Brown Snake Eagle

The Brown Snake Eagle is an uncommon resident and found mostly in the northern parts of S Africa, and of medium size.

It feeds on snakes up to 3 meters (9') long. Snake Eagles hunt from a perch and do not soar over the ground looking for prey. Included in its diet are also monitor lizards.

They breed in the summer and only lay one egg per hatch and the chicks are fed by both parents.

Medicinal Plants

This has always been a fascinating subject to me and one I wish I had studied.

Rub Wild Garlic leaves on the head to treat a sinus headache. Starflowers (African Potato)A ‘wonder’ ingredient taken from the Starflower (Hypoxis hemerocallidea) helps to boost the immune system. It is used for diseases like cancer (especially prostrate cancer), tuberculosis, arthritis and bladder disorders.This plant is NOT really the African Potato – that is an edible plant. The Starflower is poisonous.Small amounts of the juice can be applied to burns and a black dye extracted from the leaves is used to darken floors.

Vleilelie (Orange River LillyThis belongs to the Amaryllis family. A decoction of chopped leaves is taken for rheumatic fever.

The Wild Dagga (cannabis) Leonotis leonurus was used as tobacco by the earliest dwellers in South Africa. It is not related to real cannabis, but this plant can:
Relieve headaches.
Nurse your colds and coughs
Fix high blood pressure. Sunbirds rely on the nectar of the flowers in early autumn.
Kudu Lily

Ghaukum fruits are eaten fresh and are used in oriental cooking and for jam (preservatives).

Lilies

Lilies are such a joy to have in the garden and come in a great variety of colors.

Even Winter is colorful.

Winter is the time for the aloes to start blooming. With their bright orange, red and yellow, the season does not lack color.

Close-up of a giraffes tongue

A giraffe's tongue is 18 to 20 inches (46 to 50 centimeters) and is purplish-black. This adaptation is thought to keep the tongue from sunburn during their all-day feed.
They eat the thorns and leaves of the Acacia trees.

In my trusted reference book, "Behavior Guide to African Mammals", Richard Estes explains how the giraffe is able to do this: "Horny papillae (small bumps) protect the lips and tongue against thorns. The narrow muzzle, extremely flexible upper lip, and long, prehensile tongue enable the giraffe to strip leaves off branches or select individual leaflets from between sharp thorns; thus it can both feed selectively and consume the quantity of foliage needed to sustain its bulk."

My beautiful elephant has died.....

It is with a great hole in my heart that I read about the death of one of my favorite elephants. This huge gentle beast has been know to me for many, many years and will be sorely missed by a lot of people. They estimate that he was in the region of about 50 years old which is still quite young for an elephant. I think he was a lot older as this picture was taken about 20 years ago and I reckon he was about 40-50 already. They think he died of a heart attack, but I somehow don't think so. It was just old age. What a sad moment in my life!!

Interestng idea

I passed this wall on my way somewhere and thought it was a very pretty idea.
Chicken wire was placed against the wall but not too tightly and the space inbetween was filled with moss covered by a layer of black plastic. Holes were then made in the plastic and the flowers planted through this. With the growth of the flowers you could eventually not see either the plastic nor the wire and made a very ugly wall attractive.