Tiny (again)

These smell heavenly!

It's always a pleasure to (re)discover nature's wonders with a little one. Like these leaves retracting like shy maiden girls when touched. I think the scientific name is Mimosa pudica.

And the pompom-like flower is beautiful too!

I can't get tired of all this beauty.

After the rain

The pond, this morning around 5.45am.

More (much more) rain today. Hopefully I'll be able to access it tomorrow to check on the water level.

A quite extraordinary visitor

This morning while I was having my breakfast I saw this bird on the grass a few hundred meters from the house. 

I immediately grabbed my camera and went with the little girl to try and get closer. Of course after some time it flew away, probably not liking to see us approaching. A friend kindly told me how it's called: African grey hornbill / Tockus nasutus / Petit calao à bec noir.

The pond

We are gradually getting to know more about this water hole across the road from our house.

It was dug by a group of eight cattle owners as a drinking hole. The land is said to belong to a village about 5km from it. The 'owners' of the pond (those who dug it) exact stiff fines from whoever uses it without their consent, which makes sense since it's 100% rain-filled (there is no stream or river flowing into it) and therefore not an unlimited resource.

My partner met a gentleman who was fishing in the pond. He claims that there is tilapia in it and that at times there is enough for him to sell.

This makes it a valuable resource in more ways than one. Although it's man-made, I believe it's worth protecting and preserving.

Savanna giants

The savanna around my place is quite flat, but a few tall trees lend it some texture, especially on the gorgeous backdrops supplied by the Akwapim hills (west) and the Krobo inselbergs (south, west and east). I'll lay myself open to ridicule here and attempt to name the following few giants.

One of the Borassus genus. Borassus aethiopium would be my (semi-educated) guess.

This I thought was a baobab tree, but on closer inspection, I'm not so sure anymore, since its leaves are quite different from those of other trees I know to be baobabs.

These ones I'm 100% sure are baobabs (Adansonia genus):

This one played a considerable role in my decision to buy land here. It's south of my house, and I have a huge window at the foot of my bed, so that I see it first thing in the morning when I wake up. This view is actually taken standing SW of the tree,

while what I see from my bed is this:

Mostly, the rest is (small but numerous) neem trees. Although these can become quite enormous, I haven't seen any big ones around here. They have running/creeping roots and crop up literally everywhere.

Another day of wonderment

Today I found it particularly difficult to decide between the very tiny...

... and the very huge;

between flora...

... and fauna;

so I decided not to decide with this series of baobab fruits fallen from the tree, where a whole life seems to have developed.

A moth in broad daylight

A moth seems to have forgotten to go back wherever it is that moths spend the day. We can't blame it, especially since it's so beautiful. Another photo opportunity, courtesy of the great Ghanaian outdoors!

Whether you are only just getting up or ready to go for a nap, enjoy!