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Saturday, December 12, 2015

Another eclectic mix of critters

Traveling to the city of Bloemfontein at the end of November on the bike, Grant pointed to one dam we pass on the National Freeway. On the way back later that day, we stopped and I took photos. 

Not very good, but photos all the same...
A pair of Greater Flamingo
Another, slightly clearer photo with a Little Grebe in the foreground and two Reed Cormorants at the back
A light plane flew over the gathering of bikes doing the annual Toy Run
Back home I captured the Malachite Sunbird male in silhouette
An agapantha with shadows on the wall behind it
So far with the severe drought, I'm managing to save my indigenous perennials by watering them by hand - a cupful at a time ! 
My beautiful Skabenga, now seven months old!
We jokingly call him our Russian guard dog which translates from Afrikaans as a "resting guard dog"! 

We've had several forecasts of rains. The clouds build up, the atmosphere is heavy and then the wind comes up and blows everything away! 
God's promise - a double rainbow after a smattering of raindrops earlier this week


On Thursday evening Angus, Amanda and children came over after they had had their supper. Angus wanted to ask Grant something about his off-road motorbike. The two older children followed me into the kitchen. When Abby saw the bottle of honey on the kitchen table, she asked for a slice of bread with honey. Immediately Joel asked for bread and Bovril. I made their sandwiches, poured a cup of milk each and set them down at the kitchen table. Joel asked why there was a white circle around the honey. I explained that it was made by a chalk pencil which keeps the ants away. They wanted to know  whether the line could be erased so I showed them it could, by wiping it off with paper towel.  Then I pulled the chalk, its end still in its plastic packet,  out of the box and handed it to Joel. I asked him to make half a circle and to write his name. Then I held Abby's hand with the chalk in it, made the other half of the circle and wrote her name. They were so proud of this that once they'd finished their snack, they ran outdoors and called Rina to come take a look. 
The children with their names written in chalk around the circled honey bottle (see the Bovril smear on Joel's face)
Skabenga is always near the children - especially when they're having a snack


I'm linking to Saturday Critters with Eileen here. Thanks Eileen for hosting this interesting meme.

May you all have a wonderful weekend. 




6 comments:

  1. Great photos Jo. The looks on the faces of the grandchildren ~ priceless ♥

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  2. Hello Jo, great sighting of the flamingos. Your sunbird silhouette is pretty, it has a cool bill. Skabenga is beautiful. He acts like a vacuum eating the crumbs around the children. Your grandchildren are adorable. Great post.
    Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Have a happy weekend!

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  3. Skabenga is getting prettier by the day. sorry for calling your Russian guard dog that is resting PRETTY. i did not know about the chalk, now i do and the kids look so happy with it... i noticed your flamingos are not pink like ours and i know they turn pink from eating shrimp. that made me wonder if you have shrimp in Africa

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  4. cute chalk kids. :) love the sunbird shot.

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  5. A not only clever but fun idea.

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  6. Nice rainbow...smart doggie, staying with the children!
    ~

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