Weaving

Look at the beautiful weaving.

While I was standing in front of this sculpture at the Tokara vineyards in South Africa, I heard a voice...there was someone inside it! A young girl reading a book.

The structure reminds me of the nests I saw while in Kruger National Park.

The small yellow things are birds!
(sorry the picture isn't that great)

I did see some beautiful woven baskets in Kruger but the store owner would not sell them to me. They were being used as containers for their jewelry.

These two ladies were outside a shop in Stellenbosch weaving and spinning silk... and singing while they worked.

The brown silk is from the Mopani worm which is found in South Africa. The white silk worms come from China.

And just to gross you out...when my daughter visited South Africa in 2005 she ATE a Mopani worm and got a certificate stating so.

Wrapped and Unwrapped

I noticed lots of tree wrapping while I drove from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

The locals told me they do that to attract attention to a neighbourhood or a fare or a shopping area.

Some of the wraps were knitted.

I noticed tree "unwrapping" in Kruger National Park.

The elephants pull off the bark and eat the sap.

photo by friend Rich Prangley

One of the elephants I saw
(acknowledging us with his fanned-out ears)
on one of the
many game drives I went on.