Young Midnight has been newly gelded and benefits greatly from long walks through the villages surrounding Lake Bosumtwi. Camille and Amy were happy to join Elodie and Simeon, walking, talking and stooping to examine Kapok\u00a0fluff\u00a0and flowers. The stately and useful Kapok (Ceiba pentandra) is one of our very favorite trees; one that we were introduced to during our time in Belize.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n LANTANA AND PAPAYA<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Lantana, indigenous to Texas has found its way to Africa and is commonly seen. It is a\u00a0<\/span>member of the verbena family and although<\/span>\u00a0invasive, has antibacterial properties and can be used to soothe ulcers. Here is a view from the guest rooms at The Green Ranch, of a papaya tree and the thatched staff\u00a0accommodations\u00a0with the lake beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n EARLY MORNING IMAGES<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The sun rises over the lake and slips into a cloud. Bananas wave gently in the foreground. Peering skyward through one of the many Neem Trees on the property reveals their fractal nature. Neem (Azadirachta indica) and often referred to as The Wonder Tree is famous for its insecticidal and medicinal properties. Delve further into the Plant World with a visit to this page: Meeting Savannah Plants<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n HORSES!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Naturally, the star of the show at the ranch are the horses! Gaia, Galaxy, Indigo, Venus, Midnight, Moon, Planet and Alpha are mostly bay, mostly female and all lovely, peaceful creatures.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n PREPARATION<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Elodie bridles Gaia for Amy, putting the finishing touches on our pre-ride preparations.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n HAPPY EARLY MORNING HORSEY SMILES<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n An early morning ride is the perfect way to begin a day. Amy stands next to Gaia, Camille has a hand on Galaxy’s withers and Bob and Elodie stand next to Venus with Indigo beyond.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n WHITE PEOPLE ON HORSEBACK<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n And through the villages we go, passing many uniformed school children along the way. They wave from their open aired classrooms or if they are in recess, rush out to meet us calling out “Abena” and “Obruni!” Elodie’s Ghanian name is Abena which is a common name for all girls born on a Tuesday. Obruni means white man but applies to everyone with white skin.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n DOWN TO THE WATER LINE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n An hour into our trip we’ve reached the water. It’s hot and the horses are ready for a refreshing dip.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n AND THERE THEY GO<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Into the water, far enough to drop off the shore into deep water and then they are swimming. First, Elodie and Indigo and then Bob and Venus. Both took care to unload their cell phones and cameras first. One wouldn’t think that a horse could swim with it’s tiny little hooves but they do quite well, even with the weight of a human on their back.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n AHHHHH!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Bob exits the lake dripping wet. Yes, that was quite refreshing. Perhaps even exhilarating!\u00a0Lake lore has it that using metal in the water is not a good idea. Actually, it is taboo. So these picturesque wooden planks serve as fishing boats. From a tourism perspective, it is idyllic to have a lake without the sound of outboard motors. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n BACK TO THE RANCH<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Gaia’s beautiful bay ear points us down the trail towards home which takes us past the sorrowful carcass of the Kapok tree cut down by the electric company to make way for power lines. This tree rots outside the Foundation of Rastafari Unification Centre\u00a0whose\u00a0proprietor\u00a0attempted to harvest the wood that clutters his land and was forbidden by the authorities. We passed at least three other examples of this waste during our ride. Some photos from December here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n AT HOME ON A HORSE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n There’s something about the outside of a horse that’s good for the inside of a man. Or so said Winston Churchill, another famous horseman.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n AFTER-RIDE SWIM<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hot and sweaty, we stripped off our riding clothes and went down to the lake for a swim. Camille amused herself with a baby preying mantis while Amy and Bob dipped in the cool water beyond. Kofi, the newest addition to the Green Ranch staff, sat in the ranch canoe, enjoying the shade and the conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n CASTING<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n After our swim, Bob captured this image of a fisherman casting a net from his plank. Notice the woven basket for his catch. No metal and very little plastic required.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n THE DECK<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n When not walking, riding, eating or swimming, we enjoyed conversation on the deck with its newly installed\u00a0banister\u00a0 Simeon eyes some pineapple chunks. Camille sniffs the air for horse and flower smells.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n SIMEON<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Amy was happy to help entertain and feed Simeon while his mom prepared an evening meal of salad, lentils and bulgar\u00a0with bananas and chocolate sauce for dessert.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n BACK TO REALITY<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Eric picked us up at the Lake and\u00a0negotiated multiple police shake downs to get us home including this one which dragged on until Bob felt inspired to leave the car and offer his perspective. It began with “Where is dis ting?” a request for one of the required decals and progressed to removal of luggage from the boot while we sat sweating and for all they knew, missing our plane flights. In the end Bob and Eric won and drove away without laying one cedi in the palm of the law.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n ____________________________________________________________<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n ____________________________________________________________<\/span> <\/p>\n Mid-week getaway to The Green Ranch at Lake Bosumtwi to spend time with our friend Elodie. Great vegan meals, two long walks and a swimmingly fun horseback ride – February 12 and 13, 2013 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n WALKING WITH MIDNIGHT<\/p>\n \n Young Midnight has been newly gelded and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sub-story","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3166,"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions\/3166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/troutsfarmtoo.com\/latest\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/20130212MidnightAbenaCookie.jpg\")
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\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"