It was certainly the longest eight weeks in my life, and when at last the cast was taken off my arm, I nearly fainted, as My arm looked skeletally thin, and I couldn't open my hand. I was horrified, but the doctor assured me that with a bit of help from the physiotherapist it would be as right as rain in no time. I did not quite believe him, but after a few sessions with this lady, I could open my hand, and my stiff fingers were able to do what they were supposed to do, and that was giving me a huge sense of freedom, although my thumb was still not working properly, and it made gripping almost impossible.
At last Hendrix and self were on our way back to Haarlem, Irma quite upset at me driving already, but though my hand was still quite weak, it was now able to kind of grip the steering wheel while I changed gears.
It was so nice to be back home again, and first I inspected my veggie garden, not expecting much, but although it was overgrown with weeds and the killer kikuju grass, I had quite a good crop of butternuts, tomatoes, squashes, and beetroot.
Skramunkel didn't know me at first, and almost killed me when I tried to enter the camp she was in, so I had to sprint at high speed to the gate before she kicked me to death. She was very wild, I suppose from being alone all the time, as Sheila just saw to it that she had enough food, and could get to the water. But during the next few days I kept on talking to her, trying to get her used to my voice, and my presence, and she started to slowly relax, and after a week I was able to touch her again without her whole skin rippling in fear and anger.
One morning I was working away in my garden, when I suddenly remembered that I had a load of washing in the machine, this thing just having been fixed, as it pumped out all the water at the bottom. and on to the floor. Coming around the corner, still trying to get my back straightened out, I saw a lot of foamy water cascading from the little step at the door of the bedroom adjoining the bathroom! Went completely limp, as I knew immediately that the bally washing machine was up to its old tricks again, and this time it went the full cycle, pumping all that water onto the floor! The bathroom and bedroom floors were completely under water, and that, was that! This machine and self were parting ways after nine years of a good relationship, and any goodwill I still felt towards it evaporated while I was trying to get the heavy, sodden carpet out, and move the furniture around, without any success, as my arm was still too weak.
I was very happy when Charmaine appeared as if she had been sent, and she was a great help, as I was in a state of traumatic stress, but it took a lot of hard slog to dry up the floors, and I was so fed-up with the erring machine, and so glad of Charmaine's help, that I asked her if she would like to have said machine, and she was in seventh heaven. There was nothing else wrong with the machine, it doing the full cycle without a bother, the only fault being that the water is pumped out through a hole where the pipe is fastened to the belly of the machine. I had it fixed many times, but anyway, if the machine was put where the water could run away, it was still perfect, but as I had no where to put it for this, it had to go!
As I had so many butternuts, I cut them up, blanched it, and then bottled it, as I had done it before, and it worked well! But my arm hampered me a lot, so I decided to leave the garden for a while, seeing that it was almost time for me to go back to Scotland, and do some painting. I have started to paint on the computer with an old paint program, and I enjoyed it very much indeed, but got a bit frustrated because my broken arm's fingers did not always cooperate, and to draw freehand on the computer with the mouse was not easy.
The yellow cling peaches were also ripening, and Skramunkel just loved them, and the two of us spent a lot of time under the peach trees. It was so cute when she ate the peaches, as she would close her eyes in ecstacy, chewing very daintily, like a girlie should, and then, with a neat ploop, she would spit out the pip. She was now quite tame again, the only thing bothering me was her way of playing with me, or maybe showing affection, as she would still run up from behind and push her muzzle under my arm, and as she was now quite big, she made me stagger dangerously a few times, and once I even sprained my ankle lightly.

The last day of the new year was to be very busy, as we had invited all the neighbors and other friends from George for a buffet, and afterwards we would have our habitual New Year's concert, where every body who accepted the invitation had to either sing, dance, do a little cameo drama or comedy, or just tell a short, strange or funny story.
We were all up early that morning, as each of us had to cook something, and we had to set up all the props, and clean the veranda, get enough chairs together, and all the hundred little things going to make the party a success, and there had to be a lot of food made, as we were having about twenty people who were eager to come!
When all was done, we decided to go and cool down in the river. The river had not gone down to it's old paths and calm flowing yet after the flood, and we were left with some really nice pools to swim in. Then this bright spark Gran remembered a long forgotten way of making small floats from sticks bound together with strands of the long and pliable reeds that had sprouted again, after their being immersed under the flood water for about a week. The kids were really interested, as it was quite exciting to see your little float careering down the stream, manouvering the rapids and bends with relative ease, and we were all running downstream to keep the two floats in sight.
The riverbed was still very slippery from the mud that was left behind when the water subsided, but that was not really a problem for us, until the one float got stuck behind a rock. I carefully lowered my body down the slippery embankment, until I was close enough to give it a shove, but unfortunately the mud started moving, I lost my balance and went down like a bally log! All would have been well if a dead tree trunk was not in my right arm's way, and said arm connected with the trunk with a resounding whack!
I knew immediately that it was broken, but after some good old unrepeatable words that I voiced, and which shocked my kids into silence, I told them that it wasn't too bad, and if we could just put a splint on, I would be able to go till morning, when they could drive me the 140 kilometers to George Hospital, as it was now about three pm, and the first guests were due to arrive at five. The splint made the pain a little better, and I took a bath to clean off the mud, but by about four thirty I was in agony, and knew that there was no way in which I could go through the night with the terrible pain.
Jan, Nina and Irma decided to go with me, Jan driving, Irma and Nina for company. If I had any hope of getting my arm seen too in a reasonable time, I was sadly mistaken, as the emergency room was full of bleeding, crying, limping, and astmatic people, all waiting for attention.
Maybe because I didn't cry and scream out my agony at full throttle, I was overlooked for quite a while, as the serious cases were treated first, and there was some quite serious knife wounds and crash wounds, all bleeding profusely, while I sat very still, as any movement was agony!
When at last I was seen by a doctor, and she took my splint off, she was horrified, as my arm was looking very strange indeed, and I was sent for xrays immediately.
Both the bones in my fore-arm were snapped off, and the joint between my hand and thumb was hurt, and it looked a sorry site indeed.
The doctor showed me on the xrays what was wrong, and said that she could not set the break, and they would have to get the specialist  to come out. I waited for about an hour for this man to appear, and I could see that he was not a happy chappy when he at last came. I felt for him, as I would have been a bitty upset if called from my new year's party to set a bone! He was actually relaxing a bit after a while, and asked me with a straight face if my brew was too strong, that is after he was told that I fell into the river, and I giggled, and told him that I haven't even started drinking when it happened!
It was just before twelve that we drove through our gate again, and nobody had left, waiting to hear what happened at the hospital.
I was okay, and we decided to go on with the concert, and I even did my bit, 'Bob the Builder', that I had specially rehearsed for my little grandson, who just loved that program, well, Trienkie had to open my toy toolbox and held the stuff for me, but I did it, and the look on Andreas's face, who was still awake having waited for his parents to come back, was a huge reward!

And then it was December, and Irma, myself and the kids were waiting for the lot from Denmark to arrive. It was so nice to have them home for a little time, as I just did not know their two kids, the one now about four years old, and very wise for his size, they told me.
But they had some very good news, and that was that Jan had a good chance of securing a job with a French firm in South Africa, and they would be moving back in a few months if it worked out right! I was elated, but also felt sorry for Nina's parents that would be losing them. But although they would reside in South Africa, I would still only see them a couple of times a year, as they would have to stay in Pretoria or Johannesburg, the firm being situated there, and that is a thousand kilometers away.
We had a wonderful holiday, kayacking on the river, our own, as well as the wide one in Bo-Kouga, and we barbequed, and went to the beach at Knysna through the very dangerous but beautiful Prince Alfred pass starting at Avontuur, and winding over and between huge mountains, the dirt road very narrow! Scary stuff, as the holiday makers from Gauteng was not at all courteous, or cautious, thinking that the whole road belonged to them, and there were quite a few incidents where two vehicles scraped the paint off each other, or removed each other's side mirrors, and with nothing to prevent them to drop down into the depths below, I was horrified that they could drive like maniacs with their families in the car, which was usually one or other huge 4x4!
Xmas eve we first had a visit from Santa, before we had dinner, for the kids to get their presents before bedtime, after which out came the dice for the grown-up's chances to secure a few nice presents. We do this every year, as the family just got to big to buy decent presents for all, we each buy five or whatever number we decide on, inexpensive, but nice objects, which we wrap up and put on a heap, then the person throwing the highest number on the dice has a chance to pick a present. If somebody throws a six, he can claim any present of the rest, and that made for a lot of laughter and squabbling! That night Stephan was the lucky one who threw six after six, and after I procured one of the presents from Irma that I knew contained something I wanted, he of course took that off me right away, but I won it back, and lost it straight away again. He did give it back in the end, as the whole concept is just for fun, and we always swapped until all was happy! It was a wonderful night with all the children and grand children, and we later lay on the grass watching the stars. The next day we drove to a picnic spot in the Prince Alfred pass to cook breakfast on an open fire, in the middle of nowhere, and the children splashed around in the many pools.
That night we made a big fire, and had a barbeque, after which more wood was put on, and we sat talking till the early hours of the morning. As the apricots were again ripe, we made jams and chutneys during the next week, and I tried to again get some apricots dried without my family pilfering it all, and of course I tried my level best to fool the birds, ants, flies, and other beasties eyeing my treasured delecacies!

The weather was becoming quite nice, but Haarlem has a strange climate, quite different from places about ten kilometers away. I usually work outside from five thirty in the morning till at the latest nine, when the sun would send me inside, hot and bothered, to put some fluids back in my overheated body by way of a whole pot of tea, or a couple of glasses of iced tea. But every day at about two in the afternoon, a chilly wind comes up, making for some really cold evenings and nights. I have long ago packed away all my summer pajamas, as the nights were just too cold, even in mid summer!
I make my own iced tea, using a few sachets of Rooibos (indigenous to South Africa), a sachet of black or green tea, and a sachet of ordinary tea, which I put in a large holder, and then fill it up, then a cup-full of any fruit nectar, not juice, but the nectar that must be diluted with water, (I like the berries most) then the grated rind of one lemon, and also the juice of that lemon.  The sweetness can be adjusted by some sugar, or a sugar replacement. I usually bottle mine in one liter bottles, and freeze all but one. Serve ice cold with a mint leave. Very nice when baked dry by our South African sun! Rooibos is available in most countries now, and I drink it hot, with only a dash of vanilla, or a cinnamon stick. Most people have it with milk and sugar.
Johan had brought me some herbs, like rosemary, thyme, mint, fennel and some sprig onions, and that was coming on nicely. I did not lay out my herb plot as nicely as before, as I just did not have the time, but it wasn't long before I could start flavouring my food with the beautiful fresh herbs!
The fruit trees were also in full bloom, and of course the beasties can smell budding tree for miles around, and I had my work cut out trying to preserve our precious fruit. Cattle are quite destructive, as I had found, as the leader of a troop of this vagabonds would push and wrestle with a weak fence or a gate, until he manages to make a thoroughfare for his wives and kids, at which they would storm the trees, and start tearing down the branches.
Irma was at Haarlem when this happened again, and I told her that she could also help with chasing out the feasting cattle, and after some haggling, she decided to show me how easy it really was! So, armed with a long reed, she went out manfully, but was back in a minute, stating that the bull was looking at her funny, and he was scratching the ground, and he was making funny noises. I myself was not quite at ease with the bulls and their harems, so I went out with her, and standing on the other side of the fence, we managed to get them out by shouting and brandishing our weapons like two demented hags!
Later that day we noticed a few donkeys grazing on her land, and I just ignored them, but as Skramunkel was also in that camp, and on noticing them, started making one heck of a scene by galloping around and around at full speed, neighing and blowing big bubbles, she decided that she would take the chance to chase them out. It was so funny, as she had on a long skirt that was billowing behind her like an oversized balloon, shaking a quite inadequate piece of stick at the donkeys that was so engrossed at their munching, that they didn't seem to notice Irma's inefectual shoo, shoo, or the angry horse that was trying to run them down! Thing is, although Irma prophesizes that she is a born country girl, I never agreed, as to me she was a city girl who liked to meet her friends in a coffee shop, or go to shows, and just lead the easier life that one do in a city or town.
Irma of course is a very good singer, who writes her own songs and also tonesets all her songs, and also appeared in quite a number of musicals. She had just finished a musical, 'Anything Goes' in which she had the lead role.

Against all odds, and I still think that a lot of the glory must go to Josie the cow, the little horse survived, and after a few days it's stomach went down, and we were all elated when it struggled onto it's thin little legs, and stood looking at us with large brown eyes, but the exertion was too much, and shivering, she lay down again. But it was a start, and from then on, with Sheila's wholesome milk, and a lot of love from us and Josie, she just got stronger and prettier by the day.
But she soon showed that she was not a girl to be messed with, and a wee mean streak also stuck its head out when she started menacing Sheila's other animals, chasing them away from their food, and then gulping it up! Charmaine aptly named her Skramunkel, that meaning little rascal, but the one being that the little horse adored was Josie, and between the two of them a strong bond grew, and that would prove to last forever!
When she got too much of a handful we decided that Skramunkel would come to me during the day, but would still sleep at Sheila's where she was under shelter. She was indeed very naughty, and would gallop up to me from behind, push her muzzle under my arm, gave a few kicks, and then ran away in front of me. While she was so small it was no problem, and the two of us had a good time together, and she became so used to the attention, that the moment I went into the house, she got terribly upset, and stood neighing at the safety doors when she could not see me, and I was sure that she would have come into the house with me if I would let her! We were used to put our coffee and stuff on the wall of Irma's stoep, but once Skramunkel had a taste of a cuppa forgotten there, she was always begging for some tea or coffee, and was always on the look-out in case there was something left for her!

It wasn't long before Sheila informed me that Skramunkel will have to come to me permanently, as she was really upsetting all her animals by chasing them around, and even trying to kick them if they stood up to her bullying. So she had to sleep under the stars, but as it was almost summer now, the nights were not too cold, but I felt sorry for the lonely little girlie.
Mr Rat in the meantime had apparently decided to either clean house, or get out, as one morning I found a whole load of his pilfered stash in front of the opening where I now knew he lived. I have been putting the rat trap right in front of this opening, and put the most rat delectable, or so I thought, food in, but this rodent was a wily old thing, and refused to be caught! But since Hendrix also knew where he lived, and stood barking in front of the opening for hours on end, and then Tembi joined in, and together they made such a racket, I think he must have taken good stock of the situation, and decided to move to quieter housing.
Even more stash was out the next morning, under which a blackened, very old avocado pip, a shriveled up naartjie, a half eaten apple, and a lot of acorns. I realized that my lodger were only busy at night, so I decided to leave the door open , and just lock the safety door so that he could move out as fast as possible, which he did, as there never was any sign of him living there again!

It was during this time that I became aware that I have a lodger of some sorts sharing my house and my fruit and veggies with me. I found a lot of my fruit eaten away at, also some of the veggies, and I knew that it must be a rat, as a mouse could not make such large indents on said food! This was one clever rodent, and I named him the silent nightwalker, as I just could not find where he had made his nest, and as my door at the back was mostly shut, trying to keep the two legged intruders out, it kept this intruder inside, and apparently he was very relaxed and at one with the world in my house! When I forgot to put away my margarine one night after having made myself a midnight sarmie, I found in the morning that the rat had chewed right through the plastic container, and had a feast on the margerine, and I hoped that he had a lekker tummy ache. It is not so much the margerine being spoiled, as the fact that the shops around Haarlem did not keep heart friendly stuff, so I had to drive to Uniondale or Misgund to get some.
One night after I was frozen into a shivering bundle when Sheila's bally peacocks again started giving their wild jungle cries on my roof, I lay awake for some time, then decided to go up to the main house and make a cuppa. Hendrix, my supposed to be guard, was even more stressed out than me, and sat staring at me with wide eyes, and I tried to console him and get him back into his bed, but he decided that on no account was he going to stay alone with that wild cries now reverberating across the valley from Gary and Ronalee's side!
I of course had to unlock all my bedroom doors, then run up to the main part, where another set of locks had to be undone before I would be safely inside again, and it was scary, as of course there was not another sole close by for about half a kilometer!
Hendrix followed short on my heels, and when I put the kitchen light on and found a huge rat sitting on the table, a nice red apple lying half eaten in front of him, I got one heck of a fright, and promptly jumped onto the nearest chair, for what reason I still do not know, as I am just not the chair jumping type, and to top this silliness, Hendrix tried his best to join me. The rat, a piece of apple hanging from his slack jaw, must have had a bigger fright than me, as he gave one screech, and fell with a loud 'plop' off the table and onto the floor, where he never stopped to have another look before legging it to the scullery where he disappeared like lightning into the cavity between the sink and the wall.
Once the threat was out of sight Hendrix took heart, and stood barking until I had my tea made and we made our hazardous way back to bed.
When I told Ronalee about my lodger, she gave me a rat catcher, a kind of device with a trap door, and you have to put some food into this cilinder like contraption, where-upon mr. Rat would be tempted into entering, and once in, the trapdoor would come down, and voila, you have a trapped rat! But what bothered me was what to do with the rat once caught, as I have heard a rumour that they have the ability to always find their way back to the house of plenty!
But my rat was one clever beasty, as nothing could get him to enter this trap, not even when I put some bread, heavily topped with margerine, his all time favorite in, did he loose his cool, and crawled in!
My garden was coming on nicely, and my roses, their thirst thoroughly quenched by the flood waters, were a lovely sight to behold. Even the rambling ones that I planted to cover the ugly fence was in full bloom, but not quite rambling where I wanted them to go!

It was much harder this time painting the floor of the bathroom and bedroom that was flooded, as I had to first get all the furniture out, and that took a lot of muscle. I have now made the aquaintence of a woman called Charmaine, who was working for Sheila, as Christalina had resigned due to their moving to far away. Christalina is the one that painted the creosote on for me and made such a bally mess. I had to laugh when her mother told me later that Christalina offered to paint their kitchen, but apparently there was more paint on the floor and on herself than on the walls, and I just laughed, as I knew exactly  what aunty Sarie, meant, and Hannes's ruined ladder is still a silent reminder of that catastrophy! Charmaine was not a pleasure to look at, her two front teeth non existent, and she had a lot of woolly hair standing in weird directions all over her head, but she had an ability to really work harder than any of the the men in the village. She quickly came during her hour lunch time and helped me take the furniture out, and I then had the joy of crawling on hands and knees for two days, first I had the nice job of getting all the paint that was lifted by the mud off, then marking out my blocks again with masking tape, and then painting them a flat brown. Took for ages to first get the old paint off before I could start on that, but it got done, and after a day the paint was dry, and I took different browns, a red, an orange a a yellow and again very laboriously worked the different colours into the brown base, that is after I removed the tape first. My poor knees were still not fully recovered from all the crawling around on them the previous year, having actually grown two small knobs where they were in contact with the hard cement floors, and by the end of that night they were again warm and swollen, but my trusted horse linament put that right fast.
Then, after the paint had dried, I gave the floor two coatings of varnish, and I was ready to live again! This time I did not put as much effort in as the previous time, but it did not look bad at all.
I had to get the room ready, as my children were coming from Denmark to spend Xmas with us and of course for my daughter in law Nina, to see what her husband had bought on his previous visit. Irma had sold one third of her remaining two thirds to them, as she was not planning to come and stay permanently, as she still had to work. I was quite looking forward to see Nina's face when she saw her new abode, but whether they would ever come to live in South Africa, I doubt very much, as the government have a policy of affirmative action, and the chances of him getting a job here was very small indeed. I still think that to practice affirmative action towards 7% of the population is unfair, but nothing we can do about it.
Charmaine had consented to come and help me in the garden on Saturdays after she finished the milking for Sheila, and we worked together to try and get rid of the kikuju grass.
Between us we managed to make two more beds for the veggie seedlings I bought, and I was very thankful towards her, but unfortunately she couldn't come on a regular basis, as she had three children to see to over week-ends.
And then Skramunkel came into my life!
Irma and Kiana came for the week-end, and we were having a rest after a morning of hard work, when Kiana came running in, crying with rage, telling us to come and see what Danny's children were doing. We first wanted to know what happened before interfering, but she was so cross she just ran back to Danny's place, vowing to kill the lot of them!
As indeed we felt on seeing what they were busy with. On the ground was a tiny little foal, almost new born, with a stomach swollen up like an overblown balloon, and so thin the skin were stretched tightly over the little body. And what made us scream at this kids that we were going to whip them, was the horrible fact that they were throwing stones at the little thing, screaming at it to get up! They ran away on seeing how cross we were, and stood at a distance while we had a look at the poor little thing, trying to assure us that they were just wanting the foal to get up and play. On Irma asking them where the mother was, they said that she had died just after the birth. We looked around to see if there were water for the horse, but nothing, and on our enquiring as to feeding it, they said that they were actually going to still feed it.
Oh, we were livid, and we called Sheila, who was a qualified nurse, and also knew a lot about animal husbandry, and she brought a piece of sacking upon which the foal was transported to her yard. She then gave the little thing some vitamin injections, and other stuff, and we kept the foal's head up while she gently threw a week milk and water mixture down it's throat, and indeed a little was swallowed, but Sheila  said that she would be mighty surprised if the foal was still alive in the morning. It was!
Something amazing happened the next day when Sheila's cows were fetched for the milking. Josie, the bally cow that chased me and was the most bad tempered old hag ever, came to have a sniff at the Foal, and started nudging her, like they nudge their calves to get up after birth. The foal was too weak, and just lay there, but did open her eyes to have a look at the cow. We were absolutely amazed at this, and had a lot more hope for the survival of our little baby, but it took a lot of faith to believe that we could pull her through. We got a powdered mixture from the co-op, specially for youngsters who were denied their mother's milk, and that had to be given three hourly, and after two days the wee thing lifted her head and had a look around, getting quite animated when Josie came near her! We were elated!

I waded through the stream that was still running down from the mountain, quite scared of falling into a hole that was milled out by the water to see if all was well in Irma's house, as she was on the phone constantly, wanting me to go and have a look. But all was well, and she had only a few drips through the roof here and there.
It was a lovely morning, the yellow sun shining extra bright, maybe to make up for the devastation the rain caused. I made breakfast for Hendrix and me and sat on Irma's veranda enjoying the birdsong that was extra joyful, and looking down to the river I shivered at the sight of it a few days ago, with the ominous sounds it made, while taking huge poplar treetrunks away as if it were matchsticks. I watched an aerial view of the Haarlem valley on tv, and also of the pass to Uniondale and could not believe the devastaion that was evident everywhere. For the Haarlem farmers, who made a living growing veggies on their one acre plots, mostly potatoes, onions and pumpkins, it was a hard blow, as there was just nothing left of their crops, and thinking of all the hard work that was put into that was a sobering thought. Gary was worried about his apple orchard that was completely under water, as the mud stuck to the trees, and he was afraid of the trees dying. This whole crop on the photo were destroyed by water coming down so fast and in such quantities that it took away anything in the way, and it is hard to believe that this was one big water mass during the flood!
After about two weeks the water had subsided enough to see what happened to the two bridges that was our only way to get out of Haarlem. The one, a very low but sturdy bridge was still intact, but the one leading out of Haarlem on the other side and going to Misgund, a small village some ten kilometers away, was completely washed away. Also the bridge spanning the river just outside Misgund was non existent anymore, so the road to Port Elizabeth was closed off for a long time, and so was the pass to Uniondale, and we had to drive an extra sixty kilometers to get to get there.
I had enough of a leaking roof, and one of the village people told me about Graham, an old thatcher that lived in Haarlem, and was the janitor at the school, whom I promptly asked to come and see if aught could be done about the roof. He was very sure that all it needed was a comb, and he duly arrived one Saturday morning with a huge wooden comblike tool, and like a small wrinkled monkey, he was up the roof like a youngster, although he must have been near to a hundred, and started pushing the thatching upwards with a vengeance.
Had a bally fright that left me a bitty dry throated!  Of my garden there was just about nothing left, even my Thyme and other herbs were washed away, but on walking around the house to the veggy garden,  I have seen a few strawberry leaves trying to break through the muddy deposit, and was busy trying to rescue them, when I heard this shoossy noise, and then saw old Graham slide down the steep roof at one heck of a speed. My bally heart almost stopped, as he was so old, and if he should break a bone, it would be dark days for him. Luckily it was the low wall on the annexe, measuring only about a meter and a half, so his fall was not too dangerous, but oh boy, I got a scare.
Slowly but surely everything returned to normal, and I worked for long hours trying to get my veggy garden going again, and as it was only the beginning of summer, a lot of seedlings were on sale at the garden centres, and I vowed that the first chance I get to get out of Haarlem again, I would buy some, as it would take too long too grow them from scratch.
The moment the bridge was clear, I set out for George to buy paints and varnish to redo the floor where the mud did such a good job of wrecking all my hard work. The good rain also did wonders for my Lavatêra tree that was outside the range of the water coming down, and it shot up like mad, thinking it was some kind of Jack's beanstalk relative! But worst was the kikuju grass that just took over everything in its way, leaving me anxious as to what to do, as taking it out would take forever, and the more I took out, the faster it grew! That is one of the problems I had to face when I came back from Scotland, as the bally kikuju should be outlawed everywhere.
Making veggy beds was quite an issue, as the water had taken away a lot of the topsoil, leaving a deposit of a mixture of about 20% soil, and 80% clay, so I had to dig it all out, and put together a mixture that would at least allow the veggies to grow roots. I needed a lot of compost, and my own wasn't enough, so I resorted to my trusted co-op to help me out.

I had to climb over the stable door of my bottom room, and for a woman not in the first blush of youth, it was not so easy, and just a wee bit on the rediculous side. The water was almost up to my knees, and the sight of my new curtains and bedfrill that was all muddy, and the kist and chest of drawers that was halfway covered in brown muddy water brought on a bit of hysteria, as the task of clearing up just looked to me impossible. But after a cuppa to calm the nerves, and a very hearty cry, I went to see if Christalina did not know of somebody to come and help me, her working full time for Sheila now. But as usual in Haarlem, nobody was available, so weaponed with a pail I commenced operation dewatering.
It was late afternoon when at last I had all the water out, but found that there was a thick deposit of densely packed mud covering both the bedroom and the bathroom, and if I could have gotten out of this place at that stage, I would have abandoned ship! But the roads were washed away, the bridges on both sides of the village of course still under meters of water, and there was just no escape.
I watched the news the previous night, and the small pass through the mountains to Uniondale was completely washed away, and as Haarlem was situated between the mountains and the river, nobody could get out until the river had subsided! I was okay, as I had bought groceries when in George, but there was a few small grocery shops scattered over Haarlem, and as long as their stock lasted, everyone should be okay until the water had gone down enough to see what the bridges were like.
The clay like mud covering the floor was packed so densely that the spade I tried to use did not even make an impact, so I got the pick, and with that I slowly started to make an impression, but it was backbreaking work, and took me almost three days before I had cleared away all the mud that was about a foot deep! My beautiful painted floor was ruined!
In the meantime one of the roads leading down from the mountain that was not too badly damaged had been filled in, and as the roads running  horisontally was only damaged where the water ran over them, that was also filled in, and we could at least get to the little shops if we needed something.
Danny's kids had a jolly time, as the dam that Hendrix used for his morning swims had broken, and hundreds of beautiful little fish with bright red gills were swimming around in the deep dongas that were once the road in front of my house. To the kids it was great sports trying to catch this fish. The water was still running down, but not too bad, and I tried to rescue the fish that got stuck on the way, and had a huge fight with Hendrix!
Being a Labrador, he of course just wanted to rescue everything from the water, and he made me want to bally whip him, as every fish that I threw in the river, that had subsided quite a bit now, Hendrix would joyfully sacrifice his life for by diving in to rescue the poor fish, and deposit them at my feet, very happy with his heroic deed, smiling broadly, and nudging the fish to life. As most of his rescuees were quite dead by this time, his jaws just a bitty to strong for the tiny things, I went on like a crazy old thing, and he would just sat there, looking at me with his sad amber eyes, not understanding why he wasn't praised for his heroism!
There were also lots of crabs scuttling around, so I gathered them and put them close to the river, scared that they would just be washed away and drown if I threw them in the still raging waters.
My chest of drawers I had to leave to dry out first, as the wood had swolen and could not open. I knew that all my clothes in there were ruined, and also the clothes in my kist. I still had to get a wardrobe, and luckily for me I had made a plan to hang my clothes by screwing two big hooks into the rafters, then hung two pieces of chain on that, with a pole through the chain, and voila, hanging space! So at least my clothes on there had kept reasonably dry, as I had covered it also with plastic bags.
My curtains and bedfrill was of course ruined, the mudstains refusing to lift, but I hung the curtains back until such time as I could get another pair.
My beautiful painted floor was looking terrible, as all the paint had lifted, and my heart sank at the thought of taking off and repainting it. It was sad, as I took so much trouble in trying to immitate real clay tiles!

When morning came I was stiff, cold, and terrified, as the river had now came up to about forty meters from our houses, swallowing up everything in it's way, even the apple trees that grew quite high up on the other side. Looking across at Gary's apple orchards, all I could see was a mass of water, the river also having swallowed his comlplete orchard!
The river was awesome, flowing quite slowly, but carrying away huge trees that had been uprooted, but what really scared me was the noise that came from the brown water, a kind of ominous shhhh,shhhh! I stood there, alone, scared, and utterly devastated, as I had nowhere to run if the river came up higher, as the roads running down was completely washed away, with water storming at amazing speed down to the river!
At about eleven that morning I thought that the solid grey sky had become a teeny bit lighter, but the rain still pelted down, me now only able to get out at my back door to let Hendrix out. Luckily the fall down to the anexe was about three quarters of a meter, so the water ran down too fast to really seep under the sitting room's door too much, but I got palpitations just thinking of what the bottom room looked like, as the water was again dammed up there, with me unable to get out and clear the rubbish away again.
By three I thought that the rain had become lighter, and sure enough, the miracle that I thought would never happen, did happen, and by night time, it was only raining a little!
The water from the mountain ran away quite fast after the rain stopped, so I managed to clear the rubbish away from where it was now tightly compacted at the fence, blocking the water from running away. I then braced myself to look over the stable door of the bottom room to see what it looked like, and I must say, I think my heart really dropped down to my shoes! It resembled a swimming pool, and it was about half a meter deep, and I just cried, and cried!
I couldn't open the door, as it opened to the inside, so I went back to the main house to sit and feel sorry for myself, as it was now becoming dark, so any clearing up had to wait till morning.
I had the forethought to check my electricity box, and saw that it had tripped, a small leak having sprung just above it, So I dried it, and to my delight my lights came back on!
The next morning broke clear and warm, and it was only now that the devastation the water had left behind could be seen! There was no road, as most of the soil had been carried away to the river, and the water was still running down, but quite gently now.
I started clearing up in the house, the boulders that had fallen from the chimney almost breaking my back, as they were big and heavy. It wasn't too bad, as I just had to dry up the floors, and hang out everything that was soaked! The mattress I put on the grass on a piece of black builders plastic, and almost killed Hendrix, who must have thought it was put there specially for him to warm himself after the hardship he went through, and on coming back from his morning visits, spread his muddy body comfortably out in the sun, on my new mattress! He was very upset at my screaming at him, and his amber eyes looked at me in surprise, I suppose wondering what was going on with the old soal now!
Then I took stock of the bottom room, something I had tried not to think about, but knew I had to do.

When morning at last broke, it was still raining heavely, and water was pouring through the roof wherever I turned, except in the kitchen and the scullery, the kitchen having a ceiling, and the zink roof of the scullery apparantly rain proof. Water were coming down from the mountain, and already the roads were showing some marks of soil being carried away, and I hastily drove my car that was parked in the stream's way to safety in front of Irma's house.
I went down to my other room, and found it relatively dry, with only a leak in the bathroom, and a few drips in the bedroom, so I carted all our bedding down again, also the electric kettle, coffee, tea and milk, and lay reading, as there was nothing else I could do. I was really getting worried when I later looked out, and could hardly get out of the door, the water having overflowed the small canal that runs in front of my house, and I wondered why it did not run away to the river. So I donned my waterboots and raincoat to investigate, and found that the fence had blocked the flow of the water, as a lot of plastic bags and other stuff had been carried down from the village, and these got caught where the fence spanned the canal, and now damming up the water.
I was trying to clear all the rubbish away, water squelching into my boots, and the rain pelting against my raincoat, feeling miserable and lonely, when Johan came wading through the stream that was now almost a small river, to see if I was okay, and he helped me clear away the blockage. We then had tea, and discussed the situation, as the rain still came down like a curtain, and the sky was a solid grey. We could not drive to safety anymore, as the roads leading down from the mountain were washed away leaving deep dongas through which water stormed, making small rivers, and I was  opposite this road, that water stormed almost directly at my house. When Johan left to see to his own property, I felt as alone as I have never felt before.
From my window I saw Sheila trying to bring her animals to safety, as the river was starting to rise considerably. She then struggled, with the help of Christelina, who now worked for her, to get the bee hives to higher ground. By nightfall it was still raining as hard as that morning, and I was now really getting anxious, as everything but the kitchen and scullery in the main house were soaked, and the canal was blocked again, bur the water had risen so high now, that I was scared to go out and clear the rubbish away once again! But I knew I had to chance it, otherwise the Anexe would be overflowed, and that would indeed be a problem, so I ventured out again, Hendrix watching me with his amber eyes as big as saucers, and clinging for life to the nearest pole, I managed to clear away the rubbish again.
I took two syndals, one usually enough to put me out, and slept, waking early and finding that all around the house was now a sea of water, and the rain had not abated one bit!
I couldn't get out at my front doors, so I took Hendrix out at the scullery door to do his business, but the poor boy was terrified, so I put a lead on him and dragged him to a clump of rocks where his bum would at least be above the water level.
I kept looking to see if there was just a speck of light in that grey sky, but it remained the same, and as the river was now rising fast, I was beginning to fear for our safety. I got through that day worrying, reading a bit, passifying Hendrix, and crying! That night it was still raining, and the river was half way up to the houses!
I again fell into a fitful sleep, but Hendrix started moaning, and that woke me up, to find that water was seeping into the room from below the door. I was terrified!I grabbed some stuff, and after telling the shivering Hendrix to follow closely, I managed to get out of the room, and was immediately up to my knees in water! I managed to close the door again, and we struggled through the water up to the main house, where I sat in the kitchen for ages, my brain just not able to work through all of this! Luckily this part of the house was considerably higher than the newer anexe, and the water ran down quite fast, so there was no immediate threat of it being flooded as well, although some water did come through underneath the door. Then, to make matters worth, my electricity went!
I luckily had the forethought when the roof started leaking, to roll up the rugs and cover them in plastic, so now I made myself a bed using that, on the kitchen floor, where I lay shivering in the light of a candle, my electricity not yet back on! Once again, with the help of two syndals, I fell asleep, just to be once again rudely awakened, this time by an earsplitting noise of some huge and heavy things falling. I was up in a flash, wondering what on earth could be falling down, struggling to light my candle.
Now I became SCARED! Huge bolders that was obviously built into the big chimney had come loose, and fell down, shattering all the buckets I had put in the hearth to catch some of the water coming through there, Including some beautiful pottery bowls that I had to use, as I ran out of buckets! I was thinking of Irma's kitchen walls that collapsed while I was in Scotland, and I felt my throat constrict at the thought of that now happening to me, as it would also flatten the scullery, the only other dry place if it does collapse.
I then put a kitchen chair on a tiny dry spot in the sittingroom, where I sat worrying the rest of the night, but there were no more stones falling from the chimney!

I had to go to George for business, so for the first time I was going to leave Hendrix alone, nice and safely behind my new fence that Peter had assured me no animal would try and crawl through. The poor boy looked extremely miserable when he realized that he was not going with, and that with him full well knowing that he would be so uncomfortable, with his car sickness. My heart was sore on looking back and seeing the poor dog standing at the gate, not looking at all like a fierce guard dog as Irma would like me to believe, but rather like a little boy whose sucker was taken from him by the school bully!
I raced through all I had to do, and declining Irma's invite to have a late lunch with her, I set out for home. The closer I came to Knoll's halt, the stronger a smell of smoke that my nose had picked up became, and steadily became worse, until I was sneezing and coughing, as huge clouds of smoke was billowing from behind the mountains that I still had to get through. Coming around a bend in the pass, I was confronted with huge orange flames licking with giant tongues at the trees until the trees caught fire, and exploded into balls of fire! The fire was very close to the road, and the smoke made visibility bad, but I just gritted my teeth and drove through, hoping that one of the exploding trees would not fall on me.
I am not the type that prays for everything I need, but thinking of the poor small animals, specially the huge old tortoises and their offspring, snakes and smaller rodents that would not be able to get out of the way of this inferno, I prayed! I have seen what a fire like this could do to animals, sometimes leaving them half alive, maimed and in great pain, left to die a painful death, and it simply broke my heart.
Coming around another bend I had a good view of the extent of the fire, and it was bad, covering a huge area of the Langkloof, and my heart felt like a piece of stone in my chest, and I begged God to please send a loaded cloud to put out this terrible fire, but no big cloud formed to lift the heavyness in my heart.
At home Hendrix was waiting for me at the main gate, having climbed through the fence, just as I predicted, but I felt no sympathy when I saw the big chunk of his hair hanging from the barbed wire! Meanwhile the fire had been blown by a strong winds towards Haarlem, and the trees on the hill above us looked like a display of fireworks as the they lit up, and then explode, sending out clouds of bright red sparks! I was scared out of my wits, as I have a thatch roof, and if one of the sparks blew down and onto the roof, my house could burn down. It was dark, but I knew I had to water my roof down, so I struggled with the heavy irrigation pipes until I had it in a position to be able to spray my roof, and poor old Hendrix with his animal instincts must have sensed the danger, and I had to speak to him a few times to get out from under my feet.
Having done all I could to try and make my house save, I fixed dinner, and fed Hendrix, and then sat at the window to see what the fire was doing. Police were driving around to tell us that we might have to leave our places and go to safety, and I was indeed apprehensive!
I was so busy watching the fire, and worrying myself into a decline about both my roof and the animals, that I never saw the clouds building up, and when I heard the drops on  the zink of my scullery roof, I did not believe that it was indeed raining. The huge drops that alerted me became heavier and heavier, until it was like buckets of water were tipped out from heaven! I grabbed Hendrix's front paws and danced around joyfully! As I was not feeling like running up and down in the rain, I fetched my and Hendrix's bedding from the anexe, and made our beds in the main house.
After taking an alergex for my sneezing caused by the smoke, I did fall asleep, the tablet making me quite drowsy, but was rudely awakened, to find water pouring from about five different places in the roof! My feet were wet, and also the front part of the bed, and it was now raining so hard, that I just covered the bed with plastic bags, then a dry blanket, and with a plastic bucket on each side of me, an a piece of plastic over my feet, I tried in vain to sleep again,

First on my list was to plant creepers to try and cover the hidious fence that Peter had put around my house. As it was so hard on poor Hendrix to travel up and down to George with me, seeing that I could not leave him alone for a whole day, I had asked Peter to put up a barbed wire fence around my house, as that would keep keep Hendrix in, and the stray cattle out. Many a morning, I had stepped into a heap of fermenting dung that these cattle and horses left for me as a present, right in front of my doors! The Haarlem lawnmowers as we called this animals, were so clever, and would just ever so noncahalantly push open the gate, that not being very strong anyway, and have a feast on your veggies or fruit trees.
It was an arduous job, as the ground was baked hard by the sun, so I made a few small holes which I filled with water, and after the water had all filtered away, I would take out the soft soil, and repeat the whole performance over and over, until the holes were big enough! Was so pooped after that, I had to rest for the rest of the day, but when the fierceness of the sun had abated a bit, I planted my climbing roses, and told them to please grow quickly, and make many leaves to cover Peter's fence.
I was sitting on Irma's veranda when my eye caught sight of this huge animal in the pen where Rosy, Ronalee's beautiful pink teenage piglet lived before I went to Scotland. I squinted for a long time to try and decide what kind of monster it was that had taken over Rosy's stye, and when the sun shifted enough not to blind me, I saw that it was one BIG pig! I had no time for speculation, as I had to go on with my tasks, the one now first on my list being my front door that was looking a bit tattered and in need of a mending hand! I had an electric tool that is used to heat up the old paint until it makes bubbles, and that is then scraped off with a flat iron tool, but me not owning one I just used my putty scraper. It took ages, as there was about ten layers of paint to get through, and in between this some brown, sticky stuff that just would not lift.
Later I walked up to Ronalee to see what kind of monster had ousted the cute Rosy, and was staggered when Ronalee told me that the monster that now looked at me with small, red, round eyes full of hatred, was no one else but that cute little piglet that was so playful when I left.
It was during this time that I made the acquaintance of a new inhabitant of Haarlem, Johan du Plooy, an artist and a man with the zaniest sense of humor, and a hearty, out of his stomach laugh, that I knew I could be friends with. He told the most hilarious stories about his stay, and the one about the young boys pestering him, had me in stitches.
Some of the Haarlem kids have quite a hard time, as they are stuck there almost their whole life, and over week-ends they roamed the streets unsupervised, and bored, as the parents would be sleeping it off after a night at one of the shebeens. According to Johan, this kids threw stones at his dog and his windows, and when he came out they shouted obscenities to him that made him so cross that he gave chase, his almost seventy year old legs not carrying him as swiftly as the wind, as they were not so agile anymore. But the kids, egging him on to come after them, seeing it as great entertainment, then climbed over a barbed wire fence, and with that between them became even more dapper, shouting and waving him on with: 'Kom Oubie kom! Kom Oubie kom!', and that means of course, 'come on old dodderer, come on!' He was as cross as a teased wasp, and swore vengeance. But it was a serious problem, as throwing stones at our windows was like a sport to them, and in the beginning we had a lot of broken windows when we've all been away over a week-end.
I had also, a few mornings before the sun was out, been busy in my garden, trying to get rid of the weeds and kikuju grass that had quite usurped my whole garden while I was away. I have found the ground below my house was very rich, as there was once a dumping spot for a lot of the previous occupants of my house, and all their waste had deteriorated into a beautiful black compost.

My time in Scotland flew by so fast that I was on my way back to Africa before I was actually ready. I worked really hard, but this year I had taken my one-man tent with, and had some wonderful nights up a mountain, or somewhere down in a glen or beside a loch. I always managed to find a camping spot that was just right for me, with a stream, and trees, and for companions sometimes a herd of hairy Highland cows or a few sheep.
The feeling of not having to look over my shoulder all the time was unbelievable, as at home I was nowadays scared to go down to my own river alone for fear of being attacked.
My favourite spots for camping was either Loch Voile, where I had discovered a tiny tucked away cove, and which I promptly named Christina's Cove', or at Glen Lyon, where I had to climb down the mountain to get to my favourite stream. There was also a spot at Loch Vanacher, near Aberfoil on the Trossachs Trail, where I went quite a lot, as it was not difficult to get to.
But, sad as it is, I had to get back home to see to my responsibilites, and after visiting again with my sister Lida in Pretoria and then stayed at Irma's for two days, I finally worked up the courage to go back to Haarlem! I nearly turned on my heels and ran back to civilization on entering my house, where the spiders had a field day in fabricating their webs, as these were quite unpenatrable, and the smell of some unknown and hiding creatures in my roof and under the furniture, mixed with the creosote smell that had still not completely subsided, made my nose twitch, and I had to run for my medicine box containing my life saving allergex to stop the sneezing fit that suddenly came over me. Seeing the layers of dust, and hundreds of dead bugs on the floor, and thinking of the clean and dustfree hotel I had left for this, the magnitude of what I have really done, dawned on me, making me feel a bitty feverish! And SCARED!
But I did recuperate from both the sneezing and the terrible lameness that was leaving my body quite unable to respond to the urgent commands from my brain, and I bravely made my way to the inside of this beasty infected palace of mine.
As the bedroom that I had draped the cloths in to stop the rainspiders looking down on the dreaming me, maybe contemplating taking a wee bite of dinner from my body, looked at this stage like the best proposition to get ready for me to sleep, I invaded the sanctity of said beasts, who had seven months of unmolested peace, with the long handled feather duster, and they scuttled away to the other rooms where they could hide in the thatch!
I was up with the birds next morning, and sat at Irma's veranda watching the sun throw its first tentative beams across the mountains, as if first to take stock of the barren landscape, where many years ago huge forests  stood, and even further back, according to the scientists, fishes swam around in the ocean that once covered this piece of the earth.
I was covered in red, swollen bites, I think from the smaller spiders that had taken refuge under the bed to get away from the feather duster, and who felt like a bit of revenge for my desturbing their peaceful existence.
I was waiting for Irma who were bringing Hendrix back, as my car were too loaded with all kinds of DIY stuff, to accomomdate the boy, who had apparently made Irma's life very uncomfortable, as he turned out to be a real Houdini, who could escape from anything!
Irma was feeling a bitty down, as she had bought a brand new gas stove for her kitchen after having put a lot of work into first renovating it, and then one morning Ronalee phoned with the shocking news that her kitchen walls had collapsed! The brand new stove got in the way of the huge stone chimney, and was now a very lopsided affair, but after some adjustments, it worked again, but shame, it would always be lopsided! In the photo Irma sat lamenting over her broken stove, as the kitchen had already been built up again while I was away!

I was to visit Irma for five days before leaving for Johannesburg, where I would visit with my eldest sister Lida before flying of to Heathrow, from where I would take the train to Stirling, the closest station to Strathyre, where I had my lovely summer job.
While I was at Irma's, her good friend Estelle let fall that she wished to see what Haarlem was like, and it was decided that we would all go down for two days before me leaving. The Vitara was packed to full capacity with food, sleeping bags, dogs, three kids, and four grown-ups, including Susan, another friend, who was not the Haarlem type, being highly polished, highly educated, and highly nervous of everything not quite up to standard, or squeeking clean! At the back of the Vitara was Kristani and Kiana, the hyperventilating Hendrix, and the smelly Tembi, and also the bedding for the three extra people. On the back seat together with all the food at our feet, and wherever there was a space, was  myself and Estelle's boy Stephen, with a small space left for Susan. The other two ladies were happily sitting in front, the fresh air from the vent blowing nicely into there faces.
Now, Tembi, that ugly little mite I showed before in a blog, was about eleven years, and with her thick Rasta-like coat, she sweated easily, giving off a stench vile enough to make one retch, while Hendrix, with saliva running from his poor gasping mouth, of course was known for his sulpherous and highly flammable farts when in distress!
Susan was picked up last, and I saw her nose twitch a bitty disgustedly on getting in beside the poor Stephen, who was sitting like a sardine in a tin jar between us! Off we went, but just past the garage before going into the Outeniqua pass, Susan, after a nervous fart from poor Hendrix, shouted in a very high pitched voice for Irma to stop! Irma swerved onto the shoulder, not knowing what made Susan so adamant to stop, and then came a thin wail from the afflicted lady: 'Take me home NOW!' Irma and Estelle looked back, queerying with their eyes this command, but of course they did not have the foggiest idea of what was going on in the back, and tried to convince Susan to just relax! Susan was unconvincable, so we turned back and dropped her at her house. She was out of the car like a bullet from a gun, and stood on the pavement waving us off looking very happy indeed, albeit a bitty green around the gills, and unknown to her, a nice and shiny blob of saliva on her hair and her back!
The rest of the trip would have been even worse than it was if a sudden deluge of rain didn't cool the car down a bit. The back windows could open only about two inches, Irma explaining that it never could open further! The poor kids in the back with the animals were indeed having a hard time, as Hendrix, fighting to get over the seat and to the front, was now covering everything in saliva, even the kids, Tembi, and Stephen and my backs. After the rain Hendrix relaxed a bit, and went off in an exhausted sleep, and when the heat went down a bit, and Tembi stopped perspiring, we all were a little bit more comfy, but far from happy.
Estelle gave one look at the holes in the floor, and after hearing the scuffling below, she pronounced that she would sleep on the cement floor in the kitchen! I knew she wanted to sleep in my house, but my co-op friend had told me not to enter for at least a week after spraying the poison for the wood bugs.
After we all had a cold shower in Irma's house, mine being out of bounds, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the river, and under the huge old Pepper tree, and later made a huge bonfire and had a Snoek barbeque, A Snoek is a fish mostly found in Sout African waters and I think mainly on the West Coast. It has a lot of bones, but these are so big that it is very easy to take out. With Snoek we usually have Sweet Potatoes that we cook with lots of sugar, butter and a pinch both of ginger and cinnamon. This is put on a very low heat, and every time the water boils away, a little more water is put in, until you have a kind of caramalised Sweet Potato! It is Yummy, especially with the Snoek! We then also have a green salad, and some crisply fried potatoes, or a potbrood (pot bread), that is baked in a black iron pot covered with hot coals! Delish!!!
Us South Africans do love our sweet veggie together with our food, although the youngsters eat much more healthier than us!
The trip back to George was to say the least, a journey straight from hell, as just after lunch, Estelle became restless, and wanted to go immediately, and all my and the kid's pleadings fell on deaf ears, Irma I think so irritated by this bickering, that she capitulated, and said yes, let us start back! If somebody had never felt this Karroo sun burn down, they just can't understand just how scorching it is, especially at two in the afternoon! We haven't travelled far when the dolls started dancing, an old South African  idiom used when some kind of trouble starts! Poor Hendrix became absolutely miserable, trying to get over the seat and over me and Stephen to where the lovely fresh air was blowing into Irma and Estelle's faces. He just also had his lunch, so his farting became even stronger than when we came, and Tembi, although she also had a swim in the river, was sweating like she was in a sauna, giving off a smell that I can not begin to describe! I am known as a big grumbler, and I was grumbling now, telling Estelle that she was sitting pretty safe, not having to endure the stenches, and that she was heartless, and in the midst of this, Hendrix deposited his lunch on my back, and on Stephen's shoulder, and then I grumbled, while the poor girls were trying to clean us up! Needless to say, I was a bitty stiff with Estelle when we dropped her and Stephen off, and never saw her for the next two years!

As I had found quite a lot of heaps of fine dust all over the house, I knew that the wood eating bugs were again chewing away on my rafters, so I asked my friend at the co-op for help, and he gave me some stuff, but also sold me an overall and thick rubber gloves that covered up to above my elbows. My plan was to paint the rafters the day of my leaving for Irma before setting off for Scotland and my job.
But I was just not able to balance myself on the rafters, as they were round, and that made clinging on quite hard, and on top of that the rainspiders had been growing quite big on all the mosquitos that the smell of me attracted, and this monsters, almost as big as my hands, were eyeing me resentfully for trespassing on their part of the house, so I hastily descended and decided to use the big fruit sprayer to do the job.I had to be very careful, the man who sold the poison to me said, as it was extremely dangerous, and if it came into contact with your skin, it should be washed off with soap and water on the double.
The sprayer proved to be just the right implement, but I had trouble with the spray coming down, and falling in my face, burning both my skin and my eyes. So I looked around for something to cover my head with, but as everything was locked away, it was not easy. In the end I resorted to my bedroom, where I had left a lot of older underwear, as I did not think anybody would want that. So I took one of those longlegged, stretchty panties that are used to nicely tame the bum and saddlebags, and put that over my head, rolling up one leg to see through. But the spray still got into my one exposed eye, so , looking around for something suitable, I noticed an old sunhat behind the door, so I put that on my head, hoping that the problem was now solved. It wasn't, as I still had to lift my head to see what I was doing,  with the result that my exposed eye got a lot of spray into it, so I decided  to put my  sunglasses on, and at last I was ready to commence, as nothing could penetrate my armour! It was now easy going, but as the house was quite dark, and with the glasses on, I could hardly see anything that went on above my head. I was busy spraying in my bedroom, when I heard a soft knock on the door, and shouted that whoever it was would just have to wait.
Because it was so dangerous, and Irma had taken Hendrix beforehand, I was immediately on the alert, and that is when I heard a soft footfall behind me! I was scared out of my wits, and I turned, and there was a quite tall and thin man, so I gave a bellow and started brandishing my sprayer in the man's direction, but this bloke gave one high pitched screech, and was out of the house in a flash! I ran out to see where he was going, or whether I could recognise him, but he was going like a bally tornado down the road, without even glancing back once! I was astonished at his behaviour, but also knew that I was very irrisponsible in leaving my safety door open, but when I later saw myself in the mirror, I knew why the man had galloped away so fast, as me dressed up in all my armour resembled something horrible from outerspace and beyond!

Kristani had picked up this little pavement special, with infected skin an not a hair on the tiny body, and Irma told her to get rid of it, as they suspected mange, and was afraid that Hendrix and Tembi might get it too. But kristani asked to keep it through the night, and then she would get the SPCA to get it in the morning, and Kiana, my youngest granddaughter cried huge crocodile tears, because we all knew that looking like that little mite did, they would put her to sleep. Irma got up first the next morning, and being Irma, who also adores dogs, she had a quick peep in the box, expecting the little thing to be quite dead, but instead of a cold little body, she saw the badly infected little tail wagging furiously on seeing her! Buckets of tears were cried, and of course, the little thing stayed, and between the lot of them, the ugly duckling became a beautiful white puppy, with no dark spots on any part of her, although she must have had a  bull Terrier and a Jack Russel  somewhere in the mix of her forefathers, as her mouth and ears was that of a Bull Terrier, and her body like that of a Jack Russel. She became the most beautiful dog, with dark eyes that looked as though someone had used a kohl pencil to draw thick black lines around it, and I said that I would take her when I came back from Scotland.
When living in Haarlem, you sometimes see the most incredible sights, like the one I saw on my way back from Ronalee with some spinach plants she gave me. From the opposite side coming towards me, I saw this thing careering all over the road, but it was too far away still to make out what it was. As we came closer to each other, I saw that it was a wheelbarrow, and the wheelbarrow was being pushed by an Oompie (old man) with the thinnest and spindliest pair of legs I have ever seen, and this legs kept on buckling under him, making him and the wheelbarrow go all over the road. He was as drunk as a skunk! Inside the wheelbarrow was another Oompie, as ugly as sin, whose mouth hung open showing a few rotten teeth and this Oompie was so drunk that he did not know where he was, snoring loudly through his open mouth, while his feet were hanging limply out of his vehicle, getting into the way of the wheel, upsetting the whole process, and making the pushing Oompie using some wonderful swearwords when the barrow time and again tipped over, and he had to struggle to get his mate back in. I greeted and asked if I could help in any way, but Oompie just snorted :"and what can the blerrie Whitey do?", not even stopping to see if maybe I could help. Sheila told me later that she offered to take the Oompies home in her jeeplike wagon, but the Pushing Oompie declined  shortly and sweetly, and said that they went to the shebeen together, and he was responsible to get his mate home. A shebeen is a drinking place, mostly unlicensed, and selling very cheap and inferior drinks!
I was now packing away my valuable stuff for my going away to my job in Scotland, as I had to make sure that I did not come back to an empty house. I made a lot of booby traps, like a nice cold rubber snake above the front door, ready to fall on any intruder that dared to break that door open. This people are extremely scared of snakes, so I thought it a good plan. I also had two busts that I made long ago during my youth, and as this was casted in cement, I made eyes for them from red craft clay, and stuck a piece of clear glass in the middle! SCARY!! Or I thought so anyway! This I put in my half metre wide window sills, on the inside, and draped the curtains around the heads, so that it looked as if they were peeping at the passers-by. My really valuable stuff I was taking to Irma for safekeeping. It was quite a job to organise everything, and I was glad when at last I put the last of my clothes and linen into my kist, guarded by a lot of moth balls, and locked the kist with a strong lock. It was so easy in my previous house, and in my flat, as they were both in large towns with lots of people around.

Hendrix and his playfulness caused me to almost expire a few days later! Sheila had asked if her cows could please graze on Irma's land, as her grazing was a bit depleted, and with the rain staying away, the drought kept the farmers from selling off their surplus hay. Thus her herd, including the very loving Jessie, and the bally rude and extremely bad tempered Josie, were happilly grazing away, when I decided to take Hendrix down to the river for a swim. The sun was hot, and I was feeling happy and at one with the world, and so was Hendrix, until he decided that as I wouldn't run and play with him, he would find another playmate! Unfortunately he decided that Josie was the one for him, and he ran in front, and started to bark and growl, but friendly growling, running in circles around the cow to get her attention! Well, I don't think that I would have had the guts to tease Josie for a play, and I was wondering when the old cow would get fed-up with Hendrix, as she was just not the playful kind, and the one who used to kick the poor Bush whenever she got tired of the milking process! At first she just lifted her head and tried to stare him into leaving her in peace, but Hendrix must have seen the stare as an invite, because his teasing became quite frantic, and he was laughing with a wide open mouth, begging her to come and play,  and when Josie started swishing her tail angrily from side to side, I tried to calm Hendrix down, and get him down to the water.
But he was too excited to heed me, and when Josie suddenly looked up and gave one angry bellow, and stormed the hapless dog, I knew we were in for a spot of trouble! When he realized that the cow was not playing, he decided to run to me for help, and I decided not to wait and see if she would pass me and go for the dog, so I also took to my heels! And what did the bally Hendrix do? He splitted from me, and ran the opposite way, and looking over my shoulder, I saw the enraged cow at my heels, so, with my waterboots chafing all the skin off my feet, I cleared huge boulders, tore my pants going over a few of the rough and thorny Karoo brush, and got a nasty scape from a huge bramble that I was trying to manipulate into growing along the wire fence! I could feel the cow's warm breathe in my neck, and that was enough to make me run like an Olympic champion, not only sprinting, but the  hurdles I cleared at a gallop would have been a world record, and to crown it all, it was steeply uphill to the house! On seeing my gate and realizing that I was almost safe, I really put my leg muscles to work, and with my last strength and my sidesadles shaking like a blamange, I covered the hundred metres to safety, and was able to close the gate seconds before the enraged cow reached it, and standing there panting and trying to draw some air into my poor lungs, something really strange happened. Josie, who came to a stop about two metres past the gate, turned around, and looked at me with such a friendly look that I was startled out of my wits, but when she shook her head, and I think she winked at me also, and started calmly walking back to her grazing spot, I was quite flustered, and for ages afterwards wondered if she was really chasing me to do harm, or whether she was just playing! On the top photo, Josie is the cow furthest away, eating up Danny's pear tree!

Oh, was ever a woman so disgusted! I took my little bowl to collect some strawberries, and instead of finding some red and succulent fruit, there were heaps of bird poo, and of my strawberries nothing were left. I was devastated, but then realised that it must have been the peacocks that were on my roof the previous night. I was beginning to feel a bit antagonistic towards Sheila, as her animals were very strange, and ate just anything that came their way. A horse is not like that, eating very fussilly, and mainly just grass. My trees that the cows have so nicely chopped off with their oversized teeth, had formed a few new leaves, but I have made peace with the fact that I will have Olive, Almond, Pomegranate, and naartjie bonzai trees, as the poor traumatized things are not growing any taller after being eaten up so many times, but the poor Macadamia gave up the struggle and dwindled away! Luckily I had picked all the ripe and still ripening tamatoes for jam and chutney, and the birds had left the green ones in peace!
I had a nice field of patatoes, whose flowers had just died off, and with murder towards the bally peacocks still burning strongly in my chest, I decided to have a look and see if I had a worthwhile crop, so I donned my water boots, not because it was very wet, but because there were some pretty mean snakes around! My potato crop put the smile back on my face, as there were plenty, and all of them just the right size, and I took out enough for a week, as I was told that it kept better underground! Oh, they were the sweetest and tastiest ever, and reminded me of the Ayrshire tatties in Scotland!
It was also apple picking season, and we could buy apples very cheaply, as of course the Langkloof (Long Valley) is known for its apples, some of which I now saw for the first time, as all the best and rarer ones were of course sent to foreign markets, with the result that we here get mostly second grade, while the third graders are made into juice.
Sometimes vendors came to my door with this quite unknown and wonderful species, and sell it cheaply, and it was quite some time before I realized that it was stolen from the farms where they worked. But anyhow, I had a taste of fresh from the trees, export apples before I had to say no thank you, I do not buy stolen apples, while my eyes almost popped from looking at the perfect fruit they insisted on showing me! But the fruit we bought from the farmers was also fresh, and as I was used to the apples in the shops that had been in cool rooms for ages, this was like heaven to me.
I boiled up most of the batches I bought, then bottled most, and kept a few holders full in the freezer, from which I made apple pies and strudels.
My butternuts were having a good summer, and as a result they brought forth so many fruit that I just couldn't eat them all, and as all my neigbours had veggie gardens themselves, I had to make a plan, as I did not want to waste them. So I bought a lot more glass jars, and after preparing it, I blanched the cut up butternuts, and bottled it. I thought it a great way to make sure that I had veggies for the months when one butternut would cost about as much a a whole bag full at the moment.
Hendrix and self were now living together quite comfortably, and I had decided that to try and keep him from his daily visits was a shame, so when he crawled on his tummy around the house and then through the hole he had made for himself in the fence, thinking that he was invisible, I turned a blind eye! He was just a little playful boy always on the look-out for a playmate or two, that thought because he loved the whole world, the whole world loved him too!

That night after I had made some tomato chutney, the tamatoes  just not wanting to stop producing, and also some nice strawberry jam, I watched some television with Hendrix lying at my feet, before taking some teabags and milk down to the bottom room, and also a kettle and some rusks. I found the previous night, after all the to-do with Hendrix, that I was feeling like a nice cuppa, but was too scared to go up to the main house to make one.
In South Africa we make lovely buttermilk rusks, my favourite, that we dip in our first coffee of the morning, and in many instances, that would be our breakfast, with maybe a little bacon and eggs or porridge later after we had our ablutions done. It is however also nice dipped in tea, or hot milk before going to bed. I was adamant not to sleep with a dry throat again if Hendrix and myself had another sqabble over his sleeping preferences.
I was deep in dreamland, Hendrix, after some conflict about where he wanted to sleep, and where I wanted him to sleep, cosily on his bedding next to my bed, when I was rudely awakened by the most unearthly cry just above me on the roof! Who jumped out from under his bedding the fastest I would never know, but Hendrix was like lightning, and  me not quite off the bed, tried to sit on my lap! I could hear things move, and from the noise they made, they were BIG! Then came another of that terrifying screams, and I ran to the shower to hide, Hendrix, my supposed to be guard and safe-keeper, a good meter in front of me! I stood behind the shower curtain, shivering from fear, and wondering how long before the monsters on the roof would find the window, and come inside.
Then, accompanied by some more screaming, there was the clapping of huge wings as the monsters left the roof and flew away to some unknown place! We stood behind the curtain for ages in case the big birds, as that was what it supposedly was, came back and eat us up. I could not think straight, but made up my mind that some outer space creatures had decided to have a look at us, and not finding us interesting enough, flew off to find some more interesting specimens!
I knew that I would never fall asleep again, so I thanked the Lord for making me take the tea and goodies down, and made an extra strong cup and almost finished my rusks.
The old nerves was not what it should be on waking from a fitful sleep, but as usual I took our breakfasts to Irma's veranda, and there, tail splayed like a jeweled fan, was the biggest peacock I had ever seen, and this bally thing was aggresive, hissing and storming us in a very menacing way, but Hendrix, thinking that he had found a new and pretty playmate just started barking playfully, and the bird got so upset it gave a bloodcurdling scream before it pulled in its tail, and wings flapping furiously, made for Sheila's place. I could have thought so!
Paging through my favourite magazine called 'Tuis' (Home)I came upon a wonderful idea for a strawberry desert, and thought I would put it on my blog. It is called strawberries in balsamic.  Just clean 1kg strawberries and pack in a nice deepish serving dish. Sprinkle about 60ml of balsamic over, then 150ml castor sugar, and mix.  Leave for 2-3 hrs. In the meantime, mix 400g of mascarponi cheese with some vanilla seeds, and sweeten to your own taste. Serve with strawberris on top of the mascarponi, and some mint leaves, then some of the syrup drizzled over the lot!
A glass of sweet Rosè with this sounds wonderful!