Look how lovely the Malachite Sunbird is.

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One can only stare in awe at the beauty of nature.
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The early morning sun certainly highlights the bird's colors.

Slowly the yellow Protea Pincushion flowers are opening now, and it makes a lovely contrast with the red pincushions. We have many sunbird species here, each with their own beauty, but the malachites and the doubled-collared species are my favorites. The one for its colors and its long tail, and the latter for its lovely songs.
I also have some other birds in action to share with you in here, and so come and enjoy nature with me in the post.

Here below you can see the lovely contrast between the yellow and the red pincushion flowers. The Malachites (Nectarinia famosa) love these flowers.
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Now I will show you the take-off of a Red-winged Starling (Onychognathus morio).

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And here below were two Pied crows (Corbus albus) arguing about territory.

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So, yeah, never a dull moment in nature over here, as one just has to know where to look for the action, and the bonus in nature is that one can sit in beautiful surroundings to meditate on life and the wonders of our Creator. Sadly, the world is in a mess, and one sees and hears such horrible stories that it can really drive one mad. Just a brief glimpse on the internet shows up murder and mayhem, and ugly stories about the death of women and children. Greed and pride rules and so many innocents get killed. So, the only succor that I find is in the open arms of Mother nature.

On top of all of this is that I have just been diagnosed with a new virus that has started to appear over here, and it is called the Bacterial Gastro infection. So, stomach cramps and very little sleep is the order of the day. The doctor gave me another handful of pills to drink, and the world is not a very nice place to be in during this painful episode.
But such is life.

I hope that you enjoyed the pictures.

Photos by Zac Smith-All Rights Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

Thank you kindly for supporting this post.

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60 comments
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Oh, it's my first time hearing that bird. Nature really gives us comforting zone♥️

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I am glad that you saw the bird, and nature is indeed comforting.

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The birds look so joyful! You've really captured their happiness perfectly. Nature is always the best.

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Lovely pictures mate, so sorry about the virus...

My favorite picture has got to be the one were the bird is perched on a branch and looks almost all black...

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Thank you, and I am coping with the virus.

The black bird is called a Drongo, and they catch insects.

!PIZZA

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Sorry to hear you got a virus. I can imagine it is horrible and no sleep. I hope the pills work and get rid of it soon.
Take care my friend.

Beautiful captures of the birds.
Love their colors.
Big !HUG

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Greetings to you madame and thank you for the care. I am slowly improving, and the pills are doing their work.

Thank you for the compliment and I hope that all is well with you guys.

!PIZZA and some !LUV

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Greetings to you too Zac 😊
That is good to hear. You are welcome.

We have been so busy with driving back the car to Ireland and a second visit a month later to sell it.
It took out our summer. No time to properly settle yet.
Here the temperatures are dropping so fast. We skipped spring and now autumn. Night time is below 0 already.
My veggies didn’t survive this last week. So I winterised the garden now. Cleaned up the veggiebeds.

Have a wonderful day, take care.
!HUG

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So now you have sold the car, and how do you guys get around with no wheels?

Sounds like you had a tough time and with the cold now you will have to wait for the last week of winter before you can restore the garden and prepare it for planting, Or do you follow another method? Oh, and has the hubby found another job yet?

I hope that things will improve soon Jackie.

!PIZZA and !LUV

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We are renting a car to get around. As we are 1 hour from anything we have to. Our free time goes into searching a second hand car. What so far has not resulted into finding a good one that gets us at least through the winter with -30 and 3 meter snow. It is frustrating what they try to sell here and in what state those cars are. Every time we have to drive far to see one… we even went 3 hours one way. On the way there the garage send us a text. Car just sold. They didn’t even hold it for us. Just crazy.

Yep, I have to wait until june again when the snow is gone to plant the new veggies out.
Maybe I should build a heated greenhouse to extend the season. As less then 3 month is just too short for most.

Sadly, hubby has not found another job yet. It is getting tough after 1,5 year now… too many people searching for jobs. The HR people not doing a good job doesn't help either. It looks like they can pick a person that ticks all boxes now. If something doesn’t add up, as simple as having a telephone number from a different country… they don’t look further at a cv.
One day… something will happen.

Thank you Zac much appreciated 😊
Have a beautiful weekend!
Hope every day you are feeling a little better!
!PIZZA
!LUV

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A bad situation about the used cars, and I just hope that you guys will eventually find a good one with low mileage. We recently bought our VW Polo from a car rental agency, and it only had 30,000 on the clock. Light on fuel, so maybe you can also search around for car rental agencies.

A greenhouse will be perfect, as you are right, and it can certainly extend the season. If it's done correctly, then you can even extend for 3 months or more.

We will pray about your hubby finding a job, and one never knows, as miracles still happens, so maybe you can start to expect something happening on the job front for hubby.

Thank you, and I am up and about again, and almost 100% again.
Hope that you guys will have a good new week.
Blessings!

!PIZZA and !LUV

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Still no success on the car front. We decided to rent the next car for 4 weeks. We were getting toooo stressed and my health isn’t good lately either. So we took some pressure off, so I can recover.
I will ask the rental company if that’s an option here. Thanks for the idea.

Yes, if one builds a greenhouse for this climate it needs to be done well. Heated with insulation and proper airflow. Maybe even a water line below the frost level. We will see…

Aawww thank you so much Zac, much appreciated. Yes, we stay positive and miracles do happen.
A job will probably also change again where we live. We give it till end of the year. Hubby is applying for many jobs each day. If still no job we are going to take action and move where we can create a job ourselves. We are thinking of any options right now.

Thats good to hear, hope it did improve even more in the last days.
Thank you so much! Have both a fantastic weekend 👋🏻
Take care and stay safe.
!PIZZA
!LUV

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Sad to see about your health condition, and you will have to find a way to handle the stress, as it can only worsen matters. I really hope that the car rental place also has sales, as they all do over here.

Yep, I can see that you know all about the installation of a greenhouse, and maybe you can grow organic crops to supply the local shops and businesses. Some people grow niche market mushrooms over here, and it's a small business idea that does very well.

I only hope that that you guys will find a way to survive, and a small business might be ideal to improve your situation. We have one of the world's highest un-employment figures, and so many people are opening their own little "Spaza" shops.

We take things much slower now, and it helps a bit, so let's see if things will improve.
May you guys also have a restful weekend, and all blessings from us.
Get some rest milady.

!PIZZA and !LUV

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Thank you so much Zac. I try to rest as much as I can. I know stress can make things worse… so I am not going in that direction anymore.

Local to us is nothing… we are 1 hour drive from anything. Even people. Wrong spot for many things.
We are winterising the house now. The things I didn’t manage to do in the summer as we were away twice for 3 weeks. So today is doing the windows. Putting in draft rubbers, wadding between the 2 single pane windows and taping the inside set of windows. Think two windows 🪟 with 15 cm between them. I did manage to paint them. Now putting all back together before it gets tooooo cold.
Snow is already 1 hour away from us.

Hubby has also an interview this morning 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 so let’s see how that goes.
We did set ourselves a timeframe. If nothing happens by end of November we start our next journey and will go self employed. Meaning… moving countries. (A job will mean that too btw.)

Thats good to hear. Slower is sometimes needed.
Thank you, have a wonderful day.
Take care the both of you.
!PIZZA
!LUV

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(Edited)

Amazing how you guys have learnt to "winterise:" a house. We have never done that over here, but this is Africa and there is no need of that. Snow is rare here and only dresses the mountain peaks lightly.

Great news that hubby has an interview, and I really hope and pray that he will be employed. You guys have waited long enough now. But even if not, then destiny might want you to start doing your own thing. Moving is no problem for you, as long as you guys can still handle it. We are also searching for another house, in an area where there is no crop spraying of pesticides, as we both are starting to struggle with cloggy chests.

I enjoy the slowing down, strangely, as I have always had a demented drive in all that I do.
You guys also take care, and we are holding thumbs for hubby to get the job.

!PIZZZA and all our !LUV

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Oh was that a bug around again both my son and I had it a week or so ago, took it slowly in our stride it literally left after two days. Hope you feel better soon!

Never sure about our water, I boil just everything trying to avoid getting these amazing things doing the rounds.

!LUV
!PIZZA

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It is called a bacterial gastro infection, and I was my doctor's 4th patient in the day with the same infection. They reckon that it is highly contagious. But I think that you know this as both you and your son were infected. Feels like death is knocking on the door.

Not only the water, as it is also bad hygiene, and that's all over. So, if one gets it and they come in contact with others, then bedlam occurs.

!PIZZA and !LUV to you guys.

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Scary thing is one never knows where you contracted it, we cannot pin point, still need to get out and live.

Living conditions for majority is appalling, rural style living in traditional houses many stood better opportunity, times should have changed a long time ago!

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So very true, as we have also retraced our steps over the past days before the infection, and it's an impossible task to determine where the infection took place. Thankfully I am much better now, and as you said, we have to get out and live. 9am meeting this morning, the on to another place for a 10:30am meeting, and finally a 12 noon meeting that ended at almost 3pm. All to do with charity and work.

Sadly we don't see any improvements, and instead things are getting worse. Self enrichment seems to be the rule, as a 1 million rand annual salary doesn't seem to be enough. So who cares about the people?

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Four years ago I got so sick I thought I had copped it, had been to municipal offices which was one suspect place, who knows it took weeks to fully recover. Hope the bug moves on as your lives are exceptionally busy with workload thrust onto a few.

Things have most definitely not settled as one would have hoped, I spread my votes with parties I felt would and have mostly now proven themselves as the right selection, doing what they said they would. Men/Woman of honour still appeal to me on strength of their word.

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Terrible and thank goodness that you are still around now. I feel much better and up and around again for all that's worth !LOLZ

Too easy to change mayors these days and every change leaves much to be desired, as the interest is on self enrichment and not on the services to the public. One just doesn't know who to trust anymore.

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I do believe our bodies build up immunity quite quickly to germs around, I push as far as a I am able before going to the doctors, all they do of late is dish out tablets like smarties...., and it costs an arm and leg!

Mayoral position for our region, will wait and see what transpires within the next few months. No performance next vote will be 2026 for positions again, not long for anyone to warm a seat!

!LUV
!WINEX

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Oh yes, many can build up immunities, but not all, and some of the others discover that they now have cancer. Doctors are as you say, very pricy, and you are 100% correct about them dishing out the tablets, without bothering to find out the root causes of the ailments.

Sheer madness for swopping mayors like that, and the people will continue to suffer.

!WINEX and !LUV

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Cancer has taken so many of my family, friends and dogs it's scary the big "C" each totally different as well. As the good song said "One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small....", too many popping pills, because the Doctor said so!

Living in a circus world arena run by clowns.

!PIZZA

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Sad to see this, and yeah, cancer is rife lately. I read a medical story today, and they reckon that cancer now has increased in the younger folks. Scary stuff.

Yep! Wild rides all over.

!PIZZA

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Both my nieces with different cancers in their 30s and 40s, another rod one has to carry especially when a parent.

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Shame, and I don't wish that on any parent, as it is one of the heaviest burdens to carry.

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Minute you have cancer insurance houses close doors, many medical aids barely cover the treatment, or treatment is so harsh it just about kills you.

Whatever takes me must do a swift job at it!

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Oh yes, very expensive treatments, especially chemotherapy, as so many battle to recover from it.
Medical aids are supposed to be non-profits, but they keep their investors smiling. We pay a big amount every month, but in the first quarter of the year, our savings are depleted and then we have to pay for medicines out of our pockets.

My gran was the only one that died from a natural illness. Mom died in a car accident, youngest sister by a gun shot, and eldest sister due to hospital mix ups and a cyst that was supposed to be removed never was. So, Iam the last man standing, and I also hope to go quickly.

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Medical aid as our parents had now medical insurance no longer the honourable!

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No comparison, as in the old days it was much better. Now everybody is skimping for money.

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Definitely not getting easier, with exception a handful smiling all the way to the bank.

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(Edited)

PIZZA!

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