Fun Weekend with Jessica

We had an awesome weekend. My sister, Jessica, came for a quick weekend visit and we spent Saturday doing fun things together. 

First, we went to the South Durham Farmer's Market, but only for about 3 minutes, because it is quite small and we just got lots of produce from the state Farmer's Market.  There was one booth that I might go back to next week. They had many varieties of pepper plants, and since we have been neglectful and not started our garden this year, I want to get several to plant. We usually do peppers but are disappointed in the selection we've seen at the garden centers around us. We've been meaning to fix up our soil before planting but we've been putting it off so we haven't planted.

Next, we went to the Conservator's Center outside of Mebane, NC. They rescue primarily big cats, but also some other cats and other animals. They probably have about 30 lions right now, 5+ tigers, 4 wolves, a leopard, lynx, bobcat, mountain lion, caracals, servals, ocelots, genets, jungle cats, and more.  But for us, the one who stole the show were the binturongs. They are Southeast Asian animals that look most like ROUS's from Princess Bride. They are excellent climbers and the guide told us the one pictured below doesn't ever like to touch the ground and just goes around on the old firehose that is strung up around the enclosure. They have a prehensile tail that they use to balance and steady themselves when climbing trees.

Binturong

Binturong - Their tails is very big.

A serval. I think of them as awkward squat cheetahs.

Leopard. So pretty!

One of the many lions. They all roared for us with a little encouragement.

Tigers

Arthur Tiger. He's on Facebook!

That afternoon, after a quick nap and lunch, Jeran took Jessica and then me on a motorcycle ride. It was perfect weather all day!

Then we went rock climbing at a local indoor place. We had a great time and got some good exercise.

We all did a chimney climb that had no holds, just walls on three sides. It took some longer than others... but we all made it to the top.

Then we had a late dinner and called it a day. What an awesome weekend! Thanks for visiting, Jessica!

Lions in the news

Some of you may have already seen one or both of these, but today I watched two related news clips about lions and babies:

babys-zebra-hoodie-attracts-hungry-lion-at-oregon-zoo

babies-draw-attention-lion-once-again

Not quite sure what I think about it, but I don't know that I would leave my child sitting right there. Especially on the zebra one. Poor lions.

Crochet Stuff and Funny Toby

Last year I crocheted a lot of toys, which I mostly gave away as Christmas presents for my nephews. Most of them are just free patterns I found online but some I made up or modified. My friend, Mary, inspired me with the her cute crochet animals. Here are pictures of some of my crocheting.

Elephant

Tractor

Tiger or maybe lioness

Hippo

Dragon - this was one of my favorites because I made the whole thing up myself. 

Lion

Giraffe

Parrot

Wolf

You might recognize this next one!

Motorcycle

And this is obviously not crochet but I think it's been a long time since I posted about Toby and I really like his whiskers in the picture below. One day I was sitting on the couch using a laptop and he started going crazy - looking all around the room and chattering like I hadn't heard him do in years. Eventually I figured out that there was a CD near me that was reflecting the light from our five recessed lights and whenever I would move, the reflections would bounce around on the ceiling and walls. I don't know why this gets him more excited than squirrels and catnip, but it seems to be one of his most favorite thing. I recall now that a similar thing actually happened one other time while I was working and the light from the window was shining on my ring and making a light spot on the wall dance around. I obviously didn't notice until he started meowing and jumping at the wall. Funny cat.

Motorcycle!

Drum roll! After years of working on it, Jeran has completed the rebuild and cleaning of his motorcycle! We are fortunate enough to have friends who very patiently allowed the motorcycle a corner of their garage for all that time. Jeran washed and de-grimed pretty much every piece of the bike and replaced all the broken or really worn pieces. He also got the frame repainted and it looks much, much better. It really needed an attentive tune-up because before he started this there was some trouble with the brakes and also the clutch cable broke while he was riding it. Yeah, not good. Anyways, without further ado, here are some before, during and after pictures:

Before

During

 After

Hooray for finished projects!