Early morning, Eden Street. A woman in black shawl starts to fry beignets, which are for sale.

Within a few minutes, she will be ready for customers, and there are many. The beignets, which is a sort of bean doughnut fried in peanut oil, are cheap and tasty and much appreciated by the local population.

The parallel street, a woman in red shawl prepares to sell breakfast.

Her beignets are hot and ready to be bought.

So, anyone hungry?

Sorry for keeping you all waiting in suspense, but it is:

Ishtar’s Ark’s very own Kalahari; daughter of Sahara Taurin Kai and Rio!

Kalahari in “shrimp position”

Kalahari rolls around

Kalahari enjoys a human scratching and a canine kiss

Kalahari closeup

Compared to Isolde, she is much calmer and also more petitish, which should not come as a surprise, seeing she was born earlier… I have not thought of a proper Hausa name for her however, as I will need to experience her more and get a better feel of her “character”. So far, she seems to be her father’s daughter rather than her dominant mother’s, and reminds more of Arwen than Arwen’s own daughter Isolde.

More pictures on newborn Kalahari coming up soon!

When we came out this morning, Sahara had the most wonderful surprise for us!

She had given birth to a beautiful little filly!!!

Expecting in late January and having shown next to no signs of imminent birth, Anette and I were clueless of what was going on in our garden just a few hours before we came out. At first sight, I thought the little one was a stillborn, but then she lifted up her head and showed us that she was only resting… All seemed well!

The flock was happy and all the equines all welcomed the little newcomer, as if she had been around always.

Isolde was so exited over the birth of the little one, and wanted to help Sahara in whatever she was doing!

Although I was expecting Sahara to push away Isolde once her own offspring was born, she had room for both of them, and the newborn already has a tending bigger sister (although not by blood!). If it had been another mare, I would have kept her away from the flock to give her a moment’s piece, but Sahara relaxes the best when she is surrounded by ALL her flock members, and seeing that all was calm and well, we decided to let them be.

Although she came unnoticed, she is already being appreciated by everyone!

Although Sahara did not have much of an udder development, her filly suckled regularly. From the looks of things, there should be enough, at least for her!

Seeing the little one nurse from Sahara, Isolde ran to her own mother, who has lots of milk in production. But look how huge she seems! It is difficult to understand how quickly they grow in just a few months!

Ali was thrilled at the arrival of the little newcomer, and having seen Isolde’s progress, he was not disappointed this time that the foal was not a male.

Dennis Mugu was on his best behaviour, making sure that no intruders came near our concession. A proud an caring uncle, he was!

Sheba however did not really understand what was so special about this four-legged creature. She got a good telling off from the filly’s mother-

…which made her run to her human mother, and together we inspected the filly on a calmer note. Sheba was thrilled that the little one did not mind having her ear washed by a canine!

Sahara will need a good dose of patience with all these little ones running around her, but she has been surprisingly calm and seems content with the situation (although at the time that the picture was taken, she was in pain, delivering the placenta).

Anette was one proud horse breeder!

As for the name, it will be announced later this afternoon.

For being such a mommy’s girl, Isolde is surprisingly curious, and during the past months, her world has expanded to the entire garden (much to the dismay of Dennis Mugu, who between Isolde and Sheba never seems to get a moment of peace and quiet these days, lol!).

She used to have the habit of galloping around the house whenever she felt an overdose of energy running through her limbs, but this activity was put on hold when Paige’s stallion Illami temporarily moved in to Ishtar’s Ark during his owner’s two month long absence.

Meet Illami - the most gentle of stallions.

When he first moved in, he got a cold reception. Sahara, who is heavy with a foal in her belly, let him no one no uncertain terms that he was not the least welcome, and being the dominant mare of the flock, she made sure to keep both Arwen and her protegée Isolde at a “safe distance”. Dennis Mugu did not exactly welcome a second male, and for the first few nights, the two of them had screaming competitions to see who had the highest pitched voice. Thankfully, the two reached an unspoken truce after a few nights.

Poor Illami however was desperate for company, so would you believe his luck when Isolde came to check him out?

I had noticed that she seemed quite enchanted by him, but did not expect her to muster up the courage to visit her on her own terms. After all, her mother was “far away” at the other end of the garden and she was dangerously out of sight!

Curiosity however is a strong instinct, and Isolde wanted a new friend!

Illami was quite the gentleman, and did not make a sound but simply stood his ground, enjoying the greeting moment.

Unfortunately, the young filly did not stay as long as Illami would have wanted, but HRH had other things to discover as well…

It did not last long before Isolde was back, charmed by the pleasant stallion. Anette and I watched the rest from our kitchen window - it’s beats television any day!

Although winter days in Niger are like summer days in Sweden, the nights can get very cold. And when they do, there is one little member of Ishtar’s ark who gets so very, very cold…

In contrast to the dogs at the Eden office (who are part Bernese Mountain dog or German Shepherd dog), Sheba the Rhodesian Ridgback (from Sweden!) does not possess a polar-fox’ tail hideaway to tuck in her nose… So her owner fixed the problem in different way!

These days, Sheba loves to be tucked in for the night! And she’s not going anywhere either.

Doesn’t she just look adorable in a sea of yellow?

For more skies around the world, check out Skywatch Friday!

Her Royal Highness Isolde yar’Arwen celebrated her fourth monthly birthday today, and being such a big girl these days, we decided to try her out for a first walk without her mother.

Mother Arwen kept calling out every third second to make sure that Isolde knew that she was wanted back home, and as we did not stray very far, we heard her very, very well. And although Isolde is quite the Mommy Piglet - as well as the Sahara Piglet - HRH could hardly find the time to answer back, as her mind was fully preoccupied on something quite delicious: SUGAR CUBES.

For being a First Time Without Mother (there’s got to be a first time at SOME point!), the walk went very well. I had to laugh though because Isolde was so clear on her getting her reward, but then again, HRHesses are always aware of the tremendous value of their efforts, and being a very soft-hearted horse breeder, she was earned many rewards from me during our fairly short session…

It’s a new year, and the sun is shining.

I could not ask for more!

We came back from Yankari just in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve!

Wish you all a lovely evening and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Within Hausa culture, the professional entertainer is called the “griot”.

Whenever there is a public spectacle, you can find him, doing stunts and little plays for the general amusement of the people.

His acts can be both musical and athletic,

…frightening or dangerous…

…artistic…

…or a combination of all of the above!

Famine food comes in so many varieties, and as you all know by now, I love to harvest from Nature’s Pantry!

For this solar cooker casserole, which was served on Thanksgiving, I started out with lots of Eden leaves, which I crushed in a black pan (which is a must when it comes to solar cooking).

I added two curry flavoured stock cubes and some filtered water,

…cabbage, carrots, zucchini, green beans and fresh ginger,

…and set it out in the solar oven, before conveniently heading off to work.

Once back, I took it out and added solar cooked sorghum (whole), Eden nuts, more spices (lots of curry and ginger), milk powder (to make it creamy) and two big spoons of locally made peanut butter.

I mixed it all up,

…and voilà, there you have it! The very dish that was served on Thanksgiving.

…or at least I will! These images are from our last Yankari visit in 2003:

Elephants in the bush

Surprisingly well camouflaged!

Watch out when the cross the road. You may think there is just one-

…or two…

…but elephants move in herd, and you must wait until even the smallest one has cross the road.

If not, the big bull will tell you to keep your ground, and you SO do not want to mess with him!

Elephant greetings from Yankari!

This post is a little gift to Lisa over at Laughing Orca Ranch.

As she is in love with paint horses and even paint equines, I figured few things would please her more than to scout for Paint Candidates at the Zinder race track!

First guy up was Mr Killi. Actually, any horse that is grey, white or something inbetween is called Killi, as that’s the name of the colour. Although I am not particularly fond of greyish horses, this guy had a lovely personality.

He even reached out to kiss my hand, the gentleman that he was!

A few minutes later, he was off to race!

Leaving his Paint Cousin to wish him good luck!!

Paint Candidate Number Two came with a Swedish Milk Cow cover.

This guy seemed preoccupied with planning his escape!

Paint Candidate Number Three stole my heart though…

Had I been horse shopping, I whom I would have gone home with!

A Golden Paint Boy though born in the body of a Barb. Don’t you just love his features???

Aw, such a cutie!

I never thought I’d find myself going “aw” for a horse with a pink nose, but this guy was lovely!