Saturday 31 December 2011

An Irish Blessing for the New Year

An-Irish-Blessing-Mare
The auld farmer's New Year's gift...

May the New Year bring…

The warmth of home and hearth to you.
The cheer and goodwill of friends to you,
The hope of a childlike heart to you,
The joy of a thousand angels to you,
The love of the Son and God's peace to you.


Wishing you a blessed and peaceful 2012


The auld farmer's New Year's gift to his auld Mare Maggie by Richard Ansdell - Wikipedia

Sunday 25 December 2011

Merry Christmas...

May your Christmas be wonderful and bright...

Carl-Larsson-Children-Painting

                                                                        Merry Christmas Everyone...

Thursday 15 December 2011

What Do Doctors, Mongoose(s) and Weather Have in Common?

This was Wednesday’s update, only it’s a little later than intended. That’s out the window now, having spent the last two days being completely indulgent and lazy. Monday, I had oral surgery (involving stitches) and was back at home just after lunch time…So far, so good. Where this story gets wobbly, is the bit where I have a nap instead of writing.  Tuesday I was back at the Doc so that he could admire his work. M and I did some Christmas shopping and were home in the early afternoon, plenty of time to write, perfect time to have another nap…So I did. As for Wednesday, well I started writing (but didn't finish) ‘cause Wednesday’s weather was a gift and I was mongoose watching too!

Make-Up-What-Make-Up
Hiding...Until Next Week...
Living in the southern hemisphere gives us Christmas in the middle of summer…Just like the Australians; we have heat and dust instead of snow and cold. By this time last year, our rainy season was over and desert days had replaced the greenery and colour of flower season.  This year we are having a cool and somewhat slow start to the languid, sultry days of high summer. Wednesday was foggy grey and overcast with gentle showers on and off.

West-Coast-Namib-Dessert-Namibia

Our crazy birds and other wildlife were playing in the birdbath and the mongoose mama and her two babies were all over the veranda.  We have a curtain of heavy-duty, deep-sea fishnet that hangs over the front of the veranda, shielding the house from the worst of the sun. The small mongooses were playing in the folds and scampering up and down like monkeys while mama kept a lookout on the steps.  The babies have been around for the last three months (since very small) and they are almost fully grown but we haven’t seen them for a couple of weeks. We thought that they had grown too big for climbing around and hide n’ seek but the unexpected coolness must have made them playful and they entertained us for ages.  These are the Slender Mongoose (Galerella sanguinea), about fifteen inches long and a twelve-inch tail and they live in the brush and scrub outside the garden.

Slender-Tailed-Mongoose-Africa

The picture is from my old-friend, (thank you) Wikipedia; unfortunately our long-suffering camera died a violent death when it leapt from the office table and hurled itself to the ground, damaging the internals as well as cracking the screen. Wouldn’t you know, not three weeks later, we get a wildlife photographers dream…Our house has full length glass doors all around the veranda; the main living area, office and one bedroom each have a glass wall. The Mongoose babies sat on their haunches (like Meerkats) peering into the house, or so we thought, but they probably caught sight of their reflections in the glass doors and were actually staring at themselves. Too delightful! M could have taken dozens of photos but for the dead camera…

I sure hope Santa is reading...

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Food for Thought...

Irradiated-Food
                                      High-tech tomatoes.
                                                Mysterious milk.  
                                                          Supersquash.  
                                                             Are we supposed to eat this stuff?  
                                                                      Or is it going to eat us? 

                                                                                                 Annita Manning

Monday 5 December 2011

Is It or Isn't It?

When I asked in my last post if this blog was schizophrenic, it was an honest question. I so love writing! Well I better, I sure am doing a lot of it. Even when my thoughts are all over the place, there are words inside trying to get out. Then thinking about the original purpose of all these words (ancient family history), I woke up! My problem isn’t so much the content; I’ll get it together eventually. No, the real problem here is organization!  Hmm, a re-occurring issue?   As soon as time allows, the category labels must be tamed. 

Carl-Larssons-Daughter-Painting
So organized, so peaceful looking*
Here on the west coast, the weather, having been cool to the point of cold right through spring suddenly zoomed up to HOT yesterday. Sheesh, summer had arrived and was beating everyone up! Not for long. Opening the door to the garden this morning early, I was met with a blast of cold wind…I guess summer didn’t like his welcome…

Out in the bay, bulk carriers, the size of a small country, bounced around on the choppy water.  Birds, landing for a drink, were up-ended into the birdbath by the gusts… Who knew? Did it ever occur to you that this can happen to birds? Fortunately, the birdbath is pretty shallow.  Everything was back on track  by noon time, (no, the birds straightened up fine in no time), hazy sunshine was evident again, the wind was down and regular scheduling had been resumed…
 

*Painting by Carl Larsson-courtesy of Wikipedia 
 

Thursday 1 December 2011

Nothing a Cookie Can't Fix...

In the greater scheme of things, being busy ranks pretty high on my list of priorities. Now that I’m up to my ponytail in our website projects and gainful employment has suddenly arrived, the rhythm of work is becoming addictive. Along with a renewed sense of purpose, I’ve discovered a craving for research (or knowledge)? What…ever… But this brings me to the point of this post.  Looking back over old entries, life has moved on in many ways and the old categories just don’t all seem to fit; does this make my blog schizophrenic? 

...Welcome to this post. Please go to Wildmoz to see all our new articles on wildlife as they appear. We are also publishing all our African Folktales in their full version in e-books for readers, PDFs, etc. as well as in ... Welcome to this post. Please go to Wildmoz to see all our new articles on wildlife as they appear. We are also publishing all our African Folktales in their full version in e-books for readers, PDFs, etc. as well as in hard copies. 


Keep a look out for these wonderful little stories for children and adults alike at Wildmoz.com. Collect for yourself a set of twelve, in the format of your choice, as and when they are available...


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