Jacaranda season

Purple tree tunnels.  Jacarandas blooming all over our sunshine city.

Jacarandas and nature rainbow mobiles

 Jediah on a carpet of jacaranda flowers.

The jacarandas flowers have all fallen now.  The blossoming was so very beautiful end September/early October during our springtime in the southern hemisphere.  Streets are lined with these striking trees and they really are so beautiful.  We have been making several mobiles recently.  Noah and I  painted jacaranda pods in rainbow colours and made a happy mobile.

We loved making this mobile so much we found other pods and made more mobiles.
The bohinia trees have been flowering and they have lovely curly pods.

This is Leo's mobile.  The wonderful thing we discovered about this mobile is that it is when the air is cool and dampish, the pods become straight and when we have dry, hot days the pods curl again!

And yet another mobile for Jediah!  I don't know the name of the tree these pods are from.

mid/late September - jacarandas bloom/hoopoes/mulberry trees

Mid/late September is spring.  At this time, all over Harare city - our sunshine city, as it is called, all the jacaranda trees bloom.  Many streets are lined with these beautiful trees - think purple haze!
So very beautiful and something I yearned to see again after many years away.

Jacaranda in bloom

Streets lined with jacaranda trees

September nature table with a jacaranda gnome.

The mulberry trees are covered in delicious juicy mulberries and little Jediah just loved these.  See his berry juice stained face and hands!  This tree is at Mark's parents house which is about 10 minutes drive from us.  Look at the size of the leaves.  Silkworms would just love this tree.

Mark's parents have a swimming pool at their house and most weekends we visit and the boys are straight in the pool.  Their swimming is really improving too!  Here they are swimming with their Grandad.

We have the most beautiful hoopoe birds that visit our garden.  They are such special birds and make a lovely call 'hoop, hoop, hoop'.  

One of the saddest parts of leaving England was that we were unable to bring our beautiful dog, Chico with us.  It broke our hearts that we simply could not afford to ship him with us.  The fee to ship him was around two thousand pounds which we did not have.  He had been a big part of our family since he was a puppy, for 8 years.  We were blessed to find him a wonderful home with a very lovely family on a neighbouring farm in our area in England.  A married couple with 2 children and a blind grandfather who wanted the company of a lovely dog during the day.  And on a farm he was getting all the space he was used to.  Well, it was one of the worst experiences giving him over to this family.  Even though I knew he was going to a wonderful home I felt like I was giving away one of my children - and in many ways he was one of my boys.  The family send pictures sometimes which is lovely so we can see he is really well and loved and happy.

Well, because we knew what it was like to rehome a precious pet, we wanted to give a home to a dog that desperately need a home.  We went to the SPCA.  So many dogs there desperate for a home, all so special.  Sol saw one young chap and connected with him instantly.  So we gave him a home with us.  He and his sibling had been found near death as little pups, very neglected with most of their fur in patches.  They both survived with good care from SPCA and had been in the kennels since then - for about six months.  So, this is Shadow - a mixed breed dog who is very loving and very gentle and is so happy to be loved and have a home.  We are thankful to have found him and wish we could have taken his brother and lots of dogs and cats from SPCA home with us to love.

I must add how excellent the Harare SPCA is.  So clean, animals fed well and treated well and exercised and even basically trained.  Shadow knew basic commands which is fantastic.  They get by on very little funds and are full to capacity.  They do a fantastic service.