Kate's One Word Scavenger Photo Hunt 26/02/2021

 

Kate's One Word choice for this weeks' Scavenger Hunt is 'Delicious'.   As it is just B and I at  home these days and what with stay home restrictions at the moment,  I don't get an opportunity to bake for either ourselves or for the 3 hollow legged males in Kate's family.  So I had to think again.  Then I remembered this.  We had done a small fruit and icecream tea for our son a while ago and when our daughter-in-law's birthday came round  she asked if we could do the same for her but on a larger scale and ask all the family to join us.  It seemed a good plan.  

So J came round in the morning and we got stuck into cutting up the fruit between us.  It was not that difficult  at all, the hardest part was buying the fruit at the right time.  I'm sure you all know the mangoes, kiwi or nectarines that say they are ready to eat but take at least a week to ripen on the kitchen windowsill.  The pineapple was the same.  But once we got started it was no problem.  We washed and trimmed as much of the fruit as we could the afternoon before which saved time on the day.  I have a melon baller and a knife that cuts the zig zag pattern which helped speed up the preparations.  I had bought two vanilla Carte d'or icecream, as they always look pretty, one for each end of the table as it was a 'help yourself occasion.   

The beautiful table cloth had been  hand painted for J as a birthday present from her late mother some years before.  The sunflowers just added to the tropical look of the table.  

The more I look at the pictures the more my mouth is watering.  Perhaps we can do it again sometime for one of us Katie??

Now off to look at others interpretation of 'Delicious' and I know their pictures will really get my mouth watering.

PS.  Just realised that there is not an African animal in sight on my blog.  Sorry Lovely Lady!!

Kate's One Word Photo Hunt 18/02/2021

Another week has flown by and for once I had planned what I was going to do.  My friend Threads through my Life is always so good on checking that I am ready and this week I was able to tell her I was all organised.  

The title for this week is 'Unexpected'.

My picture this week is of a most Unexpected surprise ....... a beautiful cyclamen, a present from Katie and Himself.  They were kindly dropping off a little bit of shopping we were needing and this was inside the bag.  It was a most unexpected and most appreciated present.  🧡

But then she produced another unexpected surprise a couple of days ago.  She had been tidying up and found this..........

................a Christmas card, unopened, addressed to us, from Youngest and his GF.  It was an unexpected surprise gratefully received and the added illustrations inside made us smile too.    An extra unexpected bonus has been that when I scanned and enlarged the picture we saw there is a robin perched on the deer's back that we had not noticed before.  Thanks Youngest and GF.🧡

But how can I do a weekly blog without my usual dose of animals from Africam.com.   I was watching the screen when suddenly this head popped out of the bushes.  

So Hello - he was an unexpected surprise. 

This was an unexpected surprise too.  I had just been looking at all the water plants that have grown since the pans and dams have filled after all the wonderful rains that have fallen in Southern Africa when this popped up.    I felt the hippo was actually watching me watching him!!!  (Not good quality picture but taken of  computer screen and the camera man had zoomed in very close).

This blog has been unexpected for me too as I had only planned to use the cyclamen picture this week  but 'like Topsy, it just growed. **'

(** Quote from Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe)

Have a good week everyone, take care and stay safe.  

Kate's One Word Photohunt 11/02/2021

The Word chosen for us this week begins with W.   As usual I have searched through my Africam archives for my pictures.

My first selection is a couple of photographs taken at Cat Eye pan of a family of Warthogs.  They are not the most beautiful members of the pig family but fascinating all the same.   Their curved tusks are used to dig up roots and can grow into dangerous weapons.   During fights their faces are protected by protruding pads on either side called Warts, hence their name.

                   

                      Warthog family with Impala in background.

   

They kneel to feed because their have short necks and relatively long legs.  These are a couple of youngsters and their tusks have not grown yet. 

One thing I love about Warthogs is that when you have driven miles around a game park and hardly seen anything but the  ubiquitous Impala, you can rely on a family of Warthogs to be running by.  When they run it is usually in single file and all have their tails held straight up in the air, making it easier to see the one ahead in the short stubby grass where they are usually found.

My second choice for W is a web, a spiders Web spun around the housing of the camera.  I love the symmetry of it.

Well that's it for this week.   Now to go and see what others have selected for their words.  Stay safe all of you and keep well.  

Kate's One Word Photohunt 4/02/2021

The words Kate has chosen  this week are 'Lovely Memory'.  I have been going through my remaining archived photographs, the ones I did not lose, and cannot find the one I was searching for but a few days ago I was sitting at my computer watching a tremendous tropical African downpour at Njuma Game Lodge, South Africa, watching the Impala buck getting more and more wet, the water rushing down the tracks of the dirt road. 

 I did take a picture but it does not show the heavy rain though I did manage to get a picture of a particularly bedraggled Impala ram.  He was soaked through.  

But sitting there watching him reminded me of another time B and I were in the Kruger National Park and had pulled off the road under some trees to have a lunch in the car (you are not allowed to get out of your vehicle at all except at designated safe stops between the camps).  As we sat watching some buck and keeping an eye on a very black cloud approaching, the heavens suddenly opened.  We hastily shut the car windows to keep out the pouring rain and immediately our windows steamed up.  B had a brain wave.  We opened one window a little way and put out an umbrella to keep the rain from coming in and carried on with our game viewing and lunch.  I must say we got some funny stares from another car that also pulled into the same clearing.  

Not quite the correct photograph but thanks for the memory Kate, it gave us a good laugh. 

                  Promise to follow rules next week.  Already got picture planned! 

Now to see what others have posted.  Keep well and safe all of you. 

(P.S.  We have both had our first jabs.....yay)