Look! Rain, Dear!

This morning I threw open the curtains to reveal the miserable, drizzly weather outside and declared to Rachel: "Look! Rain, dear"... thus setting the tone for the rest of the day.

Our day had been all planned out for weeks, as Rachel had a day off work, and we were going to the Reindeer Centre in Bethesden - about an hour away.

It's a working farm where they raise reindeer for rental to stores and organisations who are putting on authentic Santa Claus displays at this time of the year.

The majority of the animals are kept cosy in one massive barn, out of the rain and wind, and as well as a magnificent herd of reindeer, the farm has meercats, ferrets, rabbits, ducks, chickens, goats, donkeys etc - all of which are very friendly and most can be petted and fed by visitors.

You could buy a handful of carrots for a charitable donation and the farmer directed me to the large carrots (as evidenced in the picture of Rachel above with one of the many reindeer).

Naturally, we did a lot of feeding of the animals... and a lot of picture snapping.

Away from the main barn was Santa's grotto, and while we were too old to get to see the Big Man himself, the grotto was a wonderful mix of animatronics and festive scenes, which brought back memories of visiting Father Christmas as a child.

The rest of our pictures can be found over in my public Facebook album.