Life can be sad, and sometimes upsetting, but oh, the strange and wonderful things one see every day by keeping your eyes open, are just so enjoyable. I was washing my lunch stuff, enjoying the few rays of sun that peeped through the window, when a flock of Muisvoêls (fruit eating birds, so don't know why they are called mouse birds), settled in the leaveless tree outside the window. It was the most amazing thing, as they all turned to the sun, opening their wings, soaking up the feeble heat! Then one of them flew onto a lower branch where a lonely bird sat, looking very cold. This bird then shuffled untill he was very close to the lonely one, opened his wings, and the two sat happily dozing.  Usually I shoot at this birds with my catapult, that of course is during the summer, when the fruit are ripe, and they ruin every peach or apricot, pecking at them, and when not soft enough to their taste, they just go on to another! So I don't really love them all that much, but seeing this half frozen lot basking in the sun did soften my heart a wee bit!
On Tuesday morning the peace and quiet was suddenly and rudely ripped apart when a pig started screaming and gurgling at Danny's place. I thought at first that it had escaped, as it does frequently, and Danny and family were trying to catch her. But this screaming kept on an on, and the screams were so full of anxiety and fear, that I went out into the road to have a look. Couldn't see a thing, but shouted that I will phone the SPCA if this torture did not stop. It stopped for a few hours, then it started again, but stopped after a while. I thought that maybe they had slaughtered the poor thing, as she was quiet for the rest of the night.
Next morning about nine, the frantic screams started again, and as Klonkie, Sheila's cattle man walked passed at the time I went to investigate, I asked him to go and have a look to see what they were doing to the poor sow. Now this is the same sow that had ruined my onions, so I should not have felt so sorry for her!!!!!!!
Klonkie came back laughing and giggling. Between shouts of giggling, he told me that Danny had rented a boar to fertilize the sow, but this sow was not at all taken with her bridegroom, as he was a bitty on the scraggy side, and smelled to high heavens! Not that I think any porker would mind a bit of smellyness, but how and so ever, every time the boar came within a meter of this sow, she put up such a racket, that the whole neigbouhood came down to see what was up. This went on for three whole days, and just when I was loosing it completely, as this noise was just across the road from me, Klonkie told me that they had in the end slaughtered the oncooperative sow, and bought another one from the owner of the boar. This sow was much more complient, and all went back to normal!

Woke up during the night and my feet were freezing! Lay for a moment wondering why, when I heard the drip, drip of water on my bed, and groaned in dismay! It is exactly where the bally birds have stolen a huge amount of my thatching, leaving big patches just ready for the rain to come in. And rain we had this past two or three weeks, with terrible wind that uprooted a lot of trees and blew off a lot of roofs. I will just have to do my roof as soon as possible if I don't want to have a lot of damage to my furniture.
On top of this the poor cold dogs are pleading without stopping for their owners to give them a bit of warm space, where they can be dry and warm! I just do not understand this way of thinking, as to the villagers, a dog is there to protect you, a horse to plough with, and cattle to milk, plough with, or eat! There are a lot of strays walking around, so thin you can count the ribs, and most with udders hanging to the ground, showing that somewhere a new batch of unwanted pups are shivering and crying for milk. But I still think that the stray dogs are better off than the ones that are tied up with a chain or nylon cord about two meters long, unable to get to somewhere warm when there shelters get wet! Kristani, my grandaughter, who is a real animal lover, started working with the SPCA in Oudtshoorn to alleviate the hardships of this poor animals, but she was soon a hated frigure, and the people could not understand what she was going on about! Oom Vlei, the head of the municipality's
maintenace team, had a horse with big sores around his mouth, and one day when Kristani saw Oom Vlei ploughing with this horse, a piece of wire through his mouth, and his poor mouth bleeding, she asked her Mum to take photo's, which she emailed to the SPCA, and the horse was promptly taken away.
I have loosened quite a few horses and cows that were tied to a pole with a short piece of string, the water bucket quite out of the poor animals's reach, and the sun scorching down! Was not very popular, but after Oom Vlei's trouble, nobody said a word, just glared at me, and mumbling: F.....n Whitey', whenever they walked past me. I must say, it is a lot better, so our interference must have helped, but there is still a lot of negligence, specially to the poor dogs!
Since the murder of Larry, a very strange man, who slept with all his animals, including two huge pigs in the same house, I am just a bit scared, as my house is so far from the neighbours. Joy is quite close, but she has one of the kind of long houses, and sleeps on the other side from me. When dusk falls. I am in my house, and securely locked up. I was at Jan's for two weeks, and the baby Emil, who is not actually a baby anymore is just the curtest thing. He is now a little boy, and I am so sad that his mother will never see his cuteness!
Slept in the sitting room on a mattress last night, as my bed was wet through, and so was my bedding. I will just have to do the roof, as the birds are really busy carting away all the thatching!

Was so cold the last few days, did not even use the computer, or any gadget but things to thaw my frozen bones. This is one terrible winter, with frost, and when it is not frosting up, it rains, and the wind sccreeches through my far from windproof house! That is when I just get into my bed, one hot water bottle at my feet, one behind my back, and one I cling to for life with my frozen hands. The thing in South Africa, is that the older houses do not have any heating, and to run a free standing heater for most of the day, would soon lead to bankruptsy. And through all of this we have load sharing, where our electricity provider just switches of our electricity for a few hours, usually at the busy times, so one then have to wait for hours before you can cook a hot meal for your dinner.
Our petrol price have also risen enormously, as the coal plants have stopped producing, because it was not maintained the last twenty years since the new government took over. Now they run the electricity on diesel, and we have to pay outrageous prices!
My neibour turned out to be nice, but quite strange. Her little Labrador, which she called Sweatpea, is just the most adorable little thing, but like all Puppies, it loves making holes, and this puppy has the smell of all the creeper moles to check out! So I hear a lot of anguished screams, commanding Sweetpea to get out of the garden, but of course the call of nature is too big for the pup, and she just walks around the house once or twice, her nose quivering in the direction of the veggie garden where the moles live, before the latest sold is forgotten!
Anyway, I was out in my garden one kind of sunny day, when I saw Sweetpea making off down the dirt road in the direction of Sheila's place. As Sheila has eight big dogs, of which six are ferocious German Shepherds, I was concerned, so I gallopped after the small white bundle, and this bundle was not exactly walking sedately, I was out of breath by the time I caught up with her, all my pleas for her to stop being ignored!
I took her back to my neibour, and boy was I shocked when she was not at all glad when she saw the pup in my arms! Actually, she was quite upset, and told me to please in future leave her dog when it escapes, as she must learn to get back on her own. Being in a place where emmaciated dogs, suffering from mange and other illnessess roam the streets, I thought she was really silly, and I told her that she would have the little dog ill if it gets into contact with the poor creatures limping around the roads. Did I get any thanks? Not a bit! She told me coldly that it is her dog, and she will be the judge of how the dog was raised! 'In future you please just leave her, she said, as I am raising her, not you!
I am so disgusted with my winter crop, as all and every plant have now been killed by the terrible frost! Even the broad beans that have so far withstood all the winters before this. The spinach plants on the west side of my house are the only survivors, but luckily I have canned and frozen a lot of summer veggies, and I have a lot of frozen broad beans also! Might just outlive this killer winter! And I would rather not complain about the rain, as this country does not get a lot of that! At least the smaller dams are full, and what a pretty sight!

There are so many ways in which to try and go green, and I have just heard about a family with the strangest, but apparently very successful way of producing hot water.This is done by using their compost heap. Apparently this heap has to be kept at a certain size, and a tank is then put in the middle of this, filled up, and covered completely. The heat that the compost heap generates is so used to heat the water, which flows to a geezer whenever the pressure becomes high enough! I was quite intrigued, but wondered about the times that there is no sun, but according to my informant, a compost heap on the inside is not heated by the sun, but by the gas, forgot what, that the decaying organic matter generates. I will have to see if I can get some more information on this.
I walked around with a very stiff back and almost completely ignoring my new neighbour because of the old Pepper tree she had sawn down, for about two weeks, vowing that I will greet her, but that is all. I do not want to go about with anybody who could kill a three hundred year old tree, just because she didn't like it! But I am not one to keep up a stiff lip, and I was getting tired of stalking around like a bear with a sore toe, so my greeting were becoming friendlier by the day. But I know that I can never really be friends with her for that old tree was like a family heirloom!
A few mornings ago I woke up, to find Sheila's calves had broken the fence, and was happily chewing away at my flowers, and the few veggie plants that had withstand the terrible frost. I went out in the bitter cold to chase them out, but as it was raining lightly, and I was in my pyjamas, I sent a message to Sheila that the calves were again in my garden. The big problem, apart from all my plants they devour, is that I had not yet fixed the sewerage where one of her cows ha previously fell in. She would take no responsibility for that mishap, just like when her cows ate up all my young trees, and my strawberries, and trampled my front garden into a mess. At first I darkly thought to leave the animals, and let one fall into the sewerage, but I realized in time that it would be very spiteful.
Then this morning a sharp scream of rage resounded from the deep mist lying over Haarlem, and this scream came from none other than my new neighbour! felt quite faint, wondering what ailed her, and sprinted over like a hare before the hounds, to find the poor woman standing in the middle of her veggie garden. Or shall I say her veggie garden that was! And in this garden was a troupe of Sheila's cows, happilly munching away on the last of the plants! I was horrified, as she worked very hard to get the garden going, and her winter crop was coming on nicely, and now there was just nothing! As she intended to sell the veggies, it was a huge loss, and I forgot my wrath about the tree, and helped her get the cows out!
As she is not a person that does a lot of talking, I don't know what happened between her and Sheila, but that whole day Sheila's farmhand was busy strengthening the fences around her place!
My son, who sold the place to her, and was extremely upset about the tree where he and his family used to enjoy the shade before his wife died! She loved the old tree. So Jan was a bitty ugly when I told him about the veggies, and he said flatly : 'Poetic justice!'

Living in South Africa is quite hard, and now that we have such a lot of loadshedding, it is becoming less and less the ideal place to live. So now I have to look for a solution for some kind of either solar power, or maybe wind power. The coal power supply plants were neglected to a point where at the moment electricity has to be harvested from oil instead of coal, and is becoming too expensive. The problem is that when the new government took over, the white experienced workers were paid off, as the government instituted affirmative action, without taking the consequences into consideration. So as there was no maintenance done  for years, everything just shut down almost completely.Millions of jobs will be lost, as businesses go under because of this. Also havock is sown under digital and other equipment.
I am using gas for cooking, but it is expensive., Although with all the new gas finds all over, maybe the future for us is gas, as I read in the papers that from next month on,our electricity could be off for two weeks at a time. That is terrible, and I see no future for South Africa, as it is going the same way as all the other African states. Such a pity! We need a leader with less wives and more integrity!
But life has still a lot to offer, and we will make the best of all this!

We indeed have a strange society in South Africa. I had to go to the clinic doctor on Monday. The hours are 7.30 to 8, but at 7.30 only the sister in charge was at her post. She started putting out refuse drums, dusted the place, arranged the chairs, after she had swept the floor. Now this is the head of this clinic. We sat waiting till ten past eight, when the junior sister waltzed in with a huge black bag, from which the blarings of some outlandish song made us all stiffen!
The patients waiting were all upset, and wanted to know from each other why this noise should be tolerated.I knew they would make a fuss, as many an erring doctor or nurse had to be hastily substituted if not up to this people's standard.

At twenty past eight the guy at reception waltzed in, but instead of getting our names and organize our files, he disappeared to the back, from where spurts of laughter errupted.
The people sat moaning and groaning, and then the topic went over to the new doctor. "At least he is white!' stated the one woman, and all the other smiled, and said that at least they did not send an incompetetent fool again! And that is why it is sometimes so strange living in Haarlem, or for that matter, in South Africa. Sometimes a millitant person will walk past me, give me a scorching stare, and mumble: 'F,,,,g Whitey!', But when it comes to their healthcare, they want a 'Whitey" But I must state that most of the people in Haarlem are friendly, and we get along well.

Sometimes I just get a wee bitty worn down with all the attacks of the wildlife doing their thing on my place. Now that I have almost got rid of the creeper moles, and the peacocks, and the locusts, and the creepies on the fruit trees, the more domesticated type of fauna is trying their utmost to take over the premises!
I could not understand what noises I heard during the night, as if something big was moving around the rooms, pushing things from my kitchen table, and cushions from the chairs! To top all this, I woke up every morning with such bad hayfever that I had sneezing fits till about ten, leaving me quite exhausted!
Then the other night, as I rolled around trying to sleep after another crash without me finding the culprit, I thought I heard a cat purring. Na, I thought, no cat will purr in my room, because I have no cat! Eventually I fell asleep, waking up with another bout of hayfever! I gave the whole house a good look over, but couldn't find anything that moved, or was able to purr! That night I closed my doors early, before it got dark, as I now had a suspicion that something was sharing my house, and this something was quite big! Bigger than the rats that from time to time try and make my home theirs!
I woke up during the night with loud purring in my ears, so I switched on the light, and, lo and behold, I had a sleeping partner! A big tortoise shell cat, and this cat had such a fright, leaped about a meter into the air before making for the door! I was quite lame from shock for a few seconds, and when eventually my legs were able to move, I sped through the house but couldn't find my sleeping partner!
A cuppa was just the thing to pull my badly shaken nerves together, and I realized then that as I am extremely allergic to cats, this one must have slept on or under my bed for a few weeks now, unbeknowest to me! From there the hayfever. Actually, thinking back, I realized that the cat probably worked its way up from sleeping first in the sitting room, then under the bed, and from there onto my bed. Now I must solve the problem of how it got into the house! I think, as I left my doors open quite late, it must have seen its chance and slipped in.
I wish people would not bring cats to Haarlem, and then let them go wild, as they are a real threat to the many birds we find here.
We had the most atrocious weather, with terrible frost that put a period to most of the seedlings I so hopefully planted. They were quite strong already when the frost struck, but not strong enough. Then we had winds that blew off a lot of roofs in the village, and rain that streamed through my roof where the finches had taken away the thatch to make their own homes warm and dry! Will have to redo the roof and soon, as it is becoming quite a hazard.
So, on a cold morning one would find me running around the house trying to get a shot with my catapult at the finches steaaling my roof, or jumping around sneezing without stop, or, when
the pathetic little rays of sunlight peeps over the mountain, sitting half frozen on my little bench, soaking up the little heat available. I will not plant any vegies now, as the possibility for more frost and strong winds are too great!

I was working in the back of my house, trying to figure out the best way to make a raised garden, when the sound of one beast of an engin in front of our communal gate put a sudden terrible fear into my heart! The pepper tree! I ran to the front, and there was my very dapper neigbour conducting  shouting conversation with a man behind the steering wheel of one monstrous truck. What made me suddenly feel cold to the bone, was that this truck had a huge crane on the back, and judging from the very satisfied smile on my neigbour's face, I knew that the old Pepper had come to the end of its three hundred years of growing, and living, and throwing its dappled shade far and wide over the surrounding areas.
I was badly affected, and ran over to beg with her one last time to leave the old tree be. She was by now very excited, and told me to just leave her alone, as it was after all her tree! I was in one big mess, told her that she did not have the correct information, as I have told her a few times before this day, but I could see that no begging was going to save the tree, She just looked at me, and said; 'You want it, take it!' sweeping her hand as if she was a bally king! Oh, I was sick with anger, and sorrow, and when at last the truck was in position, with big props on either side to steady it, I went into my house and drew the curtains, then I cried, both from sadness and frustration.When the awful sound of a huge saw started screaming, I looked out of the window, and my heart just broke. A huge branch had been cut off, and was hanging in the air, held by the giant claws of the crane, and it then just dropped it without respect onto the back of the truck!I then closed the curtains, vowing not to look again, and after a while there was a loud knock on my door, and I opened it to a hugely emotional Ronalee. She had heard the noise, and thought that a branch of the old tree had maybe fallen onto Joy's house, and was being removed.She sat with me for a long time, until the machines stopped, and when we looked out of the door and there was just this empty space, both of us wept. It was a long time since I have been so cross, and sad, and when the operator of this monster truck greeted me, I just looked right through him. He knew very well how I pleaded with Joy not to do it, but he just went ahead.
Ronalee left, and I just wanted to run away! Then there was a knock on my door, and it was my neigbour, with the sweetest smile on her face, asking me to come over for a glass of wine. As this was the first time ever she had asked me into her house, I knew that she felt maybe a bit guilty, or whatever, so I told her that I was not in the mood to drink wine with her!
This tree trunk was almost six meters around! What a terrible shame!