It's been all about family time from Christmas up till now, with the past week bringing an unexpected opportunity for the four of us to be together here - a somewhat rare type of reunion these days!
Father and son, heading off into the bush to photograph lilies. The vehicle of choice is always our red veteran truck "Blink Stefaans", filled with a variety of cold beverages to reward the thirsty lily hunters! Various older blogposts have illustrated this topic in great detail over the past couple of years.. here and here and here
I have to shamelessly post more Flame Lily photos - they are gorgeous and, after all, only flower once a year! A splash of colour in the greenery here revealed a profusion of lilies.
Zac wanted to show us a new "road" he has discovered in the forest reserve. Looked to me more like a fossilised river bed, but is in all likelihood an old disused cutline through the bush. Being irresistible to us though, we had to try it....
More delicate lilies, waving around the edges of the grassy 'road'...
... and also behaving like the creeping climbers they are...
The rainy, stormy season is in full swing, and, rushing towards our annual seasonal floods the river level is already rising rapidly - as are, at times, my stress levels! However, days are being counted till our next planned sanity-saving break!
I will be back here when I can, weekend greetings to all reading this!
19 comments:
As I can call me a regular Botswana visitor,I find really interesting this blog.
Thank you for sharing your experience in this wonderful Country.
Bye
What a wonderful tradition! Thanks for sharing it with us.
Indeed a fabulous tradition! And those lilies are spectacular!!
Ciao to the gorgeous elly too
That is a wonderful family tradition. The Flame Lilies are beautiful!
It seems our new year's tradition is to go out on the Annual Audubon Bird Count for our county. It was fun & we saw about 30+ species in the little area we visited.
Happy weekend to you too!
lovely photos Karen, and you managed to find a bumper crop this year - it must be a sign of a fabulous 2011 for you and the family xx
I like what Val said, many blessings for the new year!
I remember all the other times you took us looking for the lilies, and loved it each time too. Its a great tradition to have Karen!
Hi ellie!
Take Care of those stress levels. I just love the lilies.
Flame lilies are gorgeous. Are they growing on vines? A great tradition.
Gorgeous lilies, but the elephants are my favourites. It sounds like your new year is off to a great start.
Karen- wow! You really outdid yourself with these vibrant, brilliant shots of the lilies. Ellies are my favourite so I always love when you through a shot or two in. Hope everything is well with you and yours on your side of the world. thanks for sharing Karen.
BEAUTIFUL photos! Glad to see your post up, as well.
Watch out for that rain. They're saying Botswana might start flooding like SA. We've had perfect rain here in Mahalapye- rains at night, sunny during the day- at least this week. Last week I thought I'd relocated to UK. :(
The flame lilies are wonderful and I love the idea of it being a New Year family ritual. Great pics.
Can only nod to what all the others said! I also would have followed that grass lane - how exciting! What a beautiful country you live in, and what`s best - no SNOW! I am so sick of the cold and would enjoy so much a real live red flame lily!! Cheers from Germany!
All that glorious summer color is so beautiful - and discombobulating - to my eye here in the midatlantic winter. Thanks!
How I miss flame lilies. My parents garden at Ruwa just outside Harare was full of them at this time of the year. This is a memory which I will never forget. I used to work for the wild life research officer at the vet.lab. and we spent many happy hours in the bush particularly in the lowveld. Great post, I will be back. Diane
Forgot to add we lived at Mafikeng for several yeara and spent quite a lot of time back and forth to Botswana. I never went to Chobe though sadly. Diane
What a lovely dash of colour they bring to the countryside.
The elephants must respond to them too.
Back here we have a different version that blooms about now, called Flame of the Forest, and is as bright by grows in trees, and is shaped differently.
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