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Here is another in my series Postcards from Paradise. This time our visit was to Kenya in East Africa and my design depicts the Maasai Mara, that vast ocean of grass along the border of Tanzania and the Serengeti.
I have chosen the view is from the pool deck of our hotel. From here we could see the vast sweeping plain of the Mara, laden with animals of many species. I have depicted only giraffes and elephants but we could also see herds of zebra and gazelle, wart hogs and cape buffalo. Less visible were the predators; it behooves them to hide and be secretive.
Here and there one can see the candelabra tree and the acacia, many hiding beautiful birds who filled the expanse with their song.
Our rooms were shaped like Maasai huts. Inside the hotel walls all was bedecked with African flowers. Interspersed among the people in the deck chairs were rock hyrax—an animal slightly larger than a cat and related to the elephant; they availed themselves of the sun and often the chairs—and the safety of the compound. But one night a leopard came to get one for her dinner.
Some artistic license has been taken in this composition for in the background one sees Mt. Kenya, but in truth it is hundreds of miles to the north and not visible from this vantage. But it was so a part of our Kenyan experience that I couldn’t leave it out.
Stitches Include: Bokhara Couching, Encroaching Gobelin, Outline Stitch, Encroaching Gobelin, Slanted Gobelin, Criss Cross Hungarian, Mosaic Ground, Large and Small Cross, French Knot, Woven Cross, Brick Stitch, Straight Sitches, Woven Plait, Serendipity Stitch, and for the border a variation of Byzantine called Zigzag.
- Ground Fabric: Congress Cloth
- Size of Piece: 6½x4¾”