My Garden .... After The Rain

We've been having so much rain on the farm at the moment - and suddenly everything is turning a lush green again. The Jacaranda trees (above) are in full bloom, too ..........

Our garden is like an oasis for the surrounding bird and insect life, I usually have to make sure that our bird bath (above) is topped up once a day - but not when it rains every day as it has been lately.

We have an amazing array of insects in the garden, too - lots of different multi coloured ones like these below, too .....

And a lilac sea of agapanthus ................ (commonly called 'Lily of the Nile' despite the fact that it is not a lily, and is native to South Africa.)


We have hibiscus in the garden in varying shades of pink. Hibiscus make a refreshing Summer drink, and you can see my recipe (published a little over 2 years ago !) for hibiscus syrup (cordial) over here.

A view of part of our house/veranda, below ............

The bougainvillea is in full bloom now, too - lining the entrance pathway to the front door .......

The two windows on the left in the photo below are my kitchen windows .....

The view from my kitchen, below ................... (beyond the garden hedge I can see wheat fields, too - although these are not visible in the photo).

For photo's of my Winter garden (& where I answer one of my most regularly asked questions !) click here.

An African Winter ... & My Winter Garden

There's not much colour in my garden during the Winter months ....

The lawn is quite dry and not the lush emerald green colour it is during the Summer months


This flower bed is usually ablaze with colour during Summer .....


You can see our banana trees to the left of this photo (& various fruit/nut trees beyond). The bed in the foreground is a fish pond I filled in - too dangerous with young children around !

We’re nearing the end of our Winter months here in Tanzania, with 01st September being the ‘official’ start of Spring. As Winter is my favourite season, I’m always a little sad to say goodbye to it, but the newness and bright blooms of Spring soon cheer me up !

Because I get a lot of questions about it, I thought I’d just add a bit in about our Winter temperatures here in Tanzania – our lowest temperatures on the farm are around 6’C/43’F at night and we can average a high of around 15’C/59’F on a very cold day. The wind blows right over Kilimanjaro’s icy snow cap & blasts us here on the farm sometimes ….. brrrr !

Now, those temperatures may not sound that cold to some of you – but for a born-and-bred African, that’s cold enough for me. Remember, too, that our homes here are not built for cold temps – no double glazing, under floor heating etc but rather cool tiled or cement floors, high ceilings, no such thing as fitted carpets and doors/windows that are not really wind proof. Not to mention things like our electricity supply which cannot handle things like heaters or electric blankets & sometimes erratic hot water which can sometimes make for cool Winter baths … brrrrr !

The photo’s in today’s post show what my ‘Winter’ garden looks like at the moment (I took them a few days ago) and if you’d like to see how different it looks in Summer, you can click over here to see a post and photo’s on that.

Blooming African Bougainvillea

View of our house (with kids 'jungle gym' in the foreground !) taken from side of garden closest to Kilimanjaro

Bougainvillea is a flowering plant which grows here in Africa abundantly (although it is native to South America). From lush manicured gardens to dusty roadside shops, you will find bougainvillea growing almost everywhere in Tanzania, in a variety of colours (there up to 18 different species of the plant) - different shades of pink, white, cream and apricot.

Bougainvillea lines the pathway leading to the front entrance of our house

The thorny, woody vines of the plant grow anything from 1 metre to 12 metres in height. The ones we have here in Tanzania seem to be evergreen, and almost always in flower (although more so at certain times of the year than others).

The beautiful cerise coloured blooms cascade over the veranda roof ..... (the cats sometimes like to sleep underneath the bougainvillea up here !)

Bougainvillea is used here to decorate vehicles used to transport people to weddings – or funerals ! I often use it to decorate platters of food, or scatter on the dining table as part of the table decorations when we have a big lunch party.

A close up of the lovely blooms

I was walking around our garden on Sunday – which is quite ‘bland’ and colourless now during our Winter months – and the bougainvillea growing on and around our house really stood out amongst all the yellow shades of Winter …. isn’t it beautiful ?

The archway leading to our house is covered in Bougainvillea !

I know that Bougainvillea grows all over the world - but, does it grow in your country and if so, what colours do you have ?

In My Garden ......

I have a few unruly flowerbeds (above) ..... but I rather like them that way !

Some 'delicious monster's' which provide a cool, shady and quiet place for the cats to rest under during the heat of the day ....

Colourful flowers ..................... and an almost hidden daisy, or two .....................

Magnificent views ........................

And tall, shady trees .....................

Splashes of colour, now that Summer's here ..............

Delicate Linseed (Flax) flowers .... this variety is called 'Blue Dress' .......

And a lovely bunch of freshly picked flowers from my precious daughter ................

Aswell as a cat hiding up high in the cool branches of a tree ............. (that's our resident tiger - incase you were wondering !)

And as always, to end ............ a veranda view.

I think I'll just settle here for a while and enjoy the peace ..... and you're welcome to join me !

An Early Evening Walk Through My Summer Garden .....

It's been so hot here on the farm lately - with hot winds blowing & the sun beating down fiercely all day (we are so close to the equator here that the sun even feels different - and hotter - to how it feels in, say, South Africa - if that makes any sense !) The late afternoon/early evening hours come as a great relief .... when hubby gets home from work, we walk around the cool garden with the kids (with baby son up on hubby's shoulders !) and the dogs.

I try to remember to always take time to stop and smell the flowers. Here are some close-up's above & below of some of the more brightly coloured varieties in my garden at the moment .....

Below is a photo of our farmhouse as the sun starts to sink in the sky .... the white flowers in the foreground of this photograph are Cosmos flowers, planted from seed I brought back from South Africa a couple of years ago ....


This feather fell at my feet yesterday as we were walking around - it has a lovely green & yellow sheen to it although I'm not sure what type of bird it came from. I've always believed that finding feathers at your feet bring good luck.


I loved the way the light was falling across the banana trees in the photo below .....

Dibble & Maxie had fun diving into lush, cool shrubs and looking for rats & things !

This photo below shows the moon .... taken at around 6.30 pm .....

Another view below, of our garden in evening light as the shadows begin to lengthen. My daughter loves climing the Frangipani trees in the foreground of this photo ! (Hubby and I got married on the island of Mauritius, and I chose to have our wedding cake decorated entirely with fresh frangipani flowers, and I always think of that when I see these trees !)

The sun is just starting to set in this photo below - you can see it behind the old fig tree at the bottom of the garden .... and Maxie & Josie, playing on the cool green lawn ....

It's another hot day again today, too ...... the kind of weather where even drinking tea feels uncomfortable .... so I'm off to open myself a cool bottle of water ..... hope that you're keeping cool wherever you are in the world as you read this today ;)

Lush, Green Garden Views .......

We've been having some lovely rain lately ..... some much needed, life giving rain. (Everything was so dry before I left 2 months ago - you can see photo's of my Winter garden taken then, over here.)

I had fun today walking through my garden (albeit a little neglected & overgrown in places !) & taking some photo's to share with you all ... the one above is the view over our front garden fence .....

This view above is the one I see from my kitchen window each day ....

This is the bottom section of our garden (above) ... you can just make out 2 of the dogs chasing each other around !

Part view of our house above ..... our bedroom area lies to the back right of the house and is not visible in this photo .....

The archway which welcomes all our visitors ..... with hibiscus flowering to the right of this photo ...

The above photo is of our back garden and entrance gate, with jacaranda and blue gum trees towering overhead.

Ah. It's good to be home again !

A Winter's Walk Through My Garden ....

I couldn't wait to get back and see what my garden looked like after 3 month's absence & a lack of water. Surprisingly, not too bad .... thanks to our gardeners (who had been working without much supervision). Which reminds me, I really should do a post about them soon .... so that you can 'meet' them all, too ! And our askari, Simon & his crazy cat-chasing dog, Buster. (Who the staff and local people in the area call 'Pasta'. I kid you not ! I tell them it's 'Buster' not 'Pasta' and they say "No, Mama, there is no such name as 'Buster' for a dog !") I give up ! Anyway, back to the garden ..... there's the old fig tree, above .... casting shade on a crackly, prickly yellow lawn ....

Lots of yellow grass, and lots of yellow flowers. Mmmmm .... will have to do something about that ......

Looking towards our small fruit orchard and vegetable garden area. If you look closely, you can just make out our small banana 'plantation' to the right, and my unruly rosemary bush to the left .....

Maxie finds a cool spot underneath the banana trees. One of our garden taps is here (can you spot it ?!) and she loves drinking water from it ....

The entrance to our house - you can just make out the gate ... and the white wall with a golden shower growing over it (not in bloom now, though). That used to be Justin's house ! Until a large gum tree fell on top of it a couple of years ago. As we discovered the gardeners had been burning rubbish too close to the base of the gum trees, and with the rain, one had rotted completely away. And came tumbling down. But Justin is having none of it, to this day he believes it was because of a curse put on him by one of the (ex) farm staff who he clashed with - and who just happened to be a witch doctor. He really believes that. Okay. But all I can say is THANK GOODNESS no one was in the house at the time.

Do you fancy a walk through my garden in the Summer, to see all my flowers in bloom and a bit more colour than just (boring old) green and yellow ? You can see the post - with photo's - I wrote last year on my Summer garden over here.

Our Homemade Kiddies Jungle Gym & Play Area

There's so much which we can't get here, so over the years we've simply learnt to make our own ! The Tanzanian people are very talented & turn out the most amazing things with limited - and often quite old fashioned - equipment. Most people here build their own homes, perform their own repairs etc so everyone is quite hands-on (especially when there's no plumber/electrician/handyman at the end of the 'phone !)

There are also some very talented carpenters who mostly run their little businesses on the roadside in the major towns and cities (usually next to the timber yards) - you can take them a photograph of almost any item of furniture you'd like made, and they will make an almost exact replica of it for you. Most of the furniture in our home has been made like this over the years, and we have some lovely pieces which are really unique, unlike anything you'd buy in a shop and will no doubt last a lifetime !

When I was in South Africa last year I was amazed at all the restaurants & coffee bars which had kiddies play areas & equipment - my daughter was in 7th heaven as we don't get anything like that here. So I decided that when I came back home, I would have a Jungle Gym made for her. It would have to be made of wood, and without a slide - it would have to be something which could be easily made here. We went for breakfast one day at a franchised restaurant called the 'Mugg & Bean' (you can read about that visit & the lovely breakfast we enjoyed over here) & I found the 'perfect' Jungle Gym ! I took lots of photo's of it, and when we got back home I set the gardeners to work !

This became my project, & I worked on it with two of our male gardeners - Hemmed & Nelson. Of course they had never seen or heard of a Jungle Gym before & thought that I was crazy to be 'wasting' wood in this way (when it could have been used to build a house or a store room or something !) Firstly, I printed out the photo's I'd taken. Then I got my husband to help me with measurements. Then I got Justin to help me peg out the measurements on the lawn with sisal twine (rope) and wooden pegs.

Nelson then went with one of the farm tractor's to buy the wood from a timber yard in one of the nearby smaller village's, & we bought a diesel drum from a well known petrol station/franchise (green & yellow logo which I got them to scrape off as I don't know if you're allowed to use them for things like this !) to make a climb through 'tunnel' area.

The Jungle Gym took a lot of time (& patience !) to complete, and I was out there every day showing the guys what to do at each stage, as it was all new to them. I was originally going to paint it red, blue, yellow & green but I actually quite like the 'natural' look so decided to leave it that way. (Our daughter loves it, which is the main thing !) 'Father Christmas' brought her a tent this Christmas just past, which we erected on the one platform, and some of the cats love sleeping in there during the day (when it's not too hot !) Our daughter also loves having picnics on the open platform 'So that the dogs don't bother me & steal all my snacks, Mamma !' she tells me .....

We also got one of my husband's welders in the farm workshop to make a swing (pictured above). The seat was a bit of trial and error and is actually made from an old (sanded down) wooden gate sign which says in Kiswahili 'Please close the gate behind you' !

The sandpit was one of the first things we made for our daughter - with sand collected on the farm. (My village dogs love sleeping in it whilst they wait for their supper each night, as you can see in the photo above !) I took this photo after it had been raining which is why the sand looks a bit hard and flat.

So now our daughter has her own playground area which she simply loves -also it is all visible from the kitchen windows so I can keep an eye on her when I am cooking etc during the day.

Justin came to me after Christmas and said that the staff were asking him why we had a tent permanently outside on the Jungle Gym, and did anyone ever sleep in it ? I hesitated for a moment and then said to him that he must just tell them that that is where bwana (my husband) is made to sleep if ever I'm cross with him, or if he's had so much beer that he snores & keeps me awake all night ! Justin thought this was hilarious & now the gardeners think that I'm not only crazy, but mean, too ! Ha ha .....