Happy St. Valentine's Day from Valley Lodge!

Valentine baobab tree

I ♥ Toni the cheetah!

dining room table set for Valentine's Day brunch

un bijou

Brunch in the garden instead of the dining room ... because we can!

Eggs Benedict with asparagus, a Valentine berry compote with pomegranate and passion fruit seeds. Mango & Orange juice. Bloodies. Bellinis. Kenyan peaberry coffee.

The Thorntree Farm free range eggs from Jackson's in Bryanston's Riverside Shopping Center are the best. The yolk is that European dark orangey-yellow.  De-lish!!!

Weathervanes

The Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre has a decorative cheetah weathervane on its thatched roof! I think this may be the first purely ornamental weathervane I have seen in South Africa. (I have seen a few on lighthouses but they are - I am sure - working weathervanes connected to wind instruments inside.)







I love weathervanes. Although weathervanes originated in Europe, it is an accepted fact that this form of folk art reached its greatest development in America. They are particularly popular in New England and the mid-Atlantic states which comprise the original 13 American colonies.











Back in the USA, we had a sailboat weather vane on top of a cupola at our beach house and an antique steam train weather vane on display inside our train-depot-turned-family home in Fanwood.

I love them so much in fact that I had a letterpress silhouette of this antique sea serpent weathervane made to use on my stationery at our beach house. I bought the actual sheet metal weathervane in Connecticut but I do not know its original provenance. Are there sea serpents in Connecticut?

The weather vanes I admire most are the ones that have a sense of place. Farm animals in Vermont. Whales and ships in Nantucket. Weather cocks on the tops of churches in France. (In the ninth century A.D., the pope reportedly decreed that every church in Europe should show a cock on its dome or steeple, as a reminder of Jesus' prophecy that the cock would not crow the morning after the Last Supper, until the disciple Peter had denounced Him three times (Luke 22:34). Because of this story, "weather cocks" have topped church steeples for centuries, both in Europe and in America too.)

farm animals at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont

a skeleton @ The Gorey House, Yarmouthport, MA

a witch in Salem, MA

a grasshopper atop Faneuil Hall, Boston, MA

The Royal Exchange, London

Why a grasshopper for Faneuil Hall? Probably based on the one topping the Royal Exchange in London.

a sperm whale weather vane in Nantucket, Massachusetts

Sometimes they act as an address, like ...

atop the Governor's Residence in Williamsburg, VA

... or at ...

Sissinghurst in Kent built by the Mann Cornwallis family (MC)

The biggest and most-varied collection of weathervanes I've photographed has got to be on L'Ile-de-Re in France.

a culotted donkey (to keep the flies away) and an island girl wearing a quichnotte

a gull

a mermaid with a parasol

a salt raker

a  sailing ship and lighthouse

sea horse

I will have to keep my eye out for more interesting weathervanes on my travels around South Africa!

Cheetah Love

Situated on over 100 hectares within the Kapama Private Game Reserve, the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre was initially established as part of a breeding program for cheetah.

It was a very special treat indeed to be allowed to spend some time with Toni, the ASSA's adopted cheetah cub bred at HESC, and wish her a Happy Valentine's Day!

the cheetah breeding area!

Today the centre has expanded to breed and conserve other African species for reintroduction into the wild, including the wild dog, also on the critically endangered species list.

We were also able to see some of the older cheetahs out exercising and training to hunt. There are a number of cheetahs raised at the HESC who have been released in the wild.

We had this ornament specially made to commemorate our visit to wish Toni a Happy Valentine's Day!.

A Labor of Love

The Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre in Mpumalanga is a labor of love for founder and center manager Lente Roode.

Located on the Kapala Game Reserve near Kruger, the HESC started life as a cattle and sheep farm owned by Lente and her husband Johann. But Lente's story goes back even further.

Lente Schürmann grew up on a bordering farm herself. As a child of six, Lente was given an orphaned cheetah cub after a neighboring farmer shot the mother. The family called her “Sebeka” and she soon became part of the  household. Together, Lente and her mother, a nurse, lovingly cared for the animal. Lente and her cheetah were inseparable. Later when she married Johann and was mistress of her own farm bordering her parents' farm, she was open to taking in orphaned cheetahs and other animals.

Lente Roode

Lente formed the Hoedspruit Cheetah Project and she used her land and her parents' farm which she inherited to provide sanctuary to orphaned cheetahs. It is her life's work.

In fact, she has expanded her refuge to more than just the cheetah. Now called the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre, HESC offers a home to rhinos and wild dogs, among others. She has even set up a vulture restaurant to provide food for the endangered vultures of South Africa.

a memorial to one of the earliest "American angels" of the HESC

It was such an honor to meet Lente and hear her inspirational story first-hand. She has always believed that God would provide for her sanctuary and she has been proved time and again! The sanctuary has been maintained all these years through generous donations by individuals, businesses and foundations - many of them American.







Vince and I visited the HESC last weekend especially to meet Toni, the cheetah cub that the American Society of South Africa adopted in November.

Toni and her siblings

Toni is now six months old!

the delegation of ASSA members with Toni

Proud parents!


 

presenting the check for Toni's care to Lente

This was a very special weekend to visit as we were also there for the ASSA president to present a symbolic "check" to the HESC for Toni's care and feeding over the next two years.

To adopt your own cheetah or to donate to the care and feeding of the animals living at the HESC, contact them now!