🐾 Maybe the reason I love animals so much, is because the only time they have broken my heart is when theirs has stopped beating.

Sunday 15 June 2014

A melt-down and a broken heart


I've had a melt-down. And I've got a broken heart. And so have my girls.

First, the melt-down. My girls have absolutely ruined my garden! In about two years they've reduced it to a barren landscape with all but a few of the hardiest plants gone. GONE! My prized Echeverias, which I started with just a few plants given to me by my dad shortly before he passed away in 1990, and which had grown into beautiful specimens which I had in various parts of the garden, are all but annihilated.

The same area as above before the girls arrived.


I've managed to rescue a few of my Echeverias and planted them in a basket and placed them in my bathroom court-yard garden. Hopefully they will recover to their previous glory.


Where there used to be a thick carpet of ground covers, now there's only dead leaves and a big mess. Not that Missy minds, she's quite happy to relax there with Artemis close-by, blissfully unaware of my melt-down.

Kiep takes time out on the rock just behind Missy.


Now for the broken heart part. I'm broken-hearted because I've banned the girls from the garden. Locked up in the chicken run. No more chickens happily doing what chickens do, scratching and foraging in the garden. Having gorgeous sand baths, chasing after grasshoppers and other bugs. One thing I must say, my garden is totally bug-free - no cut-worm, no fruit beetles, no plant lice. In fact, no anything. But I'm not so sure that's entirely a good thing either. I haven't seen a lady bug or a praying mantis for absolute ages. My lizard and frog population has also suffered tremendously. NOTHING is safe from these bug-devouring lovelies!

"Why, oh WHY can't we come out?!" In stead of scouring the grass for insects, the girls would spend hours at the gait, waiting for me to open up.


ChiChi and Snookums, who grew up in my studio, are totally puzzled with this new development. They've never been locked up and cannot understand what's going on.


A couple of months ago, I did start some landscaping inside the run and I presume that, shortly, there will also be nothing left of this.

Now, as I see the matter, I have three or four choices. One is that the girls stay locked up in the run forever. FOREVER! Or I can reduce the population and only keep three or four (that's not likely to happen!). Another option is that I adapt the garden to suit the girls - no beautiful, colourful borders, no tender Echeverias and give up my love for insects and all the other garden visitors.

Hmmmmmm... Decisions, decisions....

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Friday 13 June 2014

Striped Grass Mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio)


Camera : Canon EOS 550D
Taken in my garden, Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa

This little Striped Grass Mouse (Rhabdomys pumilio) or Four-striped Grass Mouse was quite unperturbed at my presence this afternoon as he shared some corn with all the other garden birds. I often see a pair together snacking on seeds I put out.

As its common name suggests, the four-striped grass mouse is easily identified by the 4 distinct dark longitudinal stripes running the length of the back. Colour varies from dark grizzled russet brown to a grey-white. The sides and underparts are lighter but vary from off-white to pale grey-brown. The backs of the ears and the snout are russet to yellowish brown. The upper surfaces of the feet are usually lighter in colour than the body. Research has shown that the average body size does vary in different geographical areas, and that tails can be shorter or equal to the body length.


Length 19-26cm, weight about 43g. Diurnal and occuring in all parts of South Africa except most of Limpopo. Prefers fairly dense cover and feeds mostly on green vegetable matter, seeds and insects. Also likes the soft parts of the bracts and flowers of Proteas thus becoming an important agent in the pollination of some species. They excavate burrows, sometimes to a depth of 50cm. Striped mouse are active during the day, but are seldom active at night as they cannot maintain their body temperature if the environment is below 5 degrees C.

Afrikaans : Streepmuis
Die Streepmuis (Rhabdomys pumilio) is ’n muis wat in die hele Suid-Afrika voorkom behalwe in die grootste gedeelte van Limpopo en die noorde KwaZulu-Natal. Die streepmuis is bleek rooibruin in die weste tot donker grysbruin in die ooste van die area waarin hy voorkom. ’n Kenmerk van die soogdiertjie is die vier strepe op die rug. Die streepmuis is daglewend en word tot 19cm lank en weeg 30 – 55g. Hierdieie knaagdiertjie woon in grasryke dele in halfwoestyn tot bergwêreld met hoë reënval en is daglewend. Die streepmuis grawe gate onder ou gras of by die basis van ’n bos met voetpaadjies na die weigebied. Hulle eet sade en ander plantmateriaal. Daar word gewoonlik 5-6 kleintjies in die somer gebore.

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Friday 6 June 2014

Solly's dustbin chook


This is Solly’s chook, one of the dustbin chicks born last November 2013. He’s turned into a beautiful rooster, obviously of mixed blood as his feathers are like those of a Silkie. But what makes him adorable is the fact that he talks to me – whenever he sees me, he utters this whole repertoire of cackles and croaks all the while staring me straight in the eye. He’s also very tame, sitting down when I put my hand on his back and then allowing me to pick him up for a cuddle. Normally all Solly’s chicks that turn out to be roosters are destined for the pot, but I’ve asked him nicely to spare Mr. Chook. (Solly is our mechanic/handyman and he has all these chickens that wander all over our smallholding and usually end up breeding somewhere in my garden.)

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Thursday 22 May 2014

I can't find the sugar, Hon!

Camera : Canon EOS 550D 
Taken in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

A female African masked-weaver (Ploceus velatus) inspecting a nest to see if it suits her requirements. More often than not, the female will reject the nest and look elsewhere, sending the males into a frenzy of building two or three nests at the same time, sometimes as many as six!

This female was quite impressed with the housing and shortly after her inspection, she flew to the ground, returning with a feather and disappeared inside. the male was ecstatic! He did a little dance on the branch above her, and then joined her inside. How I wish I could have seen what was going on in there!

But the nesting season is all over now, the males have all lost their breeding colours and the garden is strangely quiet with just the odd chirps.

The Southern Masked-Weaver or African Masked-Weaver is a native of sub-Saharan Africa with a short, conical bill. Adult males in breeding plumage have a black face and throat, red eyes, a bright yellow head and under-parts, and yellowish-green upper-parts, whereas females (and non-breeding males) are dull greenish yellow, streaked darker on the upper back, and the throat is yellowish, becoming off-white on the belly, with duller irides. It nests in colonies, like other weavers, and the nests, again like those of other weavers, are woven of reeds, palms or grasses. The Southern Masked-Weaver appears to have established itself locally in parts of northern Venezuela.

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Tuesday 20 May 2014

Half a beauty!


Artemis during his moult. Half his cape and half his beautiful tail feathers are gone, but it won’t be long before they are all replaced by healthy, more beautiful than ever, new feathers!

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Wednesday 14 May 2014

I saw a flock of birds today...


I think Autumn is at and end now, the days are getting colder. My Swallows left in middle-April and the call of the Red-chested Cuckoo is quiet. I'm looking forward to their return in spring. And will enjoy the birds that stay for winter.

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Thursday 8 May 2014

How to know if it's going to be a beautiful day



Camera : Canon EOS 550D
Taken on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) at 6.15am this morning.

It is purported that thick, early morning mist heralds a beautiful day ahead. Today it certainly has turned out to be true, it turned into a beautiful day with blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Even as I was taking the photos, the mist was quickly clearing and half-an-hour later all the mist was gone and it promised to be a lovely day.




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Wednesday 7 May 2014

A place to start


What is an egg, but a place to start,
Nestled under a mother's heart?
What is a nest, but a place to be,
Surrounded by those whose love is free?
What is a chick, but a beginning new,
Fresh and sweet as the morning dew?
What is a pullet but a lady who waits,
For that day when she too can say;
What is an egg but a place to start,
Nestled under a mother's heart?
- Sheryl DéLeon SoRelle

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Sunday 27 April 2014

Farm talk - Creative Décor

A wooden Leopard inlay greeting visitors at my front door 

When the creative urge strikes, no surface is safe, not even in my house! I created this wooden Leopard-inlay by nailing together a few pieces of wooden decking slats in a one-meter square, painted the leopard on the boards and then cut it out with a Jigsaw – our builder then threw the concrete floor to surround the leopard, leaving it flush with the rest of the floor. The tail was painted directly onto the concrete before treating the floor.


The concrete floor before being treated with Earthcote 

The floor after Earthcote treatment and varnish 


Having grown up in the house, both Missy and Kiep are quite capable of making themselves at home wherever they please. Yesterday morning I found them sitting quite happily on my wooden Leopard-inlay. Why they would choose that spot is quite beyond me! Maybe the wood was slightly warmer than being outside, our days are decidedly nippy now, and neither of them moved as I made my way towards the door. They spent about half-an-hour there before making their way through my bedroom to have a scratch around in my bathroom court-yard.

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