Which Way Africa Style (Part Two)

April 17, 2015April 17, 2015 / El Rolyat / 17 Comments

I took this photo many years ago somewhere in Botswana. It was a very hot day and I wasn’t sure how the shimmering heat would turn out in the picture. This was in the days before digital cameras so had to wait a while for the pictures to be developed – I was quite pleased with the result.

1-shimmer

We followed behind this bus for some time while travelling in Mocambique. I felt very sorry for those goats!

1-goats bus

I still can’t make sense of this sign, seen in Botswana. I wonder if anyone else can work out what it means?

1-botswana 8 001

A Muddy Road

February 27, 2015 / El Rolyat / 12 Comments

It’s been almost unbearably hot this last week. I think the rains have gone, so there’s no promise of relief until winter comes. Even that doesn’t mean much around here – winter is pretty hot too.

It’s been a relatively dry season this year but we’ve had a few spectacular storms which wreaked havoc on the farm roads, making access somewhat tricky at times.

I took this picture last winter, the quagmire caused by runoff water from the centre pivot. Imagine what a 60mm thunderstorm can do to this road!

2015 #8

Siblings – From Boys to Men

February 19, 2015February 22, 2015 / El Rolyat / 4 Comments

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahil Gibran – On Children

For more photos of siblings visit Nancy Merrill Photography

This Land: Namibia

February 7, 2015February 7, 2015 / El Rolyat / 13 Comments

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge for this week asks us to find a theme in the second and third verses of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land”.

In 1999 my family and I went on a camping trip to Namibia. Three weeks and seven thousand kilometers later I was convinced that country is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and I’ve selected a few of the pictures I took for my contribution.

NOTE: These are scanned copies of photos I took with my ancient Canon A1, before I owned a digital camera (had they even been invented then?). Unfortunately the quality is not great (and I am completely clueless when it comes to picture enhancing programs like Photoshop) but hopefully you will get an idea of the grandeur and beauty from the few I have chosen for this post.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway