Happy (Chinese) New Year and a solar eclipse

It's the Chinese New Year - and it's the year of the Ox! It is also the day of an annular eclipse when the moon (moving to new moon) puts itself directly in the path of the sun and the earth covers part of the sun's surface. It struck me as intriguing then, as peering at the sun through the lens of a welding helmet, the sun look exactly like a set of ox horns! Synchronicity or coincidence...

Solar eclipse of 26 January 2009 approx 08h10
(thank goodness for the cloud cover making these shots possible)

An article I read this morning said:

"Any eclipse signals a time to be wary and this is especially true if the sun is involved because all living beings are dependent on the sun for light... During the eclipse, the power of negative energy increases 1,000 times as compared to other times... People are advised not to carry out activities as usual during the eclipse period as they may behave irrationally... After the eclipse, people should wash and clean their houses to remove all “harmful energies” that would have set in and offer prayers."

I suppose it's a good thing I'm having the house scraped and painted at the moment!

That said, it was so curious, I could feel the eclipse as it began - there was a very distinct shift in energy - from summery and light to something heavier and oppressive. The dog next door started howling. A guinea fowl took off to the top of the tree where he sat and hecked for the entire duration of the eclipse - about six minutes. And every dog in the neighbourhood barked incessantly. There is something unquestionably eerie about solar eclipses and I recall viewing the full solar eclipse in 1999 when I was visiting friends in Guernsey. Everything fell utterly silent as the moon blocked out the light of the sun and darkness fell over the island. It was as though the world was coming to an end.

Solar eclipse, images shot through lens of welding helmet - eerie or what...

Coming back to the Chinese New Year, it's intriguing that Barack Obama is an Ox - I wonder if there's some special significance? Mind you, I too am an Ox (and a Taurus - so it's a double load of bull...)

Apparently the Year of the Earth Ox evokes stability and dependability. One of the predictions for the year of the Ox reads as follows:

"The Ox is a practical work animal, while the Earth element is steady and firm. Together, they create a kind of plodding energy that can be exasperating. Still, progress will be made in 2009; it will occur in slow, barely perceptible increments. If you stay patient and keep your nose to the grindstone, you will make the most of this ponderous energy.
It is said that Oxen place great emphasis on authority and tradition. Therefore, 2009 will lay an especially heavy burden on world leaders. Government officials, CEOs and community organizers will be expected to correct society's ills. If they slack off, they'll be thrown by the wayside. Substance is always favored over style in the Year of the Ox."

My own Chinese horoscope prediction says that this is a year in which I am invited to reach for the stars. Love, luck and money are headed my way. And my personal life will be particularly rewarding. And I'll enjoy exuberant good health! Oh goodie! It also says it's a good year to go on an extended vacation - which is just as well - but I'll tell you more about that in another post!

Anyway, now you know. So, here's wishing you a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year!

This, that and more of the other

The spiraling of a geranium seed

I apologise, I'm being a rotten blogger at present. Network connections that are doing a startling imitation of a Jack in the Box, not feeling too well and the prospect of two huge manuscript rewrites have stunned me into a frenzy of inactivity. Add to that the fact that the young guinea fowl keets are dropping like flies, and you'll gather that all is not exactly sparkly in the Vanilla Goddess's garden.

We suspect a virus or parasite must have got the young guineas - they are dying at the rate of one a day or every second day. It is too pathetic to watch and there is little we can do. They are impossible to catch while they are well and by the time we can catch them it's too late to do anything. On top of that, they've taken to falling into the pool and I've rescued two in the last two days - dried them off carefully, warmed them up and discovered they smell utterly awful - a sort of sickly sweet, cloying smell that hangs around them - the scent of death, I guess one might say. Their numbers have gone from 13 to four or five in about two weeks. The parents are becoming increasingly twitchy - and who can blame them - and they can't make up their minds if I'm friend or foe. Even Mama Guinea has now taken to trying to attack me - flying straight at me the other day, claws outstretched as I fished a baby from the pool.

At least Ms Bo hasn't succumbed to whatever is ailing the keets and is flourishing and getting feistier by the minute on a diet of maggots, mealworms, cutworms, earthworms and other things that go wriggle and bump in the night (along with seed, corn and greens).

Meanwhile, instead of getting on with my rewrites - which feels rather like trying to eat a gargantuan elephant - I'm trying to write a children's short story for a local anthology and am getting utterly nowhere. What started as a children's story of 1000 words, has morphed into something quite different and more than double the length, filled with African deities, an inept wizard and a creature resembling the Ba-Kaaka Nostra. I worry myself sometimes, really I do!

I'm afraid blogging is likely to remain erratic for a while yet - my muse went off on her Christmas holiday and hasn't been seen since. This is, as you can imagine, of no earthly use in the face of two rewrites. If you should see her, please ask her to return home.

Do please bear with me and hopefully things will return to normal in the not too distant future. I live in hope - you may as well join me!

Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy these...

Sunset at Scarborough beach

The last sunset of 2008

Wandering around Simon's Town

I thought we'd go for a bit of a wander today, have a break from all things foulisly fowl. Though it must be said that yesterday not only did I get charged by Papa Guinea after I kindly rescued a lost chick, but he also dive bombed me after, I'd stomped my foot at him and he'd flown onto the roof. He must have thought better of it at the last moment, because he missed my head by inches. I have a very nice Jamie Oliver recipe for guinea fowl. Papa Guinea had better watch out!

But on to other things. On the day after New Year, D and I decided to mooch down to Simon's Town, a seaside suburb about 30 minutes down the coast (depending on the traffic). Simon's Town, named after Simon van der Stel, the Dutch governor of the Cape Colony between 1677 and 1699, is the operational headquarters of the South African Navy, though these days it's claim to fame is its colony of penguins which you may remember from a previous blog post. Come and wander with me and have a peek at this gorgeously colonial seaside town.

St George's Street, the Simon's Town section of the main road that runs from Cape Town all the way to Cape Point

Simon's Town harbour - the False Bay Yacht Club is in the foreground and you can see the battleships in the background

The British Hotel on St Georges. The restaurant with the green awnings, Bon Appetit, serves sublime French cuisine.

The entrance to the British Hotel

The Central Hotel

The Reference Library

Able Seaman Just Nuisance, Simon's Town's most famous citizen.

Simonstown's most famous "resident" was a Great Dane, called Just Nuisance, who was officially enlisted into the Royal Navy as Able Seaman. "His trade was listed as "Bonecrusher" and his religious affiliation as "Scrounger", although it was later altered to the more charitable "Canine Divinity League (Anti-Vivisection)"."

The scene under the pier, this is what childhood memories are made of - fishing and more fishing.

Boats are a-bobbing

We saw this mom and her daughter fishing for their lunch from the pier... And decided we needed lunch too.

But instead of going to Bertha's Landing, a popular harbour-side restaurant...

...we went off to the Salty Sea Dog for very yummy fish and chips!

And outside we spotted this chap, selling carved guinea fowl with nodding heads. Yes, of course we bought one!

Then it was off for an amble around the little shops that line the main street.

Peering up alleyways and steps

The Lord Nelson Inn - it is thought that Nelson once came ashore in Simon's Town - the locals have never forgotten that!

The Simon's Town Superette - a local "corner shop" that harks back to another era before supermarkets and malls.

As you can imagine, we spent a lot of time browsing in the secondhand bookstore.

HMS Pickpocket - old and freshly-made junk

Peeping into the Grammy's Collection

Trinkets and treasures...



And then there was this, which really tickled me, the sign outside one of the pubs (click to enlarge).

Hope you enjoyed the virtual wander!

The Guinea Fowl Chronicles: An unfolding drama

Lest anyone think it is all fun and laughter in the place of the Guinea Fowl Chronicles, let me assure you, it’s not.

This week has been filled with little dramas and a big event.

I’ll start with the big event… The Peep Palace (thank you, Aerin, for the name) aka Villa Beau Bo, has ventured into phase 2 of development. This is because we decided that Bo needs to start sleeping outside. However, despite the fact that The Peep Palace has been complete for five days, Ms Bo is still sleeping indoors. I think you may as well call it indulgent parenting…

The new Peep Palace aka Villa Beau Bo with sleeping quarters and all...

I should add that indulgent parenting now extends to full scale maggot production. Yes, I know, ick. But what can one do. Bo needs her protein and the easiest thing to do is to "grow our own". She thinks they're wonderful!

Yummy, juicy maggots...

Bo guzzling maggots - I guess someone has to

But in addition to the events, we have the dramas.

On Monday one of the new, very tiny peeps, fell into the pool. I was working inside when I heard frantic peeping. I rushed out and there it was, running in the water… I scooped it up and was charged by Papa Guinea. I ignored him, as is my wont. I wrapped the peep in a small towel and dried it as best I could. Then I did the only sensible thing I could think of to get the rest of the wet off it. I stuck it in my shirt. And there it sat for 15 minutes while Papa Guinea hurled every sort of abuse at me, standing up on his toes, his wings flaring. Daft bird. When I finally removed the small peep, it was dry, warm and fluffy and only too happy to return to its family, despite Papa Guinea’s torrent foul language. So now you know, if you have a wet baby bird, for goodness sake don’t terrify it further with a hairdryer, just pop it in your shirt and let it dry naturally.

Papa Guinea

I trotted inside and an hour later was back at the door as I heard all the adult guineas blasting the warning call into the air. A rufous-chested sparrowhawk swept across the lawn, flying low, talons extended – and five guineas, ground birds at the best of times, chased after it. The sparrowhawk made off empty-taloned.

On Wednesday I noticed that there were ailing keets amongst the brood. They looked off-colour and were wobbly on their tiny pins. Yesterday I found one who looked particularly pathetic and though loathe to intervene, I scooped it up. Papa Guinea shrieked at me and then wandered off. I held the peep in my shirt for a while, then popped it on my hand to see what it would do. It bounced off and scuttled towards the family in the shrubbery. At that moment all hell broke loose as every guinea in the vicinity started hecking at a volume which would have raised the dead. The neighbourhood dogs started barking and the keets disappeared into the undergrowth. Thinking it was baboons, we hightailed it inside too.

An ailing keet

When we emerged a few minutes later we saw the small ailing peep appear on the lawn. It plopped itself down in the sun and just sat there, a pathetic heap of fluff. The family ambled off, the parents happily abandoning the weak one. Out I trotted, gathered the little one up and popped inside my shirt. And so we remained for most of the day except for the time I had to go out. When D came home, he got it to take some water laced with glucose, vitamins and anti-stress powder from a dropper. Then it guzzled some maggots and millet and by the time we put it to bed in a box with Gilbert we were hopeful it would make it.

Sadly, it died in the night and poor D was greeted this morning with the sight of the little peep in a state of rigamortis. He said it looked like it had died in a convulsion because its little body was spasmed.

One does what one can but it seems these little birds succumb to bugs or lurgies which just wipe them out. We think about four have died – though it’s so difficult to count them as they scurry about. Of the original thirteen, it seems there are now between eight and ten left. And they are still only about a week and a half old. If one thinks of Bo’s flock of 20 of whom only 2 (excluding Bo) survived, then one realises just how high the mortality rate is.

Papa Guinea looking wistful

It’s so interesting to watch the parents. They simply walk away from the weak ones. If the little ones can’t follow or keep up, so be it.

As for Papa Guinea, he has determined that I am his mortal enemy. His charges are becoming more irate. So much so that I may soon be obliged to have a certain conversation with him. It will go something like, “Listen mate, I’ve eaten your kind before…”

And as for Ms Bo in her new home, well, she decided today that I am public enemy number one. I have no idea what I’ve done, but I daren’t go near her because she works herself into a frenzy which leaves her trying to fly through the confines of her cage, causes her run up and down in a demented way, or hide, squeaking, behind the plants in the Palace. Even an offering of juicy cutworms hasn’t appeased her majesty’s high dudgeon. I guess I’m in the dog house. Or is that the bird house?

POSTSCRIPT: As I have sat typing this, another baby has died on the lawn. Also, it seems, having convulsed. There is clearly something sweeping through these little birds that is just wiping them out. All told it’s not proving to be a good day.
Rest in Peace, little ones.

Saying goodbye.
I know this is not the sort of image you want to see, but this is part of the reality

Mama Guinea and her remaining brood

It's entirely for the birds

You may recall a tale a while back involving a silky pekin bantam chick that terrorised Ms Bo so that she (the bantam) had to be returned to the sanctuary from which we got her. Well, having returned Chick, we decided we'd spend a few hours strolling around the World of Birds. I thought you'd might enjoy part of that stroll with me. Be warned, these are not the best pics, but they are the ones that gave themselves best over to captioning... Or, to quote George Bernard Shaw... "My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity." Yes, well, I'm not sure about the utmost trouble, but I'm all for levity in these troubled times. Feel free to join in the fun and leave some captions of your own in the comments.

G'day, mate... Am I a fine sorta fella, or what!

Who? Exactly what do you mean Who-Hoo?

Wha'? Me? Not pretty...?!

Cooeee! Over here, Mildred, I'm over here!

Oh really...

Whaddayamean, "Open wide!"?

I spy with my beady eye...

I see. That's all. Just I see.

Alien, I am...

I int dead. I is sunbathing.

Hmmm. I just say, hmmm.
This captioning is just so below me.

Miss Jones, have you seen my pencils and quills?

Ooh la-la...Voulez vous couchez avec moi, c'est soire?

And I give you a vulture's rendition - cough, cough... la, la, la, laaaa....

O sole miooooooo...

And finally... Bo's second cousin - and especially for Fly from the Guinea Fowl International Association... A crested guinea fowl...

You did, didn't you, you went and stepped on my blue suede shoes....

Okay, your turn, let's see what you can come up with!