Charlotte turns 11

Charlotte turned 11 on the 29th of August. Unfortunately the week leading up to her big day found her home sick with a raging fever. The party she had so hoped would take place on her birthday weekend had to be postponed. We were able to celebrate at home with a pretty fancy cake, nice presents and dinner out at our favorite birthday restaurant, Miller's steakhouse. The crew at Miller's made up a fancy ice cream sunday for the birthday girl and provided a rousing round of "Happy Birthday to You" to the newly minted 11 year old. No worries that her principle was at the next table over! More birthday exploits to come, the party is next weekend. Love, Shannon

Bark, not the dog kind.

One of my greatest joys here in Harare is quite literally my own backyard. We are so fortunate to live in a house with an amazing garden, beyond amazing really. Four acres of thoughtfully landscaped gardens, rivaling many small botanical gardens with a range of trees, plants and flowers that, even after a year of exploring still surprises me. My latest jaunt through the garden with my camera found me focusing on, in addition to the seasonal flowers, some of the unusual bark. We are just heading out of winter right now and the trees are just starting to leaf out again, which is probably why I found myself focused on the bark. Once the leaves arrive I will check my flora books and see if I can better identify some of the species. For now, I will share with you my bark collection, to be followed up with the Aug/Sep flowers. Oh and one nice shot of Kodi at his own private water bowl/pond. Love, Shannon

And the flowers...

What to do on a cold Zimbabwean night?

.... Run around and play like a wild dog and sit by the fire pit. Kodi does the running round and we do the sitting by the fire pit. Notice the attire though, it is just never that cold here! Marshmallows anyone?

15 August 2010 - Lion and Cheetah Park

We haven't been out to the Lion and Cheetah park recently so when a visitor arrived we had the perfect excuse to head out and see the lions. Located only about 30 min from downtown Harare, this really is a great place to get up close and personal with wild cats. We were lucky because as we were arriving, they began feeding the big cats. Never have I seen cheetahs in motion like this and very very close to the chain link fence. We had just a week before been traumatized by the lion feeding at Antelope Park, well, Lion and Cheetah was just about as scary. The sounds the lions make when battling over food is really something to hear. Because of all the commotion the lions were making, the hyenas were up and moving about as well. You just never know what you will find at these places...

Love,

Shannon

11 August 2010 - First Day of School

On the coldest day of the year, Charlotte and Lucas went back to school after a long summer break. Charlotte is in 6th grade, middles school here and Lucas is in 2nd grade. I can hardly believe it!

Love, Shannon

6-8 August 2010 - Antelope Park, Gweru Zimbabwe, Part 4 Lion Feeding

This was the scariest thing... watching 4-5 year old lions being fed. These are big, hungry, wild cats and it was quite a site. Eight lions being fed a truckload of cow parts. During the whole bloody thing the lions never took their eyes off Lucas. As the smallest in the group, he was immediately singled out as the most likely candidate for dinner. The only thing between us and the lions was a rusty chain link fence. Probably won't be doing this activity again...