Once again, two unrelated topics but beautiful in their own ways

Gabane has an artists’ colony called Pelegano Village Industries. It’s more like a business/industrial park with two art studios still operating.  Peace Corps Volunteers in Botswana publish a quarterly catalog to promote Botswana artists and a fabric artist named Tracy is in there. Since we live in Gabane, we are the designated liaisons with Tracy. We got an order from a volunteer for a wall hanging so we made an appointment and walked 3.5 miles one way to get there. Well, she couldn’t make it that day after all (another story unto itself) so we went into the open pottery shop where we proceeded to buy the teapot pictured here. The set includes 6 cups and saucers, a creamer and a sugar bowl. We bought two additional mugs- one is pictured here. The manager of the shop and resident artist- Martin- drove us home so we wouldn’t have to carry it all- and he doesn’t even know what a klutz Teresa is! Such nice people.

So now we are ready for someone to stop by so we can give them tea which is the traditional way to entertain guests.

Undaunted, we made another appointment with the fabric artist and went back another day to pick up the wall hanging for our friend. Walked both ways this time but at least it was overcast. So, of course we had to pick one up for ourselves- why waste a trip. This picture does not do the colors justice but we already know about the Landers photographic skills.

This is a mini and it was about $15(US). They go all the way up to large fora about $35. We plan to go back to both places over the course of the next two years and collect more beautiful pieces- plates, bowls, table cloth, place mats, larger wall hanging, etc. How we will get it all home is a thought for another day. Will we take requests?-  let’s talk. The full catalogue is available via a Facebook page by  searching Bokopanyo Craft Catalogue.

As for the weeding- American ingenuity meets available resources. Shovels, hoes, weeders, etc all have very short handles here which require bending over to use them. Gary (aka McGyver) said “no way” (actually what he said is not printable)  and we have to keep our yard free of any grass- yes, they sweep the dirt in their yards here- haven’t gone that far yet but then it’s early days. (Snakes hide in the grass, ergo- no grass allowed). We did buy a shovel but it got stolen from our back yard. The kids sent us a weeding tool but obviously the handle did not fit in the box. Last Sunday morning, we went for a walk in a nearby open field with wood for the taking and found this stick- de-thorned it and the maintenance person at Gary’s school lent him a drill. Voila- one long handled and very effective weeding tool.

Now, if it would just cool down enough so it would be comfortable working out there….