Summer Holiday Part Four - Swindon

 The last day of our holiday was driving home from Swindon, where we had spent the night. James wanted to do a bit of shopping for some new clothes, so we headed to the Swindon Designer Outlet. I know I've blogged about it before, but it's such a fun place to be. Yes theres shops there, but the fact that it's all in former train engine workshops is brilliant. Everywhere you look there is history on show, the brickwork, cranes, even tracks can be spotted. There's a railway museum there too, which we've done before and didn't do on this occasion, but it's worth having a look if you're into railway nostalgia & shopping. I doubt there is many places that manage to seamlessly blend the two! 

The other thing we did on the way home was visit Studley Grange Butterfly World & Farm Park. Again, it's somewhere we've been several times before, but we really do enjoy our visits there. Ignore it's ramshackle appearance, for it's better than some of the nicer looking ones we've been too! For £9.45, you get to see many different types of butterfly, as well explore the outdoor farm park, with all manner of animals, all looking to make friends (and in some cases, to be fed!)

These two birdies gave us a song as we walked past, and even treated us to a little spot of dancing!
Here's James feeding the goats, including one who had climbed out of the enclosure and was eagerly sniffing and licking his hand. Then as we were leaving and there was no more food to be had, managed to jump back through the wooden bar into the enclosure. Thats what I call queue jumping for feeding!
All of the goats are extremely friendly while you've got food, but they are very fickle, and once it's gone, so are they!

And here are the wallabies enjoying the summer heat! By this point I was starting to wilt a bit, so we headed into the cafe for some refreshments, before starting the journey home! 

And just like that, the holiday was over! Why is it time away from work goes so quickly, yet working takes forever? It's a mystery that a team of scientists really need to study & fix!

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