all of "life" happens on the river............

Reality - expectations = happiness!!

May your weekend be filled with safe travels, hilarious jokes and kind companions....

"It's a land of almost breathtaking beauty or of savage poverty.....A land of inviting warmth or of desperate drought.... How you see a country depends on whether you are driving through it, or living in it. How you see a country depends on whether or not you can leave it, if you have to" taken from scribbling the cat, by Alexandra Fuller. So apt about Tete, Mozambique.

whilst traipsing around this small Ilala "forest" on the banks of the Zambezi, I came across this "religious set up".......maybe its the local people hoping for good sap to make the intoxicating palm wine for the season.....

One report (Moll 1972) states that it is highly intoxicating, but another (Coates Palgrave 2002) suggests that the wine is relatively mild, with an alcohol content of some 5-10%, which lies between the beers and wines sold commercially here. According to Coates Palgrave, the viciously intoxicating product is a spirit distilled from the palm wine. The raw material for these products is sap gathered by cutting off the top of a growing stem and harvesting the exudate. The sap hardens over the wound in due course, and another layer of stem is cut away until eventually the growing point is completely destroyed and the stem dies. Often when this happens the lala palm will sucker from the base, and so that individual is not killed. Moll considers the wine to be an important source of B-group vitamins for those who consume it.

I see so much sadness in the eyes of most of the woman I come across in Tete...... the burdens they carry are heavy.......

a glimpse of "delicate beauty" in the arid harshness of the Tete surrounds...........

When the HOT, dusty, exhausting day draws to a close in Tete, we all breathe a deep sigh of relief! These incredible sunsets are always a reminder that, He is good, faithful and we are blessed with life to face another day........

look up!! thats where our hope comes from...........

"there is always the "background light" illuminating the present"......... Rest in Him.

look up and see things through creative eyes! It will change your outlook on the world......... Blessings on this Tuesday!

this is a bit of a blurry snap, but just love the colours, so had to share.... taken from an article on Digital Photography School website..... "I’ve always liked the idea that great photography happens on the edges. Twilight, the transition between night and day, is an edge. I think of it as the ‘magic hour’. You may also see it referred to as the blue hour, a reference to the colour of the ambient light as night falls."

the dugout factory on the shores of Cahora Bassa lake.......

May your weekend be filled with hope, laughter and many photographic opportunities in the golden, twilight hours......

and so we welcome September and fast approaching October, though our flesh screams, oh no, HEAT, DUST, MOSQUITOES... He is still in control and we need to choose JOY!

a typical family home in the local village areas of Tete. I tend to complain about all the constant dust we have to deal with here, but imagine living like this, where dust is your constant companion. The rains arrival in a few months will settle it all down, and everyone cant wait.... Blessed indeed...

Our loads will be lightened when we reach the other side......but in the meantime, maintaining an attitude of gratitude will lighten our load considerably!

I so respect Bird photographers after trying to take pics of these White-fronted Bee eaters yesterday! Happy Monday one and all......