So I was busy preparing to write a blog post to show you this….
My home-grown, totally organic tomatoes picked fresh of the vine, and this……
my first gooseberries from the tiny twig that thinks it’s a gooseberry bush.
All delicious by the way. I gobbled the gooseberries right there after I took the photo and the tomatoes were served with our dinner – just sliced up with a little salt so that we could see what they really taste like. There is NOTHING like a home-grown tomato! Anyway – I digress.
Then I was going to tell you how dry it is and how much we wait for the first spring rains here – it’s a regional past-time, guessing when it’s going to finally fall. Waiting for those first big hot drops to fall onto the dusty red sand. It hasn’t come yet, but the first beautiful tiny green leaves are starting to bud on the trees. So I thought I should go out and take a photo of the first greeness arriving when I heard STOMP! CRASH! SCRAPE! MUNCH! MUNCH!
I swung around on my chair (it swivels :)) to quickly look out the door, camera already in hand and who should be standing right there………..
eating all my new fresh leaves that I have been waiting for ALL WINTER! Man oh man. So that was the end of the blog post that was planned and you get a photo of a greedy giraffe instead. (but you can actually see the greeness starting up can’t you?)Not as planned but still quite awesome, isn’t it?
(this photo was taken from my study desk in my room)
If you have any questions that you would like to ask about our life in the African bush, please just post them in the comments. When I have enough questions I will answer them all in a post (so long as I don’t get disturbed by another animal…… come to think of it – we had an incident with a legavaan today too… hmmmm)
The Slowvelder 
LOL Lovely Jacks! Your life in Africa must be truly great. I always await your posts with high anticipation!
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Thank you Sandra 🙂
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LOL We have hares, fallow deer, sheep and cows, puffies and cobra’s, but no wildlife eating the new shoots.
You are braver than I am… (for I know that even a giraffe can do serious harm with it’s hooves!)
(Btw, the last comment is because we had timeshare at Mabula Lodge years and years ago – one of the “expert trackers” took us:
1)WALKING (with my 10 and a 7-year-old kids) too close to buffalo and I have be frightened of wildlife since then.
2) took our children to “stroke” a wild (baby) elephant, which subsequently destroyed a VW Golf that it took offense too.
Well, the tracker knew best, didn’t he? More than a townie anyway… Death by buffie is comparable to death by hippo.)
So, LOL, you’re braver than me – I have lost my trust…
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You are right Dani. We must always remember that these are wild animals and as such should be given a wide berth. It’s the folk who get too familiar with them that end up getting killed and maimed.
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Wow … what a buzz to have Giraffe and other critters right in your back yard …
yeah, there’s nothing like eating food you’ve grown yourself hey.
I must return to my home in the north at the end of the month and I hope to find that the Flamboyant is alive after the black frost early last winter … I hope it is … I;ll be devastated if it’s dead …
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Graham – I really really hope that wonderful tree has come back to life.
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Okay, Jackie, the giraffe in the back yard is too, too cool! How fun!
Kathy
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Kathy I see them almost every day and have been doing this for 2 years now – and am still in awe every time I get this close. I hope the feeling never goes away.
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Great photos Jackie…so what’s a legavaan?
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Perhaps a random question, but: what foods do you wish you could have easy access to…but don’t? What do you crave?
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Groot Jakkals, Missing Hoedspruit, you are sooooo lucky. From durbs, from naughty Rose
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Giraffes in the back yard !! How cool it that!!
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Tis cool 🙂
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Such a happy note and beautiful pics. Thank you for that. (And thanks for letting me see what a gooseberry actually looks like, I’ve always wondered.)
I’m also heartbroken over what goes on re: the rhinos, and am glad that those in your area are finding ways to thwart the poachers.
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What is the strangest ANIMAL or creature that you have found taking a secret dip in your pool? 🙂
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Lovely post, cool giraffe, fab. tomatoes. Now as to question: which animal/s do you have the most difficulty keeping out of the house and allied to that, which animals wish to come in and share your house during the winter?
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I am awe struck just from the photo! I would love the opportunity to have THAT kind of wildlife wandering through my line of sight.
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Wow what a life your having there,wish I had the same, oh and what a beautiful giraffe right in your backyard 🙂 And i’m curious too,what do you crave?
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Wow! That’s SO cool! What a surprise, there I was salivating over fresh homegrown tomatoes and those delicious gooseberries (which, when we can find them here, are nearly always sour) and suddenly there was that incredible longlegged exotic creature. Amazing! So close to the house too. Lovely.
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