acacia blossoms

acacia blossoms

Sunday, July 20, 2008

well hello

Still learning the ropes here so bear with me.........

Have spent the last couple of days trying to think of a name for this blog site - something witty or clever or at least lasting - and with some connection to where I am. Thumbing through the thesaurus, playing with alliteration, but going nowhere. then this morning I was sitting in my office-type-spot - which has inevitably become a general dumping ground for all manner of items - and it came to me suddenly like a crack of thunder as the first monkey of the morning landed on our tin roof. The first landing followed by an artillery barrage as the rest of the troop - large and small - cannoned accross the gently sloping wriggly tin.

You dont want to see our roof from the air by the way - or you might - but it looks like one of those roofs that should be weighed down with old bicycles and tyres. And it probably should be for when the winds start in august there are some alarming creaks and cracking noises. We try to identify which sheets of tin are missing bolts. But then the wind stops again and we forget to fix until next august.

Anyway the monkeys..... I think this troop has taken up residence nearby as they are here from sunrise to sunset, watching our every move through the windows - especially around the kitchen - and given the slightest gap they are in like flint to make off with whatever food items have been mistakenly left untended. Its our own fault of course - we have been putting food out for the warthogs, as this is such a tough time of year for them, so the monkeys are an active and faithful part of this feeding programme. We also discovered that everything loves those banana biscuits that you buy in giant sacks. Try and chew through one yourself and you will need a big glass of something liquid to unglue your mouth. Monkeys, warthogs, and the porcupine, however have no trouble at all munching through mountains of them.

Some of the warthogs are looking really thin now - their ribs are like xylaphones - so we will keep up the feeding until nature provides some green stuff. Strangely that area around the house that used to be a lawn and is now a dust bowl littered with warthog poo, is still referred to as a 'lawn'.

Today is a really pretty day. Warm sunshine and cold shadows. We are sitting outside watching the feeding antics, and the view accross the lowveld tree canopy to the drakensberg mountains. Well I'm not there right now, but am on my way back. So thats it for my first posting. Thanks for hanging in - if you did. ciao for now...

6 comments:

Miranda said...

HURRAH!!! Welcome! Love it. Can't wait for more!

Jan said...

Loving it already Val - don't stop now please! I'm so enjoying vicariously sharing your view ! Jan x

Val said...

hey thanks for the very kind words and encouragement - and thanks for the inspiration Miranda! having fun with this so far.. its not self indulgent is it?????

Miranda said...

Hey Val. No. It is definately not self indulgent. I thought so too at forst, but its not. Its FUN! Add gets MUCH easier! Well done you!

tam said...

and even if it was self indulgent, why would that be a problem?
Well done. Looking forward to more

Angela said...

Haha, those monkeys sound like Paco watching every step I take when frying steaks or baking raisin cake. Only there is just one of him! How do you cope with a whole troop?!!
And where do you get those delicious banana biscuits?
I love your blog, too, Val! It makes me lean back and enjoy my undisturbed office with no monkeys on the roof!