acacia blossoms

acacia blossoms

Friday, January 13, 2012

Roof chat






Having just re read my last post I found a glaring typo. How come this was not visible before?  ...all taught muscle... should read 'all taut muscles'  hehe sorry! i am the queen of typos.  once upon a time long long ago, i did a very amateurish job of a brochure for a certain safari lodge far far away. Somewhere in the text i wrote about the Plaintiff cry of the Jackal. ugh - apart from being overwhelmingly corny it is just a joke. Well i hope it made someone smile, or laugh. And to be fair, Jackals do always look a little bit guilty.





Obviously 2012 looks determined to outpace its predecessor. We are nearly half way through January already.  Around here everyone is busy raising young. The impala lambs are big enough to stray from their mothers now. When the herd passes, all we hear are mothers calling their lambs, and lambs bleating looking for mothers. How can something as dainty and graceful as an impala ewe make such unappealing grunts and groans?





Warthogs are busy with piglets, or wartlets, and the cuckoos are busy laying eggs in other peoples nests.  The dabchicks at the waterhole, made a perfect nest out of floating vegetation, with one egg sitting in state on the top. It did look vulnerable, and while we were watching a tarapin turtle was showing undue interest. Next time we looked that egg had gone.  Then another appeared, and with unfortunate timing the breeding herd of elephants arrived to swim and play and generally lower the waterlevels.  This time even the nest disappeared. Obviously the dabchicks must rethink their building plans.



The weather has been relentlessly hot. The air heavy with the promise of storms that never come. The white sun sucks moisture out of every living thing, including us, to replenish its army of clouds. Last night there was a big amber moon in the east, and there are some interesting planets around promising interesting times in this era of change.   I hope 2012 is generous, kind and loving to you all.





13 comments:

Diane said...

Love these photos, but I will swop our weather for a bit of your heat happily :-) Diane

Val said...

hi Diane - ok you are on - lets swap some :) i am not sure that snow would last long here though.

Angela said...

Wonderful talk under the Roof! I could listen endlessly to your stories of warthoglets and jackals and storms and moons and planets. We did have some hail today, no snow yet, but temps are dropping. In Austria they have four metres of snow (!!) and hotel guests can`t leave, so I hope that won`t come here. But having your heat - no, I think I won`t swap.
I still chuckle when I think of your monkey guest eating an apple from your table, sitting there on your sofa, probably having some good stories to add, if only we could understand him.
I wish you a good cooling thunderstorm with lots of rain!

Lori ann said...

oooh hard to concentrate when i see the lovely giraffes here! thank you for the update on all the wildlife around you. the poor duck. makes you wish you could talk to them!
and don't worry about typos. they happen, makes some first edition books even more valuable!

have a wonderful weekend val!

Anonymous said...

wahahahahahaha - sorry Val but you started it. . . . . cuckoos laying eggs in other people's nests . . . .

Seriously though I LOVE the elephant stand-off pic.

TV weather shows you guys on the edge of some severe weather this weekend. Batten down the hatches!!

xxxx

PS is PorcyPine still resident?

Val said...

hey Geli - we could chat for ages. I heard about the snow in Austria - hard to believe or imagine from here. With this heat building we will surely get some rain soon.

hi Lori - ah thanks about the typos; ridiculous though and sometimes funny. I felt quite sorry for the dabchicks too . well the nest is gone now altogether but they are still around.

Janet - glad you found it funny :) ok so weather coming eh? i wonder what kind - heat or rain?
no porcupine these days - he must have moved on. too many lions around maybe?

have a great weekend and thanks for visiting the Roof xxV

Amanda Summer said...

admiring all these amazing creatures, esp the giraffes meandering down the lane like ladies off to sunday brunch - but my favorite thing by far is learning warthog babies are called wartlets!

(and by the way, love the the plaintiff cry of the jackal - sounds like a crime novel ;-)

xx

mermaid gallery said...

i am always so glad to know what is happening in your world.....all those animals about must be so fascinating...hope it rains soon!...and all the best in 2012!

Anonymous said...

Hi Val I am getting withdrawl symptoms have not been in to the bush for a while....been too hot so your blog helps...Craig & Cheryl have just spent time in Bot....Maun...Pans...et al...Love Peter

Val said...

Amanda - I may have invented the term Wartlets, but it seems to make sense and maybe it will stick. Ah yes the sequel to Day of the Jackal maybe??

Mermaid Gallery - thanks our world is so different to yours! happy to new year to you!

Peter - hi and thanks for stopping by. it has been hot hey. hope all well?

xxV

World Famous said...

Giraffe the world largest animal...
If you want to talk him, just go to the second floor of your house and ask him why he is so much tall.

JohnOliver said...

Hi, your blog is very interesting and very informative. The pictures are very beautiful. I feel myself to be there with animals. Thank you very much for this post. PassForSure

Val said...

World Famous - i wonder what their answer would be?

JohnOliver - thanks for visiting.