Umdumo WeSizwe

Last night Umdomo WeSizwe, a singing and dancing group from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe entertained a capacity audience of 120 in our tiny village hall as part of their three month tour of the UK. The group of nine young men thrilled us with their deep musical voices as they sang songs of love, happiness and rejection mainly in their own language (not Shona - the other one which I can't pronounce or spell) but with two songs in English. They danced whilst they sang and between numbers there was humorous dialogue and interplay with the audience. The group brought no musical instruments, no sound systems or lights - it was just them, their manager and driver, making a total of 11 to be put up for the night. We took two of them and the other 9 went to various houses round the village. The photo shows our overnight guests leaving our house for their gig in North Somerset tonight. What hardworking young men they are.

More animal shots

Oops, forgot to attach some shots last time.

Longleat Safari Park

Last Friday we visited the Safari Park at Longleat in Wiltshire. Hundreds of animals strolled around our car in the bright Autumn sunshine - camels, giraffes, llamas, ostriches, lions, tigers, wolves, kudus, antelopes, white rhino, cattle of all kinds, vultures, flamingos, herons, guinea fowls, wallabies and much more. A male lion settled down for a rest right by our car, a group of bactrian camels sat ruminating in a lump of humps and bumps and two dromedary camels caused a traffic jam. Great fun and a lovely day out.

The Rain in Spain

We've just returned from a week in Spain, staying with friends in their house in the hills 60 miles north east of Granada. We expected endless sunshine but the weather had apparently not heard that "the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains". Four out of the seven days were wet and at times the views were obscured by clouds and mist. But it did not stop us swimming in the pool, walking in the hills and visiting the lovely Negratin lake. From the pool terrace we could see the nearby Jabalcon mountain - no its not a volcano, that's just clouds disappearing as the sun came out. Altogether it was a relaxing and enjoyable break.