So much for Civilised Sundowners

A few of us got together on Saturday night at our place to enjoy a beautiful African sunset and a few sundowners. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worst and I'm not only talking about the weather.

Me and my big mouth - actually it wasn't me at all - it was my big mouth. It suggested that we should use the opportunity to create our own Lumwana cocktail. So unlike me to be so irresponsible! Needless to say, things quickly got out of hand with Steve playing the leading role (assisted by Fiona) in concocting possible candidates for our approval and final vote. And the winners were :

Lumwana Slammer

Take a not too flimsy glass and add to it, one part Frangelico and two parts Dry Champagne (ja ok, sparkling wine). Take the not so flimsy glass into your left hand and cover it with your right hand. Slam the not so flimsy glass down on the table 5 times while counting one, two, three, four, five and down the contents, one shot!

Lumwana Pancake

No slamming here, so use any glass you like. Enjoy it as you would a tequila but replace the tequila with Jack Daniels, the salt with ground cinnamon and the lemon slice with orange. And please - not the Johan Fouche (bless his soul) and Peter Turner (howzit Pete) way ie sniffing the salt and squeezing the lemon into your right eye. That just cannot be healthy!

So much for civilised sundowners!

Ambition

A bit ambitious you would say? Unfortunately I don't have an "after" photo but yes, he did actually manage to work the whole frog down. Ah, the power of positive thinking!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Here are a few images of life around Lumwana. The Good (rainbow over Cons Camp), the Bad (vehicles getting stuck in the mud) and the Ugly (I know I shouldn't say a snake having his lunch is ugly but I'm sure most of you would agree). Thanks to Steve, Colin and Henk for passing on these photos. Please keep it up guys!

House Guest

This little cutie has made himself at home on the outside of our verandah. He is tiny (I guess about 2cm long) and very colourful. I contacted Dr Alan Channing of the Biodiversity and Conservation Biology Department at the University of the Western Cape. He confirmed that it is a painted reed-frog (rietpadda in Afrikaans). They come in various colour patterns and are not poisonous. More information on these can be found in his book "Amphibians of Central and Southern Africa, Alan Channing, 2001. Many of the photos in the book were taken by Dr Channing during time spent in Mwinilunga (just further north from where we are). The book is available at www.amazon.com.

A River Runs Through It

As you know, we've had quite a bit of rain lately (about 168mm in November and 274 in December, although the first week of December was not recorded). To date we've had 178mm for January (which is already more than the total for November) so I wonder how much we'll have by the end of the month. These figures have been recorded in my rain meter fixed at the front of our house in the Cons Camp so it would probably differ from the more "official" readings taken by our Environmental Department. Below are some photos of our backyard taken after yesterday afternoon's 12mm shower but after the subsequent downpour last night, it looked like a lake. The only thing missing was a few ducks.

Back in Camp

Hope you all had a good festive season and that 2007 will treat you well. We were away on holiday for a few weeks and arrived back on site on Monday. For those of you who're wondering, YES, I'm very happy to be back. On my return I found our back yard digged over and now I'm just waiting for topsoil to start gardening. At the moment we're getting a lot of rain, so hopefully everything won't wash away. I'll post some rainfall numbers a bit later. I hear there's been some new birds around camp and I'll post some info on that also. Hopefully we'll get some housing sorted soon for those families waiting to move up, as we're looking forward to having more ladies and kiddies around. You're all welcome to post comments on the blog or if you have anything you would like me to post, feel free to forward it. 2007 - here we come!