We interrupt your chronological update schedule because I had a whole bunch of pictures of animals that I didn’t want to wait to share!

First: here’s one of the ravens from the Tower of London (next post, I promise).

The gold band around his foot identifies him as Jubilee, one of seven ravens who currently call the Tower home.

Ravens have distinct personalities, and this guy is a total show-off.

He seemed pretty content to be watched and photographed, sitting on a railing where tourists passed by on their way between guard towers. Now and then, he would crow, but more often he would strike a pose, leaning forward and opening his beak and holding like that for a second or two as the cameras all around him went off.

The ravens at the Tower are extremely well-fed: they dine on ground beef, mice and rats, boiled eggs, and blood-soaked biscuits.

Now, some cows!

These are my host Peter’s cattle–two adults, two yearlings, and one six-week-old calf.

This is Tabitha, the calf’s mother. She and the other big ones are British White cattle.

The two yearlings, number 45 & number 46:

Finally, the baby, who is British White/Welsh Black:

Lastly–this is Poppy, whom I feed every morning:

And that’s the last of the animals for now. Next up: the spooky, the infamous, the Tower of London!