Braai with the Circus People

An interesting thing that happened to me was getting to have a braai with some folks from the circus. My South African friends get cross with me if I say it's like a barbecue, but that's what a braai is.
One of my coworkers at FABI is friends with the circus folks, so when they were in town, they had us all over to their camp.
Unfortunately it was dark when we arrived, so I couldn't get any photos, but I did get to pet some of the ligers. I also got to see the lioness, their mother, up close and personal, but I didn't get to pet her.
The lady ringmaster braai'ed us up some fantastic steaks, and we had fun playing a South African board game called '30 Seconds'. I was accused of cheating because I knew the capital of the Free State (it's Bloemfontein), and whose statue was in downtown Pretoria (it's Paul Kruger). I also got to drink a South African drink called polisie coffee, which is brandy and coke.

Mpumalanga

So this was last month, but here's the lowdown on my trip to Mpumalanga. I didn't really have business out there, but I had some time and wanted to get out of my corner of Pretoria.
So I went out with Izette, one of the FABIans to Mpumalanga, which is to the east towards Mozambique and Swaziland.
We had a few items on the agenda; checking on some bleeding oaks (not native here), attending a field day for foresters, so Izette could give a talk on some insect and disease problems, sampling soil and water for the pitch canker fungus, and checking some insect traps for an experiment.

Here's a pic of the FABI bakkie (pick-up), with Izette and panga (machete)

We spent that night in Piet Retief, which almost rhymes with Petri Dish. The next day we spent with the foresters, and got out to see some of what goes on in the plantations here. It's all eucalyptus and pines down here, all exotic. Here's a bunch of foresters dressed in their traditional forestry gear.

And their rides, quite an array of white bakkies.

Here they are checking out a tractor with a mulching apparatus. Boys and their toys.

Then, it was off to Barberton, which is a border post into Swaziland, for the pitch canker work. We had a heckuva storm that night, which made the weather go from quite warm to rather cool very quickly. The next day was a bit wet and cool, but fortunately I had all my cool weather stuff with me, which isn't very much because it's supposed to be summer here.
We sampled from some insect traps for Cossid moth, which is also known as goat moth because of the enchanting aroma the bugs produce. It affects eucalyptus plantations like this one here above.
Also, the pitch canker work, which was done in some nurseries. Here's a young plantation of loblolly pine, ol' Pinus taeda, native to the southeastern US of A. It's a big one in this region, as is P. elliottii (slash pine) and P. pinaster (a European sp.). Driving up into the older pine plantations was like turning a corner from South Africa into Colorado.
Then we went back to Piet Retief for more soil and water sampling, as well as picking up some sick seedlings to check them for pitch canker as well.
That's the short version. More to come...

Oh no, my foibles!

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging like I've meant to. I haven't even mentioned my trip to Mpumalanga, or the braai with the circus people, or reaction to the US election, or the Good Food and Wine Show, or learning to make bunny chows.
I'll try to get to all that. LATER.

Biltong

I've been back a week and finally got some biltong. I've been holding out for the good stuff, which I get at a slaghuis (butcher's) down the road from where I'm staying. What is biltong? It's a South African thing, man. It's dried and seasoned chunks of meat. Kind of like a cross between jerky and pastrami. You can get it in chunks, which are then sliced. Yum!

I also got some droewors, which is like a dried sausage. Last night I got some cabanossi, which is sort like a cross between droewors and salami.

I'm going out in the bush for a week, so I'll post some pix when I get back.

Yes, there are really jacarandas blooming just about everywhere

I think we're close to the peak of the jacaranda bloom. Most of the streets are lined with them.An aerial view from the 11th floor of my building shows the extent of it.
And looking back the other way, towards downtown Pretoria...
And here on TUKS campus,

It's so very beautiful. Wish you were here.

What? You've never seen a jacaranda before?

I've heard from folks who've never known the pleasure of seeing a flowering jacaranda. Here's one, and not the most spectacular one I've seen yet, either. The whole landscape of the city is lavender right now. Really quite amazing.

Ek is hier!

I'm back in Pretoria, and it's quite nice.
The jacarandas are at the beginning of their bloom, and already the skyline is tinged with lavender everywhere you look. I had a long chat with one of my hosts on Thursday, and we discussed the state of affairs here (the new President and other oddities), and many other topics. As we were wrapping up our conversation, she walked me out and we were talking about the jacarandas. She beamed at the thought of what is to come. She's been here for ten years, and still has a great ardor for them.

It's been good to see a lot of old friends, sad that some have moved on since last I was here, and still more new friends and colleagues to meet. I've moved up in the world, from the first floor labs over in FABI 1, to the 6th floor of the Agriculture Building.

I've hit the ground running, and still am getting settled. I've just gotten back onto the internet. I'd forgotten how tight the security of the internet was around here. I'm certainly spoiled, coming from the land of the great flowing interwebs.