't wandering off. I felt really calm and unstressed. I'm kind of stressy as a person, always wanting to get on with the next thing, always busy, but being with animals calms me down more than anything else. It is part of the reason I have a dog. With my wee friend I can just sit and play with him or pat him and it totally clears my mind. I would very much like to have a whole menagerie of animals in the house but half my family are allergic to most furries so I have to content myself with just the one dog and lavish all my love and cuddles on hime alone...
We also went into Stockholm to see a free exhibition in the Konserthuset along with a free mini concert. You notice I use the word 'free' here a lot, that's because after the financial hemorrhage that was Parken Zoo, I was looking for more economical entertainment choices...The exhibition was photographs of Milles Gården by photographer Yanan Li through the seasons.
Some nice moments but we whipped around it in 2 minutes. The concert was nice, trendy young string trio, but we only watched about 10 minutes of that before we all got fidgety and wanted to get on... The toilets were nice though ;-)
We also visited Grönsöö Palace which is lovely spot to take the dog for a walk by the water and eat outside. I do recommend the chocolate banana cake, it was delicious... and I know a thing or 2 about chocolate cake (see last weeks blog ;-) ... anyway it was a lovely wander around the grounds of a stately home. The staff are the family that live there and they are super helpful and knowledgeable. I took this really weird picture through the window of the shell house folly. You can't get in there but you can look in the windows at the bonkers shell encrusted interior...
This is what it looks like from a distance...
Oh yes, the saver of bees part.. I keep seeing bumble bees on the ground, either totally still or slowly wandering. I know this is because they are very tired, they are busy bees after all, so I like to pick them up (carefully on a card or something) and put them somewhere out of harms way. One landed on a spinny go roundy ride thing at Parken Zoo and afterwards, when we stopped I scooped him up and put him on a flower but I felt that what he really wanted was a bit of sugar water... I didn't have any on me, unsurprisingly, but I'm going to remedy this oversight and get a dropper from the pharmacy and make some, carry it in my purse, and save the bees as often as I get the opportunity...which is nearly daily around where I live.
I wish my love of animals extended to spiders but I just don't get that warm cuddly feeling...
Anyway, on the theme of free entertainment, I took the girls to see Shakespeare in the Park last night... we were late to get there and had a rubbish spot where we could see more of what was going on backstage than on stage. The play was set in the 60's and I think the kids got a bit of a shock when they saw one of the actors take all his clothes off back stage and also his long wig. The sun was so intense I felt like I was being melted and desiccated simultaneously... the kids gave it up after the cake ran out and went off to find a shady spot no where near the actual thing, so we just gave up and hung out in the very lovely park for awhile... I forgot how much I don't like a Midsummer Night dream... reminds me of school work...
Enough high culture for one week... I think the whole family needs a dose of Americas Funniest Home Videos and a bunch of Pizzas to balance things out!
Have a wonderful weekend!
I like your attempt at Shakespeare, but cake and shade, yes, may just have the edge. x
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