I went on my own for the first time and for anyone who knows me, that is pretty good…
the cacao trees are looking a bit sad, but most of the Tropical Biome looked good…
I spent quite some time watching the fish… they were very active swimming around the pond and a number of plants have been trimmed back so they are also much easier to see;-)…
the orchids in the Mediterranean Biome are still doing very well, with tons of blooms on them…
and the biggest surprise was the Butterfly Garden, which had more butterflies flying around than I’ve ever seen here…
zoo staff were letting a good number emerge from the nursery and there were many people admiring them as well… it is always fun to hear what the keepers have to say about the butterflies… they record each one as they release it…
then I took one last walk through the biomes as I waited for my ride…
the ones in the den have been getting buds and have also been sitting in water, sort of by accident, lol, so I decided to try that for all the other ones…
as you enter the Mediterranean biome there are dozens of amaryllis in various stages… some nearly done, while others are fully open… many with multiple petals…
absolutely gorgeous…
and then you step into the Babs Asper display area… twelve hundred orchids in one place;-)… heaven…
the Blooms in Winter display is so lovely, a perfect place to enjoy the beauty of orchids…
there are a number of arches to walk through and benches to sit on and enjoy the views…
first I spent time at the registration desk where they had to make me a new card as mine had stopped working… apparently the website has been misbehaving a bit, so hopefully the new card will solve that issue;-)…
then we went through the biomes… there were a number of baskets of orchids throughout the Tropical biome…
very humid, and it was obvious that there had been a serious trim and thinning of many of the plants…
the cacao trees had been cutback and all the pods have been removed…
the koi were very active… while we were there one of the zoo keepers came along and fed them… clearly the fish were waiting for them, lol…
the dwarf banana is just starting with a new set of banana fingers…
my housemate pointed out the difference between the dwarf and regular bananas… the dwarf has the banana fingers coming out of the flower, whereas the full-size banana has a flower at the end and the fingers below…
there are always subtle changes in the Tropical biome each time I visit;-)…
the mattress had gone upstairs on Saturday, and the tables and couch put back in their usual space… I also changed the orchids on the sofa table, putting the ones that are blooming onto the dining room table and the ones that aren’t into the den…
it wasn’t until Monday morning that the carpet and coffee table made it back into their spots… my housemate had to lift the couch so I could slide the carpet under the feet to hold it in place…
I’ve now added a tray on the side table to keep it from getting scratched and added some flowers…