Astrid's Photo Scavenger Hunt for the week ending - 02/09/2021

 This week's choice of topics by Astrid is school.  I had no idea which way to go with this.  I do  have the usual annual class photographs but wanted to rather try and think outside the box.  So although I have included some 'school' pictures I have tried to find some different ways of looking at the word. 

My first picture is of Katie's first day at school.  Children did not start school till after their 5th birthday in Rhodesia and South Africa. 

I had forgotten what a large garden we had, there is nearly as much behind me as there is behind Katie and it went up the side on the left as a huge rockery garden.

Then there is a 'dancing school'.  This picture is of Katie and her best friend as Ice Skaters with two reindeer. Every time I hear the opening bars of 'Winter Wonderland'  I see the little dancers 'skating' on to the stage!! 

                             

How about a 'school of dolphins'.  We lived in Amanzimtoti, just near Durban on the South Coast.  We were lucky enough to see dolphins quite regularly, surfing on the waves.  

Then when the annual 'sardine run' came by the number of dolphins increased as they were after the fish.  It was quite a site to see.  I'll never forget the first time we saw it, ladies were taking off their tights, wading into the sea and scooping up the fish, just in knee depth water.  They were not all caught for eating, mostly they were for bait and these people would fill their freezers with the fish.  Swimming was banned as they had to lift the shark nets to allow all the various fish that were following the sardines along the coast.

I did not have  the appropriate photographs so have taken these off the net. The first one is of dolphins surfing at Amanzimtoti or Toti as we all called it.

Animals too have some sort of 'school' for their youngsters where they teach them the way of survival in the harsh conditions they have been born into; where to find water,  food and safety.

Here are elephants teaching their young by example.  The little ones are learning how to manage their trunks.  Did you know that elephants have almost 4000 muscles in their trunks?  We have a few more than 600 muscles in our entire body. Young elephants have to learn to use their very wobbly trunks to help them suck up water for drinking, pick up or touch objects, trumpet warnings and greet one another.

Here they are learning where the water holes are. This is only a small family group but when a herd come to this one to drink you can see how much hierarchy exists in their life.  Matriarch goes first, then the more senior females and eventually it goes down the pecking order.  The lower rank elephants stand back and await their turn.  It is less obvious at a larger dam where there is room for many to drink at once. 

Lions too are taught by their mother.  Here in this photograph is a family group of lions we have watched since the cubs were cute and playful.  You can see Mama lion as we call her, she is wearing a tracking collar and has many scars.  We have seen her with horrendous wounds after she has fought off male lions to protect her cubs.

There are two males - or the boys as we call them - and one female.  They seem to have branched off on their own these days.  Often Mama comes to Tembe waterhole at night and calls.  Eventually they turn up. Usually the female first then the boys.   Sometimes they are all together sleeping off a large meal.  A couple of weeks ago they bought their kill to Tembe and we could see them feeding there.  As is normal with lions the females do the work and the males just enjoy the meal!! 

My last animal picture shows the dedication one mother has to her young - well not all her young as ostriches are as bad as  cuckoos are here in Europe.  The main female lays up to 11 eggs which are positioned in the centre of the communal nest where they are the safest and the other hens lay between two and six eggs in the nest as well.  The alpha male and dominant female then look after the nest which is on open ground, taking it in turns to incubate the eggs.

I did know of this but have taken the exact details off the internet.

That is quite a brood to take care of and teach the ways of ostrich life.  It is a complete school in itself.  I counted about 20. 

I have, as usual, taken this and many of the pictures with my camera off my computer screen from the Africam.com site. 

Now just to revert to regular school - here is a picture of our school hockey team. I wanted to prove I did actually go to school.  

I have become a punctuation and grammar nerd and get all irritated to see all those apostrophes where they should not be.  I wish I was bold enough to carry a marker pen and correct them.  Tomatoe's for sale just gets me and potatoe's is another.  They don't belong there!!!  

How about this picture - 

But just for fun to end with is a picture I have held in my 'possible photo hunt pictures' waiting for a chance to use it.   My maiden name broke the 'i before e' rule and I used to love telling my teachers that when this rule was quoted to us.!!   Though there were obviously many other words that broke the rule too! 

 That's my lot for this week.  Now off to see what others have done.  Have a good week and see you all for Pizza next Friday.  xx