There’s a wonderful children’s book by Juliette MacIver that inspired this post’s title. It’s a colourful and energetic rhyming romp through a zoo that neatly demonstrates a human condition – confirmation bias.
August 14, 2025
August 12, 2025
Changing seasons and new beginnings
Early August in Matabeleland feels like an ecological inflection point to me. We’re about halfway between rainy seasons. The cool, dry season is all but over – and with it the bulk of the cold weather that we usually experience – but we’re still subject to the south-easterly cold fronts that provide bitter wintry rebukes all the way up to September. With no measurable rain since April and intermittent cold snaps over the past few weeks, any grass not irrigated has turned a pale straw colour, neutralized by water stress and frost. In deciduous woodland, a few leaves cling futilely to branches, daring the building winds to cut them loose. Grass and leaves crunch underfoot. Dust and smoke have turned the sunsets fiery and midday skies from the impossible azure of early May to a pale whitish-blue.
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