Category Archives: Senegal
Yes, I know that’s four things. It’s so hard to keep to three from our trip to Senegal!
1 The garden, full of bamboo, bougainvillea and many other flowers, attracts lots of birds. The Weaver Birds love the bamboo which they tear off in strips for their nests, the Sunbirds come for the nectar and to spread their wings in sunny spots and the Bulbuls do their courting here! All the time there are Black Kites wheeling about overhead. Lucy, before we came, also saw Egrets and a flock of Pelicans!
Weaver Bird with Bamboo strip
Weaver Bird with Sunbird on left
Sunbird sunning her wings
Black Kite
2 Ndeye Marie was delighted with her chunky coloured crayons and paper and immediately started practising her letters.
Crayon Fun
I also read Eric Carle’s ‘The Very lonely Firefly’, translating it into French as I went along, to Ndeye Marie, our newest Grandchild – what joy!
Reading to Ndeye Marie
3 Mr S and I went down to Ami’s family home to see the hired chairs being hauled up onto the roof for the Wedding tomorrow. Some family were having tea outside and invited us to join them in true Senegalese fashion. The mint tea in tiny glasses was very hot, very sweet and beautifully minty.
Ousseynou making tea
4 The sky at sunset
The Sky over Pikine
Tags: Ami, Black Kite, bougainvillea, Bulbul, Egrets, Eric Carle, garden, Lucy, mint tea, Ndeye Marie, Pelicans, Senegal, Senegalese hospitality, Sunbirds, sunset, The Very Lonely Firefly, Weaver birds, wedding
1 Our apartment in Pikine is very close to Ami’s family home, has rooms all opening onto a central courtyard which is smothered in palm trees, huge cacti and beautiful bougainvillea in pinks and reds.
Sunlight through the leaves
2 Took a yellow taxi to Pikine market – bursting with bustle, noise, colour and smells – to buy fabric for me to have made up into a traditional boubou for the Wedding on Sunday. The most colourful bus took us to the tailor’s where I was measured up and chose a beautiful blue thread to go with the emerald green fabric. It will be ready tomorrow!
3 Met Ami’s lovely family at her home – her parents, her beautiful daughter, Ndeye Marie and some of her aunts and children. We managed to understand each other pretty well with some shared language (French), lots of body language and Daniel on hand to translate from Wolof when necessary. The family has known Daniel for 15 years and spoke of him with pride and warmth and welcomed us into their family. We were able to say how pleased and proud we are to welcome Ami into our family too.
Lucy with some of the children
Tags: accommodation, Ami, bougainvillea, cacti, Dakar, Daniel, English, family, French, market, Ndeye Marie, palm trees, Pikine, Senegal, Senegalese, tailor, traditional boubou, wedding, Wolof
1 Beautiful balmy breeze met us at almost midnight as we arrived in Dakar, Senegal.
2 I love walking along the moving walkways in the airports especially when the lovely Mr S makes me laugh by walking alongside, apparently at ease, but keeping up all the way.
3 Meeting Ami in person at last, taller and even more beautiful than Skype has allowed us to see. What a handsome and happy pair she and Daniel make. Hugs, kisses and tears (of happiness) all round.
Daniel and Ami at Breakfast 5th April
Tags: Dakar, Daniel and Ami, Mr S, relationships, Senegal, Skype, travel
1 The train journey through English countryside: The Somerset Levels, The White Horse, springy little lambs, a Thelwell pony, flowers-in-a-boat on the station platform at Saltash, and above all, the vibrant green of the fields.
English countryside from the train
2 Coming home, beautiful bluebells and primroses in the front garden and coming into our house.
Bluebells
3 A very simple and very tasty supper of two poached eggs on toast!
and I’ll start writing about the beautiful things of Senegal tomorrow.
Tags: bluebells, English countryside, lambs, little lambs, Saltash, Senegal, simple supper, Spring, The Somerset Levels, The White Horse, Thelwell pony, train journey, travel, two poached eggs, vibrant green
Tabitha's First Birthday Cake
1 The Very Hungry Caterpillar cake, made by my lovely and talented daughter, KJ, for her beautiful daughter’s first birthday!
2 Morning sun on the lichen on next door’s tree.
Sunlit Lichen
3 And to all my lovely readers, followers and commenters – We go away tomorrow to Senegal for Daniel and Ami’s Wedding so I don’t think I’ll be able to post 3 beautiful things every day. You can be sure I’ll be noting them down and will post extra pages when we get home. Please don’t desert me in my absence – I won’t be able to read your posts or comment either. Have a beautiful week or two and I’ll be back…………
Tags: cake, daughter, Eric Carle, first birthday, hungry caterpillar, KJ, lichen, Senegal, sunlight, talented daughter, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, wedding
1 On the lane we take to walk into town, I saw the season’s first bluebells – such a rich colour, ‘like a piece of sky’ as the inspiration for my blog, http://threebeautifulthings.blogspot.co.uk/ once said. We also saw some beautifully veined leaves but I have yet to find out what they are.
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2 We went into town to find small presents to take to Senegal for Ndeye Marie, the 3 year old daughter of our son’s fiancee – so our soon-to-be Granddaughter! We found some bright and chunky coloured pencils and some paper for her and lots of biros for the other children. We know from our Voluntouring in South Africa that such pens are much treasured by the local children.
We have also bought Ndeye Marie some picture story books, one of which is about The Heligan Giant. See my previous post to see this delightful mud sculpture: http://mybeautfulthings.com/2012/03/28/sally-boots-the-heligan-giant-and-swish/
3 I’ve visited a delightful family in St Erth this evening to talk about their son’s Baby Naming Ceremony. It’s already sounding charming and we’ve hardly started.
Tags: Baby Naming Ceremony, bluebells, coloured pencils, delightful family, mud sculpture, Ndeye Marie, picture story books, piece of sky, rich colour, Senegal, South Africa, St Erth, The Heligan Giant, Voluntouring
1 Another beautiful day so singing with The Suitcases in the Zed Shed was particularly lovely with the view of the Penryn river as a backdrop. It was our last session with Claire for seven weeks as she goes off to London to be MD on the Wildworks production, Babel in Caledonia Park. I hope to go up to London to see the show in May.
View from The Zed Shed
2 Went into Truro after singing to meet the lovely Mr S to do some final shopping for our trip to Senegal and also met Phillipa and Dan with their tiny baby daughter for whom I knitted the Sally-boots. They are too big for her just yet.
3 I made some Nutella meringues! Truly scrumptious but one to share was enough and the rest will be frozen. This was to use up all the egg whites I had left from making Jewel Cookies. Choc Chip Uru at Go Bake Yourself was my inspiration for these. Thank you! http://gobakeyourself.wordpress.com/
Nutella Meringues
Orange Choc Chip Cookies
Tags: Babel, baby, Claire Ingleheart, http://gobakeyourself.wordpress.com/, Jewel Cookies, London, meringues, Mr S, Nutella, Penryn, Sally-boots, Senegal, Shopping, Truro, Wildworks
1 I finished the Sally-boots for Dan’s new daughter just as he finished our fence. We all feel pleased.
Sally-boots
2 Lucy has been working in the Lost Gardens of Heligan helping to restore The Heligan Giant with the sculptors, Sue Hill and her brother, Pete.
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3 Went to the Swish at Krowji with Lucy this evening and we both found things we can wear in Senegal. A Swish, for those who don’t know is a clothes swap.
Tags: clothes swap, Krowji, Lucy, nature, outdoors, Pete Hill, Sally-boots, Senegal, Sue Hill, Swish, The Heligan Giant, The Lost Gardens of Heligan
1 Such a beautiful warm day today, we had our lunch (home-made Guacamole and Melba toasts) on the bench in the sun for the first time this year. Did some vertical gardening putting primroses into the Cornish wall near the new sun terrace.
2 Had a happy half hour with Daniel on Skype learning more about the quite complicated etiquette of a Senegalese Wedding.
3 I love this egg storage unit which to me is a piece of kitchen art. I think it is a Welsh spoon holder but it keeps our eggs perfectly!
Welsh Wooden Spoon Rack
Tags: Daniel, egg storage, food, Garden Lunch, Guacamole, home-made, kitchen art, Melba toasts, Senegalese wedding, Skype, spoon rack, vertical gardening, Wedding Etiquette, Welsh, wooden spoon
