A trip to the zoo...and more geckos!!

Yesterday I went to the Zoo!! Belfast Zoo in fact.

Hubby is on the Research Committee for the major zoos in Ireland..that is Fota Wildlife Park in Cork, Dublin Zoo and Belfast Zoo and this time the meeting was in Belfast.

It was only my second time going to Northern Ireland and my first time in Belfast.

Up at 5am to catch the commuter Aer Arann flight, we were in Belfast by 8am.
it's a lovely city. This is the Belfast City Hall finished in 1906 and now closed for renovations and the ultra modern Belfast wheel sitting happily next to it.
It looked beautiful at night before we left.



It was a typical February day that could best be described as 'dank'. It was very cold, damp and foggy.
I had found on the internet that there was a bead shop, Abacus Beads and found it easily..so that was me happy. It was in fact another 'gecko eye shop'!! and I came out with another great selection. 'Twas only two weeks ago that i thought that I had the ultimate eye collection from the Galway Bead Shop, but ...well you can never have too many eyes, now can you!!

After lunch we caught the Metro bus to the zoo, quite a way out of the city and walked up the steep hill to the entrance.



The zoo is built on the side of a hill, when you get to the top there are lovely views out over Belfast.





While hubby was at the meeting I got to climb to the top and see the animals. Most of them were sensibly inside their houses in the warm, some of which I could look inside. But a few braved the elements and I got to see my first meercat...just the one. His home was being 'done up a bit' and he sat and watched. Gorgeous he was.



As well as the interesting animals there were some great carvings made by a local chain saw artist.



I loved the Red Pandas,the Siberian Tiger..mmm not a great day for taking photos.





The carved sea lions made from a single log.



The carved lion



and the Barbary Lion now extinct in the wild.



That brings me back to geckos again and an addendum to my last post about keeping geckos. As their natural environments are rapidly dissapearing due to deforestation it is so very important that these beautiful little animals are maintained in private collections by enthusiasts who have the expertise to keep and breed them.
Long live Geckos!!!

I have been tatting another two Geckos this time in Marilee's thread Forest.
This little fella has Swarovski crystals running along his back bone and bronze pearl eyes.



This second one is my favorite, he looks really gecko like with an extra ring in his tail as most geckos have tails the same length as their body. The body is longer too as the new bead idea has made each ring bigger.



This gecko is very like Naultinus stellatus.. the Starry Tree Gecko from New Zealand. A little too dark in colour maybe but the markings are pretty good. He has AB Swarovski crystals on his head that really catch the light. Mmmmm I am really happy with these geckos. can't stop now, way too many ideas for Jane's lovely pattern.