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 !

Home !

Justin left this message on the fridge for my return - the magnets spell out 'Welcome Home Mama'

Our luggage - which still has to be unpacked - all 120 kg's (excluding hand luggage) of it !

I'm back home on Tanzanian soil again ! We had a hectic .... tiring ..... and (thankfully) uneventful trip back home ..... through 4 different African airports, 3 different countries and 3 different airlines ..... and our luggage arrived with us this time, which was an added bonus ;)

The children coped really well - our 5 year old is quite the seasoned traveller already (with around 85 stamps in her passport already !) & is always - thankfully - easy to travel with (& more well behaved in the air than she is when we're at home and on the ground - ha !)

It's wonderful to be back home in Tanzania & on the farm again, and the country (well, the parts I've seen so far - around the Kilimanjaro area) is green & lush at the moment after some much needed rain - the farm is looking very wet & hubby has already started (today) planting a new crop of beans.

Justin was very happy to see us back again, and the animals are all fine .... apart from some of my village 'strays' (dogs) who refused to eat when I was away, apparently .... two of them are skin & bone but I've managed to get 2 good meals down them both so far. Emily is nowhere to be seen but Justin is convinced that she is still alive and hiding outside the village somewhere. We will try to find her.

My Laryngitis took a nasty turn and I am still - almost - voiceless. Not much fun travelling when you can't speak properly when checking-in, talking to crew onboard the 'plane etc ..... yesterday I felt absolutely awful & not much better today, have only unpacked the essentials from our luggage and still have all the rest to do (as you can see by the photo above !)

I'll be back to blogging soon, as well as commenting/visiting other blogs - and sharing some new photos and stories of my life on the farm again. Thanks to everyone who's followed me & continued to read me during my past 2 months 'holiday' in South Africa !

Farewell, South Africa .......

Farewell to the beautiful Eastern Cape coast line, South Africa. It's been our temporary home for 2 months now & we will miss it & the wonderful memories with my parents here, but also can't wait to return home to Tanzania !

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things have been so hectic here - we leave South Africa early tomorrow morning (at around 04h30 our journey begins !) and hope to be home on the farm late tomorrow night.

These past few days have been busy with final shopping, packing etc and to top it all off I have had a terrible bout of Laryngitis, and have been unable to talk for about 2 days .... which for me, is like being unable to breathe .. ha ha ! Poor hubby is relieved (no more nagging !) and my daughter is curious ('Mama, where did your voice go ?!') and my baby son is just totally confused ! Anyway, I am taking antibiotics and will hopefully be okay again soon .....

I am very behind with publishing/responding to blog comments (& visiting other blogs) so please bear with me, I will be back on track again as soon as I am settled back on the farm. We have been having LOTS of much needed rain there apparently, which is wonderful but has made the roads very sticky and tricky to drive on ... so we have a tractor on standby tomorrow night, just incase. I am carrying my camera in hand luggage so if we get stuck, will be sure to take lots of photo's so that I can blog about it !

Will let you all know once I'm back home safely again ....................................