So, yesterday I spent at the zoo in Nuremberg which is best known for its polar bears (little Flocke was born here a few years back) and dolphins. It's quite a big zoo where you can easily spend 6+ hours. A few enclosures are currently closed for rebuilding, amongst them the wolf enclosure (it will be turned into a lynx enclosure) and sadly also ( Read more... )

I just noticed that when I posted the photos of Hirschfeld the other day some were missing. For some reason LJ hadn't uploaded them properly. But as they are photos of a tawny owl cleaning itself in my presence and of the pair of great grey owls (the male of which is beige-coloured), I have to share them with you yet. Apologies for the fence ( Read more... )

On May 2 I was at Leipzig Zoo, and as always I loved it. It really doesn't matter how often I go there, I am always just in awe at what they've managed to achieve. I still remember the zoo from East Germany times when the enclosures were tiny and in disarray. It's completely different these days. Most animals have huge enclosures that are as close ( Read more... )

So, after two years I finally made it back to Hirschfeld Tierpark. It's a small but really beautiful zoo just about 15 mins by car from Zwickau. They have mostly regional animals on display, but also a few more exotic animals such as porcupines, and a few macaques for the kids. But despite its small size it's still an amazing place to go. ( Read more... )

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

- Anais Nin

... and how many new worlds were born all those years ago thanks to a place called Middle Earth...! Words cannot express how blessed I feel to have met you all. ♥

You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay? Your life does not get better by ( Read more... )

The main aim of education should be to send children out into the world with a reasonably sized anthology in their heads so that, while seated on the lavatory, waiting in doctors' surgeries, on stationary trains or watching interviews with politicians, they may have something interesting to think about.

- Sir John Mortimer

Your friendship is a glowing ember ( Read more... )

When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.

- Thomas Jefferson

Most of our obstacles would melt away if, instead of cowering before them, we should make up our minds to walk boldly through them.

- Orison Swett Marden