A Postcard A Day - Friday 13 October 2023 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely ladies,

Here we are once again on a Friday and thinking of all the smiles and the silver linings of this week.

I have lots to smile about, and I will tell you in a moment, but first I'd like to show you this cute postcard:

It comes to me from Finland. I have no information on the artist. I actually left the postcards behind at home and only have the photographs on my laptop. 

The stamp is really gorgeous (as are most stamps from Finland I find):

Wikipedia says: Karl Fazer Milk Chocolate, commonly known as Fazer Blue, is a Finnish brand of milk chocolate owned by the Fazer corporation. The common name derives from the iconic blue color of its wrapper, which is a registered color trademark of the Fazer corporation. The chocolate was brought to market in 1922. According to the Fazer corporation, the Swiss recipe was a gift to the Fazer family from an Englishman. The recipe has remained unchanged since.

In 2001, the Fazer Blue color, Pantone C 280, became Finland's first color trademark. 

So, what have I been up to since last Friday. Those of you who read my Tuesday blog will know that I have been on a Christian retreat, then last Friday I traveled from Devon to Clutton, south of Bristol, to stay the weekend with number 1 son and his family. That was lovely and the weather was good.

On Monday my D-i-L drove me to North Bristol to stay with my friend Keren and her husband. 

Keren took me to the Bristol Zoo Project. 

Bristol Zoo Project, formerly known as Wild Place Project, is a wildlife conservation park in South Gloucestershire, United Kingdom. It is run by Bristol Zoological Society and was the sister site of Bristol Zoo Gardens until closure of that site in 2022.

The park has been designed to link specific ecosystems and conservation programmes around the world, and was originally intended to be split into biomes, representing species found only in specific habitats. Current areas include: Bear Wood, Benoué National Park and Discover Madagascar.

There are raised wooden walkways around the enclosures. The Bear Wood has of course got bears living in it:

Bear Wood is absolutely incredible. It’s a wooden walkway that takes 45 minutes (minimum) to walk through.

There are wolves in the same enclosure:

I think the wolverines were there as well, but I didn't get good photos of them somehow. (I had never seen a wolverine before so that was interesting).

The Madagascar environment had lots of lemurs. Bristol Zoo Project have a large walkthrough Lemur enclosure where you can get up close to the Lemurs. 

One nearly jumped on my friend's head which she found amusing! They were all very tame and enjoyed putting on a show for the public.

I personally loved the African habitat (Benoué National Park). There are zebras and giraffe walking around. We were fortunate to chance upon feeding time (We wondered why we didn't spot any giraffe out in the field). They had all come in to be fed. They hoist large bundles of leaves high up in the giraffe house.

There were three giraffes and each has a different pattern, a bit like a fingerprint in humans.

The white plastic boxes have some sort of treat inside (perhaps salt tablets?) and they were trying to get their large, long black tongues inside to retrieve whatever was inside.

Other animals in the African habitat were cheetahs:

I can go on and on about this project. Next month the gorillas will be moved there. (The Bristol Zoo closed last year but there are still animals there).

I'll leave it at that. 

Of course I will leave some funnies as per usual. These are all old ones that I have stored on my laptop, so I hope you haven't seen them before. (And I apologise for the F word)

I will now go and link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time. I hope you will join me with your smiles.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca