Walking the road

I fogot to mention  "Walking the road".
 As you know we stay at the Winchester Mansions at Sea Point. Immediatly in front of the hotel is a busy road and beyond that the very grassy promenade beyond this, a path next to the sea defenses and then the cold Atlantic ocean.


A young artist, Marieki  Prinsloo Rowe, has been commissioned to produce a series of sculptures along the promenande and they are stunning, the installation is called "Walking the road" and it tells the story of a young girl and a dragon fly. The sculptures were made in clay and then cast in concrete, and will stay up for a month .

Photo by Carmen Visser.

 Here  is one of the scultures along the promenade taken at night, click this link if you wish to view the other beautiful sculptures in the sequence. http://www.walkingtheroad.com/?m=6

Short stories & Poems

As many of you will know, some of my Africa time, has been spent writing a children's book. ARK. This is now "out" with various publishers, and I have had two rejections thus far..I am undeterred by these and hope that eventually someone will pick it up; indeed I plan to start writing a sequel in December, when the heat drives me inside to the air-conditioning and the computer.
In the meantime, I begun to develop some stories in my mind and they refused to go away, so I decided to write some short stories and see where it took me. At least they would be exorcised from my mind, and I might also hone my writing skills and produce corporeal evidence of what has been muddling around in my mind for months now. This writing is in a totally different genre to childrens books And Fantasy
My dear friend Gerry agreed to cast a critical eye over the first story, and encouraged by her comments, I submitted it to the Telegraph monthly short story writing competition. My story has just been shortlisted.
I don't really know what this means, but I think that it will be sent to a published author [Still don't know who] who will crit it. As you might imagine I`m thrilled, to have any work applauded in some small way is enough to make me want to crack on with the idea that is developing, and it also adds a another line to my "Authorly C.V"

Photgraphic image of  SAE. printed on Linen

Added to this, I hope that in late October, my contributions to the "poetic conversations" in Rambling Poets at Cafe Cyber will be in print. Will keep you up to speed on this as the group of seven of us are currently struggling with what I believe are called "Artistic differences". I am keeping my head low, as I`m just thrilled to be a part of this rather racy group of authors. But we have had a little spattering of toys being thrown out of prams..in a cyber sense of course..Hey ho Artists and their egos.

Multi tasking or idiocy?

I have to make a public admission of the failure of my "multi tasking skills".
This failure is bound to have some impact on my ability to communicate from Africa.
Last night Jelly called for our weekly catch up, I happened to be running a bath at the time [as I was covered in the garden again!]. This was all fine as my bath takes ages to run.
At some point in our wildly interesting conversation [this point is key!], I decided that I should undress and get into the bath while still chatting.
I managed to wiggle myself one handedly from my filthy jeans, and less filthy underwear. As this had been such a success, I decided to peel off my tee-shirt while still listening to Jell.
A step too far!
My new iphone [only one month old, and I was just getting used to it] was jettisoned into the deep hot bath. At this stage my tee-shirt was wrapped around my head, and so I dived into the bath and fished around for my phone, eventually I found it. Big arrived as a result of all the commotion..I`m sure the sight of me duck diving into the very bubbly bath was not a pretty sight!
After a great deal of shaking and the use of a hair dryer the iphone simply refuses to engage in any way with me again...Oh woe is me, why was I so stupid?
After a short while Jessie called on my English number and asked what on earth had happened..she had heard a screech from me, followed by a loud "PLOP" and then the line went dead.

THANK YOU

Since I re launched The Kakamanian upon my return to Africa in July, I have had the facility to see how many views the blog gets from one week to another. To my great amazement, since Mid July, it has had 288 views; this is amazing, as it is not listed on Google or any other search engine. I prefer those that want to read it to have access via the private address.
I would also mention that none of my own viewing is counted!

 HUGE thank you`s to everyone who pops in and reads.





 I don't want to put anyone off, but it pleases me so much when I receive comments at the end of the posts. Gerry, my American friend is a star and always has something to tell me, or to add...Finn occasionally finds time to pass on a droplet of wisdom. I will answer everyone's comments if they wish to post them..so don't be shy.

Arrivals

30th August is an auspicious date at the farm, this afternoon saw the flock of goats increase by a further two wobbly little infants.
Moses came careering into the kitchen at 3.00, calling for me.."and yes missus bring camera". He was waving his huge hands and his eyes were large and white as they get when he is happy or excited.

He led me to one of the drying slabs,where one of his goats [he calls her "Carlos" which makes me hoot!] had just given birth to twins. I have to say they looked very scrawny and neither was keen to drink..Carlos was more interested in eating the packs of dried grass that Moses was giving her along with an empty large dog food can full of fresh water. I had to resist picking them up and plugging them on, as I had done with Bee when she refused to have anything to do with her babies.

But Moses said "no touch missus", and I bowed to his wisdom. They rested all afternoon under the shade of a camel thorn tree, and then Moses had to bring them all in to their kraal..the nursing mother goats have a small and separate one.
Anyway Carlos was still showing a total disregard for her babies, and so between us, Moses and I herded the entire flock back to their night kraals..he with the twins tucked under each arm.
I have to say we are both rather worried that they appear not to be drinking yet..it was 35 degrees today, with a fierce wind blasting like a hair dryer. Fingers crossed she will bond wiuth her babies in the peace and seclusion of the nursery kraal tonight.

This is the previous arrival, who is large and healthy and joins in with the small flock wherever they go now.

The boys on the attack......I always wondered why three of the geese shouted and hissed and strutted, leaving one to graze quietly..now I know, these three are driven by vast amounts of testosterone!

Addeed to this, one of the geese has laid the first egg.Moses tells me that there are three boys and one girl . He was busy all morning creating one of his "buildings" just outside the animals kraal. I asked him what on earth he was doing and he said. "Mama gansie has egg." huge hands overdramatising an egg shape and then he pointed to his backside..I had to bite my lip! anyway he has made a strange an very inhospitable place to lay Mama gansies egg, and she has refused to sit on it all day..much to his upset. I have to say, that if I was offered a small tin space, that was facing the fierce wind that we suffered all day, I would refuse to sit on an egg if I had one to sit on.. Anyway watch this space.

The complimentary "D.P Blue" car.

I forgot to mention this funny little story.
The guys at Volkwagon in Malmsbury have been absolute stars during the two years that we have been here..the first memorable incident was replacing the drive shaft of the Tuareg in 30 minutes, in a pit stop like change. As a result of their amazing abilities, the Tureg has found itself in Malmsbury for every glitch and service..as it is some 800 kilometers from the farm..this shows you exactly how much we value the engineers and mechanics.

Anyway, we arrived on Friday morning and J6NUT was taken straight into the bay and lifting ramps. The guy who always deals with us, directed us to the complimentary vehicle ,excusing its size and lack of power compared to J6NUT.
Big and I were both cool as long as we could get a case of wine, some brie,art materials and our cases in the boot..all was fine.

He led us to a small bright blue Polo..and I laughed and said "Its Majorelle blue."  No its not, said the salesman, we call it " Dolphin penis blue!" Big and I stood and stared at him as the colour rose from his shirt collar steadily up his face, and he seemed utterly horrified to have told us some "inside gargage info"..Then Big and I just howled, it was just such a slip of the tongue by the guy, then he started to laugh..and all three of us were howling, with a mixture of embarrasement for him, and mirth at what he had said.

You can imagine that our weekend driving around Cape Town in a dolphin penis blue car,seemed to bring our attention to everything else of a similar colour. Indeed today as I walked past my newly painted wall..I had a titter..I am unable to call it my "Marjorelle" wall any longer!

Not topic appropriate by any means, but I have been trying to find out what this bird is, he has taken to drinking at the goose pond.

Collage for Little

A sample of the fabulous vehicles at the Franschhoek motor museum