A little relative had her 5th birthday today so we had a family day out at Folly Farm in West Wales, which was grand, although freezing cold. Of course it was, it’s a British Bank Holiday – too much to expect fine weather. At least it didn’t rain. We are lucky to still have four generations in our family and we made up a group aged from 15 months to 80 years and it was lovely. There was a very high wooden walkway going right up into the air and we were level with the giraffes. They are such strange creatures – I’ve never seen them close to before. Their hips face forward and they have these ridiculously skinny legs with nobbly knees. And very lumpy heads. I had my fingerles mittens on but my fingers still froze! We also saw meercats, mongooses and a foosa. Brilliant day out.
scribblah 
Hi Rosie, I really love these sketches of the giraffes – i think they’re very special! What an excellent idea to have a giraffe viewing platform.
Had to google the Foosa – amazing animal and so beautiful. I think it’s also known as Darwin’s Fox.
I’m going to do some back-commenting as i’ve been lazy, just looking at your blogs in my email. Was so touched by Ming’s story.
Thanks Rowan. Ming is healthy and happy now 🙂
Hi Rosie,
I nominated you for a blog award. You can check it out here:http://drewkail.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/ive-been-nominated-for-a-blog-award/
Take care,
Drew
Love the giraffes! I grew up in a town-Brookfield, Illinois-that has a world class zoo. Dolphinarium! Even some Pandas in the 1930’s. In the “good old days”, you could get up close to certain animals–I’ll never forget feeding peanuts to the giraffes–they have long purply tongues that would curl around the treat and gently slip it from your hand.
Magical!
Judith
Hello!
It’s a grand goal to draw and blog daily. Best wishes on your creative process!
I also posted this on April 7th: How I Rediscovered Sketchbooks & Their Magic
http://freehandlife.com/2012/04/07/how-i-rediscovered-sketchbooks/
Sounds like a lovely day. I wish you had sketched a foosa. What on earth is it?
It was too quick to draw but it looks a bit like a middle sized wild cat, very muscular and a lovely shade of brown, although technically they’re not cats. They’re the baddies in the Madagascar films, but this one looked very beautiful. At Folly Farm they keep them as part of a breeding programme as they’re classified as ‘vulnerable’. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_%28animal%29
Woah! That was more than I was expecting. Talented artist and font of knowledge on Foosa’s and Disney 😉
Wikipedia’s brilliant isn’t it lol. I LOVE the Madagascar films, the third is out soon. Until yesterday I thought Foosa’s were made up for the films.
Lovely sketches. Giraffes are just very tall whippets, aren’t they? Apart from those nobbly bits of course.
hahaha yes they are!