bird safari in the garden!!!

Hello everyone

This past week has been mostly in the office catching up on a lot of paperwork and planning for the next few months! But........its also been a week of visitors. I had Jim and Ruth Campbell from PCI staying overnight and unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of them!

Then it was great to see some more friends from Ireland, Maureen and Aileen who were visitors of Samuel and Barenice who some of you will know, and their lovely daughter Samantha.

and of course Austin joined us one of the evenings.......what great smiles....

Yesterday I was watering the plants in my garden when I saw lots of lovely birds. A pawpaw (papaya) had fallen from the tree and was broken and these little birds were merrily eating the seeds. It was quite a performance and they didn't seem to mind me being there.

Then I noticed in my orange tree, another frequent visitor - a wee sunbird - beautiful...

But that was not all - I think I could have taken people on guided tours yesterday - on a branch of the pawpaw were a couple of Bulbuls but one flew away before I could snap them...

The birds love the wires on which creepers have grown - look at these amazing creatures........ the one with the long tail which is difficult to see is a Mouse bird - its the colour of a mouse and even its body resembles a mouse.........

a couple of mousebirds (or should I say micebirds) hanging almost like bats from the greenery

I have to say they are quite beautiful and frequent visitors to my garden....

and then there is the other one which is also a frequent visitor but a pest -the lovely pied crow - they are enormous and many stay around the garden landing on the tin roof and making such a din.

A couple of nights I had a lovely surprise as I heard my gate open and saw some people who I have not seen in years. Mitch was a lecturer at Chancellor college in Zomba when I was there and then he moved to teach in Zimbabwe and then Tanzania, and Luke was a student at Chancellor college and we reckon its 15 years since we last met. So a lot of reminiscing went on that evening. Again I forgot to take a photo.

This coming week I am having a workshop for the teachers at our CCAP International Pre-school which will re-open on 5th September, so we have to get prepared. It will be a tiring week but hopefully a worthwhile experience. I would value your prayers.

Please continue to pray for the nation of Malawi as there is much instability in the country. This week for the first time possibly since my return in April, I was able to go to a petrol station and fill the car up without having to queue for hours or even days. How long that will last we do not know! Prices have risen very high due to the fuel shortage and forex shortage and the general economy. We just take a day at a time.

So it was a lovely week enjoying the nature in the garden and all the visitors. I hope your week was just as good.

Wishing you a blessed week ahead,

Diane