Greetings to all fellow followers of Kate's fun blog and best wishes for 2019.
Another year, another interesting selection of topics though my thinking cap has been working overtime with month.
Metalic
I drew a blank on this one since first reading the list then as I was packing away the surplus Christmas decorations I saw this pile of tinsel and baubles lying on the table and thought.....metallic. We have downsized from a 6 ft to a table top tree and are sending the now unwanted - no that sounds a bit harsh describing our beloved decorations - unneeded decorations to the charity shop along with the large tree.
Made
I must admit, I have not really made anything much this year except some knitted woolly hats. I was inspired by seeing a programme on our local news about an event in Manchester where knitted hats, gloves, scarves and socks etc were being given out to the homeless and rough sleepers. I rather felt I could knit beanies (knitted hats for our non-UK bloggers) rather than sit and twiddle my thumbs as I do not have a project on the go except a jersey that I am struggling to finish. So that is what I have been doing.
The felted hare is something Kate made me ages ago and the Tomte (Swedish Gnome) she made me for Christmas. I could not pack him away with the decorations.....he would have not liked that...so I've kept him out. Now I have a problem...I put him on the bookcase and he jumped off overnight. I tried another bookcase and he was lying on the floor in the morning. Now I have foxed him, he sits in the middle of the dining room table with the hare. He can't jump off that!
Aged
What is aged, wine - got none like that, a gnarled old tree - none immediately round here, us - well there is a couple living here that qualify but that is not very original. So as this month we have been looking and photographing wild life roaming round a reserve in South Africa (details at end of blog) I thought I would take inspiration from there. We photographed many elephant but this gentleman is the oldest, known as a Big Tusker for obvious reasons. There are not many left in the wild as they have sadly been poached for their ivory. But here at the Tembe Elephant Game Reserve in Qua Zulu Natal there is this one. You can also see he is old by the sunken areas above his eyes and rather bony back.
Modern
Following on this same theme here is a younger and more modern version of the old man above. Two females, each with a new baby and one has the previous offspring there too.
My own choice
Again a selection of pictures taken of animals at various drinking pans since Christmas. We are spending hours watching them. The computer is on all day till bedtime and I am just using my iPhone camera to take pictures of the computer screen - it is quicker than taking pictures via their web site but the quality is not always that good.
Female and young Nyala drinking at Tembe.
Pair of Giraffe at the cat-EYE pan (no idea why it is called or set out like that).
Wooly necked stork at Tembe and zebra drinking at Naledi pan.
You can even watch at night as they have lights and special cameras operating. This is a African Spotted Genet hunting. They have the longest tail of all the cat family.
Finally I just love this sign. I must be honest and say I pinched it off their web page.
If anyone feels like watching wild animals under a sunny South African sky this rather dreary time of the year this is the link............. Africam
There are about five different watering holes to choose from but we have found Tembe the most successful. O. River is the Olifants River.
So far we have seen elephant, giraffe, zebra, lioness, leopard, a long tailed spotted genet, a single buffalo, hyena chasing a small herd of buck, baboons, vervet monkeys and hippo (the latter two at Olifants River), antelope namely kudu, nyala, bush buck, and impala, social weavers with their hundreds of nests in one tree at Tembe, grey heron and a pair of woolly neck storks as well as other bird life. It's worth a look, you may even get hooked as we are. It's rather like having one of those original screensavers we all used to have!
Wonderful photos of all the animals and I love the caution sign. We gave quite a few baubles and tinsel bits to a charity shop a couple of weeks ago non of our special ones though. Your wool hats and felt creatures are lovely:)
ReplyDeleteThank you. That caution sign made me smile when I saw it. We too kept our 'special' baubles, some date back to the 1950's!
DeleteLove your selection of photos; Africam will be keeping you busy but what a good thing to watch. My favourite has to be Aged; I love elephants.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I always have you in mind and try and find at least one African story, so this month you have had quite a few!
DeleteThe colours of the Christmas decorations are gorgeous and the little felt hare looks so cute. You had me fooled initially with your account of watching the African wildlife, I thought you were actually there :) I've just briefly checked out the Tembe webcam, no doubt I'll be watching properly when I have time :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you followed the link. I have just watched a video made last night of a genet cat drinking and being startled by elephants arriving at the water hole. If your sound is on you will hear the elephant trumpeting. Have fun watching.
DeleteThanks for thinking of me!
DeleteGood one for metallic & hang on a minute, we call them 'beanies' here too in Oz. Your old elephant is wondrous with those huge tusks. I've never seen anything like it. K also mentioned I could use "us" for aged, but I didn't think so.(giggle). Take care.
ReplyDeleteHi. Been thinking of you and our relatives in Oz with all that heat. Keep cool. No need for Beanie hats then! Keep cool. x
DeleteClever use of all the animals for the list, especially like aged. I used have the africam site on the Eldest was little as I did not want him to forget the sounds of Africa.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked seeing the old Tusker. Not used the site for years so we are grateful to Youngest for reminding us of it at Christmas. Had so much fun and taken so many wonderful pictures. Next best thing to being there. xx
DeleteLove your photos especially the animals, and I love the sign on the last photo
ReplyDeleteJulie xxxxxx
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DeleteSorry, yes I deleted it, found I had replied twice! xx
DeleteThanks. I could not resist cheating and pinching that picture off the web page as it amused me so! xx
ReplyDeleteWonderful photos! I love all the animals at their watering holes and the length of that genet's tale is amazing! I love your cute hare and Tomte too, April xx
ReplyDeleteThank you. I agree, that tail is almost too long. It looks prehensile. Because they are nocturnal we have never seen one in real life. If you are in a game park you have to be back at camp by 6 pm. Never seen them on night drives. xx
DeleteI've missed your stories Jak, great to catch up with you again. I love the elephants, both the old and new, and my favourite animal of all is the giraffe - that's an interesting website, although I think I'd better not imbibe or I'll have (yet) another distraction to keep me from doing any meaningful work!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck finishing your jumper by the way - I'm in the middle of one that so far I've ripped out three times! It may never get finished - hats and gloves are easier - and for a good cause too.
Great to hear from you again. This afternoon we have been watching 2 young male elephants at that Tembe water hole. They have been play fighting, waving their necks around each other. It is much like real game viewing, nothing much to see during the heat of the day and as there is a 2 hour time difference we don't see much between 2 and 4. Go on, have a peep. Enjoy their lovely sunshine on a grey UK day. If there is nothing to see scroll down lower and you can see other's photographs and videos. We had a wonderful 20 minutes watching a herd of elephants bathing. The babies were so small they were using their trunks as snorkels!! That is on video too. That was at Rosie's pan. xx
DeleteAs always, your wildlife pictures are quite stunning. You must find the UK quite boring by comparison?
ReplyDeleteThank you. It took us a long time to get used to Springwatch and their excitement seeing nesting birds and newts etc.
DeleteTry looking at the site, cheers us up with their lovely blue skies and real African thunderstorms in the evenings especially in this grey time of the year.
ReplyDelete