Se7en’s Fabulous Friday Fun #221

A Friday Fun Post… on a Saturday and Cape Town has given us some glorious sunrises and sunsets and the weather has changed to wet, wet, wet…

We spent the entire week catching up on bits and bobs of school… getting things done that we haven’t done for ages. Nothing like a couple of rainy days to bring out piles of work and potential projects… fun times ahead!!!

This is one of those books that you get caught up in and you can not put down until you have read it until the very end. I love a good biography and this is the true story of Karen Paolillo and her husband Jean-Roger. It is the story of their lives on a remote small holding in Zimbabwe. What began as a project to observe and document the lives of the resident hippos, while her husband worked on a mining interest, quickly became something so much bigger. Long hours spent with the hippos and her heart became entwined in the lives of the hippo family and then she was pushed to her limit to save them. First a drought, which they thought would never end… they carried in tons and tons of food in order to keep the hippos alive, and at enormous cost to herself and her marriage the hippos prevailed. But having survived the drought, a bigger problem came into play…

Relentless and violent pressure on them to leave their open land and their precious hippos in the hands of poachers during the terrifying time of land invasions. They refuse to leave and they literally fight for their lives and those of the precious hippos… You cannot read a book like this and come away unscathed, the depths that folk like Karen Paolillo are willing to go, way beyond dedication to keep the wild animals of Africa in place for generations to come is nothing short of heroic… most of us would have given up and yet she persevered. As the events and larger than life obstacles rise up and place themselves firmly between a peaceful herd of hippos and their survival… you cannot help reading on and on… this book looks like a book about saving a hippopotamus family, but it is so much more, it is the story of a piece of Zimbabwean history that wasn’t shared with the rest of the world. Land invasions written by someone who experienced them first hand… and the fact that this couple and their hippos survive is not just a good story, but a triumph. You can read more about their work and the Hippo Trust at their website.

This book was given to us for review purposes by Penguin Books South Africa. We were not paid for the review, and the opinion is as usual our own.

Here are some lovely links from this week:

1. I love these paper bingly bangles from Picklebums… folded paper bracelets, I know my kids would love to try.
2. This is an interesting read… A Kid Gets Lost on a Field Trip: Then and Now.
3. You have to get outdoors and go Cold Weather Camping at Hugo and Elsa…
4. I love the writing on: We are That Family, dive in and take a read… The Blessing or Curse of Stuff…
5. I think Pim might have had the best party ever, on babyccinokids…
6. Of all the fairy tales, and I have read my fair share… I adore the Princess and the Pea. My best by far…
7. Take a peak at Money Lessons on Head Heart Hand… and while you are there take a look at The top ten books for moms…

And the se7en + 1th link:

8. A Blast From the Past: And here are a couple of links to posts, this week, from previous years, Mother’s Day Posts of Course:
   • 2009: Housewives Under Siege.
   • 2010: Mother’s Day and Free Rice…
   • 2011: Se7en Things I Learnt From My Mum.
   • 2012: A Fun Poem for Mother’s by our resident poet, Hood #1.
   • 2013: Mother’s Day for real Mothers.

That’s us… Hope your weekend is a fabulous one and we are so looking forward to another week of blogging with you all…