I know of people that especially went to Lekhubu Island to witness the eclipse, but even from here at The Plot, Letlhakane, we had an amazing view.
I got up at 4:30 this morning and you could see that a tip of the moon was getting a shadow. As per the picture to the right.
By 5:00 it was half covered. By 6:00 you could just make out the moon and it was a dark brick red in colour. Just after 6 you couldn’t see it at all.
This was a first for me
I have added the Marula Tree to our section on our blog “Interesting trees at The Plot“
A tree for all. Fruit, juice, beer, jam, flavourings, medicines, shade, caterpillars, handicrafts, fuelwood and more, … all from the marula tree.
If you would like to read about the Marula the link is https://ourbots.wordpress.com/the-plot/interesting-trees-at-the-plot/marula-tree/
To all the mothers reading this blog, Sue and I would like to wish you a stunning Mother’s Day.
That includes our little “male” cat that recently gave birth to 5 kittens 🙂
Back in October when two little kittens arrived on our patio from who knows where, (https://ourbots.wordpress.com/2021/10/12/our-news-from-the-plot-letlhakane-botswana/) I sexed them and confirmed to Sue that we had a boy and a girl.
6 months later, the little boy has had 5 kittens 🙂 What makes it even worse is that, when, now her, stomach got big I did a Google search to found out why our “male” kitten was getting so fat. The results showed that there was a very good chance of worms. So of course we dewormed. Which obviously didn’t work in reducing the stomach size.
It was quite a shock when we found 5 kittens on Tuesday morning.
Sue and I have decided that the 5 greatest supporters of our blog, to show our appreciation, will all get a kitten.
This cute female Pririt Batis flew into our house and after settling down, she started to feed – darting around our rafters catching insects.
We wished she would stay longer, but after a few hours she flew out.
Whilst watering some plants this Nightjar took off from almost under my feet. It’s camouflage was so incredible that I wouldn’t have seen it if it didn’t take off. Nightjars are crepuscular (active in the evenings and early mornings), so this one was resting during the daylight hours.
I have been trying to work out which one it is, so if you can help – please let me know.
Two of the wildflowers currently in bloom
Monday night we had our first good rains here at The Plot, just outside Letlhakane, measuring 14mm.
However, gale force winds accompanied it. This seems to have been the story of our “spring”. High, high temps – most days being well over 40 and we have already been to 47C. The winds have been howling for about a month now. Our weather patterns seem to have become much more severe.
The nice rains have brought some relief and the bush is transforming to a beautiful green
Extreme Weather
It is spring time here at The Plot making it a very exciting time of the year. New leaves can be seen on trees and birds are starting to build nests.
Last week we had a lovely spring day with the mercury sitting at a wonderful 47C / 117F.
October and November have always been our hottest months of the year. I recall a few years back experiencing 52C at Savuti at the beginning of October.
We have had a bit of rain, but more often than not the clouds just build and would evaporate in the heat.
The heat has been relentless and it has been accompanied by violent wind storms. I could imagine one would have a similar experience standing behind a 747 whilst it warmed up its engines.
Jungle Gym for the goats
After being used as a human jungle gym I decided to build a jungle gym for our goats, which they are all loving. Even the older ones spend some time on it.
Of course so have I.
Visitors for dinner
The sun had just set and Sue and I were sitting down for dinner when we had 2 very unexpected visitors.
Two small kittens walked up to our house, so small we wondered if they were actually weened yet.
Living in the middle of nowhere makes it even stranger – where did they come from?.
Immediately they made themselves at home and even our dogs didn’t attack them. 3 days later they are still very comfortable here. One cannot blame them because we and all our other animals are also very comfortable here.
Not a bad dinner we were having when they arrived 🙂
Very cute – maybe not for me 🙂
A month ago I mentioned that we had had ice on our goats’ water trough, two weeks later we were having temperatures of over 30C. Now 2 weeks later still we are back to ice as a massive cold front sweeps across southern Africa.
Yesterday we woke to icy conditions, this morning was also chilly, but warmed up to such an extent that we could shower in our outside shower.
Apart for freezing to slightly warm conditions we have also been experiencing very hectic, strong winds which is getting rid of all the old leaves on the trees making room for the soon to be new foliage. However leaves are all over our paths and ponds. Some raking much needed from our gardener – shame – oops that is me.
Even with this unsettled weather there are definitely signs that spring and summer is on its way. New leaves can be seen on some trees, flowers on the odd bush and the Black Thorn (see interesting trees on The Plot) is in full bloom.
One of our other Toggenburg doe’s gave birth the day after the twins were born. Another little girl, which is great.
After the drama of the previous day’s little girl, who has now found the good nipple, we thought this one would be a cruise – one baby and a mother full of milk.
We got concerned when we saw mom actually pawing the baby, with the intention of getting it too its feet. What we worked out was that mommy wanted her baby to suckle and it wasn’t. So we actually have had to force feed the baby.
Something we are still doing, but pleased to see baby has discovered the udder, however not quite suckling enough.
Pete & Sue in Botswana 