Trader Joe's!!!

A very quick post to say thanks to our friend Julia, who sent us a very generous (very much appreciated) care package of goodies from Trader Joe's. Thanks, Julia!

Posts from June

We're catching up!

We've just posted entries about Jeff's visit to Swaziland, our trip to the Drakensberg mountains and Durban with Michael and Terry, and our friend Jessi's going away party.

Whew! Onto July...

New post on Grandma's visit in April!

Hi folks,

We are (still) catching up on the posts from our pre-internet-at-home days...so check out this link to a post on Grandma Frances' fantastic visit to Swaziland in April.

More photos (from June and July to come soon...)

Last hike in Swaziland (for now)

A week before we left Swaziland, we decided to go on one of our last minute, late afternoon, hurry-before-the-sun-sets hikes. Not bad for 34-weeks, eh?



There were tons of fires that weekend. Apparently in the winter in Swaziland, people start fires on purpose (as control fires so that there is less to burn in case of an unplanned fire, or because they are just irresponsible) and by accident (perhaps when candles tip over.) At any rate, the exact origin of most of the fires is a mystery to us, but we do see them all the time in the hills.

Phil and Libby's Visit to Swaziland (with 24 hours in Mozambique)

With Phil and Libby we drove to Mozambique (four hours) for the day.

Sunday morning we hit the beach:
There were some skydivers, who had apparently just finished a show.
We had a nice bagel brunch there is a lovely restaurant, Cafe Sol, that makes fresh bagels, so we had to stop for lunch there:
On the way home we went to the famous fish market to buy supplies for dinner: a huge red snapper, a dozen large prawns, and a kilo of clams.


Before we left town, we checked out the Maputo train station, designed by Gustave Eiffel.




Because Phil and Libby had arrived after dark on Friday night and we had left Saturday late morning, they hadn't seen much of Swaziland yet. So we hightailed it out of Maputo in hopes of showing them a bit Mbabane before they had to leave Monday morning.

Fortunately, we made it to one of our favorite nearby hikes just in time to do a quick loop before dark.

The hike is on the grounds of Brackenhill Lodge (bed and breakfast). The owners very generously allow people to use the hiking trails and picnic areas, and the best part is that their two very large dogs accompany people on the hike, as if to make sure they don't get lost. We didn't know their names, but tried to come up with something suitable. I liked Zeus and Hera, and Peter liked Rock and Hudson.

We had a truly fantastic time with Phil and Libby, and we were so flattered and pleased that they came to stay with us.

Roger and Barbara visit Swaziland

In August we hosted some very good friends, Roger and Barbara. They "adopted" Peter when he was in medical school in Atlanta, and we were very glad to return some of the wonderful hospitality they have shown Peter over the years.

Our friends Phil and Libby also came to visit us, and their stay overlapped by two days with Roger and Barbara's. This was a great coincidence because Phil's family met and became close to Roger and Barbara years ago - completely separately from Peter's connection to Roger and Barbara. (Phil's family lived in Geneva at the same time Roger and Barbara did.)

With Roger and Barbara we mostly did a lot of eating. We used one of our great wedding gifts (ice cream maker attachment to the Kitchen Aid!) to make some vanilla ice cream, which we had with our Italian-Chinese Seder dinner.


We had a fabulous time hosting Roger and Barbara and can't wait for them to come back!