Swaziland Lowveld plains - landscape with trees

I love the trees of the plains of Africa. They are not just acacias.

Even better when antelopes decide to come and make the scenery very "African".

Mountainous Swaziland with zebras

Here are some photos from a hike to the top of Execution Peak.

See if you can spot the zebras in this second photo.

Oops, here they run away.

Swaziland a few words

I guess I am back to doing "a Photo a day" but got out of "Johannesburg" sort of theme I had. I think I will just do "a photo a day" of what ever I want with no theme even though I really enjoyed when Amira did hers with a theme. I just don't have the discipline to stick to it.

I just want to say a few things about Swaziland.

First here is a map from Google Maps to locate Swaziland.

 

It is land locked between South Africa and Mozambique.
It is a small kingdom (the present king is King Mswati III). To give you a sense of the size of Swaziland, if it was a square it would be 130 km wide - meaning of course that you can easily go from one side of the kingdom to the other and back in a day.
English is widely spoken but the true language of Swaziland is siSwati, a somewhat difficult language which makes Zulu with its 6 genders etc seem easy.
The currency is the Lilangeni (plural Emalangeni) which is on par with the South African Rand (as is the Namibian dollar).
The climate changes wildly from one side of the country to the other based on elevation.
In fact the country can be divided into 4 belts running parallel to each other from east to west.The west side of the country is mountainous with an elevation around 1800m.
As you travel eastward each belt has a lower elevation than the previous one. And the Eastern most belt is subtropical with a mean elevation of 200m. Its climate allows sugar canes to be widely and successfully grown commercially.

Obviously as I was looking for warm weather I just drove through the 2 western belts and went right through to the good weather. This took me less than 50 kms from the western border!

Anyway here is the photo of the day: A view of Swaziland plains just 40 kilometres east of Mbabane (the Capital city which is in the Highveld and so was quite cold this time of year)

White Fronted Bee Eaters in Swaziland

More blurry photos of birds! I like the Bee Eaters. They are quite colourful and fun to watch. They really do catch flies (and bees) in flight and are amazingly good at it.

They nest in colonies digging holes in cliffs.

You can see two of them on the tree trunk.

Lonesome George the tortoise has died

I just read that Lonesome George the tortoise died.
I know there are many worse news out there but somehow it is sad to me.

I'm back

I was in Swaziland for a week and I am back. It was my first time in Swaziland and it was great. I am a bit sorry to be back in Johannesburg, mostly because it is so cold and my place like a typical South African house has no heat, no insulation and is terribly drafty.  When it is windy my curtains move in the wind. BRRRRRRRR!!

Anyway, here is some of beautiful warm Swaziland.

leaving for a few days

I am going away for a few days...so no posts for a while because I am not taking my laptop with me.
I am hoping to have some photos when I get back.
So here you go, I wasn't able to keep the "one photos a day" for one month. I travel so little these days and I miss it so much, there was no way I was not going to go just to finish my month.

Birds of paradise now in seeds

You've see the flowers.

I am sure you had seen them before.


Now the seeds:

Johannesburg - Another Camouflaged Cell Tower

At the risk of seeming obsessed about cell towers, here is another "model".

I just think those things are so clever.

Here is the "palm tree model", the tall version.
At the same time you can see that typical sunny winter days have left us and the weather is quite grey these days..... hopefully not for long though.

Johannesburg - Art and Crane

From the top of Circa Art Gallery.

Johannesburg - Waiting to get into the second hand store

To get into this charity store you have to wait outside because they only let 6 people in at a time....just like Cartier in Hong Kong..... and that just tickles my sense of humor.

Green parrots in Johannesburg

More blurry bird pictures. These parrots are about 40cm long with the tail. They are quite nice. I think that are Roseringed Parakeets. "Rose-ringed" because from close you can see a pink ring around their neck.

Orange Grove - Johannesburg

One of the many shops of Orange Grove (a neighborhood of Johannesburg).
This is just across the street from the biggest Hospice store I have ever seen. (Hospice stores are second hand charity stores in South Africa just like Oxfam in the UK, Salvation Army in Canada etc etc). There is nothing special about the store apart from the fact that it is big and colourful and I thought it would be a good picture for the day.

African Shoe Surgery - Johannesburg

The store is the shack at the back with the smoke.

Johannesburg - Crested Barbet

Barbets are related to woodpeckers (or so says my bird book). There are 10 kinds of barbets in South Africa and 4 in Johannesburg. My favourite is the crested barbet who is actually not a very elegant bird. In a way it is so weird/ugly that it is cute. My landlady calls them "the tutti fruity birds" because of their colouring which is a bit all over the place. There is a spot at the top of the hill where I often see them but they are not easy to photograph. This is the best I could do.

i do realize that they are not great photos but I have been trying for days to photograph those guys and today is the first day I even came close. I have a regular (and somewhat old) digital camera ...which, to me seems to be taking photos which are more and more faded...especially as far as blues are concerned.

Johannesburg typical building site

At this location there used to be a big building of some sort. It was torn down and the site was clear to prepare for the construction of the next building, what ever it might be. But as is typical in Johannesburg the site was not left empty. Some workers were set up in a tin shack to "guard" the site. As I understand it the point is to keep uncontrolled squatters to settle on the site because apparently the law makes it then very difficult to remove them. So here are those guys, in winter, in near freezing temperatures at night living in a tin shack with no water, no electricity, no toilets and certainly no privacy.
The tent is a recent addition and it looks like they will start building soon. I am not sure what the tent is for.

A little closer. If you look carefully you can see their washing hanging between the shack and the tent.

Playing cards in the park, Johannesburg

It is lemon season in Johannesburg

This is it, it is winter and it is lemon season.

Lemons at the store are very cheap. At my green grocer they are 30 rands (about US$4.00) for 10 kilograms. The only problem is that I have no idea what I would want to do with 10 kilograms of lemons!

We even have donations of lemons at the charity store where I volunteer! (Remember "20 cents on the rand is about 3 cents)

I love lemon trees. If I could have a garden with anything at all I want I would have a lemon tree or two for sure. I am not the only fan apparently. Here is one of the gates of Johannesburg (I sometimes think that I should do a "Gates of Johannesburg" thing.)

Maybe they mean it to be a lime tree instead since they painted the fruits green.

Wild Babana flowers in Johannesburg gardens

Here are some shots of some local wild bananas blooming in a Johannesburg gardens.

 In this one my hand is for scale. These things are of course as tall as trees. My hand here is as high I as I can reach (I was on tip-toes and I am tall).

Of course I cannot help but see the similarity with the Birds-of-paradise also blooming in Johannesburg gardens right now.

A closer look at the blooms at various stages of opening.

ADDED MUCH LATER (after buying a book about South Africa wild flowers at the 2nd hand bookstore): They are both members of the Strelitziaceae Family. There are only 5 species in South Africa and the birds of paradise (Strelitzia reginae) are native of South Africa.

The price of metal makes it worthwhile in Johannesburg

Scrap metal is worth enough to make all kind of things "disappear", things like manhole covers (which you can imagine can be dangerous) and also power box doors. They must be heavier than I imagined.
On my street ours is wrapped in plastic because otherwise when it rains the entire street looses power. Putting a new door on it is an exercise in futility so plastic it is.

The one further up the street is under a tree so even when it rains it does not create problems so it stays as it is.

Near my grocery store they have come up with a more drastic solution. It does seem a bit overboard.There is a great big lock on the aluminum belt.

Camouflaged cell tower in South Africa

This is not a palm tree, this is a cell phone tower. They come in  two or three tree types.
I think it is a pretty good idea. Truly the palms are too closed to really look like a real palm tree but at least it isn't grossly obvious.

Just compare to this one:

Sacred Ibis

I truly think that their name may not be truly deserved. They do look great in flight but on the ground from relatively close they are not that special. However, here they are.
Just click on the photos if you want to see a little better.

Sunny winter Sunday at Zoo Lake, Johannesburg

Today is a wonderful sunny warm winter Sunday and everybody is out to enjoy the warm sun. Zoo Lake is a very popular green area for all kind of peoples.

Zoo Lake does have a lake and you can rent rowboats to float around if you feel so inclined.

Every so often (I haven't figures out the schedule) there is an art sale on Sunday.

People come and eat their Kentucky Fried Chicken (very popular in Africa).

.....Or they just enjoy the outdoors together.

Some play cricket, which is very big in South Africa.

The balloon vendors are getting a well deserved rest at lunch time.

Somebody, presumably a homeless but I do not know that for a fact, is drying the laundry they washed in the lake. I should say that this is not unusual around any water large enough to allow for laundry washing.

People just enjoy being outside after a few somewhat cold days.

Families have barbecues in the park.

 Ducks get fed.

Vendors (the only guy standing up) go from group to group trying to sale their goods.

Little stands pop up..... and generally a good time is being had by all in the warm sun of this perfect winter Sunday.

Tomorrow the cleaners will have to pick up a huge amount of trash because unfortunately every Monday this has to be done for the park to remain a pleasant space. Johannesburg lacks nice, open outdoor spaces and Zoo Lake remains one of the favorites only because it is cleaned every Mondays otherwise it would be unbearable.

OK, today's' photo-a-day has somehow grown to something bigger, but I couldn't do Zoo Lake in one photo.