Welcome to the 418th Tablescape Thursday!
I have a lovely friend coming to visit real soon who is super crafty. She creates beautiful cards and the most amazing scrapbooks/photo albums! You can see her beautiful work in these delightful, 3-D, handmade cards I’ve received this past year. Aren’t they wonderful?! Each is such a treasure, I could never part with them!
This dear friend offered long ago to take the photos from my trip to Africa and the photos from my trip to Italy and use them to create a beautiful album/scrapbook. All I have to do is choose which ones she’ll be using. Sounds easy, right? Not so easy when you’ve taking 40 eleven billion photos! Yikes!
I’ve been gradually getting through them all over the past few months and I’m looking forward to sharing the animal pics I took during our safaris in Kenya with you, including a bit of video of the famous migration across the Mara river. I’ve been a bit under the weather this week with a yucky sinus infection (happens every single fall) so I didn’t get a table created. I did, however, make it in for doctor’s appointment, so I expect my energy level to rebound soon.
These first two photos are really just for giggles. I thought you might like to see a couple of the meals I was served en route and/or coming back from Africa. I can’t remember now if these were meals I was served going or coming back, but I think this one was while en route to Amsterdam since it looks kind of dark like it was at night. Have no idea what I was eating! What do you think that is? About the only thing I recognize are the potatoes and the fruit. I remember it tasted pretty good, whatever it was.
Have you ever flown overnight to another country? I snapped a quick photo that evening when all the lights had been turned down low. Look at all those screens aglow. lol
This may have been taken the following day en route from Amsterdam to Nairobi, or it could have been on a return flight. Again, no idea what I was eating. lol Looks pretty good, though.
During my stay at Mahali Mzuri, most of our meals were eaten in or just down in front of the dining tent with the other guests who were there on safari.
One dinner was held down in the bush. (See that dinner and a performance by the Maasai Warriors here: Dinner Under the Stars with a Spirited Performance by Maasai Warriors)
One morning I decided to skip breakfast after our morning safari so I could work on a blog post back in my tent. Next thing I knew, this showed up at my tent. They really do take such good care of you!
Another afternoon when I again chose to work in my tent, they brought down this lovely meal.
You may be out in the middle of nowhere in the Kenyan bush, but you eat like you’re staying in a 5-star hotel in the city!
After my 4 days on safari at Mahali Mzuri , I took a short flight….
…to Giraffe manor.
Upon my arrival at Giraffe Manor, I was escorted into their beautiful entrance hall where they had me sit down for a refreshing, cool lemony drink. I was also given a wet hand cloth to refresh myself after my journey.
A visit to Mahali Mzuri and Giraffe Manor must be a wee taste of what it would be like to be royalty or live in Downton Abbey. I was so not used to all this special treatment. I’m sure I must have had a look of perpetual amazement on my face throughout the entire trip! lol
Next I was offered lunch in the garden. You got a glimpse of the garden in THIS photo and post I shared a while back. (See the video here: Breakfast with Daisy and Giraffe Kisses)
Here’s a better view of the garden and the table where I dined in this photo taken from the balcony off my room.
This was the lunch menu that afternoon.
Chilled Asparagus Soup…
…and Glazed Ribs.
I still need to give you a tour of the beautiful garden at Giraffe Manor and a tour of the manor house, itself. I’ll be going through all those photos over the next few days and promise to share those posts soon. Going through the photos makes me want to go back so badly!
If you missed it, you can see our “Murder by Death” dinner 😉 that evening in this previous post: Dining by Candlelight in Giraffe Manor
Looking forward to the beautiful table settings shared for this week’s Tablescape Thursday!
If you are participating in Tablescape Thursday, please be sure to add your permalink below, and not your general blog address.To get your permalink, click on your post name, then copy and paste the address showing in the address bar, into the “url” box when you link up. You’ll need to include a link in your post back to the party to link up and participate.
That’s so visitors to your blog will be able to find the party and the other Tablescape Thursday participants. Requiring a link back also prevents businesses and scammers from linking up to sell their products. (Yep, that really happens, unfortunately.)
Please, don’t add your post name/blog name ALL IN CAPS…it tends to create big spaces between the rows of links.
I so enjoyed your post this morning! Thanks for taking us along and thanks for hosting the party! I hope that you have a happy first day of Fall! Unfortunately, it’s going to be in the 90s here in Oklahoma today!
Thanks, Shannon! Wow, 90s! I think we’re still just running in the 80s here. Sounds like summer wants to stick around in Oklahoma.
Hope your first day of fall was awesome, too! Just think, the folks in Australia are just starting into spring. lol I wish I could swap with them. 🙂
Susan, You browsed, munched, drooled and slurped so good on your trip! I love seeing the giraffe and safari photos 🙂
lol Thanks, Mary!
Yeah, I could eat like that easily. It all sounds/looks delicious, but my fave would be the wine; have to love one called Leopard’s Leap Lookout. Feel back to normal soon!
lol I didn’t even have any wine, that afternoon. I think I was afraid I get too sleepy. I def should have tried Leopard’s Leap Lookout, though!
Oh, and thanks! I think the antibiotic is starting to work now. I’m tired but the headache/face pain is at least gone.
Great cards Susan, wonderful artwork and I’ll have one of those double mocha cafe vodka valium lattes please! That was one incredible trip, I always love hearing about it! Thanks for the party fun today
lol Don’t you love that! Everyone I read that, it makes me laugh again. I think next time I visit a Starbucks, I’m going to try to order that in the drive-thru and see what happens. 😉
It looks wonderful. My travels in Kenya tended to be by matatu (the closed pickups that they cram about 40 people into). Mahali Mzuri means Good Place in Swahili.
I bet that was an experience and a half! Were you standing for that, or sitting? Yeah, I love that Branson named it that. 🙂
Susan,
I absolutely adore seeing these pictures from your trip to Africa. The one with the giraffe popping his head through the window is amazing!
As always, thanks so much for hosting!
Sheila
http://www.maisondecinq.blogspot.com
Thanks so much, Sheila! They aren’t shy! 🙂
I don’t get to travel anywhere except the local barn these days! Haha! Except I don’t have a barn! So your adventures are exciting for me to read, Susan. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Jan! Yeah, I went from never having gone anywhere to a traveling fool last year. Trying to make up for lost time! 🙂
Wow! What an amazing trip that had to have been. Just wow!
Thanks, Teresa! It was worth all the crazy vaccines I had to get. I need to go again so I can make the most of all those shots! 😉
I loved seeing all the food pictures. When I’m on a trip I always try to take a picture of the meals I have. They come in handy when you are trying to explain to someone how great (or not great) the food was. All of your meals looked like they were very good, even the ones on the airplane. I have a friend who is a marvelous scrapbooker. She gifted me an album of the trip we took with our hubby’s across Canada by train. I cherish that special gift. Vikki in VA
Thanks, Vikki! I never used to think of that until I started blogging. It’s funny, when you’re trapped on an airplane and hungry, almost anything sounds delicious! lol What I most want when I’m flying is a bed but I’m afraid that section of the airplane just isn’t in my budget. Maybe one day I’ll accumulate enough points with Delta to qualify for an upgrade. 🙂
Loved seeing more of your amazing trip. Your friend’s artwork is beautiful–I can’t even draw stick figures well, so I’m always in envy of anyone who can create lovely pieces of art.
Thanks, Bobbi! I know…me neither. I definitely didn’t get the drawing gene!
Susan, I love your giraffe pictures. I think you need to hang the picture of you and Daisy in your dining room and not in the scrapbook.
Aww, that would be fun! Thanks, Nan!
Thank you for sharing more photos of your trip. The garden is beautiful. I am so sorry you are under the weather, hope you are feeling better soon.
I am better this afternoon, think the antibiotic is starting to work now. Thanks, Charlotte! XX
You do take such amazing trips, Susan. Your photos are out of this world!…Christine
Thanks so much, Christine! I’ve loved seeing all the amazing places you guys have traveled! 🙂
Amazing photos of a wonderful trip! Giraffe manor looks fabulous! Feel better soon.
Thanks, Rebeca! The antibiotic is kicking in, I think. Better this afternoon so should just get better and better. 🙂
418 is a lot of tablescapes! I’m happy to share in the adventure.
lol It is, isn’t it, Linda?! Wonder if we’ll make it to a thousand. I would need to blog for another 11 years to hit that number. Ummm, anything is possible, right? 🙂
Thank you for hosting, Susan. Those cards look like they were professionally produced. What talent! That Asparagus Soup looks too pretty to eat.
Linda is so talented and I love her sense of humor! 🙂 Happy 1st day of Fall Laurie! Hope you are having a spectacular one! 🙂
Oh my goodness the giraffe cards are fabulous and so are all your wonderful photos of the trip. Does your friend sell her cards? I would love to buy them for my giraffe loving girls. Thank you for sharing.
Wow! What a beautiful trip! Thank you for sharing.
The giraffe latte card is really funny and clever, as are the comments about it.
lol It definitely gave me a chuckle! 🙂
Love the cards, love the pictures of Africa. What a dream trip. Glad you are now on the mend. Take care sweet friend, don’t do too much too soon.
What a fabulous trip! Love this post. Amazing and so interesting.
This has to be the preferred way to take a safari! Thanks for inviting us along and for continuing to act as our generous hostess. Cherry Kay