So the title of the blog is a reference to a song that harks back to when my daughter was very small and that I heard in a movie over the weekend and which perfectly fits with the subject of this post.
We have always, or for as long as I can remember had a lavender plant in out front garden, at times it has become large and unruly and needed pruning right back. In the last year we have had to replace it so at present it is just a small bush but even so it has been full of beautiful fragrant flowers.
I love lavender because of the colour, the furry texture of the tiny buds and the fact that they attract so many pollinators. They also remind me of hotels for some reason.
This is such a stunning bird with its bold yellow, shimmering blue and shades of green through to black you would think it would be hard to miss but in the shade of the foliage it was actually quite hard to spot. At least at first.
This is a Montserrat Oriole which is the national symbol of the island of Montserrat in the West Indies. It was at risk of extinction following the devastation of its habitat as a result of a volcanic eruption in 1990. Fortunately as a result of the conservation efforts of Jersey Zoo and subsequently other conservation partners there is now a safety net of captive bred birds.
This is a male Oriole, he is more striking than the females which have olive green plumage. They are adept at building fantastic nests using their finely pointed beaks. The nests are basket shaped, woven in the shade of banana leaves which protect them from rain and sun.
Not long after my visit to the zoo I did some food shopping and saw a woman at the checkout who was wearing a fur coat/jacket and whether it was real or faux fur I couldn't say but looking at it I felt sad, it didn't look right, it did nothing fr the person wearing it and it would have been much better on the cat. I love the patterns in fur and so I decided to post this crop of one of my shots from the zoo.
Can you guess which big cat this beautiful coat belongs to.
If someone guesses correctly (and I hope people will have a go) I will post a really great shot of the cat in question tomorrow.
