Blank Slate

The new backyard garden beds are finally complete!  I posted a couple months ago about the progress that was made throughout the early summer.  Not much was done mid-summer due to the heat and busy schedules.  Then, while I was away in South Africa, our landscaping friend completed most of the work of tearing out the weeds that had grown during the summer and filling the beds with soil and compost, as well as adding the gravel path and my husband completed the rest when he returned from South Africa.  And now, they are finally finished and ready for planting!  Now the question is, what do I plant???  I have SEVEN new and pretty large beds, which means I have the opportunity to plant a lot of plants I've never tried before.  I have quite a few ideas of what I want, but I also want to leave some room to grow and have the ability to plant other plants as I come across them in the coming years.  Having all these new beds is so exciting!

Here are my new beds:

Shade Tree Bed -Angle 1

Shade Tree Bed - Angel 2

I envision a lot of shade-loving flowering perennials in these beds, including American Beautyberry and Turks cap.

Deck Bed

This will mostly be the herb garden, with a few flowers thrown in.

Wide view of a few of the new beds

These beds will have a variety of perennials, bulbs and annuals.  I want to attract birds and butterflies and also want some good cutting flowers in these beds.

Neighbor Fenceline Bed

I'm planning to plant a couple fruit trees in the new beds, and definitely want a pomegranate to plant in this bed where the old tree used to be.

Other direction of the neighbor fenceline bed

I see a row of hedge roses here, maybe with a couple evergreen shrubs in the mix to keep some color in the winter.

Front Fenceline Bed

Deer resistant shrubs and perennials will be placed here.  All I know is that I definitely want a butterfly bush here.

All the new opportunities are so exciting...and a little overwhelming.  I get nervous about planting certain plants in the wrong spot or not liking the design it creates once the plants fill out.  But, that's the fun thing about gardening, you can always change it later and try something new.

Travels Abroad: South African Safari

No trip to Africa would be complete without a true African safari.  My husband, Jon, and I celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary by going on a 3-day, 2-night safari at the end of my work trip in South Africa.  We stayed at the Tanda Tula Safari Camp on the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve in the Greater Kruger National Park.  It was an absolutely spectacular life experience.

We stayed in a luxury tent, which I thought was perfect, because you feel somewhat like you are camping out in the bush, but have modern conveniences like running water and electricity.  It did get down to 40 degrees Fahrenheit at night and there was no heat in the tent, but at least we had a heating blanket to keep us toasty.

Our tent

View from our deck - looking out on the dry river bed (we were there during the dry winter season)

Before we even went on our first game drive, we got to experience wildlife.  All animals, except for elephants, are allowed to roam freely on the camp grounds.  That means lions could be lurking outside your tent at night...so we were required to have an escort (with a rifle) walk us back to our tent every night.

Warthog munching on grass on the camp grounds.

Vervet monkey being mischievous in camp.

During our very short safari, we were still able to go on four game drives, two in the morning and two at night.  Each drive lasted about 3.5 hours.  During our stay, we managed to see all "Big 5" animals:  buffalo, lions, elephants, rhino, and leopards.

The Big 5

Buffalo

Lions

Elephants

White Rhinos

Leopards - the most amazing experience of the entire trip.

This baby was digging into the fresh kill his momma caught him that morning.

Baby and momma leopard

Momma leopard in the tree

The most amazing part of watching the leopards was when the momma leopard decided to bring the impala down out of the tree.  I guess she decided she rather take her chances with the hyenas on the ground rather than the vultures in the air.  But during the process of bringing the impala down from the tree, the impala got wedged in the tree and the momma leopard did nothing but hang from impala, hanging on by her tight grip of her jaw.  It was a pretty amazing thing to witness, and I even got it all on video here.

Other than the Big 5, we got to see many other types of wildlife around the park.  We even followed a pack of wild dogs as they were on the move to a different den with their pups.  Apparently, the wild dogs are very rare to see, since they are endangered and very elusive animals.

Soooo cute!  Unfortunately, the little guy at the back had a bum leg.  He was having troubles keeping up, and the whole pack would stop and let him rest a minute.  I'm afraid he probably didn't make it too much longer after we left.  But, that's nature.

The first couple of days we saw absolutely no giraffe.  Then, on the third day, we saw about 40 giraffe.  This tower of giraffes was the cutest, since they had a baby.

And a safari in South Africa wouldn't be complete with a kudu.  Their twisted horns are so interesting.

Overall, it was such an amazing experience and a wonderful way to celebrate 5 wedded years with my wonderful husband.  Here's to another 70 years!

Until next time, Africa.

Travels Abroad: South Africa Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve

Earlier this week, I returned from a two and a half week trip in South Africa.  The nature of the trip was primarily business, so I was in Johannesburg most of the time.  During our weekend in Jo'burg, my colleagues and I wanted to experience a little bit of the African wildlife, so we headed just outside of the city to the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve where we went on a mini-safari and got a chance to play with some big cats!

The game drive started with a quick stop at the "Neck and Deck" restaurant, where we were able to feed the giraffe!

Next, we started the game drive where we saw many different species of antelope and other creatures living in harmony.  The reserve keeps the predators fenced away from the prey, so there were no National Geographic moments of any cats chasing and catching prey.

Impala

Ostrich, Gemsbok or Oryx Gazelle, and Wildebeest

Wildebeest getting on his knees to nibble on some grass clippings.

A beautiful profile of the sable antelope.

Warthog (aka "Pumba" for your Lion King fans) also getting on his knees to nibble the grass.

Then, it was time to move onto the cat feedings.  Once a week, the reserve feeds their eight white lions a full HORSE!  They always know when feeding time is and gather in the feeding circle for their tasty treat.

Digging in. It will take these eight lions about a day to completely devour the horse.

This cheetah was given a nice rack of ribs, which he apparently enjoyed.

Then, it was onto the precious rhinos.  The rhinos we saw were white or wide-mouth rhinos.  They are a threatened species, with about 20,000 left in the wild.  Poachers are the biggest threat for the rhino, who kill the beast for their horn, which is sold on the black market in Asia, primarily Vietnam.  The ground up horns, which are made of keratin (the same material as hair and fingernails), is purchased at the same price as gold and is consumed by those that believe it has medical properties, particularly aphrodisiac properties.  It is such a shame that these creatures have been hunted to nearly extinction for such a greedy and ridiculous purpose.  Thankfully, the reserves and sanctuaries are helping keep their numbers from dwindling further.

This guy had his horn cut off by poachers.  Thankfully, he survived the attack.

Baby Rhino - just a couple months old

Baby Cheetah

My favorite moment of the whole experience - getting to pet Eddy, a 12 year-old cheetah.  He wasn't sedated like other large animals you may find in zoos before they let tourists anywhere near the wild creatures.  Eddy had been raised in captivity his whole life, so he acted more like a dog.  He had a full belly, so he was just lounging around.  As I pet him, he even purred!  Even though Eddy was very tame, my heart was racing being so close to him...after all, he still was a wild animal.  What an amazing experience!

There were also some serval kittens I got to play with.  And finally, the lion cubs.  This "little" guy was just four months old and already the size of a lab.  He even liked tussling around like a dog would, and especially loved the belly rub.

Baby Brown Lion

The reserve had a few animals that were not native to Africa, but found sanctuary on the reserve, including this cloud leopard and white tiger.

And what better way to conclude a wild African experience than by wrapping a python around your neck? (*note sarcasm)  Notice the placement of my right hand...I wanted to make sure I had a way out in case this guy got a little too cozy.

What a great day in Africa.