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| is that zebra poo on my shoe? |
I agreed to the idea after a friend suggested meeting at our local branch of the Natural History Museum in Tring, Hertfordshire,which is fundamentally a collection of dead, stuffed animals, originally gathered by local posh bloke Walter Rothschild.
It might seem macabre but my children always preferred it to the zoo or safari park because they could stand right next to the animals and compare their size to their own, the animals stand still long enough for small people to sketch them with the paper and pencils thoughtfully provided by the museum and they are largely un-spooked by shrieking stampeding toddlers.
Grumpy has only visited a couple of times (as after having 7 children I am a bit sick of the place) so having a guilty moment I agreed to a half-term visit.
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| "frozen" Badger. |
But what can I say - the place is quite big so there was still room for running about ( kids not me) and there are plenty of benches for weary mothers to rest while the children marvel at the dead stuff.
Grumpy declared that the animals were actually not dead but frozen. Well it was quite chilly yesterday so I can see why he might think that.
And DD#2 declared the graphic video showing exactly how taxidermy worked as "Yucky". But still watched it three times.
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| Lemurs! |
After a quick look round the shop where I got away with just buying one small plastic frog we adjourned to Costa for refreshments then home where I gave myself a handful of good mother points and went for a lie down in a dark room.
It's raining again today - but tempting as it is to try the local softtplay, cinema or bowling alley I learned my lesson yesterday so think we will find stuff to do at home instead!
