Edwin At Speed in his Beach Buggy
My Wall light from Leynie in Holland
The Kitchen
7th January 2009.”Goodbye & Hello Christmas”
I am slightly ashamed to admit, to unceremoniously hurling the Christmas tree, associated baubles and drapery, into annual storage on Monday, I just couldn’t stomach its extravagant and unrestrained joy, any longer!
As I committed this crime at around 6.30 in the morning and hours before Little even surfaced, it took him an entire 24 hours, to notice its absence and he really wasn’t unduly disturbed.
Bongo was not quite so inattentive; after all, there has been a tree inside the house since his arrival! His realization of the trees absence, was far more painful than Little`s, and born out of his prolonged usage of the tree.
He had become accustomed, to launching himself into the lower boughs, when he raced in through the front door, from the garden, finding that the bounce he achieved, sent him ricocheting back, onto his original path, and thereby avoiding my wrath at his continual mauling of the Christmas tree…No flies on this chicken!.
This particular Monday morning, he made his ritual, and by now, semi automatic, attempt to hurl himself into the tree and went scudding across the stone floor…legs akimbo and collided with the wall…picking himself up looking sickened and then giving me a long, very hard ,accusative stare.
So with Christmas rudely dispatched, today came as a rather wonderful and very welcome surprise……, Marchand Post office certainly now knows the name “ Miss Dawn Evans” , as I have had a “red letter day”, receiving Christmas cards and birthday cards and letters ,and two parcels, one from Jessie ,from Ethiopia and the other from Ellen in Holland,who`s birthday it was on the 5th Jan. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! [Thank you Ellen. For the wonderful photo of Lady Bee of Berkshire, in repose!]…and then my phone arrived. Thank you Tommy! I knew exactly where my mobile charger was [ in a little shrine beside my bed!] and have now been charging for 2 hours ,and bursting to send SMS messages to say that I’m back in contact.
So many thanks to everyone for their emails, parcels, cards, letters particularly to Viki and Marie, I feel so guilty for not having emailed you a reply, I really will!! By way of explanation, it takes me at least an hour to upload the blog and about 7 minutes each photograph. so by the time I have done this, I am out of “internet quota” which is now being strictly monitored ,as Bossy was so livid that the office ran out of internet capability before the end of December.[ we have a monthly usage quota]..I was innocent on this occasion having managed to visit the office for internet purposes, only once or twice during the entirety of December.
I am planning to make enquiries in UP, about a little internet device that I have seen advertised…it plugs into the side of the computer, much like a flash stick, and in theory, you can buy airtime for it, and consequently, internet access. Sounds a little too good to be true…but I `m feeling very optimistic and shall try, next time I hit UP, to source one of these devices……. whatever the cost. This will mean I can at last, use the computer from the farm..
Since we have been here, Marrika has been waiting for an internet mast to be erected at her farm as she wants internet “hot spots” at the guest houses and in the club house, and when this is done, we should be able to buy into it [fingers crossed] and have access for our own property. I long to be able to freely hit my email and blog or just surf the net for the stuff that I surf for.
Victuals of The Northern Cape
In general, the food here is shockingly unhealthy. Savory courses are always served with oodles of cheese sauces, or thick garlicky buttery sauce, or sticky BBQ sauce.
Butter and full fat milk all used as a matter of course. Potatoes are always on offer in every conceivable form along with great slabs of “braii brode” [basically an advanced toasted cheese sandwich],served as an accompaniment to the meat, potatoes and veg..
The Northern captonians have the most unashamedly sweet tooth and pudding is AWAYS served, and by Goerge is it a pudding! Incredibly sweet and sticky all variants of sponge like puddings, that appear solid, but erupt into a great larval masses when custard, cream, or more syrup is added. [I am reminded of the Vavavoom incident here…if only I knew then what I know now!]The Northern Captonians seem to have a marked delectation for Butterscotch flavours.
Bottom line…..Food here is like a blast from the past ……….school food!! …lots of stodge and lashings of calories, all perfectly edible but something that I certainly left in the recesses of my youth at Cranford House School. Even Little is horrified by the stodge that he is served at school, no salads or fresh fruits….they get meat and two veg every lunchtime [with syrupy gravy], porridge for breakfast, and rice pud for supper!!!!!!!!!! For gods sake!
I am utterly dismayed at the poor quality of vegetables available here in the supermarkets…and so when all the dust has settled [literally],I plan to start a veg garden..this idea is causing the locals great amusement because of the extreme heat…my attitude is if they can grow grapes and all kinds of exotics here…with a little thought and serious amounts of sun/wind protection, vegetables and herbs should be possible. [ I need the reverse of a greenhouse]. I hanker for fresh coriander and basil ,for rosemary,chives..Just FRESH HERBS!!!! .
I can’t find dried whole chilies anywhere, Tazzy and Jane …I`m almost though those I smuggled through customs, in November..and still have a third of the slab of parmesan that took me over my baggage limit…I guard the parmesan like a block of gold.
I will simply have to dry my own chilies and tomatoes and keep cracking away at preparing altogether less stodgy chow, resisting the Northern Cape vortex that threatens to suck Little and Big and I, into its cholesterol laden vessels.
On the plus side ,I`m starting to find some very drinkable whites now…admittedly they are not the local wines which are drunk very young and as a result they are extremely sour.When the locals drink them they add at least 5 large blocks of ice…I`m sure it helps to water down the vinegar! So when I`m next in Cape with the car [when we drop Little back to school on 20th] I plan to “lay some whites in the boot” for our return trip.
We have another night of entertainment planned tonight…cooking for 8. After the recent “Thai debacle”, I have invented a “ Northern Cape meets Newbury” menu…...will update on the success or otherwise.
Verdict on last nights supper…………..GREAT!!!, we had “blackened” [official title!] fillet of beef, which Bossy cooked impeccably on the braai,[I`m deeply impressed with his increasingly excellent ability to braai!] a delicious green salad with local, tiny sweet green figs and fried halumi [I even included some precious strips of parmesan] with home made honey mustard dressing, and in deference to the Northern cape pallet: a deep cheese and potatoes tart with caramelized onions. Followed by what should have been cheesecake topped with Greek yoghurt, honey and pistachios. however as I couldn’t source the Greek yoghurt, I had to improvise and made a butterscotch syrup [Hurrah for the ZA`s] and skin and char grill some nectarines, which were a last minute desperate attempt to add some “bite” to the sugary pud,and which worked!
The people here, eat in volume…no” nouvelle portions” for them… I had catered for easily 12, even though 8 were eating……even the crumbs were cleared, which is fine by me..I`d rather everything was eaten than have vat loads left over as we did with the chicken cashew…even this turned out well as Moses LOVES Cashew chicken…he doesn’t mind it hot or cold. To my great joy he managed to finish it all, shaking his head vertically [!!] and very enthusiastically each time I asked if he would like some.
At last, I seem to have found some sort of resolution to meeting both the local’s pallets and our own. I have also learned a huge lesson…not to make a recipe decision before I shop…I need to shop for ingredients that are available and only THEN decide what to cook!
On this note, meat is not a problem. it is of the most excellent quality and availability, I have found a great “old fashioned” butchery in Kak….in Africans the word for butcher is “SLAGHUIS”[ huis is pronounced House and slag..as we would in theUK] which I find rather unfortunate .
Fish and sea food are more challenging, since we are 350 kms from the West coast.
Chris supplied us with several boxes of HUGE “ prawns” [more like baby lobsters!], that he sourced from a restaurant supply company in Jo Burg…driving here with them plugged into a car freezer!!!!!!! And Niki has gifted us some frozen “SNOEK”, a type of barracuda, found off the west coast, which is delicious.
My big freezer in the garage is starting to fill up now ,as we were also given half a sheep for Christmas by the Van Zyle family…all ready butchered [thank the lord]. Further testament to these people being so incredibly generous!
Nomadic Dunes & Human Lizards
The workers arrived back on Monday after their Christmas break .It appears from Bossy`s demeanor that we have over run our allotted renovation reserve, he has not exactly told me this, I am left to assume this based upon the answering growls or cynical responses when I mention of any of the things that still need to be completed.
All current work is to be concentrated on completing the pool. Anything thereafter hangs in the ether, thoughts of furniture, are clearly on ice, we shall make do with what we have, which is perfectly fine although, I resent the clear implication that I am to blame for the over un!….This scenario is completely expected by me, and something that I had prepared myself before I left the UK!…In truth, I’m amazed that we have managed to get so much done before the shutters have come down!
So the builders spend much of their time, mixing vast amounts of concrete without the aid of a concrete mixer!!!!!!!!!!!!!,and working in at least 40 degrees of heat. When I asked Bossy why we didn’t buy a concrete mixer,his clipped response was..”we have an army of human concrete mixers”…not very P.C.!
The “army”, has spent the week, applying the first concrete layers to both the inside and outside of the pool and they now await the blue “cemcrete” finish that was ordered prior to Christmas and hasn’t yet arrived!
The area around the pool that was excavated has now been filled with heaps of deep orange sand ,that is freely available around the farm in the many dried up river beds. Throughout the week, two diggers have been ferrying loads of this stuff, so that we now have huge orangy red sand dunes all around the back of the farm…Bongo, Bee and Little are in heaven!!! The three of them racing up and then tumbling down the other side into the foot hills of the next dune, repeating the process until they fall into exhausted heaps, covered in redy orange sand [Bee looks as though she has been involved in a massacre!!!!].
When the wind picks up in the evenings ,red sand finds its way into the house through all the tiny cracks, so that every morning the floors [and baths/showers etc] are covered in a a red course silt, very exfoliating!!!!! As soon as the builders have finished we will have to add well rotted manure to this sand [or “dead soil” as Gerrit calls it], and after a week or so will be able to lay turfs in order to peg the contoured sand dunes down and discourage them from making their way into the house.
I haven’t mentioned the state of our skin and hair…the atmosphere here is so dry that copious amounts of rehydrating creams are needed just to maintain some elasticity in the skin and a modicum of glow to the hair.I`m tempted to start popping Bob Marleys conditioning pills, that I found in the “canine” array of medical stuff from home [Incidentally a box twice the size of the human medical chest.]
Little and I [who suffer from dry skin anyway], were beginning to look, increasingly like lizards… where our bare feet actually looked like we are already wearing shoes. I was very tempted to dispense with shoes altogether and simply draw some lines on mine to mimic a pair of crocodile skin shoes, but decided that my toes were a bit of a giveaway!
Particularly the nail of my big toe which is still black from where I broke it in August!, Taz also sustained an identical injury to her toe at the same time, and I`m wondering if her black toe nail has disappeared yet or whether my toe nail has simply “gone on strike” and is in shock.
I have managed to find some bright GREEN cream called “Ingrams Camphor cream {herbal}”,it is sold in half liter vats.
It is in every sense, utterly loathsome …..it has the consistency of tar, smells like a laboratory, and requires “ liberal application to all affected areas”.
Consequently, Little and I walk around looking like “jolly green giants”, basted in this obnoxious green day glow gunk …added to which, we can both be smelt, long before we arrive anywhere…..
However…. It does work, not only does it soften, but in my case ,it helps to fill and heal the deep gorges that crack open on the soles of my feet, which have long since stopped hurting…but remain open to infection.
Magda [Niki Van Zyles wife], tells me that ,not only, do I need to baste my feet at night in Ingrams,but to mix it with “grandpas healing powder” [available in cute little paper sachets at the pharmacy…it really is like the wild west!] and wear long cotton socks in bed, AND wear cotton socks and “sensible shoes” during the day, she suggested that I buy myself some “crocks”: the cumbersome heavy duty rubbery/plastic clogs that EVERYONE here wears…either with or without socks………..JUST CANT DO IT!!!!!
I try to constantly keep in my mind “when in Rome”…but certain things stick in my craw and I simply cannot comply.
The reason we are here
I try to keep in mind, why we are actually here in the Northern Cape…it helps keep my thoughts in the present and avoids uncomfortable mental deliberations.
The table grape season has been appalling for the farmers here..whilst the crop has been good, the take up of crop by overseas buyers has been extremely low [recession and all that], after all the table grape is still considered something of a luxury and not really a “staple food”, some farmers have barely covered their inset costs and those that have concentrated their entire crop on table grapes have been severely stung.[fortunately they tend to spread their crop] The forecast for the raisin crop seems slightly brighter..Rasins are used in many different products, including some staples [bakery etc], and there is always a market for snacks..Particularly during recession!
Nevertheless there is an aura of concern and palpable worry from all the farmers, that World economic and financial markets current volatility will inevitably take its toll on achievable prices and volumes sold. Those of you who have written to me concerning the gnaw of recession in Europe; will be interested to learn how it bites at our heels even here, in deepest darkest Africa.
News of Marrika and GJ in Peru.
A very lonesome Gerrit popped over to see us two nights ago, and whilst here, received a call from Marrika to say that their son ,“GJ”,[ The phonetic pronunciation of this name is “HEY-YEY” with a slight guttural roll on the “H”], had just qualified for the finals of the world championship slalom. These takes place on Sunday.
We were all so excited and incredibly proud…having seen this young man train so extremely hard over the last four months, we now feel in some vicarious way, connected to him.
Gerrit, was so overwhelmed and proud…that he sat and wept …huge pendulous tears of joy, streaming down his face with complete abandon.
It’s not the first time that I have seen one of our burly farmer friends cry. In spite of their chauvinism, if these guys feel deeply emotional or moved about something they weep.
This is one of the things that I have come to love about the N.C`s….if they feel it…then you know about it. They wear their hearts on their sleeve and there is, very rarely, any double agenda.
I have to admit to finding it endearing, however it instantly makes me cry as well and historically, I am NOT a crier….usually these explosions of emotion are followed by a collective wiping of eyes and blowing of noses, slapping of backs, and deep manly guffaws [I tend not to Guffaw!]…a ritual mopping up, totally un like the American “group hug” insincerity that I abhor.
STOP PRESS***** GJ came 6th in the world ginals on Sunday, recording a personal best!!
Return to Bishops
Little has to be cropped, packed and prepd for a return to school in Cape Town for 5.00pm on 20th January.
We are invited to attend a parents/students braai at 6.00 the same evening in order to meet the new intake of children…this made Edwin smile as he realized he was no longer a “new boy”…I know that he is quietly worrying about his return…...but he seems resigned to the idea. He also knows that we will meet up with him and Oma Leynie in Cape Town on the weekend of his birthday, the 21st February, and is already looking forward to it. We will plan something special for the weekend. For those that have asked,his email address is: ekevans@bishops.co za
The 21st will be his first weekend “OUT”, so he has to brace himself for a solid month at school…having said this, during the holiday we have met several members of the Van Zyle clan, who live in Cape Town. He has some new telephone numbers to put in his phone and offers of days out in Cape. Also his very dear friend Patat [Niki Van Zyles 17 year old daughter, actually called Anna Marie], has passed her exams and starts at university in Cape on the same day as Little starts school. They have developed a very close friendship, and I have no doubt, at the very least they will text each other and commiserate over the state of their “boarding house” food and rules. She has to spend the first year of her university education in a “boarding situation”. And is feeling incredibly nervous about it.. Little tells her not to worry and that she will get used to it!!!!
It has been a holiday of recovery for Little…firstly physical, after his horrible chest infection…he still has a cough!, and most importantly of respite from the emotional upheaval of the move ,of accepting his new school and of losing his Grandma. Worryingly, he resisted any mention of Shirley, pointedly turning his head away when her photo occasionally scrolled up on the computer screen saver.
He is now a very different boy to the one that dragged himself home on 4th December, he has at last been brave enough to talk about Shirley, and I noticed two nights ago that he was going through my database of photos on the computer and was laughing at the crazy pictures of Mack.of Jessie and Tommy and Finn...of Beacon cottage, the puppies, of Shirley’s wonderful garden her dogs and of her and Keith!
Edwin`s bounce, his sense of humour ,and his ability to chat for England……..are all back with vengeance. A lot has happened in a short time for this Guy and I’m incredibly proud of how he has managed to find a way through it all so far. I know from how I feel myself that all is not yet resolved…we have a long way to go yet…but Litte has at least had the courage to make a start.
On this note, Little and I, have spent the past week pouring over the computer with a “Learn Afrikaans CD” that Magda gave me. Fully interactive and very vocal….we have had great fun trying to mimic the very overexcited male and female presenters, and have become quite distracted by the idiosyncrasies of their presentation.
Teasing each other in their lingo and fighting over the key board to press the correct buttons. There have been many occasions when we have both snorted uncontrollably with laughter. I`m afraid I am NOT a good example in these enforced learning situations….the child inside me, which lies very close to the surface anyway… bubbles up uncontrollably, and there have been many occasions where Little has had to give me a severe ticking off, for my lack of concentration and “silliness”. Reminding me that it’s as important for me to learn the lingo as it is for him. “OK ,OK…..now I will be serious”. as I suck my cheeks in a try and suppress the desire to copy the female presenter, who shakes her long blond hair and sais “yah..yah”with the most beautiful, beaming ,toothy smile. I can see that Little is also suppressing the desire to copy the male presenter who shakes his head busily, in the opposite direction and sais “Nea,nea” kindly but firmly.
Despite this, we have both picked up some new vocab…isolated and very easy short phrases [“where is the bank/beach/hospital?”],.numbers,.colours,.parts of the body .I’m sure it will all be of benefit when we get to the stage of “joined up talking”.
Incidentally…. I am utterly smitten by their word for “lipstick” and have decided that henceforth I shall refer to it always in Affricaans…..”LIPSTIFFE”…and the E at the end is pronounced!
BONGO BEE & BINKS
Bongo dog is 10 weeks old today; [being Saturdsy] he is becoming a great character, cusping on becoming a little “BLIXUM”,and has settled himself into life here very well, apart from the fact that he is proving an utter nightmare to house train.
As a result of some very noisy nights from both dogs!, where both he and Bee were bedded down in the kitchen, we have finally opted for the quiet life and when we retire, move both Bee and Bongo into our bedroom suite at night.[Bee had already insisted on sleeping on our bedroom floor from the moment that we moved here,so was very insulted when we forced her to stay with Bongo in the kitchen!] They both settle down on their beds and we have settled nights ..they wake around 6.00 asking to go out…all fine! Every morning I brace myself ,before I walk into our bathroom which lies behind the bedroom and is open on both sides to it…usually Bongo has produced a pool of wee and always several piles of poo…all very easy to mop clean on the tiled floor. This night time incontinence, is acceptable to me whilst he is still such a baby…so, for the last two mornings, I have been overjoyed and very surprised, to find NO poos at all on the bathroom floor. Thinking “ hurray! We are making headway” and heading off to the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast for the dogs.
Both Mornings, as I have been mooching around the kitchen, I have heard echoing cries of horror from Bossy, resonating from the bathroom. As I race in the direction of our bedroom, I hear echoey, retching and coughing and Bossy clearly restraining an urgent desire to vomit…reason?....... Bongo has taken to pooing on his shower floor! NOT NICE..
In spite of this very unsociable behavior Bongo is doing well…thank goodness he is putting on weight, he arrived aged 7 weeks, a painfully thin scrap at 14lb and has weighed in today at 26lb..not bad apx 4.lb a week….I am being quite “anal” about his feeding regime, he is fed: soaked, large breed pup pellets, and I weigh them out for each of his four meals a day [I will reduce this to three, at 12 weeks], along with all manner of vits and supplements….he eats with gusto and I can only assume that he was pitifully underfed by his breeder. He still looks quite ribby, and is long in the leg and the back. Have a feeling that he will have Macks athetic fiure,rather than Bee`s more geranic and square look. Pam tells me that Danes in hotter climates may well be naturally leaner and lighter that those back in Europe. I have telephoned his breeder who assured me that Bongo was an “average” sized pup, compared to his litter mates. She has promised to email me photos of Bongo’s Mum and Dad..[“Pluto and Magda”] and send copies of their pedigrees… she was a little too keen to get off the phone, so I am not holding my breath.
Bee ,is really well, she has taken life at the farm in her stride…she seems to know that this is where we are to settle and has spent the weeks since we moved in testing the boundries,checking out the extent of her new domain ..it tickles me that each morning and each night..she does the tour around every boundary of the land on which the farm house sits…about an acre[ very similar to the ground at beacon Cott], once happy that all is in order she returns to the house….to be attacked by Bongo who is not yet allowed her freedoms and get very jealous. She tends to completely ignore the builders now and has ceased her threatening behavior towards them..Moses still tries very hard with her and she “tolerates” him but is not comfortable when he strokes her and gives me the “please stop him doing this”look.
Both Bee & Bongo seem to cope with the heat very well..Bongo has discovered that hurling himself into the deep beds of day Lillie leaves provides a cool and private sanctuary, and spends as long as he can, laying in wait to pounce on Bee as she passes by.
He struggles with the heat that radiates from the hard surfaces around the farm, and rather cleverly tends to follow the shadow of the house to get from A to B. When he forgets ,he looks like one of hose desert lizards on a David Attenborough documentary, splaying his paws and lifting them in sequence, first the front left then the back right and so on…very comical but he is actually being burned ,and the shock seems to blow his sense out of the wndow..he just stands still repeating this ritual until we go and rescue him!
Binky is not yet in his own corralle…As soon as the builders depart I will make one for him…I like to know exactly where he is at the moment, he is very fond of a patch of wild garlic just outside our bedroom window so he is tethered here…we have discovered that he loves tomatoes and lettuce ..he goes crazy for cucumber and enjoys nibbling on an apple and is still very partial to the odd shower…I keep meaning to locate a crop called “Lucern”..Apparantly mountain tortoises are very fond of this.
He has become very tame, and does not withdraw into his shell when we visit him anymore…he even tolerates Bee [who insists on licking his shell]..Bongo is a different matter. he thinks Binky is a pretty cool plaything and we have to keep him well away from Binks.
On this point…Bongo, is of course a very different dog to Bee, who tolerates chickens like no other dog that I have ever seen.
Bongo made a big mistake of rushing up to a Mamma chicken who was sitting on 10 fluff balls under the shade of a tree…I was amazed at the violence that she exacted on him…a braver bird ,I have never seen…she really went for him. Making herself three times larger, producing a blood curdling scream and going straight for Bongo’s face….he retreated screaming, and with his tail between his legs and ears firmly flattened to his head.
Since this incident he has come running to my side for protection, each time he hears the cluck of a chicken…not a bad thing I say…at least Moses chickens may not yet have to live in fear of Bongo. Simply Moses axe…he has just started to sell/cull the first lot that hatched shortly after our arrival….I have decided that I really like chickens and am very happy to have them pecking around the garden…I have also decided that they are great little “litmus papers” for snakes…as they certainly wouldn’t be “grazing” anywhere that a snake was lurking, and if they were, we would be alerted to its presence fairly rapidly…You can see that the entire snake issue continues to worry me despite having my air pistol..still need to get the throwing knife!
Birds
Pam asked about birdlife here in the N.C, yes to my great delight we have an abundance of birds…few of which are familiar to me in either appearance or from the noises that they make, early in the morning when I let the dogs out, the garden s alive with all manner of birds and their cries, I really am a beginner when it comes to ZA bird life and need to get myself a book to identify them all. There are metallic blue starlings that behave in exactly the same way here as they do in UK.
We have the “sociable weaver bird” these are the ones that make the huge hay stack nests on telephone poles and in camelthorn trees, that can reach up to 4 meters wide and can house around 200 birds. Then the tiny weavers, actually yellow finches, the male finch makes a cute little basket nest on a shrubby tree and if the female is dissatisfied with it..she pulls it to pieces and he has to start over again. [We have lots of these on the farm]
There is the stunning African Hoopoe, we were lucky enough to have one of these nesting in the stoop of the guest house where we stayed during our first month here, and the Hahdedah [I`m NOT making this up!]..Hadedah`s remind me of crows they are large and make the most astonishing noise…hence the name, they fly around in flocks nesting at the top of trees… Little and I [of course] call them “ Lah de dahs”.
We have beautiful vivid Bea eaters, and by the river both giant and pied kingfishers. In the dry areas there are red larks . Viki sent me a Christmas card with a robin on it mentioning that we probably don’t get many of these..yes your right [and I miss my familiar little gardening buddies] ,but we do have a less colourful small bird called a Karoo robin.We have ostrich [I dislike them !].and there are lots of owls both large and small
Augrabies falls and game reserve, lies to the south west of us [about 5 kilometers], here there are black eagles. Gerrit has all manner of “water birds” at his lake and I need to spend some time with a bird book to understand what s what…there are plenty of ducks , beautiful and HUGE white geese,that I am very fond of, that are familiar to me though!
Beacon Cottage & news from Home
It appears that we may have found tenants for a short 6 month let at B.C…not our ideal scenario by any means. But the advantages of having tenants in, over these freezing months outweighs the disappointments this short lease brings. Let’s hope they are not overly demanding and look after the house,but the deal is not yet sealed.
Finn is back at Newcastle preparing for exams on the 20th Jan and sounds in good form, Jessie is out of contact on her trek to the Hill tribes in Ethiopia, and will only be back in touch on her return on the 16th Jan. Tommy starts his new job in Newbury this Monday, and is cracking on well with his rehab. His goal is to be fully fit by his birthday on 21st May…Good luck Tommy…we are all thinking of you.
My love to Taz ,I wish you strength in your recovery from the back op, and to Jane who has the most welcome of distractions [ enjoy !]
To dearest Dotti, thank you, for the most wonderful message, that cheered me up when I was feeling out of sorts.
To everyone. How much we miss you all, and think of you often and very fondly. it was so good to receive a string of text messages the evening my mobile was back on line….they kept coming through into the small wee hours….I was so excited to be back “in touch”, I kept my mobile next to my pillow and smiled through the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kisses DAWNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS. Some photos that I was unable to upload last time…I am particularly fond of the cow/bull? In the bakkie and of the group of black kids who were supporting TRC United at one of their Saturday football matches. The wonderful wall light that Leynie managed to get to me …UNBROKEN…..from Holland…Thanks Leynie it gives me great pleasure ever time I pass it! It has caused great discussion and desire!
Return to Bishops
Little has to be cropped, packed and prepd for a return to school in Cape Town for 5.00pm on 20th January.
We are invited to attend a parents/students braai at 6.00 the same evening in order to meet the new intake of children…this made Edwin smile as he realized he was no longer a “new boy”…I know that he is quietly worrying about his return…...but he seems resigned to the idea. He also knows that we will meet up with him and Oma Leynie in Cape Town on the weekend of his birthday, the 21st February, and is already looking forward to it. We will plan something special for the weekend. For those that have asked,his email address is: ekevans@bishops.co za
The 21st will be his first weekend “OUT”, so he has to brace himself for a solid month at school…having said this, during the holiday we have met several members of the Van Zyle clan, who live in Cape Town. He has some new telephone numbers to put in his phone and offers of days out in Cape. Also his very dear friend Patat [Niki Van Zyles 17 year old daughter, actually called Anna Marie], has passed her exams and starts at university in Cape on the same day as Little starts school. They have developed a very close friendship, and I have no doubt, at the very least they will text each other and commiserate over the state of their “boarding house” food and rules. She has to spend the first year of her university education in a “boarding situation”. And is feeling incredibly nervous about it.. Little tells her not to worry and that she will get used to it!!!!
It has been a holiday of recovery for Little…firstly physical, after his horrible chest infection…he still has a cough!, and most importantly of respite from the emotional upheaval of the move ,of accepting his new school and of losing his Grandma. Worryingly, he resisted any mention of Shirley, pointedly turning his head away when her photo occasionally scrolled up on the computer screen saver.
He is now a very different boy to the one that dragged himself home on 4th December, he has at last been brave enough to talk about Shirley, and I noticed two nights ago that he was going through my database of photos on the computer and was laughing at the crazy pictures of Mack.of Jessie and Tommy and Finn...of Beacon cottage, the puppies, of Shirley’s wonderful garden her dogs and of her and Keith!
Edwin`s bounce, his sense of humour ,and his ability to chat for England……..are all back with vengeance. A lot has happened in a short time for this Guy and I’m incredibly proud of how he has managed to find a way through it all so far. I know from how I feel myself that all is not yet resolved…we have a long way to go yet…but Litte has at least had the courage to make a start.
On this note, Little and I, have spent the past week pouring over the computer with a “Learn Afrikaans CD” that Magda gave me. Fully interactive and very vocal….we have had great fun trying to mimic the very overexcited male and female presenters, and have become quite distracted by the idiosyncrasies of their presentation.
Teasing each other in their lingo and fighting over the key board to press the correct buttons. There have been many occasions when we have both snorted uncontrollably with laughter. I`m afraid I am NOT a good example in these enforced learning situations….the child inside me, which lies very close to the surface anyway… bubbles up uncontrollably, and there have been many occasions where Little has had to give me a severe ticking off, for my lack of concentration and “silliness”. Reminding me that it’s as important for me to learn the lingo as it is for him. “OK ,OK…..now I will be serious”. as I suck my cheeks in a try and suppress the desire to copy the female presenter, who shakes her long blond hair and sais “yah..yah”with the most beautiful, beaming ,toothy smile. I can see that Little is also suppressing the desire to copy the male presenter who shakes his head busily, in the opposite direction and sais “Nea,nea” kindly but firmly.
Despite this, we have both picked up some new vocab…isolated and very easy short phrases [“where is the bank/beach/hospital?”],.numbers,.colours,.parts of the body .I’m sure it will all be of benefit when we get to the stage of “joined up talking”.
Incidentally…. I am utterly smitten by their word for “lipstick” and have decided that henceforth I shall refer to it always in Affricaans…..”LIPSTIFFE”…and the E at the end is pronounced!
BONGO BEE & BINKS
Bongo dog is 10 weeks old today; [being Saturdsy] he is becoming a great character, cusping on becoming a little “BLIXUM”,and has settled himself into life here very well, apart from the fact that he is proving an utter nightmare to house train.
As a result of some very noisy nights from both dogs!, where both he and Bee were bedded down in the kitchen, we have finally opted for the quiet life and when we retire, move both Bee and Bongo into our bedroom suite at night.[Bee had already insisted on sleeping on our bedroom floor from the moment that we moved here,so was very insulted when we forced her to stay with Bongo in the kitchen!] They both settle down on their beds and we have settled nights ..they wake around 6.00 asking to go out…all fine! Every morning I brace myself ,before I walk into our bathroom which lies behind the bedroom and is open on both sides to it…usually Bongo has produced a pool of wee and always several piles of poo…all very easy to mop clean on the tiled floor. This night time incontinence, is acceptable to me whilst he is still such a baby…so, for the last two mornings, I have been overjoyed and very surprised, to find NO poos at all on the bathroom floor. Thinking “ hurray! We are making headway” and heading off to the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast for the dogs.
Both Mornings, as I have been mooching around the kitchen, I have heard echoing cries of horror from Bossy, resonating from the bathroom. As I race in the direction of our bedroom, I hear echoey, retching and coughing and Bossy clearly restraining an urgent desire to vomit…reason?....... Bongo has taken to pooing on his shower floor! NOT NICE..
In spite of this very unsociable behavior Bongo is doing well…thank goodness he is putting on weight, he arrived aged 7 weeks, a painfully thin scrap at 14lb and has weighed in today at 26lb..not bad apx 4.lb a week….I am being quite “anal” about his feeding regime, he is fed: soaked, large breed pup pellets, and I weigh them out for each of his four meals a day [I will reduce this to three, at 12 weeks], along with all manner of vits and supplements….he eats with gusto and I can only assume that he was pitifully underfed by his breeder. He still looks quite ribby, and is long in the leg and the back. Have a feeling that he will have Macks athetic fiure,rather than Bee`s more geranic and square look. Pam tells me that Danes in hotter climates may well be naturally leaner and lighter that those back in Europe. I have telephoned his breeder who assured me that Bongo was an “average” sized pup, compared to his litter mates. She has promised to email me photos of Bongo’s Mum and Dad..[“Pluto and Magda”] and send copies of their pedigrees… she was a little too keen to get off the phone, so I am not holding my breath.
Bee ,is really well, she has taken life at the farm in her stride…she seems to know that this is where we are to settle and has spent the weeks since we moved in testing the boundries,checking out the extent of her new domain ..it tickles me that each morning and each night..she does the tour around every boundary of the land on which the farm house sits…about an acre[ very similar to the ground at beacon Cott], once happy that all is in order she returns to the house….to be attacked by Bongo who is not yet allowed her freedoms and get very jealous. She tends to completely ignore the builders now and has ceased her threatening behavior towards them..Moses still tries very hard with her and she “tolerates” him but is not comfortable when he strokes her and gives me the “please stop him doing this”look.
Both Bee & Bongo seem to cope with the heat very well..Bongo has discovered that hurling himself into the deep beds of day Lillie leaves provides a cool and private sanctuary, and spends as long as he can, laying in wait to pounce on Bee as she passes by.
He struggles with the heat that radiates from the hard surfaces around the farm, and rather cleverly tends to follow the shadow of the house to get from A to B. When he forgets ,he looks like one of hose desert lizards on a David Attenborough documentary, splaying his paws and lifting them in sequence, first the front left then the back right and so on…very comical but he is actually being burned ,and the shock seems to blow his sense out of the wndow..he just stands still repeating this ritual until we go and rescue him!
Binky is not yet in his own corralle…As soon as the builders depart I will make one for him…I like to know exactly where he is at the moment, he is very fond of a patch of wild garlic just outside our bedroom window so he is tethered here…we have discovered that he loves tomatoes and lettuce ..he goes crazy for cucumber and enjoys nibbling on an apple and is still very partial to the odd shower…I keep meaning to locate a crop called “Lucern”..Apparantly mountain tortoises are very fond of this.
He has become very tame, and does not withdraw into his shell when we visit him anymore…he even tolerates Bee [who insists on licking his shell]..Bongo is a different matter. he thinks Binky is a pretty cool plaything and we have to keep him well away from Binks.
On this point…Bongo, is of course a very different dog to Bee, who tolerates chickens like no other dog that I have ever seen.
Bongo made a big mistake of rushing up to a Mamma chicken who was sitting on 10 fluff balls under the shade of a tree…I was amazed at the violence that she exacted on him…a braver bird ,I have never seen…she really went for him. Making herself three times larger, producing a blood curdling scream and going straight for Bongo’s face….he retreated screaming, and with his tail between his legs and ears firmly flattened to his head.
Since this incident he has come running to my side for protection, each time he hears the cluck of a chicken…not a bad thing I say…at least Moses chickens may not yet have to live in fear of Bongo. Simply Moses axe…he has just started to sell/cull the first lot that hatched shortly after our arrival….I have decided that I really like chickens and am very happy to have them pecking around the garden…I have also decided that they are great little “litmus papers” for snakes…as they certainly wouldn’t be “grazing” anywhere that a snake was lurking, and if they were, we would be alerted to its presence fairly rapidly…You can see that the entire snake issue continues to worry me despite having my air pistol..still need to get the throwing knife!
Birds
Pam asked about birdlife here in the N.C, yes to my great delight we have an abundance of birds…few of which are familiar to me in either appearance or from the noises that they make, early in the morning when I let the dogs out, the garden s alive with all manner of birds and their cries, I really am a beginner when it comes to ZA bird life and need to get myself a book to identify them all. There are metallic blue starlings that behave in exactly the same way here as they do in UK.
We have the “sociable weaver bird” these are the ones that make the huge hay stack nests on telephone poles and in camelthorn trees, that can reach up to 4 meters wide and can house around 200 birds. Then the tiny weavers, actually yellow finches, the male finch makes a cute little basket nest on a shrubby tree and if the female is dissatisfied with it..she pulls it to pieces and he has to start over again. [We have lots of these on the farm]
There is the stunning African Hoopoe, we were lucky enough to have one of these nesting in the stoop of the guest house where we stayed during our first month here, and the Hahdedah [I`m NOT making this up!]..Hadedah`s remind me of crows they are large and make the most astonishing noise…hence the name, they fly around in flocks nesting at the top of trees… Little and I [of course] call them “ Lah de dahs”.
We have beautiful vivid Bea eaters, and by the river both giant and pied kingfishers. In the dry areas there are red larks . Viki sent me a Christmas card with a robin on it mentioning that we probably don’t get many of these..yes your right [and I miss my familiar little gardening buddies] ,but we do have a less colourful small bird called a Karoo robin.We have ostrich [I dislike them !].and there are lots of owls both large and small
Augrabies falls and game reserve, lies to the south west of us [about 5 kilometers], here there are black eagles. Gerrit has all manner of “water birds” at his lake and I need to spend some time with a bird book to understand what s what…there are plenty of ducks , beautiful and HUGE white geese,that I am very fond of, that are familiar to me though!
Beacon Cottage & news from Home
It appears that we may have found tenants for a short 6 month let at B.C…not our ideal scenario by any means. But the advantages of having tenants in, over these freezing months outweighs the disappointments this short lease brings. Let’s hope they are not overly demanding and look after the house,but the deal is not yet sealed.
Finn is back at Newcastle preparing for exams on the 20th Jan and sounds in good form, Jessie is out of contact on her trek to the Hill tribes in Ethiopia, and will only be back in touch on her return on the 16th Jan. Tommy starts his new job in Newbury this Monday, and is cracking on well with his rehab. His goal is to be fully fit by his birthday on 21st May…Good luck Tommy…we are all thinking of you.
My love to Taz ,I wish you strength in your recovery from the back op, and to Jane who has the most welcome of distractions [ enjoy !]
To dearest Dotti, thank you, for the most wonderful message, that cheered me up when I was feeling out of sorts.
To everyone. How much we miss you all, and think of you often and very fondly. it was so good to receive a string of text messages the evening my mobile was back on line….they kept coming through into the small wee hours….I was so excited to be back “in touch”, I kept my mobile next to my pillow and smiled through the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kisses DAWNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS. Some photos that I was unable to upload last time…I am particularly fond of the cow/bull? In the bakkie and of the group of black kids who were supporting TRC United at one of their Saturday football matches. The wonderful wall light that Leynie managed to get to me …UNBROKEN…..from Holland…Thanks Leynie it gives me great pleasure ever time I pass it! It has caused great discussion and desire!
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