Hello brown widow spider - what are you doing in my shower?

The Spotted Eagle owl - Nash - we got a few weeks ago has recovered somewhat, but his wing is still damaged we tried to fly and release him, but it didn't work  - so we have now given him a permanent home here with us.


Here is a great video my roomie put together about his story.

As there is a music file in it not all of you (Germans!) will be able to view, so here are a couple of piccies...


Trying to release Nash...after a couple of painful flaps of his wings we had to put him back sadly.

But after a day or so he had a lovely new home...

He gives the best 'superior' looks!


"Accordingly, one race is neither superior nor inferior to another." - Walter Lang
[apart from an owl]

We were in the middle of one of Namibia's epic rain storms and had to called up to the lappa to ask someone to check Nash had found his way into his little wooden house  and was doing ok. 'If he hasn't just pick him up and pop him' in asks my roomie . Ten minutes later comes an announcement through our window that 'Just picking him up and popping him in' was not such an easy task, and having been attacked, rather than put Nash in the house, the house was put over Nash! One way to get an owl warm and dry.


"Anyone who has spent a few nights in a tent during a storm can tell you: The world doesn't care all that much if you live or die." - Anthony Doerr

We picked up 3 baby cheetah the other week. We suspect someone had trapped them in order to train them for film work and when they realised they were a little too big to be tamed they called us. Obviously we were more than happy to take them, but its such a shame that we have to when they could have been left with their mother, part of the sad reality of conservation. 


"Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land." - Aldo Leopold

"Conservation means the wise use of the earth and its resources for the lasting good of men." - Gifford Pinchot


They are utterly adorable and we are really hopeful that if we don't interact with them too much we may be able to release them in the future.


"The Cheetah cubs are outrageously cute, a real treat to watch. And their physiology, a real sleek build." - Pepper Long

Fluff balls!

A volunteer lets them go in their new enclosure....

....a little reluctant to leave the comfort and safety of their capture cage after their ordeal....

....didn't take them too long though!


"A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like a cheetah" - Ronald Reagan
[Think I must work with a few hippies then!!]

We also got two wild cat kittens this week- who are like tough domestic cats. The plan for these is to keep them on the farm, collar them with teeny tiny tracking collars and release them here so we can track what they get up to via satellite downloads.

Had a great night up at the lodge for a certain little lady's 30th! lots of wine and Patrón. One of our friends came up from town with a couple of his friends and I seem to remember drunkenly agreeing to go to a shabeen where they serve home-brew and battery acid (for that extra kick- mmmm lekker!)

"I've been drinking tequila for a long time now, and it's never been about drinking to get drunk. I don't do that. I never drink tequila during the day, and I don't drive at night."   -Sammy Hagar

You certainly have to get used to bugs, critters and slithery things round here....

Here is a snake found electrocuted on the electric fence at the lion camp

I found one of these lovely ladies in my shower the other day...



....a brown widow (recluse) spider with an egg sack- she had already spun a massive web to house all the babies when they hatched. Its venom is more poisonous than a rattlesnake and I find myself wandering round the bush with this spider and its egg sack in a used yoghurt pot trying to find somewhere to release her. You can imagine my surprise when after thinking she was on the bushes outside I found her clinging to the yoghurt pot once I got back to the bathroom! Still here to write tell the tale though! - Luckier than this lady...


"I was bitten by a brown recluse spider. It got me as I was coming out of the shower. I'd never seen that kind of spider before, I'm from Canada and we don't get those types up there."  - Elisha Cuthbert


Saturday night was filled with a braai in the river bed around the fire and a few glasses of wine. Outdoors life certainly suits!


"But I love to be outdoors. I prefer being outdoors to, you know, being inside." - Keith Carradine


 

Here are a few pictures of the zebra babies - who are growing up fast, Benny is now nearly 4 months and Frankie is 3 weeks. I feel so privileged to have been able to look after them and bond with them so well, becoming part of a slightly dysfunctional herd- Benny thinks I am his  mum and Frankie thinks Benny is his mum, which leads to him looking for milk in some interesting places!


"If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty."  - Jeff Foxworthy
[Although with zebras as 'children' I suspect we are the circus]


Time for a zebra montage!

Frankie has grown so much!

A sleeping Benny

Zebra cuddles- at least once a day!

Frankie's little face!

Sleepy little boy

Tired eyes.


"A zebra does not change his spots" -  Al Gore


“There's no limit to how much you'll know, depending how far beyond zebra you go.” - Dr. Suess

Congratulations to all of you who did the London Marathon last week- both runners and charity workers alike, its one hell of a day when London really comes alive and is great for hundreds of charities. 

"You are no longer a runner, YOU are a marathoner." -Seen at Mile 25 of the San Antonio marathon

Having worked on it for the last 6/7 years I expected to find it all very strange not being there, but it didn't worry me at all. I am definitely in the right place at the right time for me. Which on Sunday involved shopping, carbonara and cocktails and trying a springbokkie with horns (amarula, mint and straw rum - sjoe! - wow! as they say in Afrikaans). oh and cuddling baby zebras of course.

This exact weekend last year three things happened, not necessarily in order of importance... 

1. Kate and Wills got married, which was very weird to see how quaint the UK is portrayed from Southern Africa

 "The people of England are the most enthusiastic in the world." - Benjamin Disraeli

 2. I left Namibia - heartbroken and homesick and desperate to stay!

"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." - Maya Angelou

"I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself." - Maya Angelou

Luckily for me some part of me knew I was to return, the last words spoken to me on the farm were "don't cry, just to make a plan to get back" - something stuck with me there and here I am.

3. The worst 9 (ish months) of my life so far began. 

So much has happened since then and I have definitely come so far, but I think the next few months, as dates and anniversaries pass will be interesting, to remember where I have come from and bear in mind how far I have made it and how lucky I am to be right here, right now.


"I've been lucky. Opportunities don't often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them. "- Audrey Hepburn



"Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye."  - Helen Keller 


"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."-  Mahatma Gandhi 


"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death." - Thomas Paine 

"We acquire the strength we have overcome."-  Ralph Waldo Emerson