AMONG ELEPHANTS IN BOTSWANA AND ZIMBABWE, Guest Post by Owen Floody

African elephants, Zimbabwe.

With many thanks to Owen Floody, a frequent contributor to The Intrepid Tourist. In 1971, Owen and my husband Art participated in a field course in animal behavior in Uganda. The descriptions of the animals in Owen's post below bring back many memories of that first trip to Africa.

A few months ago, I traveled in search of one charismatic mammal, the mountain gorilla.  What better complement than a September 2025, trip focusing on a second large, highly intelligent and charismatic, mammal, the African elephant?

The Great Elephant Migration Safari was run by Wilderness Travel and expertly led by Vusa Ncube.  It began in Botswana but quickly shifted to Zimbabwe, where it covered a lot of ground, in part by replacing two long drives with charter flights.  Most of our time was spent in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park.  At first glance, this seemed too dry and overgrazed to support large elephant herds.  

Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe.

But appearances can be deceiving, as the elephants certainly were there.  One factor contributing to this abundance must be the large number of human-maintained waterholes that dot this part of Hwange.

Vultures, Chobe National Park, Botswana.

My first few days were spent in Botswana's Chobe NationalPark.  An elephant carcass provided an early focus, as it was scoured, first by lions, later by a flock of fractious vultures.  

Elephants in Chobe River.

But the live elephants were even better, socializing near or frolicking in the Chobe River.

Ringside view of nighttime visit of elephants to waterhole at Nehimba Lodge, Zimbabwe.

Our first stop in Zimbabwe was Nehimba, a lovely small lodge perched on the edge of a waterhole calculated to attract animals in the day and night.  

Napping lions.

Lions again proved very entertaining, as they worked over an old carcass and then recovered from their labors as only cats can.

Rhinos at rest at Camel Thorn Lodge, Zimbabwe.

From Nehimba, we traveled by train (The Elephant Express) to Camel Thorn Lodge, in the shade of a Camelthorn tree. Here, we had to be cautious moving on or near the grounds.  The surrounding community is creating a preserve for endangered white rhinos and the area's first two residents seem to love napping at the lodge.  It's not everywhere that animals as rare and formidable as these can be approached (carefully) on foot!

Elephants at waterhole near Camel Thorn Lodge.

A waterhole near Camel Thorn provided my favorite elephant-viewing opportunity.  This was memorable partly due to the large number of elephants that showed up.  But even more compelling was the obvious glee exhibited by the young elephants as they frolicked in this waterpark of their own creation.

Young elephant and herd at waterhole near lodge at Jozibanini.

Our last and most isolated stop was the tiny lodge at Jozibanini.  This provided a variety of entertainments, most focused on the lodge's waterhole.  By far the most thrilling of these was the opportunity to view elephants from a ground-level blind adjacent to a favorite water source.  This provided a dramatic perspective along with the opportunity to view huge and highly charismatic animals at a range of inches.  Our trip couldn't possibly have concluded in any more dramatic and satisfying fashion!

RUTH ASAWA RETROSPECTIVE: Spectacular Hanging Wire Sculptures and Much More

Wire Sculptures, Ruth Asawa Retrospective, SFMOMA.

When I was in Oakland in August, I took BART to San Francisco to see the Ruth Asawa exhibit at SFMOMA, just before it ended. The exhibit, a retrospective of Asawa’s life’s work, will open in New York at the Museum of Modern Art on October 19. It is an amazing show, featuring not only Ruth Asawa's unique wire sculptures, but a wealth of her other work--drawings, paintings, and other media. 

Photograph of Ruth and her young son in front of a sculpture in San Francisco.

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) began her art career at Black Mountain College (BMC) in North Carolina in 1946. In 1949 she moved to San Francisco with her husband, Albert Lanier, an architect, who had also been a student at BMC. They had six children! Ruth spent the rest of her life living and working in San Francisco and was active in the art community.

Meander, ink on paper, 1948-49.

The exhibit is arranged chronologically, and fills twelve rooms of the museum, beginning with her student work at Black Mountain College.

Ruth had a job in the college laundry. This design was created with the stamp that marked the college linens.

Folded paper design.

Throughout her early works you can see Ruth’s fascination with repetitive motifs, from folded paper, fabric designs, to pen and ink drawings.

 In these two pieces, one chair is defined with positive strong black strokes, the other by negative space.

Detail of chair. Created by repeated dabs of a felt tip marker.

Ruth’s first wire works were baskets, inspired by a trip to Mexico in 1947 where a craftsman showed her how he made egg baskets by looping wire.  

Early works--baskets.

But what has made Ruth Asawa famous are her hanging wire creations of all sizes and shapes--some with shapes nestled within one another, some exploding outward, some resembling giant teddy bears, others like tear drops or space ships, some elegant, others whimsical, and some even calling to mind an extraterrestrial! In room after room the hanging sculptures were the center of attention in the SFMOMA exhibit. Although suspended by wires from the ceiling, they seemed to float in space.

One large room of the exhibit reproduces the living room of Ruth Asawa’s Noe Valley house in San Francisco, which was filled with hanging wire sculptures and other works of art, both hers and those of friends. Many of the same pieces seen in the photo were displayed in the room at the museum.

 

Photograph by Rondal Partridge of Ruth Asawa's family in her living room.

Ruth loved her garden. Among my favorite pieces in the room were watercolor paintings of a geranium and a detailed drawing of a sunflower.

The exhibit is huge, with more than 300 works of art. Truth be told, my friend and I only looked closely at half the exhibit, spending the first two hours in the first six rooms looking at each and every item. By then we were starving for lunch, and walked quickly through the remaining six rooms in order to exit through the gift shop, stopping briefly to look at just a few pieces. We had a tasty lunch in the museum café on the fifth floor. We could have reentered the exhibit after lunch, but would have had to stand in a long line, so decided not to. In any case I felt I had a good experience and I knew I would enjoy the exhibit again and again as I looked at my photos at home.

Casts of Ruth Asawa's hands.

THE GRIEG MUSEUM NEAR BERGEN, NORWAY – A COMPOSER’S HOME Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

At the Grieg Museum, Bergen, Norway.

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, took the photos in this post in July 2025, except for the top and bottom images, credited in the footnotes.

“Where are you from?” the tour bus driver asked in Bergen, Norway, a standard question to welcome visitors, but he had another reason to ask. “We Norwegians think that Edvard Grieg is the greatest composer in the world, but is he well-known in other countries?” All present, including my husband and me, answered yes emphatically. Of course, all present had bought tickets to visit Troldhaugen (“Troll Hill” in Norwegian), the late Grieg’s summer home, now a museum. So it was no surprise that all the visitors had heard Grieg’s greatest hits before--in their childhood homes and on their local classical-music radio stations--on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.

Growing up in Paris, I loved Grieg’s Morning Mood. Dreamy or grand passages, such as some moments in his piano concerto, felt to me like precursors of Hollywood movie music up to the 1950s.

Speaking of movie music, a piece by Grieg in a rather different style, In the Hall of the Mountain King begins with a phrase that sounds perfect for a cartoon. No wonder Disney used it in Hell’s Bells, a 1929 black-and-white animated short film. Other uses in movies or on TV include The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957), Woody Allen’s Scoop (2006), an episode of House (2011), and more recent productions.

During the 20-minute bus ride from Bergen to Troldhaugen, the tour guide prepared us for visiting what had been the summer residence of Grieg (1843-1907) and his beloved wife Nina for the last 22 years of his life. Located on the shore of a lake dotted with small islands, in lush woods on a rocky peninsula, the museum consists of the villa (which closed for restoration in August 2025, after our visit), the Composer’s Hut and the couple’s gravesite, as well as a modern museum building with a Kafé, and a concert hall.

Once on site, our visit began with a guided tour of the villa. Built to Grieg’s specifications and completed in 1885, it is Victorian on the outside. But the inside looks simple and homey with knotty pine wood from floor to ceiling—like a traditional Norwegian farmhouse.

The grand piano.

Edvard and Nina Grieg’s grand piano stands in the same living room spot as when they lived there, because she helped set up the museum, years after he had died. The piano was a silver anniversary gift from the Griegs’ friends, who snuck it into the house while the Griegs were asleep! Nina the soprano sang and Edvard the pianist accompanied her. He wrote nearly 200 songs, “all for her,” according to him, and she was their “only true interpreter.” Their love and musical collaboration was well documented.

The house tour took exactly 15 minutes, at the end of which a staff member nudged me onward as I was taking one last photo, then out of the room and outside. This was the only way to allow the next small group to get through, and the next and the next. The tour did not include going upstairs.

Path to Composer's Hut.

Grieg was highly social—but not when he was composing and would disappear for months. A few steps from the house, a footpath led us down the hill to the Composer’s Hut where Grieg worked on his music.

Composer's Hut.

After the path curved through ferns and deciduous trees, the red Composer’s Hut and the lake came into view.

Composer's Hut.

When Grieg spent summers at Troldhaugen, it was remote and wild. Everywhere he looked, he would have seen forested islands and hills in their natural state. Now there are roads and bridges and buildings everywhere.

Inside Composer's Hut.

When we visited, the hut was locked, but we could see the whole interior through the glass door, including a piano, of course, a writing desk, and a couch for dreaming up new melodies and revising drafts. What pieces did Grieg work on in this space?

Concert Hall.

Our tickets included not only the round-trip bus ride from Bergen and a cup of coffee at the Kafé, but also a piano recital of music by Grieg in the modern concert hall. Photography was not allowed during the performance, so visitors took pictures beforehand.

On the day of our visit, pianist Kateryna Persysta played all six Lyric Pieces VII, Op. 62. Sylph and Brooklet were visually evocative. Gratitude and Homeward were mood-setting. Finally, Persysta played the Notturno Op. 54 No. 4. Grieg worked on it in the Composer’s Hut! I could see it through the glass wall behind the stage. In my mind’s eye, I could see Grieg inside it, playing the notes, writing them down.

Gravesite.

After the recital, we walked down the hill again, this time on the path to the Griegs’ gravesite, marked by a stone plaque on the face of a cliff overlooking the lake. Edvard’s ashes rest there. And after Nina outlived him by 28 years, her ashes were added.

Finally, we entered the small museum, crowded with wall-to-wall visitors but packed with information and photos. Grieg was born in Bergen, in a wealthy, elite, well-connected family. His mother, a music teacher, started giving him piano lessons when he was five years old. Gifted, sent at age 15 to the famous Leipzig Conservatory in Germany to study piano and composition, mentored and taught by top musicians, by age 25 he had produced a hit, his piano concerto. He became a leading Romantic composer and concert performer, playing and conducting his own compositions all over Europe.

At the museum’s outstanding website (link in first paragraph), Grieg’s biography is sprinkled with recordings of key music pieces. The long list of his works includes songs, piano music, and Peer Gynt, the latter both as stage music for the play by Henrik Ibsen and as the two suites Grieg put together by selecting only a few pieces. Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King are among them.

About the poems Grieg set to music, he said that the music composed itself and all he had to do was write it down. This was definitely not the case for Peer Gynt, but ironically, it is better known.

Grieg’s privileged life was not without challenges. He survived serious respiratory infections at age 16, but the ordeals destroyed his left lung and deformed his spine, leaving him impaired and plagued by respiratory illnesses all his life.

Yet he achieved success and stardom in his lifetime. And because of his distinctive musical style, evoking his wild and scenic homeland and its folk songs, he helped Norway develop its national identity as it gained independence from Sweden.

Bergen (B) and Oslo (O), Norway (N).

Before I embarked in a month-long exploration of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, my draft itinerary had quickly filled up with iconic scenery, plus Viking museums and historic sites. Fortunately, I wondered whether this trip was about to be nothing more than all-you-can-eat Viking stuff. I can’t believe that I hesitated to add a visit to the Grieg Museum. Not only did I find it extremely interesting—it ended up being the most powerful of my cultural experiences in Scandinavia. I loved Grieg’s music before, but now I find it even more moving.

 ###

 Footnotes:

*Credit for the villa photo at the top of this post: Andreas Sandberg, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

**Credit for the globe image at the bottom of this post: Rob984 - Derived from Germany on the globe (Germany centered).svg, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

 Read Caroline Arnold’s post about Bergen.

ART WALK: Western Washington University Sculpture Collection

Stone Enclosure: Rock Rings by Nancy Holt. Western Washington University sculpture collection, Bellingham, WA.

At Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, giant sculptures occupy the campus from one end to the other. It is one of the most notable university art collections in the country. It features works from the late 20^th century to the present, ranging from massive to delicate, functional to inspirational, industrial to organic, conceptual to humorous, complex to deceptively simple. A huge variety. They are constructed of stone, metal, wood, cement and other materials.

Mark di Suvero (b. 1933), For Handel (pictured), 1975. Painted steel; 27’ h. and Mindseye, 1978. Steel. For Handel was created specifically for the Performing Arts Plaza and dedicated to the 18th Century composer George Frederic Handel. 

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In mid-July I visited the Western Washington University campus with my family, taking a self-guided tour of the art following a map and brochure we had downloaded from the art department website. Most of the sculptures are outdoors, although a few are inside buildings. The tour also included the art galleries in the Performing Arts Center--on one side an exhibit of a series of Alexander Calder tapestries and on the other, of paintings by Northwest artists. (Through the art gallery windows to the west is a magnificent view of the Bellingham harbor.)

A series of 13 tapestries by the sculptor Alexander Calder are presented near the left entrance to the Concert Hall of the Performing Arts Center.

We parked at the east end of the campus and then worked our way west, more or less in numerical order. By the time we stopped at each of the 31 pieces described in the brochure, it took us about two hours. It was a cool, overcast day, not unusual weather for Bellingham, which made it comfortable for walking and perfect for photography.

Beverly Pepper (1924-2020), Normanno Column, 1979-80. Cast iron; 102” h. x 11 1/4” w. x 11 1/4” d. Normanno Wedge, 1980. Cast iron.

Here are a selection of pieces that we saw. Most of the pieces in the collection are larger than life. I made a point of including people (usually my brother Tom) in many of my photos to provide a sense of scale. 

Robert Morris (1931-2018), Untitled (Steam Work for Bellingham), 1971; installed 1974. Rock with variable volume of steam. (Robert Morris was my sculpture teacher when I was in art school.)

Do Ho Suh (b. 1962), Cause and Effect, 2012. Cast resin and stainless steel. Hundreds of tiny figures, connected feet to shoulder, make up this hanging sculpture. 

Bruce Nauman (b. 1941), Stadium Piece, 1998-99. Concrete. 

Tom Otterness (b. 1952), Feats of Strength, 1999. Bronze. One of seven charming figures, each approx. 15” high

Lloyd Hamrol (b. 1937), Log Ramps, 1974. Reconstructed 1983 & 1995; Cedar.

Richard Serra (b. 1939), Wright’s Triangle, 1979-80. Corten steel

Alice Aycock (b. 1946), The Islands of the Rose Apple Tree Surrounded by the Oceans of the World for You, Oh My Darling, 1987. Water-filled cast concrete.

Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988), Skyviewing Sculpture, 1969. Painted iron plates.

Detail. Alexander Calder tapestry, 1974-75. Dyed and braided maguey fiber panel. Manufactured in Nicaragua.

David Ireland (b. 1930), Bigger Big Chair, 2004-07. Painted steel plates

Anthony Caro (1924-2013), India, 1976. Steel, rusted and varnished;

James FitzGerald (1910-1973). Rain Forest, 1959; installed 1960. Bronze fountain;

I thank my sister-in-law, Karen Neely, for leading us on this excellent tour. If you want to find out more about any of the pieces in the tour, download the Western Sculpture Garden brochure.