Sand storms, Scorpions and “ Blixum dog”

Sand storms, Scorpions and “ Blixum dog”

It is now, shockingly, blisteringly hot. Today we hit a P.B. of 47 degrees! To the rear of the farm, around the pool, and there was not the slightest breeze …..all deadly calm. Without doubt, the hottest temperature, I have experienced, anywhere in the world,and in my entire life.
Conversely, our evenings have been notable, by the velocity of the warm winds that suddenly pick up and swirl around, scooping sand from our “artificial dunes” and creating “mini sand vortex”.
These have forced us to abandon “alfresco” eating in the Braai room, for the moment. One too many meals, with crunchy red “sand” dressing, was more than Bossy and our ZA friends could bear..being of English stock..I hardly noticed, having been raised on a diet of whipingly windy sea side holidays and crunchy sandwiches.

On Sunday night, whilst inside, watching TV, we became aware, that the huge sheets of glass, that form a concertina opening along the entire wall, that separates the lounge from the semi open, braai room, were being rattled and buffeted, behind the closed blinds.
When I went to the door, to investigate, the dogs leapt up, and all three of us were amazed at what lay beyond, in the half inside /half outside of the Braai room.
A “semi blizzard” was playing out, but with warm air and red sand rather than icy air and rain or snow. The dogs would not budge from where they had planted themselves at the threshold. Their ears flung back, and clinging to their heads like limpets, so the wind swept into the lounge, veering past the dogs and causing utter chaos, and overly generous bastings of red sand. Although, not on the high seas, it certainly felt like it . I shrieked over the storm for Little`s help, and we managed to finally beat the gale and shut the door.immediatly silencing the blizzard, as though someone had turned the volume switch of!!!!!!!! at every exit it was the same, no matter what point of the compass I attempted to get out of the house with the dogs.

By this stage, they were both so shocked and scared, that they refused to cross any threshold , convincing me that their bladders were, in fact, perfectly comfortable. The entire house was being buffeted and it felt as though we were in a tent with the storm howling outside…quite a nice feeling, as long as you are securely inside.

Bossy was calling us to the kitchen; he was using the heavy duty turquoise torch to spotlight a large yellow scorpion, on the crazy paving of the patio, just beyond the glass kitchen doors [making us safe from potential stings], how it made me shudder ,and then immediately regret that I did not yet have my “Bronco Lane throwing knife” to hand…quick resolution……. IT WILL be purchased on the next trip to UP, nevertheless we stood in horrified fascination watching the scorpion in the spotlight, and he was getting increasingly irritated at being hurled backwards and then sideways by the wind.

Being no expert on scorpions, this creature seemed enormous, it was about 5 inches long [not including its curly bits], and perhaps [including is side legs] as wide as my spread palm and my palms are not dainty.

The words in italic are those that I persistently spout both privately and publicly, concerning all dangerous beasties large and small, they are my “grown up spin” on the situation ….. “It’s pointless getting neurotic about all the creepy crawlie and beasties that we have to share our lives with now. It is simply a case of getting educated about them, and then getting used to the idea of them being around then taking sensible precautions to avoid/discourage contact with them.”
Sanctimonious and very UN-me ……. in reality total crap!
In my heart, I feel utterly murderous towards these “dangerous” beasties. I don’t feel “green” or P.C or have a scrap of sound ecological motive towards any of them, I don’t wish to co exist in peace and harmony. I JUST WANT TO KILL THE BUGGERS!
As far as I am concerned we are at the very top of the food chain and they are way ,way below…. as soon as I am suitably armed ,I have every intention of pre meditated murder, should any of them ,remotely threaten, to cross my path ,or that of any of my beloved family [human or animal!].

On a calmer note, the scorpion incident, has certainly made me reconsider my habit [and Little`s] of going barefoot into the garden [I’m sure that abstaining from this, will also help our “crocodile skin feet” as well!]. I do worry about the dogs though. Knowing how interested Bongo is in everything creepy crawly. In particular, all that, which moves fast or erratically.

Perhaps the heat has brought them out, but from the moment the sun comes up at around 5.00a.m, the entire farm is surrounded by small white butterflies..literally hundreds & hundreds of them…in such abundance, that they look like apple blossom falling and rising, its all very ephemeral and rather splendid. That is until Bongo Blixum dog makes an appearance.

You can imagine his euphoria; he chases them around the front garden, staring heavenward at them. He doesn’t yet, have the life experience, to warn him, to keep an eye on where he is going whilst he is doing this, nor does he know ,that he needs to pay as much attention to his journey as well as taking in the sights…this innocence results in his continual impacts with all manner of things,[ sometimes minor, occasionally major!], ….his catalogue of collidees, have been :
Trees, Bee, the wheelbarrow, the laundry basket, Little, a stationary lawn mower, lavender bush, and most unfortunately of all……. a spectacularly large Bee turd…. Forcing another urgent and long armed [mine] trip to Bossy`s very smart shower.!!!!! Little and I swore each other to secrecy over this [which you are also encouraged to do as Bossy does not read this blog!]. He is now suffering from a complete sense of humour failure about the uses and abuses of his shower, behaving like a Diva every morning when he sees the token of affection Bongo has inevitably left for him.
In spite of rising much earlier than Bossy [as a rule]…I absolutely refuse to firstly inspect his shower. I go about my morning routine and let the dogs out, feed them, brew coffee ,let dogs out again, perhaps take in the morning sights in the garden, , drink coffee, have a fag , do at least 10 minutes of my customary “early morning staring”, before I am prepared to do anything else… if Bossy rises during this precious hour, then he has to clear what he needs to use. Interestingly, he has taken to rising later and even more dramatically, abandoning his own shower and using that in the next bedroom…perhaps I ought to bed down Bee and Bongo in there.
Several of you have written asking why we don’t shut the door…if only it were that simple…..there is no door to this shower.. two sides are constructed from huge slabs of ochre travertine tiles, as is the floor and the third side is a vast piece of glass…NO DOOR. The solution of course, is to remove Bongo from the bedroom suite, or fast track his toilet training by fitting him with a bung!

Anyway, the bottom line is that our dear Bongo is ”an accident waiting to happen”, and they do tend to happen to him, with alarming regularity, at least once or twice every day, despite our watching him with eagle eyes.

He had another run in with a Mama chicken yesterday and to my horror, Bee, who was in the vicinity raced to BONGO`s aid !!!!…I have never really seen her in protective mode before, not even with her own pups.[Mack was always the” protector” at Beacon Cottage] And she was utterly fearsome to behold. , I was deeply impressed with how aggressive she made herself, but not the fact that it was directed at a CHICKEN!,[ in secret, I was delighted it happened in front of the builders, who I’m sure were beginning to regard her as something of a soft touch…she dismissed their perceptions very effectively] …. My fascinations concerning the dynamics of the situation were short-lived and immediately overridden by my concern for Mama and her 10 fluffballs, who had scattered in every direction. This proved a useful tactic, confusing both dogs momentarily. So whilst Mama was focusing her attack on Bongo, I walloped Bee on the backside, she retreated [utterly insulted], and Bongo was seen off, yelping loudly, by the now, GIANT very angry monster, who, whilst perfectly capable of handling one Great Dane pup, would not handle a stroppy, full grown one, of well over 65 kilos.

How soon before Bongo gets the message? And we can return to the idyllic scene of dogs that graze and/ or laze in the garden with chickens pecking around them…Perhaps I am being utterly unrealistic. I was hoping that Bee was setting him a wonderful example of how to co-exist with chickens…she has managed to blow this right out of the water now!

On a positive note, Bongo has begun to ASK to go outside to ablute during the day!..
Little and I have started some basic training with him and this is coming along brilliantly.
He knows & responds to his name and has started to react to the “come” command, especially if it is supported by waving /clapping/jumping around and generally looking idiotic, but in his eyes, “worthy of closer inspection”.
In my experience Danes, are not really comfortable with being asked to “sit” [especially male ones…overly large undercarriage!], however, Bongo has decided to buck tradition, and as a result of Little`s persistence, is sitting on command [his undercarriage is not so cumbersome]…… ADDITIONALY ,and solely through learned behavior from Bee, he already responds to being asked for his paw , very clumsily slapping it in the direction of the requesting person’s face /leg /arm …anywhere that he can rest it, having realized the offending limb is getting a little too heavy for him to lift for any length of time.
Spurred on by these successes, we rather rashly attempted to introduce the “flat” command,[ i.e.: lie down]..but he gets dreadfully confused and tries to sit, give us his paw and then commando style hurl himself to the floor, elbows out and back legs in frog position…. at which point he is so off balance that he ends up in a tangled and crestfallen heap…, we have postponed this one for a while, and will stick with the basics for the moment .For a 10 week old pup who’s start was less than promising he s doing just fine!

Pool Progress
Yesterday, saw the builders arrive, bracing themselves for the final cementex coat on the pool..the entire pool needs to be coated in this ready coloured stuff [Bossy has chosen “sky blue”], in one day and then be covered in water 24 hours after it has been plastered… we all knew it was going to be a very long day…for ONCE the team knew that they were going to have to work at full tilt and probably until after sun set. They arrived as usual at 7.30 am, and after their normal laconic start and several breaks it dawned upon them that they may be spending the night working as well…so “encouraged” by Moses who appeared to take on the job of site whip cracker, getting involved in a very heated argument over the breakage of a “house broom” .As the temperature rose, strangely, so did their work rate..by moving up several gears and being rewarded with plenty of iced waters..pepsi colas and toasted sandwiches…. by 9,30 pm with the help of arc lights they were done.
All very excited about filling the large blue hole in the ground now, and Little was engaged all afternoon today in swilling the walls of the freshly plastered pool down. Whilst the water level rose.
This is perhaps the first chore he has totally relished, I snapped him happily at work [see picture 1.below] .When I happened by the pool ,an hour later,by which the pool level had risen delightfully…. he was [as you will see in picture 2] in a little bubble of joy on his own !!!! …each time I look at this picture it makes me howl with laughter, mainly because he was totally oblivious to the fact that it had been taken ,and swore blind that he had been working incredibly hard all afternoon on damping the pool..


Books & Art : If you aren’t interested, please feel free to skip to the next section!

But for the many of you who have asked about my art, you will find the response in this section. I fear that you may well regret doing so, as it has even surprised me, being very longwinded and wordy…but perhaps necessarily so, this time!

Firstly to books….. During “quiet time” here, I have read almost constantly, all thanks to secreting, another 9 books in my case when I returned to ZA, in November. These books, along with the Kilo of parmesan and several packets of dried chillies, kaffir lime leaves and lemon grass stalks… took me way over my baggage allowance. Happily I didn’t get charged excess baggage or “pulled over” by customs! I don’t know how I would have explained the eclectic combo…
Incidentaly,using the word “kaffa”, is now an inprisonable offence in South Africa, …so whilst I have been busy asking the local supermarkets if they supply: dried whole chillies,or lemon grass or soy sauce…I have been to scared to ask about The “K” word lime leaves. I can’t find fresh limes here anywhere either. Just have to plant some…Whoops…as usual, I digress.

Despite searching and asking, I have not yet found a decent book shop, in the entirety of the Northern Cape and am beginning to fret about maintaining my supply of books .I’m sure, there must be some shops selling well written Afrikaans books, but since I can’t, for the moment, function in Affricaans, this is of no comfort.
A spin around Kak`s library [yes it does have one,and its very small] revealed 99% Afrikaans texts, the remaining 1% were in English…Well thumbed, Mills and Boon style romantic novels ,which hold no interest for me whatsoever. But hey..who knows, in a few years I might get there!

The librarian in Kak didn’t speak a word of English, however the librarian in UP`s similarly disappointing library, was more helpful advising that if I wanted him to order any books on my behalf, he could approach the central repository in Kimberly..but he warned that this inevitably takes a few MONTHS as it all has to be done by letter or telephone as they are NOT INTERNET CONNECTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chin on floor again….Afriiiiiicaaaa.
This sent a shiver down my spine in view of the strange texts that know I shall be requesting when I start the UNISA degree this time next year. Perhaps by then I will have sourced a supply point.

I know that, Jessie and Dot and Jane are also avid readers, and have to recommend a novel that I picked up at Heathrow on my exit in November: The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, very much a “first novel” but a great read..edgy,spiky and all rather fascinating. Jessie if you need to give yourself an excuse to read a non medical text when you return in Feb.[in view of approaching finals, I doubt you will allow yourself this luxury], this book is based on the recovery of a burn victim and contains very specific and quite gruesome detail,[all mixed with medieval sub plot] but, I know you will be enthralled by it .Not so sure if Jane and Dot are into medieval sub plots…but give it a whirl,Its an easy read and I couldn’t put it down.
As so often happens when I have enjoyed a book, it has left me wanting to read some of the books the author has referenced. So I’m now busily trying to source copies of Dante`s Inferno and/or The Divine comedy. Another set of classics that have eked into my literary “awareness” but, which I am ashamed to say,I have never read. Not holding my breath for either Kak or Up on this request!

Dotti, you’ll be interested to know that I so enjoyed the Gale “Notes on an Exhibition”, that I returned here with 4 more “Gale” novels, in honesty, I was incredibly disappointed, and didn’t find the others came close on the one that you recommended.

My mind is turning [at last] towards my art. I really haven’t been in the right frame of mind to do any serious stuff at all, twiddling with some sketches and photographs; here I have hit a stumbling block as my printer, was one of the boxes that appears to have“ gone missing” en route from UK.

Anyway, I have been feeling generally apathetic and unmotivated about any work.
I have re assured myself, that I have wanted to focus all my energies on Little, and getting him well and settled, as I know when I begin a project I become utterly “shellfish” [Klink-Evans talk!] and find multi tasking and my “ART:” incredibly challenging. This is 90% accurate, as knowing how Little loves it when I`m doing “art” so part of my reasoning, IS an excuse.

Over the past week, I have felt my art materials calling me and I have been yearning to unpack my stuff, rather frustratingly, there is no where to set up yet, this is of course another excuse..but my options ARE restricted. Every building outside the farm house itself, is simply too hot , being bereft of air co
We are daily in excess of 43 degrees now and it is just impossible to sustain physical activity for any length of time if you are unused to this heat [and I mean genetically unused to this heat!].
Inside the farm house, I have one current option, the third of the bedrooms, in the main block. Currently housing the king size four poster [the one which broke my toe in August..and I still have not forgiven it], which compromises space quite dramatically. Further, there are brand new, full length, light linen curtains, that stretch the entire width of the room and cover a massive sliding door to the front garden, they will NOT survive my erratic and wild application of paint..and this is how I need to paint at the moment.

I have a large white wall in my kitchen and can visualize two, maybe three, [if space allows] large abstracts, based on a very specific idea.
Reason ?
My kitchen space is so incredibly ordered, slinky and monochrome, exactly how I imagined it, but with one vital element missing … it needs a “spanner throwing at it”, metaphorically of course. .Then it really will be just as I imagined it.
Something needs to be added, and that something needs to set the kitchen’s regularity and smoothness, “off kilter”.
The canvases that I have in mind would do precisely this and I hope at the same time, they will help move my work along.
Loops,I hope you will be pleased to hear, that the work we collaborated on together ,on my final days at Winchester, has stuck firmly in my mind, so at least I have the beginnings of an idea, that could slip quite neatly into the sort of area that I was last working on when I finished at Winchester, which I felt had much more mileage left in it, and that I had only just begun to scratch the surface of.However, I DO have a problem with this work.

The ideas that I was working on at Winchester , were initiated by the theme of “Identity”…then as a result of a series of photos moved forward to “family identity”. Then through a series of conversations with my Mum, progressed to the relationships and identities, between the female members on my mother’s side, both current and those going back to her great great grandmother… This raised some very challenging, but fascinating issues that transgressed the “personal” and I was enjoying working in this area.

My Mum and I talked at great length, and very openly about the work that I was doing. Once she overcame her natural cynicism over “modern Art”and particularly “conceptual art”, she became completely fascinated and collaborated with me, on two of the projects that I worked on,[as required by the uni..her involvement had to be fully documented in my sketch books, which I am now thrilled about.]
We discussed so many things, whilst working together, and even whilst we were doing it, I understood how special this time was, I will be eternally thankful for this very precious “communing” with her, and all the pictures I have, documenting her help.
The last photos I took of her, for my sketch book, , were in May 08, only 4 months before she died……she very gamely agreed to being wrapped up in elephant tape ,from chest to waist, for an experiment that I was conducting into “fabric and the familial body”.

To my horror, I ran out of tape ¾ way, through the process of wrapping her, and had to leave her, semi taped, from her neck to her waist; whilst I left to replenish supplies at “Do-It-All”, Arming her with a large pair of scissors and her mobile, just in case.
I then drove, 10 minutes down the road to re stock. What an irresponsible child I am…as I was returning all kinds of horrors were crossing my mind. Bursting through her door of her cottage I saw she was fine, and shrieked in utter relief “what would have happened if I had had a car accident or something?”, her response was “ Blow You having an accident….I was praying the bloody postman didn’t knock on my door.” …this hit our joint funny buttons….the two of us howled and howled, until I HAD to slap myself into grown upness in order to cut of her bindings as her sides were literally splitting, she could no longer stand and was in a collapsed heap on the sofa,laughing uncontrollably with tears of mirth streaming down her face …what a great bird she was.

Anyway, in order to re engage with this work now, means revisiting our time and discussions together and THIS is why I am most reluctant to go there, because I am now totally without her.
She understood, and was excited by the ideas that I was playing with and supported me utterly, and by her involvement she became an integral art of the work that I was producing.
I have to accept the loss of my “Muse”, and find a way of forging onwards, but I don’t know how to.
How strange…….Its only as I am writing this that I realize why, I have found myself so disarmed!

I really don’t want to make anyone feel sad by writing about this ….so to make you laugh [and me] ……Shirley always called a spade a spade, and felt that the work I produced was just too “plain ugly to put in a room or on a wall” …indeed, so horror-struck, was she, with how the final piece of work that I completed at Winchester,looked.
She just stared at it and said “it looks just like tea bags have been stuffed with pubic hair” …always direct was our Shirley!, how she delighted me with her irreverent candor. The dichotomy here, was that she understood exactly what I was trying to address in the piece, but would never accept, that art could exist without being aesthetically pleasing….now there is a debate that could roll on…!
By way of brief explanation. the piece was called “The Fortune teller comfort blanket”, which I made from hundreds of small folded, gauzy fabric, fortune tellers, all sewn together to form a large patch work “blanket”, edged in satin, each small section having been filled with my Mum`s and my sisters and my own hair. If I attempt to explain its meaning, I will add several thousand words and will bore you all silly.

Incidentally…just to make it abundantly clear to all…. it was the cast off hair from hairbrushes, and hair cut trimmings, that I used! And I’m still most grateful to Shirley, Taz and Jane for their contributions as none of them were keen to release their spent hair. [Well actually Taz was cool!]
Talking of “the comfort blanket”. I have it with me, and it is of course, even more precious now, than before. And a piece of work that I am incredibly proud of… Ideally, I would like to mount it and display it, but I am reluctant, as there is absolutely no way, I could tolerate the piece being ridiculed, I sense already, that anything other than representational work will receive a troglodytic response here. Which wouldn’t normally worry me a jot…but with this piece, I couldn’t be sure of my own response..

So …to cut short about 1000 words, there is some “cerebral bubbling”. But no real hard work…yet! Perhaps when Little is safely back at school I shall make a start.

Whilst talking of art..the three pieces of work that I had framed in Kak, before Christmas….look great, now framed…….,I`m very, very pleased with them, Maureen [the framing lady] has done a fantastic job and I wouldn’t hesitate to use her again…but this time would leave enough time for her to order the frames I actually want, and not have to make do with what she had in stock.
The pencil drawing and photos of Little, are very much for Bossy, who normally cant abide my work… these were an exception …actually, they were preliminary studies and very much forerunners, of a final piece, that when finished he certainly didn’t like!

I am happiest of all with the colour study, an abstract that I did at Sophie’s [professional artist in Winchester]…using lining paper and washed out acrylics. It is hung in the dining room and looks very handsome.
Whilst the locals, including Bossy [who is the worst, of the lot, stirring everyone up horribly]…sit at the dining room table, whilst its raining red sand outside, they take verbal pot shots at this piece. Don’t worry…..I sit feeling perfectly serene, rather smug and try not to feel too lofty, in the certain knowledge that I made it ,and it says what I want, and they simply don’t understand the language that I am using!. What joy….to feel unashamedly confident about something! it happens so rarely.

Nicolene a local girl, of about 28, and married to a farmer called Henny [love this name], contacted me this week and asked me to give her a lesson …in what ? I asked. To my horror, she insists that she will pay me to talk with her about her art and that perhaps I could suggest some ways of taking it beyond the purely representational. YIKES!!!!!!!

She is a keen artist, but is getting frustrated by the representational work that she has been producing, having seen some of her work, she is technically very proficient, and now wants to take her work somewhere else….I found her request rather daunting, as I certainly don’t feel qualified to teach art!!!, however as someone who is still experimenting with their own art, I am very happy to share some things, that might just inspire her and open up a different way of expressing herself, so I listened to myself agreeing................Have no fear I will avoid the elephant tape!!!!!...On this point I shall make no further comment, no matter how tempted I am.


More Pool progress

We had friends over yesterday to inaugurate the pool…its certainly not finished ,but there is water in it and its incredibly cooling in this extreme heat…even I went for a dip…which means its seriously hot.

Bongo has been fascinated by the pool and after some gentle encouragement “agreed” to stand on the seat and get his feet wet , this seat is Bossy`s design idea and an area where the intention is to sit in the pool, and relax over a gin and tonic, whilst taking in the view. For the moment it’s a view of the building site, and a very useful kindergarten area.
Once on the seat , Bong wanted to venture further…after allowing himself to be carried in Bossy`s arm into the pool [looking VERY concerned], he payed around with floating and then Bossy let go of him and he swam a short distance to the seat agin…The BONG swims!!!!! Let us hope he doesn’t disappoint Bossy, by stretching his night time antics to this new area. Fingers crossed for ALL of us!!!!!!

We leave for Cape Town on Tuesday morning to take Little back to Bishops,and return late Tues .Arnou Pietersen and his girlfriend will stay over to dog sit…very tempted to make a cynical quip about dogs on laps, after his comment, but will refrain from doing so and just be very grateful they were happy to stay over whilst Bongo is still on four feeds a day! He only has one more week of this luxury, next Sat he will reduce to three a day. Pam..is it the lunchtime one I drop???? [Sorry being a complete dip stick., any one would think this is the first pup I`ve ever had!]

Love as usual to everyone….wonderful emails which I never tire of receiving. And which I have taken to printing out ,and keep in my “ letters from home box”, this is becoming a great source of comfort in any wobbly moments that happen to catch me unaware.
I had quite forgotten how to text, but its coming back fast now. Love and big big kisses to Tommy, and Finn who has an exam next week. And to dear Jell, who I haven’t heard from yet, to say she is safely returned from her treck..and I`m starting to panic! Hurry up and get in touch girlie or I shall burst with worry.

Kisses from Africa. DawnXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX