Author Archives: trees4moz

No one who knows them will dispute the fact that Vervet monkeys are the most mischievous, the most curious and the most destructive of all the monkey family. When we first arrived in the Nhamacoa, the forest was enormous and to see a monkey, any monkey, was unusual.  But when their habitat was destroyed, weContinue reading “THE NAUGHTIEST MONKEYS IN THE NHAMACOA!”

After some very hot summers and hardly any rain, the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 have given us some extremely torrential downpours.  Although this has meant that our plunge pool has filled up with rainwater – before we even managed to paint it and finish it – and several of our neighbours’Continue reading “RAINY DAYS ARE TREE PLANTING DAYS IN THE NHAMACOA”

​Sometimes, the locals living around us bring us small animals whose mothers have been killed for bush meat and once, one of these was the tiniest of genets. This little genet, which we called Geoffrey, was so tiny he fitted into a hand.  Not yet weaned, he was still unsteady on his feet and madeContinue reading “OOPS! THERE’S A GENET ON MY HEAD!”

Many lovely birds have made their home in the Nhamacoa.  In August, at the beginning of our summer each year, I sometimes see the green, red-breasted Narina Trogon sitting on a branch in the big old mango tree right in front of the window of my computer room.  Birds seem to like this tree andContinue reading “THE RARE VANGAS OF THE NHAMACOA ”

MOZAMBICANS DESTROY BEE HIVES TO GET HONEY The Nhamacoa Forest is full of bees and over the years we have managed to persuade many of them to come and live in our bee hives. Unfortunately, the people living on the boundaries of the Nhamacoa don’t have the same ideas of harvesting honey as we have.Continue reading “MOZAMBICANS DESTROY BEE HIVES TO GET HONEY”

Terry Dawson, who lives in Zimbabwe, wrote this lovely poem about elephants and very kindly allowed me to put it onto Trees4Moz blog. I wander the wilds lost in thought And scant heed to those wilds I paid But presently my eye was caught By elephants at rest in shade Of albidas that dot theContinue reading “ELEPHANTS : A POEM BY TERRY DAWSON”

Like all monkeys around the world, the Samangos are on the endangered list in South Africa.  This, of course, is because of human activity which has led to habitation loss and fragmentation of our valuable indigenous forests.  Sadly, these shy and gentle monkeys are also often killed for bush meat. I’m not quite sure howContinue reading “THE SHY AND GENTLE SAMANGO MONKEYS OF THE NHAMACOA”

While Google busies itself with driverless cars and Face Book wrestles with inventing a new ‘dislike’ button, thousands of people in the Nhamacoa and the rest of Mozambique struggle to light up their homes with jam jar lamps. These are jars or bottles filled with some paraffin and with a rag for a wick.  Home-madeContinue reading “JAM JAR PARAFFIN LAMPS IN THE NHAMACOA LET THERE BE LIGHT!”

The capulana, or sarong, is one of the lovely things of Africa and especially here in Mozambique.  They are lengths of brightly coloured cotton usually about 1.2 metres long and are useful for all sorts of things. Women (and men) tie them around their waists and use them as cool and comfortable sarongs; you canContinue reading “CAPULANA CUSHIONS AND KAPOK TREES IN THE NHAMACOA”

Imagine this: You’re a Mozambican countrywoman and you have to walk quite some distance to get water from a river or find a stream to wash the family’s clothes. And then, when you get there, the water’s a funny dirty red colour and although you don’t know this, it’s poisoned with dangerous mercury. Owing toContinue reading “DANGEROUS MERCURY IN MOZAMBIQUE’S RIVERS”