Enjoying nature's beauty at Butterfly World

A great place to visit that's not far from us is Butterfly World near St Albans - get a good sunny day and you'll love it. There's something for everyone with beautiful gardens, a butterfly house, insect centre, children's area, and of course a cafe.

The wildflower meadow is so gorgeous and as you wander through it you can see the huge leaf cutter ant that overlooks the site.

In one area there are musical instruments made out of wooden and metal pipes. We had great fun attempting to make music - my beloved is playing the xylophone.

Lovely sea of daisies.

A mass of lilliums - imagine how fab they'll look when they're all in bloom, but also imagine how stinky they'll be.

There are 18 little designer gardens to enjoy and I love this one which is rooms overgrown by nature.

The table below looks like it's straight out of one of the Narnia books - imagine it with talking animals around it.

Ken took this shot of me whilst I was contemplating the garden.

This feature was meant to represent dinosaur eggs in a very large nest.

A big fat bumblebee enjoying the flowers.

These gardens all have sculptural elements which give added interest. I really like the clock garden and the one with the purple flowers.

Our arty shot - selfie reflected in a large silver ball. We took about 10 shots just for this one.

The butterfly house has 15 - 20 different species of butterflies and if you're really lucky they may land on you.

The leaf cutter ants are fascinating to watch as they carry bits of plant so much bigger than themselves, up to 50 times their own body weight. They also walk huge distances with their bounty.

Educational sign for children which I found a little bit mind blowing - I so would not want to meet an ant the size of a baby mouse!! My beloved has a belief that one day ants are going to rise up and take over the world - personally I think it will be cats.

Hope you've enjoyed this visit to butterfly world - it's well worth a visit if you're ever in the area.

Until next time be good, stay safe, and do something that makes you smile.

Pamela and Ken
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A Highland Fling

I recently had the chance to work at Maggie's Highlands for a week which was lovely as we got to see our Scottish family in Nairn.

On our way to Gatwick airport via Victoria station we came across one of the DNA sculptures that are currently dotted around London. This one was designed by Chris and Xand van Tulleken - the sculpture trail is part of a Cancer Research UK project.

The below bags of loveliness were for sale in a restaurant we ate in at Gatwick airport - it was Comptoir Libanais which serves Lebanese food and was really good.

Whilst in the highlands we stayed in Nairn with our Scottish family - a lot of whom had four legs. Below is a picture of Ken's youngest son Jamie with the rabbits Travis and Archie chilling out on the couch.

Despite it raining nearly all week, Ken and Jamie did get a chance to visit Pluscarden Abbey which is a medieval monastery with a community of Catholic Benedictine monks. The first monks came here in the 13th century.

The Abbey is such a peaceful place to visit and even better if you time it to hear the monks praising God through Gregorian chants. The graveyard is a very reflective space in the grounds.

The boys also made it into Inverness one day - picture looking over the city and the river Ness.

Our one night out was at the Bandstand restaurant which was lovely - it has a beautiful view of the Moray Fifth and the real bandstand. As you can see my beloved is a bit shorter than his "little" boy.

The bandstand was a gift to the people of Nairn by John Wallace who was from Nairn but died in Ballarat, Victoria.

One of the lovely quirky things we found in Nairn was the knitted decorations around the town - this knitted bunting adorned the public toilets.

The boys contemplating life and the horizon.

I took a picture of this house not just because it looks pretty, but because it has the same name as the greatest Aussie Rules team of all time (no comments about the last few years) Carlton.

Beautiful black cat that I stopped and had a conversation with - her Scottish accent wasn't too difficult to understand.

This is the fabulous mosaic on the wall of the Little theatre in Nairn - it has so many bits to it and is a great design.

Now for the sad part of the blog - below is the very cute Hamish with me and Ken. We gave him lots of cuddles whilst we were there as he hadn't been well for a while. On our last day in Scotland Hamish had died peacefully in his sleep - he's running around in the great hamster playground over the rainbow bridge now.

Around Nairn there are some beautiful floral displays that really brighten the town up. I love the sculptural elements.

At the top of this street sign was a cuddly toy, and it wasn't the only one we saw - yet more quirkiness.

Interesting company name.

Ken and his little sister Jean - gorgeous picture of both of them.

Paddy the lovely canine member of the family.

The boys.

Another family shot.

When back in London we parted ways with Jamie at Kings Cross station, but first we had a drink at Leon.

The funky interior of the station.

Rather fittingly to end with the DNA sculpture at Kings Cross - this one designed by Leyla Aliyeva.

So that was our week in the beautiful highlands. Until next time stay safe, be good, and say hello to the next animal you see.

Pamela and Ken
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P.S: Final shot is my picture from the NOH8 photo shoot which was held in London. NOH8 is a charity that promotes marriage, gender, and human equality which I feel strongly about so was glad to do something visible to support this. The Aussie flag is to show support for marriage equality in my home country.