This weekend I (Johno) had work. Specifically, 10hrs/day mostly in front of my screen. Admittedly, some of that time was in a hammock, but it still took a toll. So Ellie and I took Monday and Tuesday off. Monday to blob, and Tuesday to escape into the bush and get some new birds on our list!

The chosen destination was Pamuzinda lodge, just over an hour outside Harare. That might not sound far, but the difference in altitude and climate makes for a very interesting ecological transition from one to the other. We booked two activities and lunch, selecting guided walk and canoe from the long and appealing list.

The game walk was glorious. Our guide, Foster, was knowledgeable and personable. Seeing that we were interested in birds and knew our stuff, he quickly turned it into a quiz game. “Which way was this cobra travelling?”, “Who is making that noise?”, “Who is responsible for these tracks?”. Every time I got one right I was awarded an enthusiastic “10 points!!!”.

After tea and breakfast by the river, we lounged by the pool and spent time chatting with a lovely chap by the name of Brian Pettit. One of the staff had seen our binoculars and sent him to chat to us, presumably on the assumption that we shared interests. What a guy – he takes incredible photos and focuses on the hidden side of Pamuzinda. Dragonfly walks, insect photography etc. He writes for their blog: https://www.zambezicruisesafaris.com/our-blog/. We showed each other photographs and I was inspired to pull out the macro lens:

We also found two frogs:

Back to human scale. After a massive buffet lunch and a quick nap by the poolside, it was time to take to the river and go looking for Finfoot. Still water, greenery on the sides, peace and tranquillity in abundance.

All in all, this was a wonderful getaway. How could one not feel refreshed by such a good dose of God’s creation?

7 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; 8 or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? 10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. – Job 12:7-10

Sepia is wonderful. I’ve been taking artsy photos of feet:

I also learnt how to crochet! So cool – as far as I’m concerned it’s a wonderfully malleable fabrication method. I got frustrated by the few tutorials I looked at – none of these bunnies know the word ‘chirality’…

In other news, I have a job. Although it’s ~2h a day means we haven’t really had to change our idyllic schedules. Also, my phone went swimming, so I lost all my cool microscope pictures.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17

Ellie left the country to attend a wedding (more on that soon) which left me, Johno, all alone in Zimbabwe. Well, alone except for my parents, the people we live with, the 10+ folks who came’round for dinner on Thursday and various other friends… 🙂 Luckily for me, a couple of friends were going to Hippo Pools and invited me along. Situated in Umfurudzi park, ~150km from Harare, Hippo Pools is a wonderful spot to enjoy the bush and see some epic birds!

We arrived mid-morning, met the staff and got some intel on where to find the ‘specials’ – African Finfoot, Livingstone’s Flycatchers, Twinspots and so on. Then we wandered down the riverside path to a weir, enjoying the beautiful trees and scanning the river margins for signs of movement.

It was hot and humid, but we punctuated every activity with a dip in the pool and a rest in the cool, green shade of the campsite. I was the ‘Duracell bunny’ of the group, taking the opportunity to search for birds whenever my companions took a break. We’re having a competition after all 🙂

The campsite is surrounded by a mix of riverine vegetation and miombo woodland, with some open areas dominated by mopane trees. A few km from camp are some rocky hills where Crowned Eagles are rumoured to nest. We scoffed some bacon rolls and went for a walk, hoping to locate said regal feathered bipeds. No luck, but 7kms of good bush left us happy and tired and not at all feeling like we had missed out!

Back at camp, we relaxed by the pool and waited for a scrumptious supper of pulled pork in the restaurant. This is the view from the pool:

I went on a little night walk, looking for owls and listening intently in case I came across any grazing hippos. Imagine a path, with trees so close they form an arch overhead. The air is still, and the only sounds are the burbles of the river and the crunch of your footsteps. The floor is a glittering field of stars, each pinprick of blue or green light the eye-shine of a spider or moth. Rustling in the distance could be the night-apes we saw earlier, but my torch spins to point in the direction of the sound, senses alert in case it’s something more dangerous. I like night walks!

The trip was a great success. Much fun was had. Many birds were seen. We found the elusive finfoot and escaped being eaten by the hippos or crocodiles. We had some deep chats, saw some great sights and enjoyed a break from the city in the midst of God’s incredible creation. What a blessing.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does. – Psalm 1:2-3

Yeah… our lives are pretty great 🙂

I’m treasuring this time where we both have breathing room to explore and be creative. Painting more, writing more, cooking more. This last week saw the addition of a few extra creative outlets. I’ll go through them in the titular order:

Pots

Our friend Caity invited us around for some pottery. She has a pretty sweet set-up at her house, and it was incredibly fun playing around with clay and having a go on the pottery wheel. She’s a good teacher, and clay is a forgiving medium – a good thing, since there were quite a few moments where her words, face and body language all communicated “It’s OK – we can fix that!”. Motto of the day right there. It’ll be a few more weeks before our creations are finished, but I’ll leave you with a few sneak previews:

Brews

It was bound to happen. I have gotten into fermenting things. Concol jars are proliferating. You can blame our neighbour Scott, who makes wine, vinegar, mead and all sorts of other concoctions. That said, the kombucha bug has been hovering over me for some time. Needless to say, I have some of that (kombucha) on the go. However, my favourite discovery so far has been ginger-bug soda. In a process similar to that used to make ginger beer, you start with some ginger, sugar and water cultivating a natural yeast. However, instead of using this to ferment and carbonate some ginger sugar water (to make ginger beer) you instead add the yeast starter to some sweet lemon juice (or other fruit juice of your choice). In a few days, you have a tasty, fizzy beverage. It’s like magic! Pictured is my first batch, with lemon rind, mint and lemon-grass for extra flavouring and pomegranate to make it look fancy:

Herbs

My dad, the famous proprietor of the ‘ Richard Whitaker Learning to Grow Food’ Facebook page (seriously worth a follow) has finally hooked us up with the start of our own herb garden. Garlic Chives, Origanum, Thyme, Apple Mint, Chocolate Mint, Lemon Grass and Tarragon. It makes me so happy, and I look forward to trying all of these out in my next few dishes!

Woe to him who strives with his Maker — a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’ – Isaiah 45:9

A particularly enticing aspect of this Nyanga trip was the birding opportunities afforded by a habitat so different from the rest of Zimbabwe. Consider the following distribution map for Bronzy Sunbirds in Southern Africa. That little patch where it’s found? The Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. Ditto for all sorts of exciting specimens

We kept a trip list, which by our final day was on ~80 species. Now, you can see more than that in a day around Harare, but of those 80, 25 were new additions to our year list (and thus Ellie’s life list!). Not bad!

Our first birding stop was Pine Tree Inn, now slightly run-down but historically one of the classic Nyanga destinations. The birds were not put off by the lower quality coffee – they were still present in abundance. One patch of road had Miombo Tits, Tree Pipits and a Golden-breasted Bunting within a few meters of each other!

Hunting further along the road, we located a call I had been drilling Ellie to identify: Robert’s Warblers! These noisy birds are endemic to the area (i.e. found nowhere else) and are nondescript and hard to see. They would be very rarely sighted if not for their raucous call, which led us straight to them and helped us keep track of their movements until we got some good views of these skulking birds. Later, this same strategy would help us locate another Nyanga special – Barrat’s Warbler.

The skies above were also full of excitement. Auger Buzzards and Long-crested Eagles abound, and various swallows and swifts soared above the mountains. We saw the rare and endangered Blue Swallows feeding at a viewpoint called “World’s View”. And every evening, European Hobbies swooped around the dam outside our cottage. A new bird for me, and extremely dapper in their streaky suits.

Without further ado, because guests are arriving, the list of new ones:

Ahhh Nyanga. Of all the places I’ve told Ellie about over the years, Nyanga has cropped up most often as somewhere we should go. For me, and for my parents before me, Nyanga has been a place of happy family holidays, escapes from the hustle and bustle of life and retreats into glorious nature.

Nyanga lies in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands. The mountainous terrain (up to 2500m above sea level) is covered by a mixture of open grassland, pine plantations and montane forest full of endemic bird species and wonderful creatures. Crystal clear streams run down from the rocky peaks and feed into mirror-like lakes stocked with trout and surrounded by lush vegetation and secret walking paths.

It was on the shores of one such lake that out little cottage lay, up against the forest and a short walk from the best fishing spots. In addition to the daily group outings, we all took the opportunity to wander quietly in the woods, enjoying the early morning or late evening light through the trees and doing the kind of quiet contemplation that can only be accomplished in a forest with no cell reception and the sounds of nature around you.

Speaking of group outings… We packed a lot into this trip. More than usual for Nyanga, where the aim is generally to relax. This time, fueled by the knowledge that we might not make it back any time soon and that other Zim birders already had lists >200 species, we did multiple activities each day. Circling no less than four dams, swimming in rivers, fishing, birding, picnicking… much fun was had by all 🙂 Of course, this was Nyanga so we all also read several books, played scrabble by the fire and ate some fresh trout caught by my dad.

I love this place. Love the stillness, the giant skies, the sparkling lakes, the empty time. I hope that you all have somewhere like this to enjoy. If not, you’ll have to come and visit!

I’ll probably write one more post focusing on the birds and places we saw, and I know Ellie has tales to tell of a specific adventure, so I’ll end this post here.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. 3 There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. – Psalm 19:1-3

We’ve just returned home from our adventure to the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe – a wonderful 4-night stay in Nyanga. Our tales will likely take several blog posts to tell, but since Ellie is busy finishing off her book and it may be a few days before we get around to the serious story-telling, I figured I’d start with the content you’re all really interested in: cute amphibians. Here goes 🙂

We stayed on the shore of Mare dam, which was surrounded by frogs. Every step we took near the lake margins resulted in an explosion of frogs leaping out of the way!

Some of the frogs were tiny:

In place of the other types not captured on camera, I share this final picture in honour of Ben:

Psalm 105: 1 Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name;
    make known his deeds among the peoples!
² Sing to him, sing praises to him;
    tell of all his wondrous works!
³ Glory in his holy name;
    let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
⁴ Seek the Lord and his strength;
    seek his presence continually!
⁵ Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
    his miracles, and the judgments he uttered….

³⁰ Their land swarmed with frogs,
    even in the chambers of their kings. 🙂

We got to see some of the wondrous works the Lord has done, although in our case the frogs were nice 🙂 I look forward to sharing more of our trip soon! God bless.

Hello there! It’s been a little while since my last post. Possibly because I’ve been attempting to avoid sounding like a broken record: birds! birds! birds!

I’ve given up. We’ve been doing a lot of birding 🙂 Monovale vlei, Mukuvisi Woodlands, Ballantyne Park, Harare Botanical Gardens, ART Farm, Haka Park and the gardens of friends and family. And it’s paying off – my year-list is up to ~150 birds. Specials include a spotted crake (which has been a local celebrity for the last few weeks – see my incredible picture below), orange-breasted waxbills, common cuckoo (an uncommon vagrant here), miombo tit/rock thrush/blue-eared starling (the miombo hat-trick, all found on the same day) and white-backed duck.

A novel aspect of this year’s birding for me has been going on trips to find one specific bird. I went to ART farm a couple of times before I found the white-backed ducks (which I had never seen before), and we made three trips to the little puddle where the crake had been sighted. There are always extra treats on these trips (Painted snipe and a little bittern near the crake, for example) but the fact remains: we are doing a lot of work to see these specials. And it is so rewarding – such a joy to see something new and marvel once again at the variety of life in this world God has given us.

This week, we’re doing our first big trip, heading to the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe with family. Expect a report next month 🙂

Now onto something with fewer feathers! We’ve been feeling a lack of bookshelves, and I finally got around to doing something about it. I am very happy – carpentry has been a fantasy of mine and something which has remained out of reach thanks to small res rooms at university and a lack of time and resources. Now I am lucky enough to be able to get my hands working and start making real, physical objects.

So there you go, birds and bookshelves as the title promised. I am so grateful to be able to live such a happy life.

Hi Ellie, I love you xx ❤

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;
    you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

² The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
    he stretches out the heavens like a tent
³     and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
    and rides on the wings of the wind.
⁴ He makes winds his messengers,^[a]
    flames of fire his servants.

⁵ He set the earth on its foundations;
    it can never be moved.
⁶ You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷ But at your rebuke the waters fled,
    at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
⁸ they flowed over the mountains,
    they went down into the valleys,
    to the place you assigned for them.
⁹ You set a boundary they cannot cross;
    never again will they cover the earth.

¹⁰ He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
    it flows between the mountains.
¹¹ They give water to all the beasts of the field;
    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
    they sing among the branches.
– Psalm 104:1-12

This is less of a post, more a collection of photos. All of these are from our Saturday outing – a trip to Ewanrigg Botanical Gardens just outside Harare. The goal was birds, but we ended up seeing all sorts of other interesting critters!

The aloes were not in flower, so the sunbirds were harder to find, but we were still rewarded with several species among other flowers.

Bugs everywhere!

Frogs plopping into the streams

Good birds, although I didn’t take pictures so you’ll have to settle for these shots of a red bishop taken the next day:

This is the other half of ‘Happy Doomsday’.

Zim has had an eventful week. A three-day stay-away was planned beginning Monday the 14’th Jan 2018, as a ‘peaceful’ protest action against the government-mandated increase in the fuel price. It quickly stopped being fully peaceful. Roads were blocked with rocks to stop commuters going to work, and people were assaulted for trying to work. In retaliation, many who were staying at home or putting up the barricades were beaten up by army/police/thugs/X (possibly all the above, depending on who you listen to). As the days went by more and more stories tricked out about those brutalised, shot or forced from their homes.

You can find more details about the human rights violations, violence and government involvement by reading some of the news from the last week. Incredibly disheartening, and for those of us who know folks in the worst-affected areas the lack of communication has added an extra dimension of worry and uncertainty.

Please pray for Zimbabwe, specifically for those affected directly by the violence and those trying to help. There are calls for anyone with medical expertise to help treat the victims, and various churches are collecting blankets, medicines and food for those displaced. Pray for all the organisers (apolitical, concerned citizens) who are helping coordinate efforts and setting up collection points in their homes. I’m worried these attempts to help will get them in trouble, so pray as well for protection and an end to the violence.

How can you help? In addition to prayer, I know many who are working in one way or another towards helping, and would appreciate the assistance. If you’re in Zim, get hold of me and I’ll tell you where to drop blankets and food (or just bring it round to us). Ecocash can be sent to many churches (ask if yours is involved), but I know One Church has been leading some of the efforts. Follow the hashtag #hararehelps and see what’s being done and what is still needed.

If you’re in a different country, you can still contribute finances. There is a gofundme campaign running (https://www.gofundme.com/aid-for-zimbabwe) and I can try and find out how best to get forex into the country and to where it will be useful.

The internet block seems to have been removed for now, and for many life can go back to normal. That is the privilege we have, but it is not the same for all. This next week promises to be unstable, and we may see another outburst of violent action. But even if the suburbs stay quiet and the shops stay open, help is needed for those injured and away from home. I’m hoping we can keep this in mind, spurring one another towards love and good deeds (Heb 10:24) and encouraging one another.

I got to lead a bible study this weekend on Hebrews 12. Hard as it is we are called to endure hardship as discipline, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Consider him who endured… says Paul. Strengthen your feeble arms and stay on the path (see Prov 4:20-end). Make every effort to live in peace and be holy. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

“I remember what the Lord did;
    I remember the miracles you did long ago.
¹² I think about all the things you did
    and consider your deeds” – Psalm 77: 11

“Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.” – Psalm 42:11

“Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” – Jeremiah 32:17

We look to what God has done. To how Jesus endured. To the Kingdom being built, that cannot be shaken. “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33