Fancy bumping in to you !!

Winter is here 

Its cold here at the moment - the early morning  are chilly   before the sun is up even here in Zim  - I was sitting on my Land cruiser watching  this guy - and he was really feeling it  - sitting on the extremity of this branch hugging himself  to keep the chill out !Waiting for the rays to catch him 

 I sat there watching him ,chuckling at how similar things were for both of us !! 

Muuyu

Muuyu

Chapters of my life have been spent among these great trees, humbly honoring them , quietly listening to their sighs, breathing in the energy they exude. They are my Africa. They symbolize a spiritual place, harsh but breathtaking. These great trees make me acknowledge our own majesty and simultaneously our own impermanence. I am humbled by their seemingly ageless presence and am intrigued by the endless myths that have been passed down around campfires for centuries. The ambiance of these great beings has a spiritual energy and some myths say the souls of our loved ones rest amongst their branches, lovingly watching over us  -so close- a very thin veil.

 Nearly every Baobab I have seen in the wild has evidence of Elephants around it , dung , spoor, bark stripped from the tree and carvings from gouging tusks in the trunk, like graffiti on a notice board. The symbiotic relationship between these two great creatures is a spiritual one, pure and real .

There are few people not captivated by the sheer magnificence of these trees and the aura that surrounds them. They, and the elephants that stand under them, are the quintessential sights of Africa.

So imagine yourself there, and sit quietly. listen to the quiet whisperings of your soul. Feel the energy as it filters through you, and let it bring you to a place where the seemingly impossible becomes possible.

A Rebellious Child ?

Synergies  

Was on a long tough drive yesterday , I do a lot of thinking when I drive as I guess most of us do , Its May , the vegetation is magnificent , the leaves and the pods are on the trees – its also the start of that special time in the year when we start to see that haze in the sky – which creates a different light on things – a different perspective perhaps .

How does it all work ? , really I mean – where do we as humans  fit in now ?- I look at that incredible symbiosis that Is nature and the way it all fits together , and wonder what our purpose is?

I mean if you truly “undressed” us , and slotted us back in to nature , where would we fit? , -when we lived in caves – what was our purpose , everything has a purpose in nature !, but what was ours - ?what symbiotic role did we play ?

All species are interlinked – where did we slot in?

Today  , with our insatiable need for wealth , we cant see that we are even a part of nature as we were , we have stepped out – well that’s what we believe any way !- and yet Birth and death –the two most important times of our lives are so natural – ,we are  no matter what we would like to believe – a part of nature !

Everything has a purpose – what was/is ours ?In wild life – its all about now – and instinct -something else we have completely lost touch with. Perhaps in fact if we step back and look at all of this , we will see that maybe the humans species could be termed the rebellious child, the one that knows better , whilst all other species – our siblings – work within the grander scheme – and even where we have destroyed – they eventually cover for us – in the hope that one day we will come back on track ?

Evening Sojourn

A Captivating sight ,a reflection of life .As these dagga boys go to water and the purples and pinks spray across the vast Africansky , Ones mind is focussed instantly on this moment , on how the harsh landscape and the dead tress blend wiith the super strength and attitude of these Buffalo – all blended into a beautiful sky .Our lives are built through our experiences , one ata time , like each of the  foot prints around this pan tells a story ,  so to does each breath we take

Life is now ,not in 10 minutes ,right now, this is the only garantuee we have 

The Gwasha ( path )

I found this near  the Chewore River - its the end of a branch that was overhanging a path , at about chest  height . The branch itself - was part of a combretun jesse thicket , next to the path , a path obviously frequented for generations by Buffalo , Elephant , and maybe even Rhino.

It is incredible how the tip of this branch has been worn down over the years , just from rubbing against the hide of these animals as they walked to and from the spring 100m away . 

Colours 

It was only when I started painting I really started to "see "Most of our lives we just accept things as they are , we look , but we dont really see !.

Its only in the wild where I  can truly hear , hear the silence , and the reality , perhaps we are scared of silence - we seem to be ! TVs , phones , music seem to rule our lives , but in the silence we really hear , we hear our inner selves , our truth , our instinct

This Photo was taken at Chikwenya recently, a very special place- actually taken looking west from near a very special Albida  tree , know to some as Fin's tree . 

The Water Dikkop (BurhinusVermiculatus )were starting to call , that bright yet mournful sound so synonymous with the river  Sitting there was magnificent , as the last lights of the sinking sun lowered below the mountains ,in Zambia

Belly Scratcher 

This is fascinating to me , it is the root of the jackal berry ( Diospyros  Mespiliformis ) - that has grown out of a  bank along the Sapi river , Zambezi Valley  -its  in a convenient place for elephants to use as a belly scratcher  . From the many years of rubbing against the hide of these animals the bark has been completely worn off and the beautiful grain of the wood can be clearly seen .To the fingers the wood is smooth , like some piece of work a carpenter has worked on for many hours -.but there is more ....Imagine if Trees could talk to us , tell us what they have seen ? 

Fascinating ..........

" Pa dare "

“Pa dare”

I have called this painting “Pa dare” (pronounced Pa dari) - this literally translates from Shona as

The Place of meeting

however, used in context, it means

The Place of Meeting for Respectful Gentleman

The reason for this name is clear as the picture is centered on the Muuyu –  as seen from the East–directly opposite over the river on the Chewore north side.

The tree is our meeting place, where we meet annually with “our brother”.  The meeting is not a noisy affair – it is quiet and respectful, where we remember and, as we watch the movie that is our minds, we see life for what it is - beautiful and unpredictable.

The Elephant beside the tree is leaving to join others who are feeding close by that have left the shade of this great tree  - just as we do when we leave this life to join others that have left before us.

There are few things that depict Africa as well as the Baobab! They have an aura around them that is almost inexplicable. Great scars that adorn their massive trunks like medals won in some far off campaign - create the character that we feel – when we stare up their majestic presence!

They are quintessential to Africa, and it is fitting that one of them is our meeting place!

Below the sun sets on another meeting place – a pan, like so many of those magnificent sites that we have had the pleasure of visiting – it symbolizes the peace and synergies of nature in an otherwise seemingly harsh environment.

Symbolically the elephant and the baboon represent two things – firstly our trek into the meeting place (I am the elephant by the way!) and secondly they have been the subject of many hours of thought and discussions around the many camp fires that we have shared in the Zambezi Valley

The wild dog  the hunters – predators –  us perhaps? – also looking into “Pa dare“, because as we well know – we also meet there!

As we have so often said– Life is short – live it, feast on it, smell the roses!

Will Maberly 2012

Spirits of The Valley

Spirits of The Valley

Perhaps it is the prospect of life that means the most ,the possibility that we have  the next twenty four hours ? Sooner or later we learn there are no guaranties of life in this form however such is our obsession with the future that we are seldom living in the  present living our lives in an imagery of a better place , a better life style –

Is it that prospect that is actually the thrill to life ? They say it’s the hunt that is the thrill – not the actual killing ! or perhaps we just subconsciously work on the fact that we are in fact timeless ?

Life however is something we build each day at a time , like a painting , each brushstroke is an experience we live with  , these brush strokes are the wisdom we grow in !

Time is nothing but a measurement that we use  as a way of shortening our lives and putting limits to it – yes that’s time we live by it – we plan by it – and we box everything up in to it – and yet in the face of Nature and its immeasurable majesty , we are humbled

As the sun slips toward the horizon these old trees Like sentry’s , watch and monitor all life around them – quietly living each moment as it is .Their trunks anointed with markings and messages from generations of elephants , they are the notice boards in the thick Zambezi Valley Jesse .

There is an aura that exists even to us insensitive humans when in the shade of these great trees  – it has a healing ability to the mind – slowing the pace we exist at and above all giving us perspective !.

This painting has been modeled on three trees , some where deep in The Zambezi valley , hidden away in the jesse , they have been meeting place for the great grey Giants for centuries .Set in the hazy afternoon sun ,elephant dung- scattered around the trees  – creating an atmosphere of its own .The aroma of the dust and sweat creates an ambiance – so typically Africa!

These are the spirits of the valley  !

Will Maberly 2011 

Poetry in Motion

 

As the low light caresses the trees and the shadows begin to relax into the dusk, it starts to feel like the scorched beauty of the Africa sighs  with relief after spending another day gasping in the sweltering, merciless midday heat.

 This picture shows three elephants moving off in almost perfect formation to have a dust bath after a refreshing drink at Ngweshla pan , and then on into the teak forests and amongst the Camel thorns  constantly searching for food in the cooler temperature

These pans have provided life for countless generations of elephants over the years. They beckon as a meeting place for these contemplative giants. Compacted earth and the soft carpet of dung around the pans create an aura nothing less than spiritual, a place where worship can only be soulful.

This is Africa!  A harsh paradise of natural beauty ,where the majestic elephants and their natural environment have become the subjects of myth. Their legends swirl through Africa, floating through the imaginations of generations, weaving a tapestry of Africa that fits snugly over the shoulders of those who stop to contemplate.  The heat, the dust, the different aromas of memories of elephants and the sound of the wind gently soothing the aged branches of the trees  - these will stay with me forever.

 This image , a snapshot of life which portrays a silence and a gentle purpose to life , that we as a species have now in most cases lost in our rush to material wealth.

Of the many thousands of photographs I have taken , this is one of the successes – it says so much , in such a quiet way , and it is so typical of this wonderful Africa !

We are truly wealthy in a way that most of the world will never know , Our wealth is the wild and its example to us - unlike great chests of gold sovereigns that eventually end  , our wealth will always be here , we just have to recognize it  in that little space of time we have  here  , because once you have - your soul will change for ever

Just been in the great Zambezi Valley ....... again !!! fantastic as always , we have to preserve -its up to us now