My surroundings

A lot of you have asked me what my surroundings look like.

So, this afternoon I took some photos:

It is summer here at the moment. Every other day is a scorcher with the thermometer climbing up to

 39deg Celsius on a regular basis. Recently we have had a lot of rain ( we are so grateful for that), and all around us the bush is green and lush.

It is Marula season, (the fruit that is used to make Amarula Liquor), and the trees are shedding their fruit by the thousands. The fruit is about the size of a small apricot. We have one tree that produces golf ball size fruit.

The fruit fall to the ground constantly and one has to be careful not to get hit by falling fruit.

One tree behind the house is about 15 meters high, the one next to my Studio about 20 meters high.

As the fruit lies on the ground for a day or two it ripens completely and turns yellow. It quickly starts to ferment and gives of a pungent, sweet and strong odour, attracting buck, warthogs and monkeys and of course, gazillions of insects.

We gather up all the fruit on a daily basis and dump truckloads full in the game camp.

The fruit is edible, and the locals make a delicious jelly  as well as a kind of alcoholic beer out of it. There is a very large pip in every fruit and the flesh clings tightly to it and cannot be removed, only squeezed for its juice.

I personally much prefer the Amarula liqueur :)

This is part of the chicken yard. My lovelies are entertained with hanging fruit and seeded pine cones.

......feeding time.......

----Just some pretty plants---

This is what I see when I sit on my Veranda.

  

Above is the Main Entrance to our farm.

Main entrance path.....

Path to the barbecue area.....

One of the guest huts....

Sorry about the aircon in this photo. I wanted to show you a close up of these prickly plants. They are called Halfmense ( Afrikaans) , which means Half Humans in English. 

And finally----- Philip the tame Impala enjoying a good cuppa------ 

No, not really coffee but maize kernels in the cup!!

So, that's all from me today. Stitching wise I can tell you what I am busy with, namely, 

as per usual, several projects. 

1.   Mountmellick embroidery guest towel

2.   Hardanger victorian bag project

3. My own Cross stitch design of....... (surprise)

4. A crochet bunny, too sweet for words....

Goodbye for now, keep stitching....