On the road again...

Can you remember what you did the weekend of 26-27th March 2011? Gattina from Writer Cramps hosts this fun meme.

My weekend started on Friday evening when Grant and I drove down to the dam after work, to view birds...what else? Once again, we saw many birds and I took many photos. One particular little bird fascinated me. It looked like a weaver, but a lot smaller. It was on its own building its nest in a thorn tree branch overhanging the road. Weavers are sociable birds and build in colonies. This weaver was building with plant tendrils instead of strips of palm fronds, which is normal here, so this was a different bird for us. I sent the photo to my sister-in-law, who identified it as a Little Weaver.

A Little Weaver building its nest with plant tendrils which looks very difficult to do

A peaceful scene of a small herd of cows. This one allowed me to pat her and take her photo!

This kid was with the cows, no nanny goat was visible and I thought he was too young to be alone but Grant told me I could not take him home!

On Saturday made spinach soup which was delicious. Recipe below 

Ingredients:


• 2 tsp olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped

• 1 medium white potato, peeled and cubed

• 2 cups vegetable broth

• 2 cups fat-free milk

• 1 bunch fresh spinach leaves

• Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

Heat oil in large saucepan . Sauté garlic, onion, celery and potato for 5 minutes.

vegetable broth and fat-free milk. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in the spinach, cover and simmer for 10 more minutes.

Cool slightly, then transfer soup to a blender, working in two batches if necessary.

Blend until smooth.

Serves 4

Many readers have asked why, when we live in Africa, the seasons are different between north and south. For instance, Southern Africa is at the beginning of autumn/fall and going into winter soon. Northern Africa is experiencing spring weather and it will soon be summer. The answer is simple: we live above the Equator and are technically in the Northern Hemisphere. Ironically, when we travel to Nairobi, we cross the Equator as Kenya straddles this line. And yes, last year we arrived in South Africa at the beginning of spring and enjoyed a wonderful summer in our home country. When we arrived in Kenya, East Africa at the end of January, winter - which means dry instead of cold weather - was drawing to a close. Now it's time for spring so we've had the best of both worlds this year.

Early on Sunday morning, we phoned our two grandddaughters for their birthdays. (I posted about this yesterday)

We travelled to Nairobi on Sunday for Grant and Johan (financial manager) to attend monthly business meetings so I spent Saturday morning making food for the road. This is called padkos in Afrikaans and consists of egg mayonaise sandwiches, cheese and tomato sandwiches, cheese puffs, meatballs and sausage. For a sweet treat, I buttered several slices of banana bread, (supplies of which I always have in the freezer)

Note: I apolgize for my post giving problems to my readerst today. I have re-posted it and have had to delett the previous one. Thos who commented, thanks for doing so, but I think the comments will be deleted as well .