It's been raining hard for the past seven weeks. This week we've had huge thunderstorms and downpours every night. The days are sunny and warm. The river is up, the world is green and man and nature is thriving.
Last night's downpour
Walking down the lane on Tuesday morning to meet Sue at the security gate (we were off the to the market and to do some birding afterwards), I heard a grating sound. I looked up and spotted a Double-toothed barbet. It's not my first sighting of this magnificent bird, but I've only seen it since living here in Kenya and I still get excited when one crosses my path. The Double-toothed Barbet is a large, red-breasted bird with a large yellow bill.
Double-toothed barbet - This is one of a pair I spotted in the lane leading into my garden
Earlier this week I posted that the company carpenters would come and fit my screen doors. They arrived on Tuesday afternoon and by Wednesday midday, they'd completed one of the three doors. Today they will finish fitting one at the kitchen entrance. Finally, the lounge door will also have a screen door.
Jonathan and Philip fitting my first screen door
With the abundant rains, my new, wild garden (which covers almost my entire garden now) is thriving. Soon I'll post about how Stanley and I have changed from the garden from exotic to about 80% indigenous. For now I've posted just two of my favourites...
Dietes grandiflora - large wild iris - a perennial, evergreen plant which produces these magnificent blooms
The "discovery" of this plant in my garden, is one my two best finds while changing from an exotic garden to a primarily indigenous garden: Bulbine bulbosa.Bulbine is named for the bulb-shaped tuber shown by many of the species. Bulbine is found chiefly in Southern Africa, with few species extending into tropical Africa and a few species in Australia
In between writing articles and sending out queries to magazines, I've also been watching Wimbledon. Today I watched the Australian youngster, Bernard Tomic vs Novak Djokovic on court 1. Meanwhile Federer was playing Tsonga on Centre Court which didn't show on my sport channel so it was only this evening that I heard about the major upset of Tsonga beating Federer in five sets.
I hope you're all having a wonderful week and an even better year!