And as promised....

As long as you promise to look at the rest of the blog, lol, you can see more pictures.

Probably one of the most amazing animals we saw while at Kruger National Park were the Cape Buffalo. In 1957, there was not one Cape Buffalo in the Park. A few were brought in, and it was hoped that they could survive there. Well, survive they did. On our way into the park, before we'd ever made it to Jock Safari Lodge the first night, we literally came up over a rise, and before us were 300+ buffalo in a herd, blocking the road. We'd heard they were rather aggressive animals so we kept a healthy distance (about 100 yards), but it was fascinating to see that many of them. Young, old, babies, mothers. Then a day later, while out on a Game Drive at Jock, there they were again. Only this time we got to park in the middle of the herd (no kidding), so we had buffalo within touching distance for about a half hour. These animals are huge and dumber than bricks. lol If one gets upset about something, they ALL get upset, without knowing what they're getting upset about (wait a minute! I've met people like that online, most are called trolls).

You can see in the third picture that I wasn't kidding about being in the middle of the herd. And the first picture was what blocked the road our first day of our trip. Stunning to see hundreds of buffalo just taking their time crossing the road.

We only saw hippos in a couple of places, but as our guides kept reminding us, some of them could be underwater at the watering holes and dams we stopped at, and we wouldn't even be aware that they were there, until they pop their heads up to breathe. They are probably the most dangerous animals in Kruger. Possibly because people underestimate their speed. They look heavy and ungainly, but they're quite capable of running faster than a human. But the biggest reason they are the most dangerous is that if you happen to be between them and water, they will run you down or attack you, in order to take refuge where they are most comfortable.

And those really are crocodiles next to all the hippos. Apparently, there's some sort of agreement reached when everyone is near a watering hole and resting in the sun. The crocs weren't making any move to go after the hippos, the impala that were on the other side of the river, or the birds that were all over the place.

The funniest thing we saw going on with the Hippos happened at Lower Sabie in Kruger Park. The hippos were all over the place there, and the ones that were in the water were being used as surfs boards by the various fishing birds there. I called it Hippo Surfing, as the birds would only leave the hippos when they were fishing, and then would fly back onto the hippos backs to eat their catch.

Not quite Africa pictures yet....

I lied, I think you should see anal in action once again. I make no bones about being anal when it comes to designing things for my home.

A couple years ago, we chose an Italian porcelain tile for the kitchen. We decided to lay the tile in a stairstep pattern, but wanted something special there too. We decided on small 3 X 3 hand painted tiles to fit in the corners, and we also chose some solid color ones to alternate. Because these little tiles were hand painted, I had to cover each with three coats of a polyurethane meant for floors. And because they were hand painted each had to be coated with polyurethane by hand. What a production. But the floor was finally finished and we both loved it to death.

These are what the little tiles look like (there are five different patterns).

Now, being my normal anal self, I wanted to take those patterns and incorporate them into the rest of the kitchen. However, we hadn't decided on a back-splash, and had only put a new counter on the island, and not the actual kitchen counter yet. So, I didn't have the opportunity to "add" anything to the main countertop or the back-splash. But lest you think I couldn't come up with anything, there were still the fur-downs (the area between the tops of the cabinets and the ceiling). :-) So, I had John cut me little blocks of wood which I then painted to match the small tiles in the floor. I told you I was anal. I love having things tie together, but my version of "tie together" is obvious. I don't just do a color tie-in. I want the pattern there also. The first 3 pictures are of the painted wood blocks once I'd mounted them with Velcro (so I could remove and clean them). The last picture is of the island with the quartz, but it gives you a teensy glance at the floor in the background. I just now realized I don't have any pictures of the floor.

Some drawer dividers.

Usually, I get stuck doing stupid stuff for someone else. But this time, I wanted to see if I could avoid running to Walmart to buy plastic boxes (sans lids) to use in some drawers. I wanted something simple, but I didn't want them to just be cheap plastic. I wanted to cover them. Then I discovered cat food cases...not for the big cans for for the little ones, such as the ProPlan food I buy for my kitties.

I got this grand idea and decided to do a couple of "drafts" the same way I would if I were making something brand new for myself or someone else. I must say, it would have been easier (probably) to sew the covers, but instead I chose to use Elmer's Glue and some fabric I'd purchased sometime in the 1980's (well, maybe not THAT long ago, but a while ago) and see what I could come up with.

I started with just an ordinary cat food case (holds 24 3 ounce cans), 2 fabric pieces cut to follow the lines of the box (one for the inside and one for the outside), and a bottle of Elmer's (I could have used any glue as long as it would work on both cardboard and fabric. Elmer's was the only one I could find that I knew would bond both.

Viola! And they're already in use. Next time though, I'm going to work them up by sewing a cover, as the glue drove me crazy. But if you're going to try this, based on these pictures, make sure you do the inside first (center on bottom of box, glue bottom, flatten the fabric onto it, then carefully glue each side on both inside the box and the outside edge - the fabric will fold over). I'm not much on giving tutorials but at least that will get you started and the box will turn out halfways decent. And now, onto more Africa pictures! :-)

And the last of the bunch tonight.

The next time you see my words, it will be about the drawer dividers I made today. :-) But for right now, we have more animal pictures. :-)

A Kudu is of the antelope family and its horns are the symbol for the South African National Park System. These animals are amazing, and luckily we got a couple of good still pictures of them. The last picture is a Kudu cow.

The flowers in and around Kruger were starting to bloom (as it was the spring there). I caught a couple of great pictures of Bougainvillea that I wanted to share.

Another member of the Antelope family is the Duiker (pronounced DAKER, rhymes with Baker). This little guy is one of the smallest in the family, and very shy. That we got this picture was pretty amazing.

And I found out the hard way that it is almost impossible to take a picture of a whole Giraffe. :-) We had to be a great distance away to get the whole animal in the frame. Instead, I had to settle for some closer shots.

More pictures of the trip. :-)

Thought I'd better get on the stick and post some more pictures of our trip. This will probably be the last set I post here. I figure if you've seen one rhino picture, you've seen them all. Same goes for elephants, lions, leopards, etc.

The young man in one of the pictures in this group is dressed in his Zulu costume. It was Heritage Day in South Africa and South Africans are encouraged to dress in their traditional garb. He descends from Zulu warriors, so he is wearing a period-exact piece. The pink across his chest and the necklace around his neck are beaded pieces. The Zulus have a huge business in jewelry now. In fact, everywhere I looked there was jewelry for sale, hand-made by the tribe. The beads they use are different too. All are glass, but they don't look the same as the beads we see coming out of China now. These, in his outfit, were gorgeous. His sandals are hand made, as is the rest of the outfit. He was one of the few employees at Jock Safari Lodge to wear traditional clothing that day, but I'm glad he did. Besides which, this guy was adorable. Tall and handsome. Sigh....

The red and white flowers are from a bush called an Impala Lily. It blooms with these flowers before it ever gets leaves, similar to a Lilac. The picture, luckily, captured that wonderful color. But no fragrance. :-(

The next is a Lilac Breasted Roller. This is one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen. She/he stands about 6-7" tall, so its not a big bird. It is named the "roller" because of the acrobatics it does when its looking for a mate. It soars high into the sky, then dives, rolling as it falls, to attract the attention of the opposite sex. I wasn't able to catch this dive with my video camera, as it happens unexpectedly and very quickly, so I had to settle for a still picture of the colors. :-)

Then some elephants again, cause I fell in love with them over there. They are the true kings of the bushveld, jungle, or wherever you go. Lions will run from elephants and if they don't run fast enough, the elephants will chase them. I have it on video. :-)

Now onto a Blue Wildebeest and a Rhino family. :-)

I'll stop here and make another post with some Cape Buffalo, birds, and a few others. :-)

The Trip

We're known for taking "trips of a lifetime", incorrectly named because we seem to be taking these every couple of years. This year was a Safari to South Africa. The day we returned, after two weeks, was the day my second week of classes was posted. Since those classes started, I rarely have time to do much of anything except study, housework, a little sewing, a LOT more study. But I promised a lot of people I'd post some pictures and tell them about the trip.

First, we stayed for four days at Jock Safari Lodge, which, in my humble opinion, was the greatest part of the trip. Their compound is within Kruger Park (they've purchased what is called a concession there, and it allows them to run tours from their location). The room we had was really nice, with outside decking overlooking a dry riverbed (dry only because it was the end of winter and the rains had not begun yet). The entire compound is surrounded by electric fence, so no fear of finding a lion curled on your deck in the morning. :-) I loved going on the safari rides, held at dawn and dusk. The morning trip would require leaving before 6am and would arrive back in time for lunch, usually around 11am. The afternoon trip would begin around 3pm, but wouldn't end until around 7pm. I have some wonderful video, some of which I posted on a special "group" I made on Facebook, so that my friends could see. If you are reading this and want the link, just let me know. :-)

The second place we stayed was at Satara, which is a South African-run rest camp. Rest camps are necessary as you can only enter and leave Kruger Park while the gates are open from around 7am until around 6pm (times vary according to the time of year). If you are in the park when the gates are closed, you MUST be in the one of the Lodges or Rest Camps. I think the fine is 500 Rand if you are caught inside the park and NOT booked into a rest camp. And while that doesn't amount to much with the exchange rate of 70 Rand per US dollar, it is a LOT of money for the everyday South African to pay. Satara wasn't much. John only booked it for us as he'd never been that far north and wanted to see the difference between the northern and southern part of the Park. I should tell you that John was born in South Africa, but moved with his parents to England when he was very young. He went back there as a young man to study for an advanced degree at University, then returned a couple of times later, but he hadn't been in the park since the 1980's. Satara was very close to what American's would call "seedy". It definitely needed some TLC, which it wasn't getting. But the little huts were clean, and I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it was a nice area. But I'd never stay there again. The huts were composed of a bathroom and bedroom, with an outside porch with included your seating and your kitchen. To my American eye, this was very odd, but workable. One of the things I did not like at Satara was a lack of space. These little huts were tiny and not modern at all. There are far more modern "camps" up in that area of Kruger, so this wasn't a good choice, in my opinion. The second thing I really hated was that we were on our own as far as traveling around and taking pictures and spotting game. This is tough, because without a trained eye, I'm sure we missed a LOT. And on this kind of trip, you do not want to miss much, as it isn't like you're going to be back there next week.

We next went to a place called MalaMala Game Reserve. Their property BORDERS Kruger Park, but they are not held to following the park rules. One thing you cannot do in the park is go off the road. In other words, there are lots of dirt roads at Kruger and you can drive on them all, but you cannot just take off driving through the bushveld. MalaMala does just that. On most of our game drives there, we were cutting through the bushveld, rather than following the road. Makes for a very rough ride. I'm still not convinced that we saw more game by doing this.

They also did something at MalaMala that I strenuously objected to...they follow predators (such as leopard, lion, hyena, etc). If they spot a Leopard, they may follow her for hours through the bush. Granted the animals don't seem to notice that the vehicle is there, and they aren't "chasing" her (in other words, she continues doing whatever it was she was doing, and she isn't running away from the vehicle). But I'm a true believer that just the ACT of watching something will somehow change it. In one case, there were two couples (us and some very nice people from Australia), and both the woman and I objected to following one leopard female because she hadn't eaten for TWO days and we both felt we were warning her prey about her presence. Luckily our game guide agreed to stop, otherwise, I doubt that his employer would have approved.

MalaMala was just ok, in my book. The rooms there were furnished so as to be thought opulent. The problem is that the place is not fenced. So if you decide to take a walk around, you'd darn well better keep your eyes open and be paying attention, cause you have NO idea who or what might be around the next corner. If I wanted to stay someplace where I couldn't go outside my room at night, this would be where I would stay. Otherwise, no.

Here are a few photos we took (I promise, once you've seen a few of these, I'll go back to posting about sewing and school, lol).

In these pictures you'll see a young male elephant that came over to the vehicle to say hello. An African Hornbill bird (this one happens to be a Red Hornbill). A female lion returning to her cubs after a night of hunting (we'd watched her hunting the night before). Our "hut" at Jock Safari Lodge, with me just barely getting caught in the picture. And a baby Lion who gave us a little bit of a growl while we were taking pictures.

Long Time No See

OK. Boy do I owe myself some time to sit down and reflect on school, the trip, sewing time (or lack of), and just some everyday stuff.

I've been contacted by a woman who would like me to make her wooden valances for her dining room. Now, I should have known better than to do a wooden, fabric covered valance for ANYONE, but little did I know that by doing a friend a favor, I would now be in the spot of having to say no to one of HER friends. Darn! I HATE it when something grows when you don't want it to.

First, fabric covered wooden valances are a pain in the you-know-what. The measurements for each window have to be exact, not even a mm off, since once covered with quilt batting and the fabric, they actually have to fit the window you've measured days before. Second, my first valances were done ONLY because a friend had tried to do them herself and had the wood already cut and had gotten stuck on how to do the fabric and batting. I know mine are different than some because the front of the valance (the part that actually hangs from the wood) is fabric. So you basically have a shelf of wood that you cover with batting and fabric, and on that you attach a fabric front and sides in a pleasing design (in this case, I did 3 shield shapes across the front and one shield shape on each side, and the shelf itself was 6" deep. The depth of the shelf needs to be in good proportion to the windows, so that requires a bit of planning also.

All things I really didn't want to do for anyone else, especially not someone I don't know. But I think I'm going to do them, just because this woman is a good friend of MY friend, and I'm not in the mood to disappoint anyone right now.

And on top of the valances, which really don't take too much sewing, but a lot of time "constructing", I need to get back on the stick with my own designing and sewing. I have two sketches, one for a jumper with an assymetric neckline, and the other for a jacket with a shawl collar and raglan sleeves, that I really want to construct the patterns for. In addition, winter is on the way, and I'm thinking that I'd love to make a pattern for a hooded scarf (but not a knitted one - maybe wool plaid). So as you can tell, I really should get back to it. :-)