Some Pretty Creatures

Golden Oriole

A pretty lizard

Provincial Agricultural Show

It was an agricultural show, but not quite as we know it...

There were tractors

There were seeds

There was entertainment

A marching band and majorettes

Goats (in the high pen at the back, chickens (in the basket) and turkeys

And cattle

And that was the show.

Some Gardening News

As you may know by now - the excitement that this has caused MUST have reached you by now! - we have a garden.

Our garden extends as far as the small bush in the centre of the picture

The seed bed.  Carrots, cabbages, red onions and white onions

The ground is very hard and dry, with very little organic matter.  We are slowly digging beds ready to transplant into, and digging in all the dead grass and kitchen waste that we can.  We also have access to some very old chicken manure, which is being buried and spread.

We also have some water melons growing outside the house.



Water melon flower.  In a few months I hope to be able to show you water melons!

A Day Out With Friends

Having received a generous donation from home, we were able to take a group of our friends from church to Livingstone to see Victoria Falls and some animals.  Including the driver and a baby, there were 19 of us in a small bus.   For most of those present it was the first time to see the Falls.
Here are some pictures of the day:

First view of the Zambezi:

Victoria Falls:

Getting ready for the wet

The Falls are in all that spray somewhere

Ivonne and Christine

Christine, Ivonne, Emmeldah, Memory and baby Cholwe

Taking pictures

This is why we got so wet

 Drying off at the top of the Falls:





Picnic by the river:

And home again:

A Picture for Mum

On a recent dentist-related visit to Lusaka, I (Bridget) wandered into the Anglican Cathedral and found this:

Bats

These beauties were roosting in a tree near the house recently:

Supper Time with No Power

The supply of power here is such that we have a schedule of 'load shedding' resulting in 8 hours a day with no electricity.  Sometimes, but not often, there is no power for longer than this, and sometimes, a bit more often, especially as happened last week, a VIP is visiting the town.  We had power all week, courtesy of President Lungus' wife.  Many thanks to her!
When we have no power, we cook on the brazier outside, so we thought we'd show you what this entails:

Getting the brazier ready:

 

 

Lighting it:



 

 

 

Leaving it in the wind go get going:

 

 

 

Sitting on the step preparing the veg (it's now too dark inside):

 

 

Swinging the brazier once the charcoal has lit properly, to get it glowing hot:

 

 

Cooking the nsima:

 

 

 

And then the veg: