21st December 2007

Ian is laughing today, because a few days ago I wrote that I thought the rains are over, and today it rained again…and it was grey all morning.

The lilac-blue flowers we dug up yesterday are perky and healthy, and do not seem to have suffered from being transplanted, so my father went out to dig up some more of the wild flowers which are blossoming, and replant them in our flowerbeds: there are some of the big white pyramid lilies, and the Pyjama Lilies (both with their onion-like bulbs), as well as another big bundle of the same lilac-blue flowers we saw in such profusion on the road to Mtito and brought home yesterday, plus a creeper with a delicate mauve flower. It’ll be interesting to see how they fare as some plants don’t take well to being moved, and others don’t seem to mind at all.

The waxbills are still making the most of the seeding grass on the Hippo Lawn: I photographed a Red-cheeked Cordon Bleu pair feeding below our bedroom today, alongside a Tree Squirrel who was also enjoying the grass seed feast. I also saw the Firefinches and the Indigo Bird again. The Village Weavers were busy on the grass too. The Glossy Starling chicks have hatched, and there were three of them, preening themselves in the bush by our bedroom, around the small, mud-cup nest of the Striped Morning Warbler (which, despite its delicate painstaking construction, does not seem to have been used.)

The commiphora africana trees are flowering, including the one in the middle of the Hippo Lawn: miniscule yellow flowers, in small bunches close to the stem. There are also some interesting flowering and fruiting plants down on the riverbank, which I photographed, alongside the deep hoof prints of a lone buffalo which came down to drink last night.