I was on my way again, all packed and ready to be taken to george airport, from where I would fly to Johannesburg again, and there I would board my flight to Heathrow. This time I would stay again with Dennis at Protea House in Hammersmith, his kind of youth hostel, for three days before taking the train to Scotland again. I love London, and most of the time I stayed with Dennis, where you get a room at a reasonable price, and he had a nice and clean kitchen with a cooker and a microwave oven, and also a kettle and toaster, so you can cook your own food.
I was really feeling good, as once on the plane, the two other seats next to me remained empty, and as it looked like everybody was seated and belted, I laughed softly from delight, and saw myself stretched out comfortably during the night, as the two seats stayed empty. But then there was a bit of movement in the front, and towards me walked a hostess, two kids behind her, and my elation evaporated like bally mist before the sun, as there was no other empty seats! I groaned!
The girl was about nine years old, and a very self assured little English miss, who was on her way to England to visit her dad who lived there, while she and her mum lived in South Africa. She immediately started organizing the little coloured boy, whose lip were trembling from nervousness, and who was on his way to his mum who was nursing somewhere in England.
The hostess asked me whether I would mind just keeping an eye on the two, and they will come around often to make sure all was well!I was in a state!
The girl I could see was used to travelling, and kind of took charge of the boy, and when the food came, and he struggled with opening the tin foiled covered plate of food, she took it off, and then told him about what to eat first, and how to hold your knife and fork, and as he really struggled and could hardly get anything as far as his mouth, she clicked her tongue and started feeding him! The best part of all this was that the boy must have been two years her senior!

When she had at last made sure that the boy was okay for the night, little miss turned her attention to me, and after telling me all her parent's troubles and then gave me all the details of the divorce, she started asking me questions about who I was, and why I was going to England! Never slept a bally wink, as missy talked non stop through the night! So much for lying stretched out and sleeping peacefully!
London was as usual a delight, and I again visited both the Tate Musems, where I could wander around for days, and at the Tate Modern, stand in awe at some of the supposed to be art works, and further I just took the underground to different places, where I would explore all the wonderful statues, and gape at the beautiful buildings, and something I always did was getting off at London bridge and walk along the river Thames,as there was a lot of lovely little cafe's where The most delicious coffees and eats were served. And of course I would then end up at the Tate Modern again, where I would always just run in for a quick peep, but usually stayed for half of the day!

But now the time had arrived for me to return to my work in Scotland as soon as Irma came back from Belgium to take charge of her wayward teenage daughter. but first I had to make all kinds of plans to make my house and what was inside safe, as there was a lot of burglaries around just lately. We have a man called Zhivago, who runs a gangster outfit, and he gets the youngsters onto drugs, and then make them steal, after which he sold the stuff and provide the youngsters with drugs.
He also, according to the villagers, have a few murders on his list, and although he went to jail for a few years, he was out again, and now the burglaries and beating up of people had again begun! But strangely enough, nobody had ever touched my little house, and I am sometimes away for up to eight months.
But my curiosity was satisfied when one morning, as I was trying to work out how to best cover my frost prone plants with shading net to protect them, a car stopped at my gate, and a smartly dressed brown man came up to me, and after introducing himself, he told me that he loved my house, but didn't buy it because of the snake!
I was a bitty dumb struck for a moment, and all kinds of weird thoughts crossed my mind, like the strange noises I sometimes hear in the roof, but I pretended to know what he was talking about! After making some smalltalk for a few minutes, the man left, but I saw him look back at me with a strange, puzzled kind of look on his face before getting into his car and drive off.
The next day Charmaine came to help me a bit, and I asked her about it, and she went kind of grey, and said that the people do believe that a huge snake was living under the thatch, and they couldn't believe that I wasn't killed yet. She helped me pack up a lot of stuff, but when I asked her to get up the ladder and put some of the boxes on my platform I had made by putting an old door on the rafters, she flatly refused.
I tried to tease her, but she just went all silent, and told me not to talk so loud about the snake, as he might get cross and come for both of us.
I knew that the villagers were scared of snakes, but thought that owls really freaked them out, as once when an owl sat on my fence, there was consternation, and nobody walked on the road passing my house for about a week, and when they started again, they threw kind of scared looks my way.
Then I began thinking of the strange looks people sometimes gave me, and how Danny's children would stand staring at me quite fearfully, and I realized that this people might think that I was a witch!
But If they thought that I was happy enough, as they would then not break into my house, as long as they don't decide to burn me on a stake!

Jan, after struggling for quite a few weekends to master the art of building, was now almost finished with his store room, and it was almost ready for the roof to go on. But as he was a bitty scared of the strong Haarlem winds, he decided to get help with putting on the roof.Charmaine said that her cousin was just the person for that, and in due time this young guy appeared, and between the two of them, the roof was up in no time, and Jan strutted around like a young cockerel, very proud of his handiwork.
Then it was decided that Jan and Nina would get two dozen chicks from a very reliable chicken farm, and I could have two of the hens, if there were indeed hens amongst them. They opted for Kuk-Kuks, a very hardy breed, but also the most quarrelsome and bloodlusty birds , as they found out later when the cute little chicks grew up.
In the meantime I was walking around with murder in my heart against Sheila's bally peacocks, as they were the most gluttenous horrors, and also the most sly and wily thieves. My Strawberries was just too big a draw for the pesty birds, and when I lost another batch of almost ready fruit, I declared WAR! I collected a whole stack of suitable stones, and practised a whole afternoon to get my aiming abilities with shooting a catapult up to scratch, and that night I donned my warmest clothes, and with a flask of coffee, made myself comfy between a clump of arum lillies, my catapult ready, and my pile of stones gleaming ominously in the moonlight.
The time went very slowly, and it was bitterly cold, so I went to get myself a warm blanket, and my warm gloves, as my fingers were so stiff from the cold that I wouldn't have been able to shoot any bally birds! That was a lot better, although time rolled on too slow, with no sign of the birds, but I decided to stay put, as I was sure the peacocks were on the look-out, and would attack my half ripe strawberries the moment I threw in the towel!
It was cosy underneath my blanket, and I must have dozed off for a minute, but was almost scared out of my wits when somewhere close behind me, the most horrendous scream suddenly cleft through the silence of the night! I had clean forgot where I was, and felt around for my bedlamp, but felt only leaves and something pricking my hand quite nastily, and then I screamed! I could hear things running, and me by this time wide awake and remembering where I was, I got very, very murderous, grabbed the catapult and  swearing like a banshee, I flee over the field, telling the birds that I was going to kill the lot of them! Of course I never got one of my stones catapulted near one of them, and all I got for my effort was bleeding scratches and a lightly sprained ankle.
I was really at my wit's end, and when a friend of mine came for a sleep over, and told me that it looked so wonderfully exotic with the lovely peacocks, and I just snorted, she was quite upset with me, and asked me what happened to the animal lover she used to know.
That night the peacocks decided to fly onto the roof again, and when they started their wild screams in the early hours of the morning, said friend almost expired from fright and jumped into my bed, and I made us coffee, and sat talking to her until she had calmed down. She then understood fully why I do NOT like peacocks!

After phoning Irma about staying inher house, and asking if my frieds could sleep in her bed, as she had always hated strange people sleeping in her bed, and although Cliffie and Edythe were no strangers, I thought it best to ask, and she was quite ok with that.
So I settled them with coffee and started on the horrific task of cleaning up my kitchen. I stuck two rolled up pieces of tissue, sprayed with perfume into my nose, but it took a few long minutes to build up the courage to go into the house, but I knew I had to get rid of that overwhelming smell!
It took quite some time, me having to run out every few minutes to get some fresh air, but I managed to get all the stuff into bags, and then into another bag, so that the smell could not find a way out. Then into the bin, with another bag over the bin opening before the lid went on. I took out all the insid racks of the freezer and scrubbed it clean, but the freezer itself just would not loose the terrible smell. Edythe then said that a piece of black coal soaks up the smell, but where in Haarlem would I get that, i didn't know. Then Cliffie suggested washing it out with vinegar, and bicarbonate of soda, and that did help, but the smell was still very strong. I decided to leave the freezer door, and the house door open during the day so that the fresh air could circulate.
It was too late to find any shop open, but luckily I had stopped at Oudtshoorn for milk, bread, cheese, and a few small things, so that night we had toasted cheese sandwiches, and as my veggies were still giving their best, a lovely fresh salad, but I silently bemoaned the lovely treats that I would spoil them with.
My niece Sarina was coming the next morning, and would also spend a few days with us, then take the older people back with her to Cape Town.
I woke up very early with the birdsong so loud and happy, as if they they all came together to wish us a happy day. But above the birdsong I kind of made out a faint moan now and then, but when I listened to hear what it was, it went deadly quiet, so I went in to make coffee. Clifford was not in his bed, and as he was walking with difficulty, we got worried, as the stairs down from the veranda was very steep.
I then remembered the faint moans that I thought I heard, and stormed outside, wild thoughts of broken legs and arms or worse flitting through my brain, and I was so upset that I flew right passed Clifford without noticing him. After scanning the whole yard, then over to mine, I came back to the house to see if he was back, but found only a very worried Edythe, staring out over the valley.
Then I heard the faint moan again, and following the noise, I came upon Clifford who had fallen off the stairs and into a flowerbed that was built up quite high with rocks! He was lying on his tummy with his face in the flowers, and that smothered his voice and made it sound so faint!
Edythe and self tried for ages to lift him out, but he was a deadweight, and just when I wanted to sit down on the stairs and cry, Sarina arrived, and between the three of us we managed to get him out! He always had a very good sense of humour, and the moment he was out of the flowerbed, he looked at us with a naughty twinkle in his eyes, and stated that he was shooting roots in there, as I was taking so long to get him out.
Luckily he had no injuries, and it did not take long before his cramped legs were on the go again. It was very cold at this stage, and the two of them was sitting under small blankets and with thick winter clothes on, although it should have been nice and warm still, but after we had made a trip to Uniondale for food, the week went so well, and I was sad when Sarina pulled away, and the two faces looked back, waving furiously. I really loved those two !

I had now some good veggies right for eating, and was again surprised when a few potatoes that I had stuck in the ground yielded one impressive crop. Most of the small farmers here in Haarlem farm with potatoes, and adter my secind year of such a good crop, I realized why.

I had decided to fetch my dear friends Edythe and Clifford from Cape Town for a visit. They are quite a bit older than me, but they have been my crutch when I went through a very difficult patch, and I leaned heavily on them for support.

But first I had to go to George to buy some food and also some treats to spoil them with, as the shops around here keep only the basic foodstuffs. So I set off for Cape Town where I would stay a few days with Trienkie and Stephan, as I don't see too much of my small grandson, named Kian, after my husband.

Edythe of course do not really eat food, as she is totally addicted to chocolates, and she would cook a beautiful meal for Cliffy and me when I visit, but she herself will munch away on a chocolate slab. The strangest of all this is that she is now in her seventies, and never suffered with her liver, or for that matter, with anything. Where as self, after indulging a bit in some sweets or chocolates, would be suffering from bally bile for a week! But my weapon against that is of course Milk Thistle!

Anyway the first cloud on the horison was when just before entering Calitzdorp on the way back, we encountered a roadblock, and I was stopped.

The officer looked first at all my tyres, at my lights, the hooter, and my disk on the window, and then demanded my drivers licence. I smiled broadly, and took out my identity book in which I had always kept the licence, and I then became a worried woman, as today the pocket where it should be, was empty!

I started hyperventilating, as I always do, and later all the contents of my bag was lying on Edythe's lap, but there was just no license. The officer was getting fidgety, as his colleagues were stopping cars all the time, and quite a queue had build up. 

I then BEGGED!

The officer must have seen that I was sincerely wanting to produce the licence, and after some head scratching he told me that there was another road block about a hundred kilometers away, and he was going to let me go, and if I am lucky not to be stopped by that people, it would be my good luck, but he warned me to find the licence and keep it in the car always.

Phew! A few kilometers on it struck me like a thunderbolt that I had left my licence in Scotland with my international drivers licence!

Coming down the dirt road leading to my house, a ghastly smell blew in through the open windows, and the three of us made haste to close them. I told my guests that it must be another animal that had died and just left to decompose, and that I will phone Oom Vlei. the man in charge of the streets of Haarlem to come and find it, and dispose of it.However, when I got out to open the gate, it struck me that the terrible smell was actually coming from my house, and a terrible lameness came over me as the thought that it could be my freezer that had gone for a loop, took hold of me. 

I parked the car and told the two old people to stay put, as I had to investigate first. Oh Lord! My freezer door had burst open, I suppose from the gass that had built up from the rotting meat and stuff, and the whole freezer and kitchen floor was a mass of green meat and white maggots. Did some serious vomiting!

Being of Europian descent , it is not always easy for us to understand the way of the indigenous people, and that could lead to some friction. I am of French and Dutch, forebears, the Dutch under Jan van Riebeeck having started a fresh produce settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, to provide their ships that traded with the East Indies, with fresh vegetables and meat. They went on famously, intermarrying with the Hottentotte and "Strandlopers", and the ones who had no taste for that, had the ships bring back Asian women for them.
Then Belgium and the Netherlands decided that they could not cope with the protestant French refugees called the French Huguenotes, that were badly persecuted and murdered by the Roman Catholics in France, and ran for safety all over the world, and a lot of them were sent to South Africa, where their vine growing, and wine making skills made a big contrubution to the welfare of the Cape. My mother was a le Roux, and the le Roux's who came to the cape were all vine growers and wine makers.
Then, when everything was good and nice, The English caught wind of the welfare of the Cape, so they came and colonized it. The people there were left to the mercy of the English, and a lot of them, under which my le Roux forbears, packed up and moved North. Some of the le Roux's stayed, and are still making wine.
The lot that moved North had to overcome serious obstacles, like getting over some hectic mountain ranges, and fighting a lot of wars with the indigenous people, but they all settled on farms, and again all was good, after things were fought out and sorted with the black people already there. There was as yet no Black people in the Western Cape, then called the Cape Colony, so all this was strange to them. Then Gold and Diamonds were found, and before long the English moved in, and their wanting to colonize the Boere Republics, who traded internationally with the gold and diamonds, led to the Anglo Boer War, and when they could not beat the Boers into submission, they  burned their houses and took the women and children and their black workers into concentration camps, where about 29,000 died, of which 22,070 was children.. The men that were caught was sent to st Helena and India. The Boers had lots of friends, and a lot of Russians, Jews and Germans came to help them.The Boers however had almost no artillery or war weapons, and fighting the British Army with their meagre weapons was just not enough, and in the end, with their wives and kids dying in the camps, they signed the treaty of Vereniging with the British in 1902.
And they were left to fend for themselves!
That is how we came to be in Africa. But back to where I was about not always understanding the villagers and their ways.
Danny has this beautiful white horse that he used for ploughing, and this morning I had a fight with him because this horse had a piece of wire through his mouth, cutting into the flesh and that made his mouth bleed! But he stated that the land had to be ploughed, and the horse was used to the wire. I could see that the poor animal was in agony, being hit with a piece of hose pipe on top of all, so I srtipped my moer, (bolt) and told him that I was calling the SPCA. Danny just could not understand what I was whining about, as he was just doing what he should do, and that is trying to get his seeds planted.
Another thing that drove me mad was this practise of the villagers to tie their horses and cattle to a pole, and many a time I found no sign of water near them, neither were there any shade, and as the South African sun in summer gets scorchingly hot, we found it inhumane, but the locals couldn't understand our concern.
I am a source of great entertainment to the people here when I talk to Skramunkel and feed her fruit and carrots, and the children just can't help from gaping at me, and making remarks about the silly white Antie. (Aunty)

Having honed his skill as a builder on his barbeque, Jan decided to build up the old pigsties and put a decent roof on to use as a store room, as one thing the houses in Haarlem did not have, was storage! So in due course a whole batch of bricks were unloaded, then a heap of building sand, and Jan brought cement from George.
I think the moment the realisation got through to him of the immensity of the task he lost a wee bit of courage, and after two weekends of sitting on the stoep, contemplating the job in hand, he one Saturday morning got up even before Sheila's cock started crowing, got everything together, and started mixing the cement. He had this little cement mixer that they bought at an auction, but after struggling for some time, as this thing worked well enough, but it could only do small batches in one go, so that was discarded, and Jan was onto hard labour! He wasn't too fit at that stage, as living in a big city like Pretoria where they lived after coming back from Denmark, do not give one a lot of opportunities to stay fit, and on top of that, he sat in front of his computer the whole day, doing his job. In no time he was sweating and heaving, but he stuck to it, and by late afternoon his face was burned to the likes of a beetroot, but he had built quite a few rows. He had to take down a few bricks every now and then, as his wall tended to go a bitty skew, but all in all he was doing fine.
In the meantime Ronalee's monster pig Rosy, was to go to a different lover, as the first encounter with a beau did not work out well for her, and it left the poor girl quite frustrated, and bad tempered, while her beau just went happily with the next girl that was brought to him! This time they had found her a lover worth ten of the other one, as he was just about as big as Rosy, and according to his loving owner, a real stud!
A problem arose when it came to getting Rosy to her love nest, as she wouldn't get onto Ronalee's truck, and she was too heavy to lift, and also too dangerous, as she was one bad tempered pig when upset, and maybe she remembered her previous drive to the other male, for she went for the workers with intent to harm!
In the end the owner of the chosen one came with his sleepwa (open trailer) as that was not so high, stating that he had got a lot of disgruntled pigs onto this, and that it would be easy to get Rosy to get on. Mmmm! After struggling for ages, it was decided to remove the sleepwa's back wheels, and then herd the virgin Rosy onto it by forming two lines, brandishing whatever each of them could find. It worked, well, not after a lot of swearing abd yelling, and Rosy screeching fit to raise the dead, but eventually the wheels could be put back on, and the bridal group were off!

The morning had just started breaking when I was up and ready for planting my shrubs and my vine! If you want to achieve anything outside, it is to get your bum out of bed at about five, as by eight it was too warm, and you have to look for shade!
Jan and Nina have been very nice, and they had put up a pole fence for me in the front, and that was really nice, as the chicken wire of the old fence was full of holes where the village's street dogs crawled through and upturned the rubbish bin, tearing open all the bags, and generally made a heck of a mess!
I had some what to me sounded like good advice, and that is to mark out where you wanted to have a garden patch later, then bury all your food left overs, leaves, peels and fruit cores all over the patch, then leave it till the next planting season to decompose. Have only started now, so will only know a year from now whether it works.
I was working happily, outdoing the birds with my singing, well, I think they all flew away when I started, when I heard a roar like an angry tiger from my children's side, and after I had jumped about a meter from sheer fright, I rushed over to see what on earth had warranted that roar!
Nina was the angry tiger, and Skramunkel the little minx was the cause of all that shouting! This girl was standing just far away from the fence so that the stick Nina was brandishing around could not touch her, and her eyes were closed in ecstacy as she slowly chewed something green of which a piece was hanging from her mouth! Nina on the other hand was redfaced and her eyes spit fireballs as she stood shouting angry abuse at the horse, too scared to go into the camp, and looking fit to kill.
Apparently she had got up and walked out to have her coffee outside, when she noticed Skramunkel busy eating away on their almost ready to use veggies. The horse had neatly manouvered her head in between two two lines of barbed wire, and had a feast on the young veggies, and now stood there as if in a bally trance, quite unaware of poor Nina's ranting and raving!
I had to smother a smile, but the scene was so funny, with Nina looking murderous with her huge stck, and Skramunkel at one with the world, apparently not even aware of any wrong doing. From then on it was war between the two of them, as Skramunkel was a real minx, and just waited till all was quiet, then she would ever so nonchalantly shuffle up to the veggie garden fence, turn her head delicately from side to side until it glided through between the barb wire, and take a clump of leaves between her pouted lips, then chew it slowly and with relish. If she got wind of Nina coming, she would try and quickly get her head out, and the clumps of reddish hair hanging on the barbs was evidence enough of her sins!
That weekend when Jan came home, it was to find a very cross wife, and a loving horse, who looked at him with eyes full of love and innocence. He then decided to put up a fence of chicken wire to see if that would keep their precious veggies safe. I felt for them!
But for this weekend Jan had a project to do, and that was to build a temporary barbeque, as South Africans can just not live without their weekend barbies.

Frogs and brooms

Jan and Nina went on very well, considering they were both two town dwellers. It must have been worse for Nina, because she was alone during the week, as Jan stayed in George for his job.
But over week-ends it was like a beehive over there, as they were clearing and planting, and doing things around the house, and that house needed a lot of tlc! As they had been clearing a piece of land for a veggie garden during the holidays, it wasn't long before their seedlings had grown into looking very good and healthy indeed.
One morning Nina and self decided to go to the small gardening shop in Uniondale, where one could get a few things for the flower garden, mainly roses, as Uniondale is well known for it's beautiful roses.Fortunately Haarlem, as cold as it was during the winter, had also a good rose climate.
We were all nicely scrubbed up, hair combed and lippy on, ready to go, when a guy selling grass brooms came in to see if we would buy, and I did, as this brooms made by the locals are indeed good for sweeping outside, and for giving the carpets a quick clean if one is too lazy to take out the vacuum cleaner.
I had a good look to  find the strongest made one, and happily put my hand in my bag to get my purse out, but it was definitely not my purse that I felt, but a kind of cold, and dry and rough thing that wriggled as I touched him! I am not a screamer, I hyperventilate easy, but scream, no! But that Day I showed Haarlem that I had a voice ten times as powerful as that of the drunk women who shouted such obscenities at each other in the middle of the night on their way home after a good time at a shebeen! And Nina, who got the fright of her life, not knowing why her reasonably calm mother in law was screaming, joined in, and we put up a very decent show indeed. Andreas then joined, and the man selling the brooms must have thought it was the tokkelossie, and he gave a shriek and legged it down the road, with the broom I wanted to buy!
After some good and wholesome using of the old lungs, we stopped, and I went to retrieve my bag that I had thrown a good five meters, and with Nina and Andreas standing on the other side of the fence, I put on my long waterboots and then very gingerly turned the bag upside down!
I waited with baited breathe for the monster to climb out, but what did climb out was not a monster, but one huge, very ugly, and very upset frog, who would easily have qualified for the Olympics, as he got himself into a longjump position, and before I could do anything, he jumped up to the door and disappeared into the house! Was indeed glad that I didn't have a bigger audience, as Self felt a teeny bit silly, but as Nina screamed just about as loudly as myself, she couldn't tell the story as it was without implecating herself!
I will explain about the Tokkelossie. According to black folklore the Tokkelossie is a very small man who come in the night to kill people, for no reason anybody ever found out. But as he was so small, they put their beds on bricks to make it higher so that the little man could not get to them. When I was small I always wondered why the workers on the farm all had their beds on two rows of bricks, but when I asked my little black friends, they just shrieked and told me not to ask about it, as the Tokkelossie will get cross and come and kill them in the night!
Anyway, after I made us a cuppa so we could calm down, we set off. It was a glorious day, and the countryside looked so pretty dressed up in green and red and yellow! As the fruit season was now over, the trees had begun to take on their Autumn colours, and specially the peach farm up the road looked like a touched-up picture with it's red, orange and yellow colours!
I bought a few plants, and also a vine that I wanted to plant at my front door so it will rank along the wall and frame my front door. Always wanted a vine, and hoped that Haarlem would not prove too cold. Also a few flowering shrubs for my front garden where I had started the rockery!
That night the thought of what could have happened if the broom man didn't come, and I touched the bally frog in the bank, as that was where we were first going, kept me awake till the early hours of the morning!

kids and fish ponds

Irma left for Belgium at the beginning of February, and I was quite okay with looking after the kids, they being at boarding school, and only home over week-ends. I had started again on making the hole for my fishpond, as my goldfish were still in my pond at the flat, but I can't leave them there forever, although my tennants loved them, and as I buy their food, didn't mind feeding them.
It was hard going, as once more I encountered a layer of some biggish rocks, and it took some hard bearing and swearing to get them out, but once through that, there was only a lot of small stones to get out, but that was still hard work, and I took it in sessions.
Kiana brought home a friend for the week-end, and as they needed pocket money, I gave them the opportunity to earn some, and deepen the hole. Not one of the two were really big girls, and I could see that they were struggling a bit, not used to some manual slog, but they stuck to it, and by the time I took them back on the Sunday night, my hole was almost ready, and they complained of the blisters on their hands. As I had given them each a pair of garden gloves to work with, I didn't show too much sympathy, just gave them some ointment to rub on.
I intended to plaster the hole out with cement, but Hannes convinced me to first try out a piece of black builder's plastic, that being very thick and strong, as he reckoned that it worked better, as cement-made ponds usually spring a leak if it cracks. So off to the co-op, and it wasn't long before I had the plastic sheet fitted, but I just hated it! It did look a lot better once the pond was filled up, so I left it for the time being, to see what it looked like once I had some plants growing.
I asked Jan to help me with the poles for the roof of the little space where Charmaine and self planted the poles, and he gave our poles one look and asked me why they were so out of line. As it was quite a sore point with me, I just snorted and told him not to worry about the poles, as he was a perfectionist, and looked all set to replant my pole. I had waited so long for the roof to go on, and was not going to let an out of line pole hamper my joy in having a place outside to sit, so after grumbling a bit, he had the poles fixed, and helped me with my temporary roof, that being some thick transparent plastic and shading net above that. I planned to later put up a reed roof, but money being a bitty scarce at the moment, that would have to wait.
I again had a bumper crop of tomatoes, and it seemed that Ronalee was right when she told me that the cherry tomatoes had no natural enemies, as they just ripened beautifully, without a mark on them, while my other ones had to be treated from the moment they started flowering.
The weirdest coloured peaches ever, ripened again on one of Irma's trees. I have never seen the likes of it, as their flesh were cherry red, and they ripened very late in the season. I desperately wanted a tree of that kind, and when small plants appeared beneath the tree, I took some out to try and grow it on my land. Only one of them took, and I was elated!
The top photo shows the pond in the tiny garden of my flat.

The children bought a lamb together, as they do a lot of barbequeing over this time, and to buy meat from the butchers was very expensive, and they all sat around the table to sort out the different cuts, and devide it. It was a lovely time, albeit bitterly cold, and that was strange, as Xmas in South Africa was during mid summer. But we donned jackets and warm pants, and sat shivering outside around the barbeque fire, that is of course only until the meat was done, and then we stoke up the fire to rival the fires of old nick!
New years eve we had our yearly get together with the neighbors and friends, who had all to do a little number, whether it was singing, dancing, telling a story, or recite a poem. Everything went! I of course always did a poem, as sing I just could NOT. I remember when I was about nine years old, there was a song called 'Patches' that I loved to sing, and I really gave my all in pushing out what was to me the most beautiful notes ever heard, but usually my mum would tell me to go and make that funny noises outside, and one day I heard her tell my aunt that she thought I was funny in the head , as I was making a lot of strange noises! I was hurt, but my sister Lida gave me a good clout one day and told me to stop my caterwauling, so I stopped regaling them with my beautiful voice, and swore that one day when I was famous, they would not be invited to my shows.
However, the year of leaving primary school our class was to do a song for the rest of the school on our last day, and I was in my element, giving it my all, when the teacher told me to just open and close my mouth, but not to make any noises! So there, my ambitions were nipped in the bud at a young age, and until today I never sing when I know there was people around! That is one of the reasons I loved Haarlem, as I could sing at the top of my voice, and not one of the animals had ever snorted, or ran away!
After the new year revelling Jan had to go back to Pretoria to finish a project, and Nina stayed behind with the kids. Renè was to go to Uniondale boarding school with the other kids, and seemed happy enough, although he was used to a Danish school, and this was a typical Afrikaans school.
It was I think hard on Nina, being scandanavian, and used to shopping malls and other amenities, as living on Haarlem, where you can't just plug in your tv and it works, as you needed a dish, there being almost no reception, and for her to be derived from her computer must have been quite traumatic, as they had to first get all kinds of gadgets.

But she took it like a Trojan, and never complained.
One night, just before Stephan and Trienkie left for their home in Cape Town, I was woken up by loud knocking on my door, and there was Nina, highly traumatized, asking me to come with her, as Jan, who was on his way back from Pretoria, had an accident. I was shocked, running around in circles looking for my keyes, when Stephan woke up and asked the reason for this nightly racket. He said that he would drive us while Trienkie looked after the kids.
I got so frustrated, as Stephan was driving so slowly, whereas I would have almost did some low flying to get too my child, and after I let out a few hints about his slow driving, he told me that he would not go faster and have another accident. I only found out from Trienkie later that he was suffering from night blindness!
There was a lot of police vehicles and an ambulance when we got to the scene, and I just collapsed into a bout of crying when I saw my child standing upright, not showing any signs of being hurt.
The car was a complete mess, all scrunched up, as Jan had fallen asleep and the car went off the road and down a three meter ditch before rolling for another about ten meters.
He was lucky, as he had his safety belt on, and came away with a few broken ribs and a lot of bumps on his head where his coffee mug had hit him every time the car rolled over, making the mug fly around!

I felt a bit sorry for my kids, who lived for so long in the minimilistic and cleancut style of Skandinavia, specially Nina, who is a Dane, as they now began to realise that coming for a visit over Xmas, and actually living in Haarlem, was two completely different things! They were scratching around all over like two chickens without their heads, but not actually accomplishing much.

The new room to their house was done, but not before my endurance and temper was severely tested, as Skramunkel, being a very clever horse, managed to open the gates a few times a day, then terrorise the poor workmen before she slipped through the hole in the fence, and to freedom! And every now and then I was out there in the dusty road, in hot persuit of the errant horse, yelling and behaving like a bally banshee, with Skramunkel enjoying the chase and making a bally cake of me, as she would suddenly, usually when there was an audience, came up to me all lovey dovey to be led home!
She loved Karel, however, and would follow him around, now and then cuffing him playfully with her head, but never with any intent to hurt, although he sometimes staggered a bit! She was indeed a strange little horse, as I think she thought herself a human, not having known any other horses, only seeing them grazing past, but never interested to interact with them. Sheila's cow Josie was still the most important being in her life, and when the cows pass the gate and she was in the yard, she would thunder up to the fence or the gate, and Josie would actually lick and cuddle her, and she would nudge and cuff the cow! It was indeed a strange love, but if it was not for Josie who almost willed the little horse to live when we first found her, Skramunkel wouldn't have made it.
But I was becoming quite worried about her, as nobody but me and Irma and the kids were allowed in her camp when she was in there, so when we wanted to take people down to the river, she had first to be moved to my place, where she got so lonely, and then gallop round and round, and I was scared that she would hurt herself.
Irma got notice that she had to vacate her house at the Nelson Mandela campus, as it was actually a student's house, and they had an overload of students that had to be housed. That threw all her plans awry, as she was not planning to live at Haarlem permanently yet, as her work was in George. So she, Karel and the kids were all busy decorating and cleaning, and fixing, poor Karel walking around with his spirit level, lamenting the fact that everything, even the walls were skew.
We laughed a lot at Karel, who is a very tall man, as he had to wear some of Irma's working jeans, and that jeans were about a foot too short, making him look funny indeed, but Skramunkel loved him all the same!
Kristani and Kiana was trying to make Skramunkel used to the saddle, as they wanted to ride her. It was an uphill struggle, but after a week of leading her around with the bit in her mouth, and the saddle on her back, she was indeed looking to be  playing along, then they tethered her to the Pepper tree, and took it in turns to just sit on her. After some hectic snorting, the horse capitulated, and they kept that up for another few days, when we all thought that they could try and ride her just in the yard.
She was calm when Kristani climbed on her back, and Kiana loosened the rope, and she then very sedately walked up to the gate that was open, then gave one big snort, and started kicking up her back legs, and neatly got rid of Kristani, who landed in the dirt road with a resounding thud.
As the horse then walked calmly back in, straight to her camp, I was really getting worried. She was not the most good tempered horse, and she had a really vicious way sometimes, and I just did not have the knowledge to curb that!

It was now nearing Xmas, and the fruit were ripening beautifully, my roses were a joy to behold, and my mouth was already watering for a taste of the apricots that would be ready first. My plums were also getting red cheeks, as they were ripening just after the apricots had given us a last sweet taste. The birds were quite a menace, as they are so clever, they waited patiently till the fruit were soft, and then they move in, swoop down and take pecks at just about all the softest bits. I don't mind them having some, but if left we would not have even one apricot without their beakmarks. So like the previous year we again hung old cd's on the trees, and as Haarlem always has a breeze, the birds were scared of the shiny things dancing merrily around, and just sat on the fence watching for their rivals to leave. We did leave one tree for them, as we could definitely not use all the fruit, and like us, I think they also waited the whole year for this time, but oh no, they preferred the trees with the cd's.
Then Karel, Irma's beau from Belgium arrived, and they came to stay in her house till after Xmas, as Jan and Family were also coming and also Trienkie and Stefan.
Karel is of course a true Europian, and he just could not get used to everything being skew, and were offering advice about how to tackle the problem, but as I had implemented many plans to straighten a few doors and windows, without success, I just smiled and left him to work out the problem. We christianed him Karel Waterpas (spirit level)!
When he saw my window, which I had made a frame for, and me not good with the measuring, made to small, then nailed a piece of pine in on top, and covered this frame with calico, painted it with acrylic paint, and still had to get a decent frame and glass, he almost had an attack of the vapours, and told me that before he went back, he was making me a frame, and then I could take it into George to have the glass put in.
As the house was so old, it had sagged here and there, leaving a gap of about five centimeters on the one side of the door, and the bottom was then sawn off  to fit into the door. So was all the other doors, but there was nothing to do with the windows, and when the winterwind blew in through the huge gaps, I almost froze to death. However, I now hang all my winter scarves where too much wind sneaks in, and that help a lot! So poor Karel Waterpas walked around their house with his spirit level, as he just did not know where to start, him not used to skew walls, and skew doorframes, and lots more skew things, he had a permanent frown on his face! It did take all of us some time to accept the skewness, and try and live with it, as the houses were about a hundred years old!
When he started on my window frame I could see that the poor man was actually very much rattled, as he had to make the frame skew to fit in the opening, and I just don't think he knew how!
Jan and Nina came, and had to sleep in my down bedroom, as they had no furniture in their newly finished bedroom yet.
The first morning after their arrival, Nina told us that she almost died of mirth during the night, as just when they were cosily in bed, a huge spider crawled out of the thatch and sat looking down on them with it's beady eyes, just about right over Jan's head. If their was one type of thing that my son really feared it is spiders and moths, and he apparently got into a panic, and as the roof was too high too reach, he got hold of the child's pea shooter, but this thing was shooting out little arrows, and bombarded the poor spider with that, almost trampling Nina and the small Andreas in the process!
Luckily the spider seemed to know what was good for him, and left out of his own free will, but Jan slept with his head under the blankets the whole night!
We then drew a piece of calico over the rafters so that mr. Spider could not sit menacing my boy by stationing himself again right above their heads!
Irma was blooming, and I was so happy that she had found someone, but also fearful, as she would have to move to Belgium if they got married.
Irma's kids were almost guilty of the early demise of Karel, as they put a dead spider on his shoulder, just to see how he would handle it, and Kiana stood ready with the camere to capture the moment.
Tembi, the Madam of the canines, was looking terrible, and even more like something from a horror movie, as the mud had a great fascination for her, and she was for ever either taking a mud bath, or rolling in Skramunkels dung!

Rockeries and molesnakes

It took a few days of furtive skulking and ducking and diving, but I managed to collect a few nice big stones for my intended rockery without being spotted by the guardians of the roadside rocks, and of course all other things connected with fauna and flora. As the ground slopes down quite steeply, I had to pack my rocks so that I could even it out with some soil so that the water would not just run away, taking the soil with.
It was hard work, and the sun of course did not play along by hiding behind a few clouds, as the clouds were also not playing with, well, there were no clouds! I was one tired burned to looking like a beetroot, and dried out like a biltong (beef jerkey) woman when after two days of really hard slog, I had managed to arrange my rocks looking almost natural, with a few nice pockets where I could plant some succulents and also some flowers, and maybe some spinach and other stuff. I had to cart up some river sand to put into the cavities first, that being quite deep, before the mixture of sand, soil and compost went in. I had a few flowering shrubs that I wanted to put in somewhere in that part of my garden, but I was so pooped after the path and the rockery that I stayed inside and did some sketching and little household chores for a few days to build up some stamina.

My strawberries were ripening, and it was again a war between me and the snails, and of course me and Sheila's bally peacocks, who are very sly, and I now and then caught one of them spying through the trees, I suppose to see how far the berries were from being plump and ripe enough to eat.
The snails were fearless, and as I had found by now, total teetotallers, as not even one of them drowned in the amber liquid that most people swore to, and I even tried out different ones, like Black Lable, Windhoek, Pilsener, ext to give them a variety.
When I was able and ready to commence with the planting of my rockery, I first plastered self in a good layer of sunscreen, as I still had blisters on my lip and above my eyes from working without any protection, and I had a wee bit of discomfort!
I decided that I didn't like the shape of one of my planting pockets on my rockery, so was going to just rearrange a few stones, and was seeing in my minds eye the wonderful sight this will be when planted, when, lifting a big stone, I just saw this longish thing move, and then it turned into a kind of circle, and this thing then came rolling straight at me.
Look, I am quite courageous, but when such a strange creature, looking half snake and half worm comes  rolling at me with intent to hurt, I down tools, and I RUN! And I was not silent either, as when I looked behind me and this thing was at my heels, I let out a very thin, very high, and very loud scream of terror before I legged it at breakneck speed to my door. I stood shivering, waiting for this alien thing to start banging on the door, but all was silent, so I opened the door and had a peep, but all was quiet and peaceful outside.
That was the end of me lifting any rocks again that day, and after about five cuppa's, I went outside to see if that monster had gone back under his stone, or lying in wait for me, and exhaled thankfully when there was no sign of it. But I was now too scared to go anywhere near the spot where this thing came out, and decided that the pocket that I thought did not look nice, did after all not look so bad! Ha-ha!
Later I walked up the road to Ronalee who had plants for me, and we had a good laugh when she told me that my rolling monster was nothing else than a very harmless snake called a 'tabak roller', in English I suppose it would be a 'tobacco roller, why it is so called I would not know.
So I spent the next few days planting, watering, and watching out for snail;s. Will maybe have to convert back to snailbait if they refuse to take a tipple at the little bowls of beer, and then fall in and drown!

Stone path

As all my veggie seedlings were in, the strawberry patch was cleared of weeds, and the runners all planted out, I then decided to do what I meant to do from the start, and that is laying out a small path from my backdoor to my lean-to that Charmaine and self were still not able to finish, as we couldn't get the roof poles up onto the poles we cemented in, so I was at that stage still waiting for any unsuspecting male to come and visit so I could commandeer him up!
My little Spark, who try valiantly to master the act of conveying me over the dirt roads, and never gave a sign of being unwilling, had only an eight hundred cc engin, so going out into the veld and collecting stones was quite a hazardous operation, as with a boot full of large stones, and that boot so small it can't even take my suitcase, that always having to sit on the back seat, it took a lot of gear changing and coaxing to get home.
Then one day coming from Misgund, a little village not far from Haarlem, I saw a huge heap of just the right size stones lying invitingly next to the road, where they had scraped it, and from then on my collecting was made much easier. I was also collecting bigger rocks for the rockery I wanted to make next to the fence looking onto the road, and I found some beauties of the right size for that too.
But I had to be careful, as one is not allowed to pick up any stones on public grounds, and I was a bitty scared, as one day when still living in Strand, my niece Sarina and I went out to find a few river stones for my garden. I was just rising up after picking up a big, white, round stone, to find a man in uniform standing like a bally statue so still, watching me very sternly.
He then demanded to know what I was doing with the stone, and I managed to find my voice that was gone from pure fright, and said that I just wanted a few stones for my rockery! He then said that he is just waiting for his superior, and if I knew that there was a big fine if caught redhanded! I was hyperventilating, feeling my teeth chatter, while Sarina was talking the biggest lot of nonsense, I think to get his attention a bit away from me.
When his very stern superior came, I told him my story, and he peeped into the car where only three stones were lying on the back seat. On asking me if that was all I wanted, he scratched his head, looked at the other man, who nodded his head, and then he said okay, I can have the three in the car, but to go straight home, and never try stealing stones again. I was very, very relieved that he didn't ask me to open the boot, as that was loaded to the brim with a lot of stones. I was at that time still driving a big Ford Siera.
So when I stopped at this heap, I got out of the car, leaving the back door looking onto the stones open, then I casually espied the terrain, never giving the stones a glance, and then, when I was sure there was not one car in sight, I would quickly load a few, and when a car approached, just stood staring over the Karroo shrubs. Once a car stopped, and I cringed, as the stones lay openly on the backseat, glaring evidence of my crime, but I exhaled loudly and thankfully when they asked if I needed assistence!
First I had to take out all the grass where I wanted my path to run, and that took some vooma out of the old body, but it only took two days of hard slog, and I could lay it out. I was meaning to collect smaller pebbles to throw inside, but for now I was quite chaffed with my two days of backbreaking work, as it just gave another dimension to the bit of uninteresting garden. Then I started on the rockery along the fance, Looking out wherever I went for nice big stones.

I had to start on my front door again, as it looked terrible, but the sticky stuff between some of the paint layers was indeed a problem as my little electric paint remover did not lift it. So I went for help at the co-op, and they gave me some stuff to put on,and promised me that it would kind of liquidize the brown stuff, and then I could just scrape it off. It took a few days, but at long last, with a few nasty blisters on my hands, as the stuff the co-op sold me was quite hazardous to the skin, and burned like fire if it does manage to drip onto a hand or arm, I had that job done, and decided to paint the door and all the windows woodwork a light, kind of Frenchy blue.
The lot building at Jan's place were not very friendly towards me after the cement episode and I got a bit scared, as they sat watching my every move when they were on their lunchbreak. So I decided to let Skramunkel out to roam my yard, closing my eyes when she snacked on my roses, as I knew that nobody would dare enter my place when she was on the loose. I was feeling quite vulnerable, as Hendrix, being a Labrador, was everybody's friend, and as he is always looking for a snack himself, he was in a much too close friendship with the builders, hoping that they would throw a morsel or two his way.
My door looked very pretty, and being me, I painted a little design on it, maybe not the most stylish thing to do, but then, I have never cared much for being too stylish, much to Irma's disgust, as she did a lot of paintings for an interior decorator's company and worked in a close relationship with them.
Then I sanded down all the windows, and painted them the same blue, and suddenly my little doll's house looked like it should have been standing somewhere in the Loire Valley, or Provence.
Had a bit of a moment again, when I heard this terrible screams coming from the builders's sight, both from the men and Skramunkel, and found that the gate leading from Irma's yard was open, giving Skramunkel the chance she wanted since they started, to show them who ruled the homestead!

One man was busy scrambling up from the ground, I suppose from where the horse had downed him, while the others were outside in the road squealing like pigs being led to the slaughter, while Skramunkel was kicking and snorting, and tossing her head, her eyes wild and rolling viciously in her head. I ran as fast as possible to get her attention away from the worker to give him a chance to get out, as I'm sure she was out to do serious harm. She calmed down when I talked to her, and I led her back into the enclosure of the yard, and asked the workers why the gate was opened, as they had nothing to do in there. It must have been them, as the horse could not possibly do that, the gadget being of a nature that clicked in, and not like the other gates, where she could just lift the thingy with her muzzle, although I have never seen her open a gate.
I had a serious talk with Hansie the contractor, as it would be terrible if one of his workers got badly hurt by the horse. He was quite cool, and said that according to his men the horse opened the gate and attacked them, but I asked if he seriously thought that a horse could open it! So, with the lot glaring at me, I put a chain and a lock on the gate, so that I could have peace of mind!

Powdered bricks!

I went to George to get some provisions and also to get a few racks that I wanted to put up so I could store some of my little ornaments that my kids gave me when they were small, and also some of the hideous grizzlies I was given by friends and family through the years! I was just too much of a softy to want to hurt anybodies feelings, and felt too sentimental about my kiddies's offerings bought with there hard earned pocket money. But how anybody who knew me for over thirty years could give me African artifacts and huge Turkish copper kettles as presents I can not fathom out, as I had never bought anything like that for myself, but they did, and I was at a stage where I either had to remove them to where they were not conspicious, or get rid of them!
By lunch time the next day I was disgruntled and quite disillusioned! After working out where the best spot was for my rack, I measured out where to drill the holes, and very enthusiastically put the drillpoint to the first black dot, where I expected some resistance as the stones were quite hard, but ten minutes later I knew that there was nothing doing! The drill had gone through the plaster, but refused to go in any further, and as I was by now sweating and calling up to heaven for some help, but not getting any, I had to admit defeat, and look for another likely spot. The opposite inside wall was also earmarked for a rack to store some of my kitchen stuff, so I decided to put that up so long, and then look again for another out of eyeshot spot.
This time the drill went through plaster and bricks like a hot knife through butter, and it wasn't long before I stood proudly in front of four beautiful holes, complete with neccassery plugs. From there on it was easy, and it did not take many hours before the rack was up and screwed in. My poor shoulders were aching, as I had to hold the rack in place and put the screws into the plugged holes, and having no help, that was extremely difficult, but when at last I stood back to enjoy my handiwork, I was a proud woman!
My rack kind of wobbled a wee bit when I put the first canister on, and that thing did slide a bit , but I thought my measuring was out a bit, and hoped that the next object would steady the whole thing. It did, and after stacking all I could on there, I was standing praising the old self for a job well done, when, in front of my unbelieving eyes, the bally rack toppled forward, canisters and bottles of canned fruit and stuff scattering wildly across the floor. Hendrix, who lay next to the kitchen table watching all this with big amber eyes, put his forepaws over his ears as if to say, 'Oh please, please, stop this gedoente' (farce)
I was devestated, and after clearing away the broken glass and picking up the other stuff, I tried to find out what went wrong. The plugs with the screws had completely pulled out of the holes, and when I put my finger into one of the holes, I found that the bricks had deteriated to dust!
So that was that for some extra kitchen storage, and I then went from room to room with a hammer, tapping all the walls to try and find a spot where the bricks were still intact.
The only spot was in the back room which used to be a bedroom that I had in the meantime changed to my sittingroom, and this time I was lucky, as the bricks were still intact, and within no time my rack was on the wall, quite high up, as that was the only stable spot I could find.

Builders and bloops

Before I locked myself in for the night, that is of course when dusk starts falling, I went over to see if the fence was indeed closed up well enough to Keep Skramunkel in, but found the Haarlem Lover, that is of course Don Juan the spotted bull and his harem lustily tearing down the peach trees trying to get to the peaches that was coming on so nicely! It is just amazing how this lot are always just at the right spot, as, should I forgot to close the gate, within minutes this lot would be inside, munching away on the swelling fruit, the lush green kikuju at this stage not as nice as the trees! If they would only eat the kikuju I would have invited them in myself!
Took a lot of shouting and shooing, and later the hose to spray them, to get that lot out, but they did leave, not before scaring me good and well by making a few false attacks in my direction!
I was really cross, as I had asked Hansie so nicely to see that the fence was fixed so that Skramunkel could't get out again, but apparently they had just left it as it was. It was not easy to try and enforce the broken wire, as they had cut it, and soon my arms and hands were bleeding from the sharp ends scratching me as I tried to get the two sides together to bind it with a piece of wire. I was sweating, and swearing, and calling down the wrath of all the gods on this lot, when I accidentily bumped against the newly built wall with a big and heavy pole, and the whole bally thing collapsed! Nearly expired there and then, but managed to talk myself out of doing that, and I had a good look and feel at the cement between the bricks, finding that there was almost no trace of cement!
Then did I realize why they only build about ten rows of bricks, and then quickly plastered it! Bally scoundrels! So after making sure that the fence was able to keep Skramunkel inside, all the time being watched by Don Juan and his many wives waiting for me to leave so they could sneak through again, I phoned Jan and told him my findings.
The next morning early a very cross Hansie almost knocked my door down, demanding to know what the devil I was about telling my son such untrue stories, as his workers use a mixture of four to one, and it only hardens in about ten days! I told him flatly that his mixture was about four to nil, and that he had better check and find out why Haarlem's marijuana dealer in his white Mazda was stopping at the building site every day! I had a sneaky suspicion that the cement was swapped for marijuana, as I had many a time caught a whiff of it when the wind blew my way. I knew the smell, as one of my gardeners who worked for me for about fifteen years when my husband was still alive, regularly smoked it.
Hansie then told me crossly that as I had no knowledge of cement mixtures, I had better keep to my flower garden, so I exploded, and told him that as I had done all the building work when renovating, and also laid some of the floors, I had a good enough knowledge, thank You! He then strode away with big angry strides, maybe to tell his workers off for cheating, maybe to tell them to be more careful with the cheating! Who knows?
The compost heap that I found quite by accident, and where quite a few of the previous owners had dumped their rubbish, and that lying decomposing undesturbed for many years, proved to be of immense value, as my seedlings exploded almost overnight into healthy strong plants, with some already looking as if their flowers were forming.
I was now busy preparing the patch at my backdoor to plant celery, parsley, cucumbers and different salad stuff. A lot of the previous year's seeds had sprouted again, and I intended to thin them out, and replant some in another patch, or in pots.
I was looking forward to my veggies getting to the stage where I could just go out of my backdoor and pick everything needed to make a beautiful salad!

We had glorious days, the yellow sun blowing life into the fruit trees that were again in full bloom, but in spite of this I was a bitty under the weather this morning,as Sheila's bally peacocks flew onto my roof just above my bedroom, and let rip with some pretty awesome but scary calls all through the night
Bally things had not yet realized that they were not in the jungle anymore! I am now pretty accurate with my catapult and managed to get the last batch of pebbles to fly about twenty yards, almost, but not quite hitting the target! The only problem here is that this bunch of disturbers of the peace only came out at night to sit on my roof and check out their territory to see what was ready for them to steal, and I was scared to go outside at two in the morning to have a go at them with my catapult.
I have now cleared my Strawberry patch of all the bossies, planted out the new shoots, while  the older plants were already forming some flowers. I was adamant that neither the peacocks, nor the snails were going to ruin my crop this year, so I was busily looking for information, and making murderous plans as to how to outwit them! As the Scottish snails, being Scottish, loved their beer, I had drowned a lot of them after falling into the swallow holders I filled with the lovely stuff for them, But South African snails did not fall for that one! Maybe I should give them brandy and coke, as that was the favoured drink of our men! Well, they also drink a lot of beer with their barbeques, and that accounted for the huge tums hanging over their pants! I had tried putting hessian down underneath the plants, and that, according to one knowing person, would stop them as they hated the ruffness of the sack. I can tell in all truth that it did NOT work!
Halfway through the morning I was startled by an anguished human scream coming from the river, followed by the angry neighing of Skramunkel, and knowing how vicious she was towards strangers, I sprinted over to her camp to see what was happening! Almost convulsed when I saw one of the builders flying like an Olympic athlete over the rough field, trying to hold his pants up, with the horse in hot persuit. I was terrified, and ran to open the gate, shouting at the man to go faster, as I could see that Skramunkel was out to hurt him! The man almost flew through the gate, and I closed it quickly, feeling the wind on my face as the horse tried to get in a deadly kick!
I was extremely cross with the man, who said that he needed a toilet, and as there was no sign of Skramunkel, they thought that I had moved her to another camp, and that after I had told them to use the toilet in the house. The kids swim in the river, and we did not want it polluted!
I remembered when I just bought my place and were outside working, a man just came into our gate and started making his way towards the river. I was quite upset, and on asking him what he was doing on my ground, he said that he needed a toilet. I was not aware of any toilet down that way, but he said, No, they use the river! Wanted to shoot him, as we wondered at the terrible smells that sometimes greeted one down there.
So I told him not to be so bally lazy and dig a deep hole and make himself a longdrop, at which he looked at me as if I was telling him to fly!
Later when the contractor came to pick up his workers, I told him to see that the hole they made in the fence is closed properly every night. Through all this Hendrix kept his distance, I think he was clever enough not to look for trouble with Skramunkel!

Of fools and horses

I read yesterday in Rosemary mcConnells blog, about canning without electricity, and as I try to use as little as possible of that, I will surely try it this year.
Back to the past. I got up very early to plant some of the seedlings I had bought, seeing that I came back a bit late for the nurturing of seeds to a stage where I could plant them, as by nine o'clock the days work outside had to be done, as the sun was so warm it burns the skin off your body. Before dressing I took my coffee over to Irma's veranda, and on the way I picked a few of the most opened roses for my little girly called Skramunkel, and did not think it strange when she was not spotted immediately, as she sometimes grazed down at the river and out of sight.
I called and called, but their was no answering whinny, so I decided to walk down to the river and find her, and found that the gate to her camp was open, and a huge fright took hold of me, as there was such a lot of stray horses and as I have seen before, they did not easily accept a new and strange member into their clans. Knowing how spoiled Skramunkel was, I became really worried! Also the thought that she went through the river and onto the busy road was a scary thought, as a lot of the stray animals get killed regularly, and cause a lot of nasty accidents.
However the gate to the road was closed, and after a few minutes of hyperventilating a bit, as I usually do when stressed out, I pulled myself together, as the suspicion jumped into my numbed brain that maybe the builders had not closed the fence next to their building site after work the previous day, as they had to open up a hole through which to carry their stuff. On my way there I heard  Skramunkel neigh, and discovered to my dismay that she was standing outside in the road.
Armed with a bag of apples I went out to try and co-erce her back in, and she stood watching me, whinnying softly, and I was just about to offer her an apple, when she took off up the road.
So I followed her, thinking that she had noticed some juicy grass, as she now stood grazing contentedly about fifty meters up. Sure in the believe that she would come to me if she saw the apples, I walked up to her, all the time talking in my specially cultivated and cajoling voice that I used to calm her down.
But she just waited till I was about a meter away, then took off again, me in hot persuit, and came to a standstill about a hundred meters further, where she again stood munching, while I, after a very ambitious sprint up the steep road, stood gulping to get some air back into my lungs!
I tried again to get hold of her by showing her a beautiful Pink Lady apple, my patience by now running thin, and thinking some murderous thoughts, while my mouth crooned niceties to her that I was far from feeling! Believe it or not, the beast gave the apple a disgusted look, tossed her head, and took off again, this time turning into another road, and then came to a stop right in front of Johan's house. I was livid! And feeling foolish!
So I peeped round the corner to see if Johan's door was closed, for I was damned if I was going to make such a spectacle of self in front of him, as he had a zany sense of humor, and I would never hear the end of this. All was quiet, and I gave a sigh of relieve that it was so early, and Haarlem still fast asleep.
This time I did not speak nicely, but commanded the horse to stay put, or be shot! She had the effrontery to laugh at me, a long drawn out neighing and snorting that made my heart jump woestelik around from rage, before she galloped another fifty meters and I just lost it, and let rip with some of my most unmentionable swearing abilities ever!
That was it! I was so tired and cross, my thin slippers all broken and dirty, my feet hurting from the pebbles covering the road, that I decided to leave the horse to do what she liked, as by now I did not care whether she came home or not!
Halfway down to the house I heard Skramunkel galloping towards me, and fearing her attentions, as she had on many occasions made me sprawl by running from behind and sticking her muzzle under my armpit, I took cover behind a fallen tree, but she didn't even look at me, just galloped up to the gate, where she stood waiting, so calm and innocent, like sugar would't melt in her mouth. Thinking that she was still playing her little game, I opened the gate, and to my delight she calmly walked through, whinnying softly, and I was sure I detected a thickness, like when you want to laugh but dared not, in her voice! She then walked into her camp, picking a juicy rose on the way, which she chewed up with closed eyes, and this time I made sure that she would not be able to open the gate again.
I was so tired that I put off the planting of my seedlings till later when the sun was not so harsh!

Skramunkel

Not only did Irma finding her man delight me, but Jan also phoned to say that he applied for a job in George, and then Nina would stay in Haarlem with the kids, and he would stay in George, and come home on Wednesday nights and Fridays to Monday morning.
They decided to build on an extra bedroom, and Hansie, a builder from Uniondale was contacted, and they thought his quote reasonable, so he was appointed builder of the new room.
Skramunkel in the meantime had grown into the most beautiful little horse, but with a temper worse than the wrath of hell! As she was alone almost the whole time I was away, as Irma only came over week-ends, she was again so wild that I couldn't even touch her, and she would kick and give me a good cuff with her head, her whole body trembling, ripple after ripple running up and down her spine. I was so sorry for her, and tried to be patient in trying to get her to know me again. I talked to her a lot, and fed her my prettiest roses, and lots of carrots and apples, and within a few days she started responding, standing without shuddering if I stroked her, but still not happy if I went into her camp.
In due course the bricks and sand arrived, and one morning I heard Skramunkel yelling abuse at something or someone, and when I went out, found the little horse in a panic, watching about half a dozen men getting off a truck, and when she saw me she started running round and around the fence of her camp, putting up one terrible show of fury.
As she couldn't get out, I was not too worried, and went back to my place, hoping that she would calm down eventually, as the camp on my place was bare of grass, she having stayed there about all the time I was away so Sheila could keep an eye on her.
I had decided to make a kind of open lean-to at the back of the house where I could sit and paint, as I get a bitty reckless when my very shy muse visited me once in a blue moon, and I usually ended up with muse gone before the painting takes shape, leaving me disgruntled, with everything around me full of paint, as I would most of the time just paint over the masterpiece that would have been if my muse did not drop me!

So Charmaine came one Saturday, and after I meted out and put stones where the holes should be, I left Charmaine to it while I went down to the river to get sand, as the poles had to be cemented in. On coming back I went on with a few other things, made us a cuppa, and on my first glance at the poles I thought that they did not look to be quite in line, and I asked Charmaine if she made the holes where the stones were, as they looked out to me. She gave me a huge smile, showing her bare gum where the four front teeth should have been, and assured me that she did everything exactly as I told her, and as the poles were already standing, steadied with stones, just ready for the cement mixture, I left it at that. So we cemented the poles, me keeping them straight, Charmaine slapping in the mixture, and she was so proud of our fete, that I decided to not say anything more about the out of line poles, but with the intention of checking when she was gone. I made another cuppa, and some scones, and we sat in the sun, she telling me all the gossip going around the village.
Apparently in our Coloured community's culture, if a young girl sleeps with her boyfriend or for that matter any man before her marriage, her front teeth are removed so that she could not sin again, as everybody could then see that she is a loose woman, and stay away. Must say, if I was a young guy, such a toothless grin would fell any amorous intention, and I am sure that happened a lot. But how and so ever, Charmaine had a husband and three kids, and I thought one day after her telling me that he is never sober, that maybe it was time for a pair of false teeth, as her smile was not what one may in all honesty call alluring!
Charmaine then helped me take out the onkruid from my veggie patches, and when she left for home later, I took the tape measure, and found that the poles were about a foot out of line, but as I was going to plant a lot of  creepers and stuff around it, decided not to break my head over it.
The picture shows Irma and Karel  doing a bit of exploring.