Little lemurs

Shoulder/arm very sore and touchy today, had an awful nights sleep with it and am wondering if it was working at my drawing desk yesterday that kicked it off. Unavoidably, at the desk, my arm is positioned higher than it has been comfortable to do so over the past month or more. Although sitting there yesterday didn't feel particularly bad, it was starting to feel sore by end of the afternoon. So today again I tried to find other things to do rather than sit at my desk again for most of the day. However I do need to get on with the drill illustration and so spent time there to trace my drawing ready to transfer to the watercolour paper on which I shall paint the illustration. Once I did that I sploshed some paint on to start the background. It has been  about a month since I last painted and though it felt good to be holding the brush again, I'm not sure what I produced I shall be happy with.  To help blow the cobwebs away I tried working loosely  - wet into wet - to get a foundation for the background in. But looking at it later I wasn't terribly enthused with it... so I may end up painting over that next time. I didn't get much further with the drill.

I sorted some more photo's out on the computer and having received two lots of text from the Education dept for the panther chameleon and the blue spiny lizard, I set up the ID files for those two species and added the text in on both. I had to get Jim who wrote the text, to come and look at it again to take out one or two words so that the text block fitted the space on the sign. Then I did an internet search for the distribution ranges of both species... neither were amply represented in the images.. so I will have to contact the reptile section to confirm/source better maps.

Late in the afternoon Anna and I went across to the Aquarium (via the Maintenance Dept to pick up a tall set of steps) to put up the last two fish ID panels that were replacing the temporary paper ones. On our way there we passed through Monkey Jungle, the zoo's main primate exhibit. The ring-tailed lemurs recently had a baby; it is now about a month old and we just had to stop to watch. The mum and another adult were indoors chomping on some delicious fruit and veg put out for their afternoon feed. The baby was clinging to the Mum's back, its fur a pale tawny colour compared to Mum's grey back. As we watched, it shakily clambered off Mum and made hesitant moves away from her side. Soon it grew in confidence and took comical  stiff legged bounces between Mum and the other adult. These  gradually gained speed and accuracy the more it did it. It appeared to be having fun, bouncing back and forward in a jerky animated way; it was certainly endearingly funny to watch. We could have stayed there for many more minutes but we had to get onto the Aquarium to get the job done before the staff locked it up for the night.

Our progress in the Aquarium went smoothly and it didn't take long to get the new ID panels in. We are a bit concerned that the panels aren't black enough, so we need to ask if we can double up the panels (extra cost of course) to get them looking as dense and black as the other panels.