Stop, revive, survive

The past weekend away in Wales was a godsend providing much needed rest to relax and unwind. We stayed in this cute little farmhouse, surrounded by little lambs grazing on lush green pasture. Fresh crisp air, clear blue skies and walks along the beach - it was a much welcomed break from the city life.

Talented hobby-photographer took these stunning shots.

It's lambing season at the moment so there was a lot of new born lambs on the farm. Mr Owens here is holding one that was born only 10mins before the flash of my camera.

Mother sheep with her new born lamb (lamb was born the night before).

There is something very soothing and soul-nourishing about the simplicity of the countryside.

Czech this out

Corny title I know.

Recent trip to Prague marks the end of my weekend Europe travels. The idea of jet setting off in the sunset to a European city on the weekend is oh-so-idyllic. Europe is beautiful and there is an eye-opening quality about everything. But the reality of weekend travels is often not so glam. Case in point, my recent Prague trip had me waking up at 3.30am to get to the airport and returning home past midnight on Sunday night. Add to that the 'maximiser' mentality to squeeze in as much sight-seeing, wining and dining as possible. So by the end of the trip, it often does not feel like I had a holiday at all.

So I am really excited about the upcoming road trip over Easter to Wales. Not least because it will be with some of my most favourite people in London. We will be staying at a farmhouse near the beach, no early wake up calls, no infuriating security checks at the airport, no peering at travel guides or maps. Just blissful rest.

I can hardly believe that the first three months of this year has already passed us by. Perhaps it's not so much as being London as it is being away from home (and being away from the comforts of home cooked meals and vacuumed floors). I can hardly lay claim to a wild, raging social life but time has flown like a roller coaster ride, and an emotional one at that.

My Georgie

I thought I would do a little Wiki research to understand Georgie a little better (actually I was killing time whilst waiting for photos to load up).

Excerpt from Wikipedia
Female giraffes associate in groups of a dozen or so members, occasionally including a few younger males. Males tend to live in "bachelor" herds, with older males often leading solitary lives. Reproduction is polygamous, with a few older males impregnating all the fertile females in a herd. Male giraffes determine female fertility by tasting the female's urine in order to detect estrus, in a multi-step process known as the Flehmen response.

The males often engage in "Necking", which has been described as having various functions. One of these is combat... Another function of necking is affectionate and sexual, in which two males will caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Same sex relations are more frequent than heterosexual behavior. In one area 94% of mounting incidents were of a homosexual nature. The proportion of same sex courtships varies between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males will be engaged in affectionate necking behavior with another male. Females, on the other hand, only appear to have same sex relations in 1% of mounting incidents.

Um.. perhaps it should be Roger the Rabbit and not Sexy Bunny for Georgie?

Now isn't Georgie just so cute?

Photos from Ebury

Full set of photos from the night at Ebury are here.
I am not even going to attempt to explain myself or the photos.
Enjoy!