O Tannenbaum

I'm weird. I know most of y'all already know this about me, but I bet you didn't know I have a weird Christmas Tree fetish. Hee.

I like Christmas tress. I have a Christmas tree in every room of my house with the exception of the laundry room. But I don't have normal green trees, I have funky & colorful trees.
Above is the tree I have in my bedroom. It is made of white feathers and has lighthouse ornaments all over it (to match my lighthouse decorated bedroom).
Above is the bright gold tree I have in my spare bathroom. It has Georgia Tech & Buzz ornaments on it. I love this tree!!! I am still looking for an appropriate GA Tech tree topper for this tree.
Next is the shimmering multi-colored fiber-optic lighted silver tree in my kitchen. Decorations are simple blue-hued glass balls cause the highlight of this tree is the fiber-optic lights. Awesome!!!
Above is the tree I have in my master bathroom. It is lime green (w/ green lights) and has handmade swirly patterned ornaments on it to match the swirly patterns in my bath.
And finally, this is my tree in my living room. It has African decorations on it as well as African animal print boxes below it. Plus, I took a throw blanket I had and used it as a tree skirt.
And these are my awesome Baobob trees from Africa all decorated up in the holiday spirit. I forgot to take a photo of the tree in my spare bedroom, but be assured that it is also decorated up to match the US Southwest/Mexican theme of my spare bedroom (compete with little pepper ornaments).

And finally..... A while back I had asked for suggestions for photos for my mantle. After taking into consideration all the feedback that everyone provided, I realized I just couldn't make a decision on any of my African photos. So, I went another route as you can see below.....
I bought three African made baskets from one of my favorite stores, 10,000 Villages, and hung them over the mantle. I like the end result and got a lot of compliments at my party this past Saturday. The track lighting in the living room is also new.

Janet's Mantel - Part 2

Thanks for all your comments, and if you still want to vote, scroll down to the next post and read.

So, based on the comments so far, specifically the fact that my living room may be starting to resemble an African museum I made a few changes this weekend. I see now that maybe I have an overload of African items on the mantel and a african animal photo may be overloading an already overloaded situation.

I have moved the zebra mask and the two baskets hung on the mantel to other walls in the living room. Spread things out a bit. I also bought some wheat-like fake foliage to put into the black vase to add more height & color. Hopefully that eases up on the "african museum" feel a bit.

I like the possiblity of the photo collage that Jane mentioned in the comments section, but the spot there above the mantel is not large, so at most, four 8x10 photos would fit there. But that also means selecting 4 photos which is only slightly better than trying to select one. So, I tried out some photoshoping to see what it would look like with one photo or four 9 (I also photoshopped out the zebra mask & baskets). So the photos here are my mantle area with one single large photo and the other is with 4 smaller 8x10-ish photos. I am still figuring out which photo(s) to use, so I just picked random ones here for example. Whatever photo I choose, I want to try and match the wood from the fire place to the frame(s) for the photos.



So, what do y'all think? One or four photos......

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

What's on Janet's Mantel?

The picture to the left is my living room.

After returning from Africa, I sorta redecorated my living room in an quasi-African theme. Still nice, warm and metropolitan, but with a few African accents here and there. Those accents are mainly items I picked up while in Africa.... the baobob trees on the black bookcase, the handwoven cloth on the wall, the tall black wood-carved figurines and baskets on the mantle, the cool graphical pillows on the couch, and the zebra bowl and hand-painted table runners on the dinning room table.

But over the mantel I had this large signed by the photographer photo of the Statue of Liberty. It doesn't quite fit the whole "African" theme, so I have moved that photo to another location in my condo. Now the question is: what goes in its place?

I am thinking that I should frame one of my photo from Africa for that spot. As you can see to the right here, the spot above my mantel is vertical, so I am limited to mostly vertical photos. So I scoured all my African photos and came up with a few choices below.

Help me choose by letting me know which photo you think will look best on my mantel. Leave a comment in the comment section below as to which photo you think would be best for the mantle.

Here are the choices:

Cute little meerkats


Elephants


Some landscapes.... grass, vast pans, & pretty sunset


Animals.... Cheetah, Giraffe, Zebras, Leopard, & Lilac-Breasted Roller



The Okanvango Delta


Aerial Views (the 2 horizontals can be turned vertical since they are a bit abstract)


Don't be shy... leave a comment by clicking the "comment" link right below here. Let me know what you think and I will show you the result later.

Final Africa Photos..... Finally!

I'm still sick with a nasty summer cold, so I spent the day in bed relaxing and resting.... and working on photos.

Its only 3 months since I got back from Africa and I am just now finishing up on my photos from that trip......

I'm not gonna bore you with the details.... just gonna point you to my Smugmug site and all the photos from Africa. The new ones are in the Galleries for Day 12, 13, & 14.

A few of my favorites here below....

Africa Trip Report - Part 6

We are getting near the end of the Africa Reports. Only 2 more days after this...

MAY 16th
Our morning drive was really more of a drive than a wildlife safari. The hills and grasslands of the Savute Marsh are a nice change to the endless mopani trees we drove through to get here. We stopped at the San rock paintings and to be honest... they are a bit disappointing. Having been to the American southwest on multiple occassions and seen the large amount of indian rock paintings they have there makes this one little painting of a handful of animals seem ... underwhelming.

We did see some kudu and then some cute little dwarf mongoose sitting on a log trying to get warm in the morning sun. A handful of elephants, impala, and giraffe filled out the drive.

We stopped for lunch along the Linyanti River where our lunch mate was an elephant having a mudbath along the rivers edge. It wasn't much longer before we got to the Linyanti camp. This was a lovely camp with tents along the ede of the river. There was one tent that was set behind a tree which completely blocked the view of the river. Not sure why they set it up that way, but of course, we were assigned that one tent. Luckily, Richard was kind enough to switch tents with us so we could have a lovely view.

The afternoon game drive was around the Linyanti area with lots of elephants and mopani trees. We did see a rather HUGE African Eagle Owl. Holy cow, that is a large owl! We also got charged by an elephant momma. We were driving along the road when momma ele trumpets and flaps her ears off to the side. She and baby ele slowly back up away from us into the trees. After she had backed up quite a distance, we start up the truck and proceede onward. For some reason, that set off momma ele and next thing we know, she is running after us down the road. The cutest thing... her little baby ele was running right along with her. Eventually, they veered off into the trees and we headed to our sundowner spot for yet another fantastic african sunset!

On the way back to camp in the dark, we spotted a few more of the giant African Eagle Owls, one of which had pinned a guinea fowl on the road.

MAY 17th
The night was filled with tons of sounds.... lions in the distance and hippos outside our tent in the river. I just loved the sounds of Africa at night... an amazing symphony.

We left early for our morning game drive hoping to see some lions or wild dogs....but that wasn't to be. We did see lion and leopard tracks on the road, but they always seemed to be going the opposite direction we were headed.

We did see some cute warthogs, fighting impalas, a troop of baboons complete with momma and adorable little baby, kudu, a beautiful Bateleur Eagle, more irritated and charging elephants, and a hippo pool with about 12-13 hippos floating around.

After our siesta, we again headed out through the trees. Besides the ever present elephants, we saw some waterbuck and prancing impala.

After our sundowner, we saw some spring hare and scrub hares on road on the way back to camp and a lone hyena.

You can see all the Africa photos at my smugmug site.

Africa Trip Report - Part 5

May 14th
During the night, we heard those two lions grunting and roaring off in the distance. One of our group had hoped to hear lions roaring, but he slept right through all that noise.

We woke in the morning to a layer of fog over the spillway in front of us. It was quite serene as the sun rose. We got a late start on the safari drive due to a dead battery. Richard robbed a battery off one of the support vehicles at camp and a short while later, we were off on our morning drive.

It didn't seem like we saw much on this drive, some impala, kudu, tsessebe, steebok, and ostrich. Plus a whole lot of birds from vultures, to a steppe eagle, to a african fish eagle to storks and even a brown snake eagle.

On the way back to camp, the elephants appeared... everywhere. A group drinking by the spillway, a breeding herd with what looked like 4 babies walking down to and across the spillway, and another breeding herd near our camp. We only had seen a few elephants up to this point, but this day pretty much opened the floodgates for elephant sightings the rest of the trip.

After a nice long siesta of naps and card games, our afternoon activity was a canoe trip down the spillway. Depsite having to paddle ourselves, this was a enjoyable outing. We didn't see much wildlife during the trip except for a lone elephant which peaked out of the trees at us. We passed the Discovery camp and admired their much larger tents before finding a nice sundowner spot along the bank of the spillway.

When we got back to camp, there was no staff. They were mysteriously gone. Richard indicated that we were gonna head over to the Discovery Camp for dinner so we get in the truck and drove a very short distance to a nearby watering hole where we discover the staff has set up a large fire with a BBQ dinner for us. How cool! Chicken, beef, pork, and sausage along with some great side dishes and we were wonderfully full. After dinner we headed back to our tents. Richard liked to keep us guessing about the "surprises" the entire trip.

May 15th
I had discovered Gin & tonics last night at dinner and was a wee bit tipsy on heading to bed. So it didn't help any when shortly after retiring to our tent, those lions started their grunting and roaring. At first they seemed pretty far away... kinda where they were the previous night. However, the next series of roars about 15 minuted later seemed to come from our camp. Man, they sounded like they were one tent over and we could hear movement near our tent. Eeek! And they continued to roar and grunt all night long, eventually moving away. But I was pretty much frozen in my cot. The Botswana common house spider... scary. Those lions roaring near our tent... petrifying. Again, I don't think being a bit intoxicated helped matters.

Today was the looonnnnnggggg drive to Savute. We got up very early and headed out. We didn't really expect to see much since this was really an all day transfer, but we were so wrong. Almost immediately, we spotted a herd of buffalo, the 3rd of the Big 5 for us. Some more kudu soon followed along with steenbok and impala. We also finally got our closeup of the ever present Lilac-Breasted Roller.

Then we heard Richard say "leopard". Eeee! There in the middle of the road in front of us was a 2 year old female leopard. Just sitting in the road. She moved off the road and we followed for a short while, but she was very shy and quickly disappeared into the brush. This would be our only leopard sighting for the trip, but we were all so excited just to see one.

As we approached the Selinda/Zib/Duma Tau area, animals started appearing everywhere. Tons of elephants, red lechwe, warthogs, and our first hippos. I see why this area is popular.

As for the elephants, they were really amazing to watch. First, almost every single breeding heard we saw had at least one if not more babies. We saw some that were 2-4 weeks old (very cute) and it was amazing how protective the heard was with the babies, often encircling them when we approached. And the ear flapping and trumpting when they were upset... what a great sound (as long as your not too close)!

We stopped for lunch at the Duma Tau hide overlooking the Zib lagoon. That is a nice spot. Great bird watching and we had elephants nearby and hippos slowly making their way towards us. The best sight... two baboons picking through elephant dung looking for seeds and other yummies. Apparently elephants don't "process" their food very well, so their poop is large and can contain seeds and nuts that weren't digested. Awesome and gross!

We continued on towards Savute and Chobe NP. I am not sure how we went into the park, but the road.... it was horrid. Deep and very sandy. So bad in fact that we diverted off the side to an "alternate road" that was more bushes and trees than road. We were all pretty much in the center of the truck by the end due to all the whiplashing branches. There is really no way to describe all this. We took some videos and I am working on getting those posted soon.

Upon reaching Chobe/Savute, we were filthy and extremely dusty so the first order of business was to hit the showers. Our camp site at Chobe was a bit small like at Nxai Pan, but both those sites are National Park sites. The site was also very sandy... so sandy that we sunk down about 5 inches when sat in our chairs around the bush tv.

More photos can be found at my smugmug site.

Africa Trip Report - Part 4

MAY 12th
Our morning activity was a safari walk around the island we were camped on. Our guides, Richard and Cedric, gave us the serious instructions and hand signals on what to do should we run into a lion or leopard. Of course, I would never remember them so I kept repeating the mantra Richard told us at the beginning of the trip... "If you run, you are diner."

At the beginning, the walk was nice. It was great to finally stretch the legs after sitting so long in the trucks and mokoros. We had to divert on the first part of the path cause it was now swampy with the incoming flood. Only yesterday evening that path was dry as we took it to our sundowner spot. Our travelmates indicated their tent matt was now in the water. It was amazing how the fast the flood waters can come into the area.

As the walk progressed however, my knee, aggrivated early during a stupid attempt to stand on my seat in the truck, started acting up and the walk became increasingly difficult. The uneven ground was the worst... walking through grass you just couldn't see the actual dirt ground so you never knew where you were stepping. But I soldiered on as best as possible cause I didn't want to interferre with the rest of the group's enjoyment of the walk.

We saw a few impala, baboons and warthogs in the distance, but that was pretty much it for game. Thank goodness we didn't need those hand signals afterall.

Lunch was a great pasta, cheese, meat concoction that was simply delicious. Hamburger Helper never tasted so good. Really! It was just like our American Hamburger Helper, but way WAY better.

Xigera was also the first camp where we had crafts available for purchase. Set up on a side table were beautiful woven baskets and gourds. Most were made by the camp staff or their girlfriends/wives. I thought the prices were very reasonable, especially for handcrafted items like these. During the siesta, we got to watch Thealo, the camp cook, do some weaving on a large basket. It is amazing they are made of simple reeds and leaves. I bought one gourd and a small basket made by Thealo and another small basket (which kinda match the first one) which was made by our poler Cedric's girl.

The siesta also introduced us to the common Botswana house spider. My tent mate and I, who are both petrified of spiders, were in our tent when I noticed a few ants. I grabbed the can of Doom (love that name) and started spraying around the edges of the tent and behind the table. Out of the depths comes this rather large dark grey with white spots spider headed straight for my tent-mate. It was large, flat, angular in shape and UGLY. Of course we proceed to run screaming from the tent, completely forgetting the "if you run, you are dinner" rule.

Less than a minute later, both Richard and Cedric come running to our tent to see what the commotion is about. We tell them "spider" and point into the tent. Richard heads in and a moment later comes out with spider in hand and says it is "just a common Botswana house spider". Hee. Common house spiders where I come from are the size of my pinky fingernail, not the size of my palm.

In the late afternoon, we hopped back into the mokoros for another boatride around the area. Again, it was breathtakingly beautiful. The water was so smooth and clear and the sunset illuminated everything with a golden tone. We stopped on a small island across from our camp for a sundowner then quickly mokoro'ed back to camp after sunset.

Before diner, I had noticed Cedric sprinkling water on the ground near the main table. Wasn't sure what that was for, but we soon found out. Our pre-dinner entertainment was the entire staff singing and dancing to traditional African songs. I loved the singing and WS should offer a CD with some of their staff singing these songs cause they are beautiful. That and I kept forgetting to bring my camera with video mode to the dinner table to capture it all.

We loved the Xigera Mokoro Trails staff. They were simply delightful and fun the entire time we were there. Several of the staff had fun trying to talk in American accents using American slang so we encouraged that bad habit by introducing them to even more slang.... We taught them "that's sick" (meaning "great") and "cool beans" and others phrases along with their intended meanings. So on the way back from the sundowner mokoro ride, our poler, Cedric, commented, "My heart is full of sick!" I was laughing all the way back to my tent.

MAY 13th
The Xigera dinning table was out in the open under a canopy of large trees with a handful of "cute" vervet monkeys as their inhabitants. Well, we thought they were cute that is until they started pooping on us that morning. Right before breakfast, it was raining monkey poop! Monkey pula everywhere! And it was like they were aiming. They got Cedric in the back, my monopod and another's camera bag.

We also got some mokoro lessons before breakfast which was a geat experience. They showed us how to stand and steer and then let us try one at a time. We would push back a little to get clear of the other boats and then turn around mokoring a little bit then return back. Nothing major, but it was fun to see how it works. It was fairly easy, except for the balance thing.... and that was with an empty boat. Gives a new appreciation of the polers and their capabilities with a boatload of passengers and gear.

After breakfast, we packed up and said our goodbyes and mokoro'ed away. The trip back was alot slower going as we were going against the flood current. We didn't really notice it at first, but the current was fairly strong and with the higher floods, the polers had to reach deeper with their poles to hit bottom. You don't think about currents in a flood plain, but all the polers were struggling. At times, it was like we were barely moving forward, especially around the main Xigera Camp.

We got to the main Xigera Camp and walked around. Very posh compared to the tents we had been staying in. We found bathrooms and discovered the gift store.... dooh! More trinkets! Good thing they ship DHL. We then headed to the airstrip and the bridge and path was even more underwater than it was just two days prior. While headed to the airstrip, we saw the first Cesna 206 land and then the other followed shortly thereafter.

Right as we were piling out of the vehicle, we realized that we had forgtten two camera chargers back at the main Xigera Camp. Myself and one of my travelmates had given the staff our camera chargers and they were going to get them charged while they were back there doing laundry. We would pick them up on our way out. But now, were were boarding our airplanes and we had forgotten the chargers. Crap! Not good. We were told that there was a later flight into our area so they would get them to us. No problem... or so we thought.

I now see the reason for the baggage restrictions. Tiny, tiny baggage compartments on those airplanes. I got to sit in the co-pilots seat with Stuart the pilot. The view was fantastic. We took off and headed north across Chief's island, the northern arm of the Delta and up to the Selinda Spillway. You can definately see the layout of the Delta from 5,400 feet. I wont even try to pronounce the name of the airstrip we landed at other than it had lots of Xs, Os, & Ms.

We climbed back into our trusty truck and took off for the Lechwe Island Camp. Along the way, we saw elles, giraffe and some tsessebes (large antelope). The camp was nice with the common area and the tents on the edge of the spillway. Beautiful setting. This camp had flush toilets... well, flush only on a number 2 ... and smooth walkways between the tents.

During our 3:30 showers, lions were heard and spotted across the spillway. They were a bit noisy and Richard originally thought it might be a mating pair. We climbed back into the truck and crossed the spillway looking for the lions. This was also our first experience with off-road driving and it was FUN! Plowing right through the bush and over trees (only to watch trees pop right back up after they cleared the back).

Next thing we know, we hear Richard say "there they are..." and we are all looking off into the distance for the lions. But we shouldn't have been looking out, we should have been looking down, cause they were litterally 5-6 feet away from us. Two male lions, about 5 years old, who had the biggest bellies, so full and lazy just lying there swatting away flies with their tales.

Richard indicated that they must have just had a kill and it was probably a buffalo based on the footprints nearby. Man, these guys were fat, feed, and lazy. So lazy, they didn't even bother getting up to pee... they just went right where they lay. Then one of them opened it's eyes and looked right at me. Those yellow eyes are spooky! But they were not interested in us.

We watched for a while as they laid there, rolling over (well, more like flopping over with those full bellies) occasionally. We then went exploring further and soon found the remains of the lion kill. It was indeed a buffalo with only some entrials and two legs remaining. We stayed for a while looking at this carcass. Not sure why, cause really, who needs more than one photo of that? Yuck! We travelled over to the spillway where we had our sundowner then headed passed the lions one more time before making our way back to camp.

At camp, we discovered that our camera chargers weren't coming tonight and we probably would not get them for a few days. Great. I had one extra charged battery so I was hoping that it would last until we could meet up with the charger.


All my Africa photos can be seen at my smugmug site.