The Blanket Wrap

There is a long history of weaving in Lesotho.  At the nearby Leribe Craft Center we found this photo proudly honoring “the pioneers of spinning and weaving in Lesotho” at St. Mary’s Craft School in 1911.

The weaving process starts with collection of fibers from Lesotho’s large herds of sheep and goats.  It was news to me that wool comes from sheep and mohair from goats.   As this photo collection from Sesotho Designs shows, the coat or fleece is removed once per year, generally after the winter, when the herders bring the animals down from the mountains. Read more

I’m starting to hear voices from the trees again. When I heard it last year I was astonished, now I know it means something wonderful.  It’s peach season!

Our area of Lesotho is thick with peach trees.  You will find them planted around homes, schools, fields and high up on the hillside grazing areas, aggressive growers from discarded peach pits eaten or planted by herders in years past.  Even our family pig enjoys life in the shade of a peach tree and the addition of peaches to its usual diet.

There are two major varieties of local peaches, Tae-pete are small yellow-white peaches which ripen in December & January and Motloha-Tholoana, larger sweeter peaches that ripen to reddish-yellow in February.   Now that the February fruits are in full flush the trees seem to be talking almost everywhere, sending out happy greetings, “Lumela Mpho, u phela joang!” (Hi Mpho how are u?) , “…re teng le kae” (Hi, we’re fine how are you?) or most intriguingly speaking with each other, so quickly I can’t translate. Read more