“But perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that there are no walls between humans and the elephants except those that we put up ourselves, and that until we allow not only elephants, but all living creatures their place in the sun, we can never be whole ourselves.” ― Lawrence Anthony, The Elephant Whisperer
“Never break a promise to an animal. They’re like babies—they won’t understand.” – Tamora Pierce, Wild Magic
“The household cat is really a tiger that has underwent three counselling programs.” – Valeriu Butulescu
A group of us got together to go to a nature center for a walk to celebrate K2’s birthday. We had originally planned to go to a botanical garden, but they were closed for an event, so we went here instead. Unfortunately, we’d had some severe storms in the days before and we ended up getting blocked on a couple trails at the nature center and the park we went next because of flooding. We all agreed that it was more about the company than the event, so were happy spending time together. We also had absolutely delicious Mexican food after our two failed walks.
This nature center was small, but really well done. They had a lot of really nice taxidermy specimens and very nicely organized exhibits. They had a small viewing area with information on local birds and a kids section with things you could play with and magnification stations that you could use to examine things.
There were also some live animals, which seemed very happy! Most of them were active which was cool to see. The Husband and I are trying to get back to having regular dates. We missed each other during theater season and I think that some of the nature centers would be really cool and generally free to visit.
Here are some of the things we saw at the nature center.
This is the little pond was in the atrium when you walked in. The turtles all wanted the warming light and we didn’t see any frogs. There were signs to make sure to look down to avoid stepping on frog or turtle friends.
This wasp nest was really big! I get scared by wasps, but their nests are so cool looking!
Look, a beaver! We always joke that the beavers at the Zoo are “theoretical beavers” because you never see them unless you’re there for the late events. K2 says that they have, in fact, the beavers at the zoo. This one was posed very nicely. Behind the beaver you can see the fish and turtle tank.
There were signs saying “Don’t forget to look up!” So we did and were greeted by this happy little possum who looked like he was going to jump on us! There were some birds and racoons too, but some of the animals were hard to take a picture of. There were a lot of fun nature photographs too. Those always inspire me to get a really good camera and go exploring.
There were some interesting animal skeletons too. I really liked the curviness of this snake skeleton.
I didn’t see what kind of bird this was, but how cool is it to see the wings and everything? I feel like this is an interesting piece that you don’t normally see. I appreciated the different perspective.
Alright, the last few picture are snakes, so if you don’t want to see them, scroll away! I believe this was an albino corn snake. It apparently needs a lot of humidity, as the tank was very misty, as you can see. The humidifier in the tank was Olaf from Frozen, which made us all laugh.
I don’t remember what kind of snakes these were, but they were pretty active.
The last one was a hognose snake and K2 was sweet talking it. I told her Piggy might be jealous if she said the snake was her favorite Piggy, so she made sure to give her extra love when we came home. He was lovely and very interested in what was going on in the room.
I don’t mind snakes. I don’t know that I’d want to hold them or have them near me not in a tank, but they don’t freak me out as much as spiders or wasps. *shudders
Overall, it was a fun little visit! We had a good time at dinner and after dinner we just hung out at our house. I really liked that part of the night too. The Husband and I want our friends to feel comfy just coming over so it was neat to be able to do that again.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the write up. It’s been a really, really hard year for me and a lot of my creativity suffered for it, including writing. I’m hoping to get back into writing up short posts at least. Hopefully our date nights will be full of fun picture opportunities as well!
I hope you can get out and enjoy some nature this week!
“Animals had carried me all my life. I was a crossover–carried along in the generous and instructive slipstream of other species. And I had always navigated my life with them in mind, going between the human and animal worlds–a crossover myself. By including animals in my life I was always engaging with the Other, imagining the animal mind and life. For almost half a century, my bond with animals had shaped my character and revealed the world to me. At every turning point in my life an animal had mirrored or influenced my fate. Mine was not simply a life with other animals, but a life because of animals.
It had been this way since my beginning, born on a forest lookout station in the High Sierras, surrounded by millions of acres of wilderness and many more animals than humans. Since infancy, the first faces I imprinted, the first faces I ever really loved, were animal.” ― Brenda Peterson, Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals
“Research suggests that the earliest flying reptiles swallowed small pieces of volcanic rock and could breathe out flammable gases like hydrogen produced in their own bodies. It is hypothesized that their ingenious “fire breath” was used as a defense against predatory reptiles.” ― Karen Shanor, Bats Sing, Mice Giggle: The Surprising Science of Animals’ Inner Lives
“The evening before I departed I stood on the rim of a lagoon on Isla Rabida. Flamingos rode on its dark surface like pink swans, apparently asleep. Small, curved feathers, shed from their breasts, drifted away from them over the water on a light breeze. I did not move for an hour. It was a moment of such peace, every troubled thread in a human spirit might have uncoiled and sorted itself into a graceful order. Other flamingos stood in the shallows with diffident elegance in the falling light, not feeding but only staring off toward the ocean. They seemed a kind of animal I had never quite seen before.” ― Barry Lopez, About This Life
“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”- James Herriot
“You can always tell about somebody by the way they put their hands on an animal.”-Betty White
“I want my children and my grandchildren to live in a world with clean air, pure drinking water, and an abundance of wildlife, so I’ve chosen to dedicate my life to wildlife conservation so I can make the world just a little bit better.”-Bindi Irwin
“My mother early on taught us to respect all animals, and I mean all animals – not just cats and dogs but rats and snakes and spiders and fish and wildlife, so I really grew up believing they are just like us and just as deserving of consideration.”-Joanna Lumley
“I find solace in animals. I have got a stray dog at home called Candy. I picked it up while I was waiting at the airport one day. I always wanted to have a ‘macho’ dog but got this sweet little thing instead.”-Randeep Hooda
“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”-James Herriot
“Animals don’t lie. Animals don’t criticize. If animals have moody days, they handle them better than humans do.”- Betty White
“You know, sometimes the world seems like a pretty mean place. That’s why animals are so soft and huggy.”― Bill Watterson, Scientific Progress Goes “Boink”
“Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they’re thirsty. That’s prayer. They don’t live an unconscious life, they simply have no language to talk about these things. But they are grateful for the good things that come along.”- Mary Oliver
“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”-Francis Of Assisi
“Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.”-Jack Hanna
“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”- Terry Pratchett
“Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.”― Colette
“It may be a cat, a bird, a ferret, or a guinea pig, but the chances are high that when someone close to you dies, a pet will be there to pick up the slack. Pets devour the loneliness. They give us purpose, responsibility, a reason for getting up in the morning, and a reason to look to the future. They ground us, help us escape the grief, make us laugh, and take full advantage of our weakness by exploiting our furniture, our beds, and our refrigerator. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Pets are our seat belts on the emotional roller coaster of life–they can be trusted, they keep us safe, and they sure do smooth out the ride.” ― Nick Trout, Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life As an Animal Surgeon
“My philosophy when it came to pets was much like that of having children: You got what you got, and you loved them unconditionally regardless of whatever their personalities or flaws turned out to be. ” ― Gwen Cooper, Homer’s Odyssey
