This beautiful lily pops up just next to one of my cottages every year in Nov or December. For the rest of the year it looks like two or three shriveled leaves. It’s commonly known as a veld lily or river lily and is one of the Crinum lilies. I am still arguing with all my sources as to which one it is. Depending on the book or source, my crinum changes names.
I think it may be a crinum stuhlmannii but one of my books disagrees.
Anyone have an opinion?
Stealing Cleo’s dog food
So far this summer we have had quite a few cloudy days and lots of lovely rain. Not our normal blistering heat – but warm balmy humid days. The result is really thick green lush bush.
When you look at the picture above you really don’t see many colours, so it is quite surprising when you walk around and look closely at how many stunning spring flowers are blooming. I snapped a few on my daily walk.
Quite spectacular really.
One would think that this small,dry, brown, mountainous country would not have much to offer in the way of export so it comes as quite a surprise to many that one of Lesotho’s biggest exports is water. Alongside electricity and diamonds, water makes up a large portion of the export income for Lesotho. South Africa pays R37 million per year for water derived from the Lesotho Highlands water project. Katse Dam was built as the first phase of this project. (pronounced cut-sea)
Katse dam is 50 kilometers long and holds a volume of 1 950 million m³ of water. It is the highest dam in Africa and also the second largest in Africa.
We took a tour into the dam wall but I was not allowed to take any photographs inside unfortunately. It was very interesting and is quite an engineering feat.
Water is taken in at this tower and is transferred via a 45 km, 4 m diameter underground tunnel to a hydroelectric station near Muela after which it is piped a further 35km to just outside the town of Clarens in South Africa. The pipeline itself is tunneled through the mountains and water travels downhill all the way making use of gravity for flow.
Here you can see the water exiting the pipeline and being fed into the ash river.
If you are ever in the area it really is well worth a visit to the dam.
This is the last of a series of three posts about Lesotho. You can read the first two posts but clicking on the links below.
This is a second post in a three-part series on Lesotho. Read post one here.
Lesotho is the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,000 metres in elevation. Its lowest point of 1,400 metres is thus the highest in the world. Over 80% of the country lies above 1,800 metres. Lesotho is also the southernmost landlocked country in the world. Because of its altitude, Lesotho remains cooler throughout the year than other regions at the same latitude. Winters can be cold with the lowlands getting down to −7 °C (19 °F) and the highlands to −18 °C (−0 °F) at times. Snow is common in the highlands between May and September; the higher peaks can experience snowfalls year-round.
As we wove through the mountains, climbing up towards Katse dam we started to see the temperatures plummet. Below you can see how the road cuts through the mountains.
Africa is most often depicted as a hot arid continent. And it is mostly, so when we South Africans get to see a little snow, it is rather a treat. Here in this region of Lesotho they have snow through most of winter and sometimes even in summer. How strange for Africa!
As we reached the top, the most beautiful snowscape scenes surrounded us.
We stopped the car and had to clamber about in it for a bit like children of course 
I felt like I was on top of the world.
The mountain kingdom.
Recently I was lucky enough to spend a week away on holiday in the eastern part of the Free State province of South Africa in a town called Clarens. This has been my first proper holiday since I arrived back in South Africa from Belgium, so was special indeed.
While there, we took a day trip into Lesotho to visit the Katse dam. I took so many photos of this trip that it has taken me weeks to sort through them and decide which to share with you. I will be publishing a series of posts from my trip so as not to bore you with reams of information at once.
I am going to start with some that embrace my love of this small mountain kingdom of Lesotho.
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, completely surrounded by its only neighboring country, the Republic of South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name Lesotho translates roughly into the land of the people who speak Sesotho. About 40% of the population live below the international poverty line.
Living such a poor life I am sure is extremely hard, however there are aspects here of the simple life that really attract me. Lesotho in winter is almost mono-toned in colour yet there is still a vibrancy and happiness that I love.
I hope you enjoy the following pictures that show what I see in this beautiful country.
Most people dress in blankets and gum boots and the major form of transport in the rural areas are donkeys.
You may not see much at first glance at the above picture, but it is all about rural life here. The ladies doing the washing in the stream, the icy snow in the shade, the horse on the hillside, growing crops on the slopes and the homestead up above. Life in Lesotho.
Happy children and not a PlayStation or iPad in sight
Fields on the hillside
Doing chores
A driving school. The little shack is covered in road signs on all sides – probably for teaching purposes.
A plough-boy ran up to us to get some sweets
Just beautiful…………
Some of you may remember that I was rather stressed about my brassicas not performing in the vegetable bed. They were growing very well but not making heads. Around that time I made a new friend who is a veggie farmer who kept on urging me to just wait. I read up about them and decided that I would have to pull them all up and start again. I was again urged to just wait.
My new friend came to visit me recently, and walked into my veggie garden and yanked a complete broccoli plant out of the ground. I nearly hit him over the head!
He showed me where I had J-rooted the plant but kindly (and probably because he saw my face) replanted the plant in the same spot. I did not hold out much hope for it though.
Well today I can announce that my brassicas all have heads and I will be getting some cauliflowers, broccoli and cabbage. Yay!
Some pictures from the beds
As you can see – I am loving my new camera. So many new things in my life right now. This is good.
About a year back I received a comment or two from a gentleman in the USA on my blog. He seemed interested in purchasing a property in my neighbourhood and he had 1010 questions to ask me. It was great fun answering his questions and getting to know him. His name is Dave.
Dave has become a loyal and faithful follower of my blog. Over the year he and his partner Todd have been buying a house in a nearby reserve, and finally this month, they arrived to take possession of their new home. It has really been grand getting know them, show them my farm and get to see theirs.
Dave also introduced me to Heather who also lives on their reserve. You may remember Heather from my previous posts on our painting challenge. Heather paints with her mouth.
Here are Heather and I at Dave and Todd’s new home
Do you see the bottle on Heather’s table. That is “sunshine in a bottle” – a solar light that I have been lusting after for so long. Dave and Todd gave Heather and I a few each as a gift. I am so thrilled with them.
One thing Dave took note of when reading my blog was my incessent complaining about my little camera, so before he and Todd left to return to the US on Thursday, he gave me this:
Can you believe it? Along with another fancy schmancy long lens. I am so spoiled!
I have now been tasked with getting some good pictures up onto this little blog. I have lots to learn.
Thanks Dave and Todd!!!! Can’t wait for you to get back in October.
