No Smoke without FIRE!

I spent most of the day at Whipsnade Zoo today.  The forecast was for sun in the morning and then getting worse but in fact the light was pretty good for a lot of the day.  The zoo was relatively quiet and I had a very pleasant few hours observing and photographing elephants, rhino, zebra, flamingos and a steam train!  Also a baby yak that was only born yesterday and still looked rather bedraggled and not really sure where he was.  The baby elephant photographed in November is now far more confident but still able to walk under his mother and not yet straying far from her side.

The flamingos were fun being very loud and contorted into various shapes - just where do you put a neck as long as that!  I thought for a few minutes that I had found my blip as they are coloured like Fire!  Then I remembered the mono aspect.....

At Whipsnade there is a steam train that goes round part of the zoo and I noticed this earlier in the day so back to the 'station'. Unfortunately my timing was not the best as one train had just pulled in and it was a 30 minutes wait for its next trip. I waited!  This, I thought, would sum up the day so far and fit the brief for mm65 'Fire' as all that smoke comes from a fire within the engine.  A few other zoo pics on Flickr.

Off out soon for a choir rehearsal of Mendelssohn's 'Elijah' - beautiful and tuneful music.