The Rainy Season?

The weather is a popular topic anywhere, and here the rainy season is mentioned at least daily. It should have arrived weeks ago, or not until November, and it was supposed to come today, or Tuesday, or not for weeks yet. Nobody seems to know but everyone has heard rumours.

Lajuma is a great place for rumours, like the one about the zebras that were bought by the previous owner of the property. There are definitely zebra bones where one fell off a cliff (they don't normally live in such mountainous terrain) and there may or may not be surviving zebra around. There is so much dense bush around that large animals can certainly hide in it.

I saw a young kudu yesterday, and bushbuck and red duiker and about a dozen mongooses. I didnt know mongooses were social but apparently many species do live in groups. And I saw my first bushbaby last night. That makes four of the five primate species in the area: baboons, samangos, vervets and the thick tailed bushbaby. I still need to see the lesser bushbaby, but they are usually harder to find.

And speaking of primates, I finished my sock monkey! It looks ok except for the ears which are a bit raggedy. Anyone know how to make better ears for a sock monkey? I might just leave it though and say it is an old male that has been through the wars. Baboons tend to have scars, torn ears and broken tails, especially the males. I am getting better at recognizing individual baboons, especially the males but a few of the females and juveniles as well. Anyway I still have some socks left, so when the rain hits and we get stuck inside sometimes I will make a sock elephant.

We had a lot of thunder and scary dark clouds this afternoon, lots of leaves clattering down on the roof, but not a drop of rain. It still feels kind of unsettled though.