And they were gone! It only struck me the next morning, as I usually got an early visit from little Emil, who would come struggling on his not too steady yet legs over the field, and then went straight to the cookie tin for his before breakfast snack. I felt so very alone!
But my self pity did not last through the morning, as I noticed that both Sheila and Danny's bally chickens were scrubbing away in my onion field. The poor onions had such a hard time already, and to be scratched out at this stage was just sacrilege to me, so I grabbed my catapult, and loaded with a bag of good sized ammunition I shot outside, and started on operation killing if possible!!! This two troops were actually in such a competition to get to the biggest earthworms first, and there was such a lot of wing flapping and crowing and cackling, that I got quite close to them before they realized that they were under siege, and took to their heels, cackling and crowing even louder, and making one heck of a racket. I am pleased to say that my aiming was up to high standards, as I actually got a few good hits!
Some of the onions were actually quite big enough to harvest, so I pulled them out, but a lot of them were still too small. As they were unearthed, the chickens having scratched out their roots too, I decided to pickle the smallest ones! But I was by now quite fed up with the neighbors and their livestock.
I then decided to put a work bench that Jan had given me into my small lean-to, but the thing was so heavy that I took out two small lavender bushes, and a lot of smaller flowering plants, dragging it all around the house to it's allotted final resting place! Must say, I would have liked either a strong man's help, or a pair of manly muscles on my own arms, but said poor body was beginning to sag in quite a few places, and where there used to be some muscle, it was now just a tiny bit wrinkly!

I was singing away on a jolly song, when something black and long and thin came wriggling from underneath a piece of oilcloth that I had laid to put a bag of cement on, in the hope that it would not go hard like the other bags before it. I was at first quite unable to realize that a snake was coming at me. Well, I suppose it only wanted to escape, but when realization dawned, I grew a pair of unseen wings, as on my own two feet I could never move so fast, or jump so high! The snake, still quite young, was quite beautiful, with dark markings down its body, but I think old enough to prick some poison into you. I don't know what kind of snake it was, have to look it up, but as we have a lot of dangerous ones, I decided to become more cautious!
Snake disappeared using the strawberries as an escape route, and self stood shivering just a tiny bit!
Standing there wondering if more surprises were lurking underneath the oilcloth, I noticed Sheila's male peacock walking a beat up and down in front of my house, and knowing that he was spying things out in connection with my just ripening strawberries, I picked up some more ammunition for the catapult, and waited patiently!

The day had finally arrived when Jan and kids were moving to cape Town, and I am silently crying, and crying. I would miss them so much, but he promised to come and visit regularly. But the morning when he pulled out of the gate with the trailer loaded to capacity, I felt my heart just breaking as I sat feeding Emil for the last time. I know it was impossible to stay in such a remote place, as it was always a struggle when I was away, and he had to go to Johannesburg or cape Town for his job, as there was now nobody to look after the kids. Andreas was okay, he had little friends whose mums could help by having him stay, but people are not so keen on looking after a very busy toddler. On this foto he took off down the dirt road, following a herd of cows, so he was not easy to watch.
Growing onions was a bally disaster! The growing was okay, but the many elements of distruction roaming around the Haarlem streets were just too much, and now I sit only with the onions that I had planted inside my enclosure that protect the home garden from said elements.
Of course the first disaster was when Mad Larry's pig forced his way in by enlarging a small hole in the fence, originally I think to eat the acorns, but maybe the fellow got bored, and tackled the onion field. I think, as there are millions of earth worms in the soil, that said pig was snuffling them out, with total disregard for my poor onions. Then, luckily after replanting a lot of the onions inside my home fence, Sheila's chickens with their enormous claws got inside my place, and also had a go at feasting on the earthworms, destroying another big portion of onions. After putting the fear of all hells into them by shooting wildly at them with my catapult, and the naughty things scattering over the field cackling and running for dear life, I thought that peace had at last come to me and my onions, the few that was left!
Then, one evening, Kevin, the man working for Sheila, knocked on my door, and asked whether I could open the gate to my onion field for him so that he could chase the cows out! I got quite hysterical, grabbed the keys, and shouting down the wrath of all gods on Sheila and her cows, I ran out to inspect the damage, and yes, the silly cows were inside, trudging all over my few remaining onions!

They had come in by flattening the fence adjoining the the river, but now they can't seem to jump the fence from inside my place. So that was the end of any hope of rescuing some of that lot, but the ones that I replanted inside, are doing fine!

The year is running like a bally rabbit to its end, and there were such a lot of things I still had to do! It was my birthday Yesterday, but it was raining and storming so badly that I just stayed inside the whole day. Running with buckets to catch every new leak in my roof kept me very, very busy. Every time it rains like this, and I get a wee bit wet, and my bed gets a bitty clammy, I vow that I will have to find the money to repair the roof, but when the sun comes out again, and all are dry, I shift that problem to the back of my head. It is just to expensive to repair a thatch roof!
The children are now almost finished with their final yearly exams, and I walk around with my heart in my shoes. As soon as the exams are over, Jan will be moving to Cape Town, and I don't know how to go on without the kids that had become such a part of my life.
I sometimes forget that the little Emil is not my child, as I brought him up since he was five weeks old, when his Mum died. So it is with great trepidation that I watch Jan loading his hired tow-cart with furniture that he decided to take to his new home. Most of his furniture he had taken to the auction rooms, as Erna already has a house full of stuff. The rest was carted off every time he went to Cape town.
His house is also now on the market, and I hope that the new owners would be nice and decent. I have the strangest neighbors, of which Sheila must be the number one for strangeness. Through the years her cows had eaten every little tree I planted, and when one of her cows broke the cover of my sewerage, and almost drowned, and I told her that I will shoot and eat the first cow in my place again, she put up a stronger fence. But that did not keep out the bally goats, and they have torn down and destroyed my poor plum trees in one afternoon! Again I threatened to shoot them, and she then fastened the leader, a very smelly, and very randy billy goat, to a pole, from where the bally cheeky thing wagged his tail every time he saw me! If only he knew how close he was to be shot and eaten.
Of course, then Sheila got a few peacocks, and that bally things drove me to distraction, as they thought that my strawberries was planted especially for their cullinary delight! And of course on top of the fact that they ate all my ripe tomatoes also, they flew onto my roof every night, and on the dot three in the morning, let rip with the most scary jungle calls, making my poor heart beat very fast and irregularly! Small wonder I now have to have a shock to get my heart back into rhytmn!
So at the moment Sheila and self are not talking! At first she kind of turned her head away when she came face to face with me, but lately she had started to give me a kind of a half hearted flick of her hand, but this is not accompanied with any smile, or eye contact! Oh well, I will live it down, but for now, I am sad, as Jan's house is all packed up!

Summer is here at last, and not a moment too soon. This was a very cold very wet winter, and if it wasn't for my faithful hot water bottle, I would have been frozen stiff weeks ago.
The poor onions are one big disaster! After the pig got in and ruined almost a third of the crop, and with Bush not here to weed and look after it, the chances of making even a small bit of my outlay back is just about nil. Specially after Sheila's two old nasty cows, Jessy and Cassy flattened the fence, and made a feast of everything they could curl their tongues around.
I have decided to plant some sweetcorn, so weaponed with all the necessary tools and seeds, I manfully started on the mammoth job of getting the soil ready. Not easy, as the sun is hot and the soil where I want to plant, quite hard. The previous day I had Nickey, a man from the village to help clear the requiered piece of soil, but he only touched the surface, and now I still have to dig, and get all the weeds out. Sometimes it is just better to do things yourselve , that way you save a lot of money, and a lot of angry thoughts!
Nickey is one of the village's hardest drinkers, and he is badly ridden with gout or whatever it is that cheap wine causes, Whenever he is drunk, he, according to his wife Grietjie, chases her with knives and hammers, and all kind of harmful stuff, threatening to kill all of his family. But, when sober, she said, he is the best husband ever! he walks with a stick, his toes and ankles too sore to put too much weight on them, and whenever I told him to stop drinking so that his joints can heal, he just gives a kind of sinister giggle, and looks away into the distance.
My beetroot is a huge success, and I will have a bumper crop. Trienkie's mother in law makes the most wonderful spicy beetroot, and I am waiting for the recipe to make my own. I was kept well in stock of this, as Trienkie always gave me some when she got her share. However, Stephan's parents have now sold their sheep farm, and live in town, so I think I planted my crop just in time, as there will be no more bottles coming.
My strawberries are the best ever! Now that the peacocks and other beasties, like the chickens and snails are contained, My catapult however is always lying ready, and it is so funny when the one remaining peacock makes its way very slowly, and very carefully towards my veggie beds, just to be confronted with me and the catapult! That poor thing can really outfly any bird when he takes to the sky to get away from me! The chickens are also very wary, and when they see me coming, scatter in all directions. I have long ago stopped trying to co-erce the snails to become beer drinkers, and then drown while a bitty high, and now feed them snail bait that works perfectly.

It is raining, raining, raining! And it is bitterly cold! I had a warm bath, and are now dressed in two pyjama pants, vest, pyjama top, jersey, and fleecy jacket! In South Africa, before all the climate changes, we never had such long winters, and although the nights were always cold, it was never as cold as this. That is why the older and most new houses, have no heating system, and we have to rely on heaters and fires to warm us up, but as both wood and electricity are very expensive, we maar dress up, and I sleep with two hot water bottles.
 Jan is now almost ready to go to cape Town to live, as most of his stuff had been carted there every time he drove up. My heart is aching, as I will miss both him and the kids something terrible.
But I am on the other hand, a very happy woman! my veggy garden is thriving, that is after I planted my seedlings in furrows lined with shading net. At last I think I have the solution to the ever increasing numbers of the creeper moles that destroys every little plant in their way by tunneling the soil from beneath the roots.
I have also planted my strawberries in the shading net lined furrows, and I now have healthy, sweet strawberries every morning. I have again started making myself a smoothy with fresh fruit and yogart every motning, as there are now more fresh fruit in the shops. In the towns of course there are always fresh fruit, but as I live so far from a town, I have to make do with what I can find.
The onions look to be a complete flop! Bush came back from Zimbabwe on Sunday after an absence of a month, and the onion beds are overgrown with weeds. I have done a lot of weeding, but with the rain we are having, the weeds grow like bally, well, weeds! The onions that I planted in my home garden however are thriving, and I spend a lot of time trying to keep them weed-free.
I do not understand the people here. I got Kevin, who are without work, and whose wife told me he beat her up regularly if she refuses him drink money, to come and do some weeding. He worked till one, told me he was off for his lunch, and never came back. Next morning early he was at my doorstep wanting the money he worked for the previous day. No word of why he never came back, no excuse, just a breathe that almost knocked me over!
Bush came over on Monday, wringing his handas, and told me that we must get the tractor in to plough for the potatoes, but I sent him on his way, as he was not a bussiness partner one can believe in. The rocket that I planted the previous year went completely crazy, and are bent on taking over the whole garden, but as their flowers are quite nice, and the flowers in the garden a bitty on the thin side, I left it to flower. Quite like it, and of course I always have fresh rocket! But a few other flowers are also unfurling, and that shows that in spite of the cold, Spring is definitely here!

Had a busy morning chasing cows! in Haarlem of course nobody except  Sheila keep their animals in some kind of a camp or some such thing, and this sometimes result in the animals breaking the fences if it is not strong enough, But this time a big herd of cows came through the river again, and when I got up they were munching away on the peach blossoms that they could reach.
So, even before I could wake up with a cuppa, I had to don my outdoor shoes, that being a pair of platform step-in swede shoes that had seen better days, and are now used outside, because on days like this day, time to sit and fasten laces may result in big losses! Actually, my shoes are not that old, but I had bought it on a hot day when my feet were a bitty swollen, with result that I now have to wear them with thick socks, otherwise my feet slide forward, resulting in my toes peeping out so far that they actually touched the ground! As I can't go to town with step-in shoes over thick socks, I now use them outside, and feel that at least they were not a waste!!
This herd of cows are quite cheeky, and I don't blame them for not wanting to leave, as it was very dry up to now, and as the owners do not feed them a bit of extra hay or so, they are always hungry, and looking for a place to raid! So I was running around like a bally mad woman, as the herd had, I think, a quick talk, and decided that as there was no other human in sight, they would resist being thrown out. Luckily for me the cheeky young bull that gave me one terrible fright before, was not with them today, probably slaughtered and eaten by now, so I was not at all scared as I raced from one fruit tree to the other shouting abuse loudly and angrily, as I was never at my best before I had my coffee! But the beasts just neatly avoided my rocks that I threw at them, and laughed, I thought, at my attempte to chase them off.
In the end I resorted to the hose again, but for that I had to run all the way up to the opposite fence to open the irrigation water, as that was very strong, and the cows usually leave after a good squirt, I think it must have hurt a bit. But all this is hard work, as the heavy irrigation pipes had to be dragged all the way down to where the cows were, and only then could I open the hosepipes connected to them.
So by the time I had made my coffee, I had just enough energy to creep down to my wee lean-to, where I sat slumped, too tired to quite enjoy the beautiful songs my birds sang to me!
Then I saw a big, overgrown snail gnawing at one of my almost ripe strawberries, and I got so cross, I chucked it in a bowl of water, as I had no beer to drown it in!
So now I couldn't really enjoy my coffee as I should, as my mind was racing like a mad thing, trying to remember where I had put the little calico squares that I used the previous year to tie around the ripening strawberries!
Must say, Haarlem is just not the easiest place to try and be self sufficient, as between cows, and moles, and pigs, and snails, and goats and horses, and donkeys, and the owners of the life stock, you just need a lot of guts!

It is now three weeks since Bush went to his home country which is Zimbabwe where the headman of his tribe had died, and he had to go home for the funeral. Africa still has the forefather culture, and the people believe that their lives are guided by them. So of course sending a dead person off on the trip to meet his forefathers is very important, but it does not help me with the onions!
This crop needs a lot of hard work done in the weeding side, as the weeds that was dormant untill now, had decided that the onion fields are just the right place for them with lots of manure to feed on! I had now sat on my knees weeding for two days, and I am not even half way through. Because of all the weeds the onions do not grow as it should, and will now not be ready for another six weeks, if ever.
I am also cross with bush, as the last ones that he planted out will never be able to form onions, as he did not remove the stones before planting them. As we live on the foot and between two mountains, there are a lot of stones in the soil, and as this is just about jam packed, nothing can grow inbetween them.
But I have reason to smile, as my broadbeans are doing well, and I have already harvested quite a lot. Today I saw some of the plants were wilting, and found them riddled with aphids, and all the beans on them black and underdeveloped. I powersprayed them off, that is after I gave them a good dose of washing up liquid and left it for an hour. Hope that it did the trick, but I couldn't see any after the water spraying.
I am now doing with the broadbeans as I have so far done with the cherry tomatoes, and that is, I shell them and also freeze them in a plastic container, That way, like with the tomatoes, I just take out a handfull as needed, and hope that it works as well as the tomatoes!
The little Emil is now so very cute, and I sometimes feel very sad thinking that he doesn't have a mother to appreciate all his antics. But his gran and Berty his nanny make up, or rather try and make up for the absence of a mother, and as he is a happy, outgoing child, I think we are not doing to badly!
I am so amazed at my son, who, after the initial shock, just took charge of the kids, that is the two older ones, but now Emil is mostly sleeping at his own home, as we don't want him to feel that he has no place there, but that my house is where he belongs! So now Jan has full charge, and he is coping so well, and the fact that he had met Erna, who is just perfect for him and the kids, meant that I can now relax in the thought that all will be well!

I know now how tap dancing was first found out! It is all about moles! To my thinking, way back, somebody's garden was as riddled with moles as mine is at the moment! Every morning nowadays I walk up and down inbetween the veggie and onion beds, as well as my flowers, shrubs and young trees to flatten the creeper moles's little tunnels that criss cross all over the place, leaving the poor vegetables with no soil around their roots.
So, to the amazement of the village folk, who stand gaping at me as if I was some strange animal or some such, I do the mole dance. Every morning of my life! This is done as follows: resting your weight on one foot, the other one's toes are used to flatten the little tunnel, then you go over to the heel, and this is used to trample down the soil good and solid! So I call it the mole dance, as it is, toe, heel, step- toe, heel step, until the end of the tunnel, where a neat turn is made on the stepping foot, before starting off down the row again, this time doing your wee dance the other way round! So that is why I think that long ago, another irate gardener, good and solidly tired of moles ruining his crops, did the same kind of thing, and ho there, tap dancing was born!
It is really a problem, and so far I had not murdered one of the critters with the chappies bubblegum, but had not yet started to dispair! It is early days yet!
One thing that is a tiny bit in the moles's favour, is the fact that as they move into some really hard clay soil, it doesn't take long before they have worked it into a soft and useful piece. If only they were not so destructive, one could use them to plough your land! Lol!!! But really, they could be beneficial. Another thing that struck me about the moles, is the fact that where they are at their busiest, a large number of earth worms are concentrated. I know that they eat earth worms, but now I have started to think that maybe they kind of culture the worms for their cullinary pleasures, as the worms just get more and more, instead of their numbers falling, and this is always just where there is a large concentration of moles1
Jan is still intent of moving, and his house is getting emptier every week, as he packs the car to full capacity with boxes, and some of the smaller furniture pieces. And every time they drive out of the gate, I get a little sadder, as I knew that it wasn't long now before they would be gone forever.

 Erna is such a nice person, and the kids just adore her, and she also have one child, a girl of five, who is a lovely little thing! At least we now have a little girlie also!

So, with the bally pig contained somewhere, as nobody now of course had a pig escaped during that night, and all the halfdead nuzzled out onions planted out, I am not altogether a very happy woman! My back feels as stiff as a ramrod, my face is fried like a half done steak by the hot sun, and my vocabulary had increased dramatically this passed few days! A woman can only take so much, and this woman had reached that stage, and from now on I will shoot every strange animal on my land! Ha-ha!!
But really, between the moles, the peacock, the pig and the cattle, I thought that things would from now on stabilize, as I am pretty accurate with my catapult, and the poor old peacock walks around keeping a wary eye out for any flying stones coming its way! Now a new hazard had appeared, and that hazard was Sheila's chickens! I do not worry about Danny's flock of small, midget like chickens that scratches around my veggie beds, but this things that Sheila had now aquired are like bally monsters, with huge red belle hanging from their ugly heads, and feet like a dinosaur's. On top of that they have shifty eyes, and when they come onto my property they kind of walk sideways, watching me warily through that cold round eyes!
But I soon showed them who was the boss around here, as I nearly had a fit when I looked out of the window and saw this troupe busily scratching between the onions, the ones that I had just replanted, and onions flying in all directions! I bellowed like a soul in torment, and ran for my catapult! Like a thief on a mission I skirted the house, and then made my way slowly to the clump of shrubs close to where the invaders were scratching and clooking merrilly! My first shot was one mighty fine one, and I saw the big red cocky cockerel take to the air like a fighter jet, while the other stood looking foolish, so I took aim, and my stone must have hit one of the others, as they all started cackling, and then stuck their necks out, and pulled their wings back, and legged it to the safety of Sheila's plot! I was furious! After two cups of strong coffee, I donned my working jeans, and started rescuing the poor onion plants for the second time!
The war against the mole are still going strong, and although Ronalee had two dead ones after feeding them chappies bubblegum, I had no such luck. I spent a whole morning lifting rocks to find the holes of this little critters, and stuck bubblegum into every one I found, but so far I had no luck! No dead mole to make me smile!

I was feeling so sad, as Jan had now decided to definitely move to Cape Town, as it was just too difficult with his work and the kids, as he had to go to Johannesburg a lot. As we have no other family close by, it does pose a problem when I am away.
So, every time he goes visiting Erna, a few boxes goes with, and I cried a wee bit! But that is life!

There are fools, and there are fools, and I am one of these! And all this because I have with time became just a wee bit hard of hearing, and not only that, I have also lost my ability to extinguish words when on the phone,
When Irma, my eldest and Karel, her Belgian hubby moved to Belgium, they didn't sell their house, hoping to come back one day, but in the end they decided to sell, as they want to buy a house over there. So one morning Irma phoned, and asked me whether I could go and remove the furniture that was still inside, only a few pieces, and store it, as they would like to ship it over to Belgium later. The house had been sold, and the new owners wanted to start renovating, so Louise, my friend, said that she would take me, as she has a small truck, and Johan, another friend who lives just around the corner from Irma, said we could store the stuff with him. All good and well. But what I did not know was that the new owners had brought some tools and a ladder, and also some plumbing pipes, with the result that I thought everything belonged to my kids!
I gave to the neigbour's son, who came to help load, a few things, but decided to take the ladder to my house, thinking that it was Karel's.
A few days later Johan phoned, but with my hearing problems, and Johan's kind of mumbling talk, I only heard something about a ladder, but did not take much notice. Then Johan arrived for a visit, and he said that he would take the ladder to the new people, as they needed it badly. I was up in arms immediately, and said no, they could have it after Jan had fixed my roof! Johan left with a few snorts, and rolling eyeballs, and I thought, 'what a bally cheek!'
Then on Sunday my granddaughter Kristani came to visit with her hubby and baby, and she asked whether I had given back the ladder. I sat up straight, ready for battle! Told her that I would lend them the ladder when I am good and ready, and Kristani burst out laughing, and told me through some heavy outbursts that the ladder belonged to the new owners, and they had been to see her, and asked her to try and get the ladder away from me!
Oh good heavens! I phoned them on the spot, and begged a thousand pardons, and explained all, and luckily they saw the funny in the situation, and laughed too.
Kristani then fixed my voicemail that went a bit haywire, and I listened with a very red face to the guy's pleading with
me to please give back their ladder!!!

Dark clouds are forming around me, as Jan was now very serious about Erna, and was talking about moving to Cape Town as soon as the children's exams were finished! My heart was aching, as I knew that once they move, I will not see them enough, as it is too great a distance away. But life goes on, mine as a rule flowing gently like the river down under the huge Poplars, but this last almost two years it had a few rapids for me to navigate.
However, I still had to live my own life at haarlem, and between all the hazards, there is luckily not too long a lull in the everyday run of things for me to worry too much about things. Berty, Emil's nanny, is trying hard to convince Jan to take her along to Cape Town, but I was nagging him not to, as once there, there would be no-one to keep an eye on her, and as I had caught her a few times now neglecting Emil, I was not keen at all about her going with. Here I am always at the alert, after the first time she left Emil in the cot, and walked down the road for a visit with Danny's wife. I went over to see where the baby was, and found him screaming his poor head off! She stayed away for over twenty minutes. We had a good talking to. Then one day while Jan was in Johannesburg, I went over to see how Emil was, and could hear him scream, but the door was locked. After I almost broke the door down, Berty opened the door, and I found that she had pulled a chair in front of the tv, and sat watching the screen with her back to the child, who was again standing in the cot!
I told her then that this was the last time she kept Emil cooped up in the cot, and if I come over and found she did it again, I would ask Jan to let her go!
It went better for a while, but I found her too lazy to play with the child, and also lazy too cook vegies for him, so I did that.
I am such a ninny! Two weeks ago the person running a Saterday market, once a month, in de Rust, a thriving little town with a lot of tourists passing, asked me to bring a few paintings and also bags, and take a stall there. So for two weeks I worked till midnight, as during the day I have a lot of gardening to do, and also had to replant the onions, And as old Murphy's law works, Every close by friend had to come and visit, The visits were lovely, and I made lunches, and lots of coffee, but it did nothing to promote the making of bags, or painting.
So on Friday evening I phoned Niekie, the organiser to hear what time I had to be there for him to show me the ropes, and he laughed so raucously that I was going to be annoyed, but had to laugh with when he told me that the market was only the next Saturday! I was so glad, as the onion planting had taken all strength from my body, and I was not really looking forward to trying to make people buy my stuff!

And here I am now, sitting with a koue lappie (cold cloth) on my forehead, every muscle in my poor back as stiff as a bally stick, my hands rough and my nails black, and my patience at absolute zero! I have been replanting onions for the last two days, and as I had decided to replant them inside my home enclosure, very scared of the moonlighting porker, I had to first get the soil ready and fed with cow manure. I am now absolutely finished with Bush, who gave the havock one look, and told me that he can't help to repair the damage, as he was off to Zimbabwe for two weeks.
As it was his idea that we plant onions, me giving the land and pay for everything, while he would do the work, I am really upset, as the onions should have been ready by mid October, but there was still about a thousand seedlings, gone all brown as a result of them too big and of course having been sowed in clumps. So while I was busy, I planted that out as well, and Bush will get a nice surprise when he came back, as he would definitely now not get half of the profits. It is very hard to understand the workings of this people's minds, as to me they just have no ability to be responsible, for I have been cross so many times this past few weeks, when I found the onions all dry and droopy, and then I had to do the watering. Bush would then just waltz in here after an absence of two or three days, and put the sprayers on for a few minutes. That is not enough, and as the sprayer can't reach all the onions, I have told him to use the hand watering gadget also, so as to get to all the plants. But that is also not done, and I found that a lot of the seedlings had given up trying to survive under the hot sun, without water!
He is now talking about the potatoes that we are going to plant, but I have decided not to do it, as potatoes need a lot of work, and he is just too relaxed about everything. I am now finished with helping people, as it had never before worked out, and I don't suppose it ever will!
But, all is not dark and gloomy, as I had just made myself the most delicious pud I had ever tasted! Oranges are very cheap this year, as the farmers could not export their crops, there being a kind of black spot on the fruit, so the Euro lot had decided that they would not allow it to enter Europe! But we are having the benefit of that, and for the first time in years we have some super and cheap oranges. I had to think of something to do with it all, as I got two bags as a present! So, I pricked the skins of a few, then boiled them until the skin was tender, after which I cut them into thick slices. I then bottled most, but got a splended idea, and hoped that it would turn out well.I sprinkled the slices with sugar, the fried it in butter until the sugar had caramalised, and with a dollop of icecream, and a chocolate sauce, I enjoyed a most delicious pud!

To grow anything, and get it to maturity, is maybe the biggest miracle ever! That of course is in Haarlem! I have now taken care of the moles by feeding them chappies bubblegum, the peacocks, cats, and other sly beasties have now I think realised that I wasn't having a play hour with my catapult, specially the poor peacock, who kind of leave very fast and very noisely on seeing me take aim!
I have not had any dead moles yet as a result of the latest sure to kill bubble gum diet I am forcing on the moles, but Ronalee already found two dead ones! That is a small miracle, as in all this years we never could find one of this creeper moles, and I don't even know what they look like. Well, I am full of hope that after one or two died the others would take the hint and relocate!
But, now I am again in a state of shock and horror! I woke up by grunting noises outside my window, that is at four in the morning, to find the big white and brown pig nuzzling up the soil in one of my flower beds. I had it in my place the previous day, but then it was content to eat the acorns, and I couldn't get it to leave, me of course being scared after Kevin bacon, Jan's pig bit me, but it then it was content with eating the acorns, so I left it, and later it left on its own accord.
So at four in the morning, with a cold clammy mist covering the earth, I went out to see where the pig got in again, as I had closed the gate and secured it with some wire also, as the new gate that Danny made for me was waiting on me to put on a gadget to lock it! I tried to shoo the pig out by making the strangest and most scary noises I could master, but this thing was as friendly as my best friend, and came galloping at me grunting happy goodmorning wishes, but I took to my heels, the marks on my thigh from Kevin's teeth strong in my mind! Pig must have thought it a before dawn game as he followed me until I was safely inside my house!
When the first rays of sunlight started to chase away the mist and the darkness, I had already had two cups of coffee, and looking out I saw that the pig had left, I suppose to sleep off his nightly kapperjolle, so after checking that all was back to normal, I went out to see what the pig had done. I cried! And cried! All my young trees and shrubs that I had planted during the week were nuzzled out of the ground, as the pig supposedly looked for earthworms, or maybe he was after the bonemeal that I use when planting.
But that was nothing to the shock on seeing my onion field! About half of the beds were completely destroyed, the soil having been nuzzled up, leaving a scene of utter devastation behind, and I got completely hysterical, thinking of the beautiful plants that stood so beautifully the previous day, and all the hard work, and money that went into getting it thus far!

The snow we had so out of season, was not enough to harm my onions, and this little plants are growing by the minute. I think that I could harvest by the end of September, or mid October. It is a bit of a srtruggle to get Bush to do the weeding, as he is forever on the run selling socks and other small stuff that he buys in Johannesburg. On top of that he works for Ronalee twice a week, so Sunday afternoons he usually rocks up, full of excuses and promises, bit it just is not enough time to keep the plants healthy.
Our understanding is that I give the land, pay the tractor for ploughing, and also pay for the seeds, and other stuff, while he does the work! In the end we then share the profits! So, as there were still some seedlings that just did not get planted out, I told him on the Friday that if it wasn't done by Monday, I would do it myself, and then he would only get half of his half, for the one I planted out! That put him into first gear, and he worked until darkness fell, but there is still some to be done! The problem being of course that the seedlings are not seedlings anymore, and as they are standing in close bunches, there is no space to grow further, and the tops are starting to turn brown.
I have sown some beet, and radishes, and the little plants are growing strong. I mean to bottle a lot of beet this year, as curried beetroot is one of my favorite side dishes, and Trienkie got me the recipe from her mum in law, who makes the best ever curried beetroot!! I also have a very abundent crop of broad beans, and the rocket I planted the previous year have just about taken over my whole plot! I thought of harvesting it, and sell it to the local shops, one of which had already put in an order for a big portion of my onion crop!
It is really so good to grow your own food, and when I recently made a stew, and took my frozen
cherry tomatoes out, I felt my heart swelling with pride and gratitude because I am one of the lucky ones that grow food without chemicals! The small tomatoes I froze, keeping a plastck bucket in the freezer, and every day I picked the ripe ones, and just added it to the frozen ones in the bucket! That means that I just take out a handfull as I need them, and put the others safely back!

The winter should have been over by now, as it was supposed to be spring, but suddenly a gusty wind sprang up, driving dark and evil looking clouds across the heavens. It looked ominous, and when I spoke to my friend Louise, she informed me that snow was forecasted! At first there was only small outbursts of icy cold drops being blown over my onion fields, but when I went to get my washing from the line, I saw what I thought at first was hail, but soon realised that it was indeed snowflakes! So where, I asked looking up at the grey heavens, was the spring/
Next morning it was worse, and I had a stream of water coming in at the chimney running across my kitchen floor, and making a nice pond in the small scullery! The wind that started the previous day was now howling at full force, and rain was splashing against the windows! It was bitterly cold, and as our houses have no heating, and electricity expensive, and of course scarce, and the government asking us all the time to cut down, the use of heaters was an almost no-no! The new government did not keep up with the continiously rising demand, as they undertook to provide electricity for every household, and with no new plants being built, we now have quite a lot of power sharing, and this is very inconvenient. Luckily I have a gas cooker, so I never go hungry, and the new freely available solar lights help a lot. It is only the heating that bothers! I am however trying to use mostly solar energy, and plan to get a new kind of geyser, that apparently take heat from the atmosphere, and so heats the water. It is difficult with my very old thatch roof to install a solar heater, so that is the answer, as it is free standing on the ground.
I looked out of my scullery window when I went to make my morning tea, and saw that the mountains on the one side of the village had indeed a light dusting of snow, so I just made a strong cuppa, and went back to bed with my two hot water bottles freshly filled. It was just to cold to stay up, so I read until eleven, when the pangs of hunger sent me scuttling to the kitchen.
It rained the whole day, and I kept on drying up the water coming in from the chimney, and chucking this water out, I noticed one huge white pig on my land. I was worried, knowing how pigs can just nuzzle everything out, and he was in with the onions, so I donned raincoat and shoes, and flew across the wet earth making ungodly noises, hoping the pig would leave quietly!
Thinking of Kevin Bacon, who bit me on my thy, I was just a bitty scared, but this pig looked like he had no intention of leaving, as he was gorging himself on the acorns underneath my two oak trees. I shoo-ed, and I out-ed, but pig was either deaf or insolent, and as by this time the rain was again pelting down, I just closed the gate, that the wind must have blown open with a piece of string, leaving enough space for the porker to leave when he had eaten his fill!

I am totally disgusted, and cross, and all this bad feelings because the creeper moles had a field day in my garden while I was away, and lots of my more tender and younger plants had died because all the soil were taken away from underneath their roots. I have now tried just about every lotion and potion on the market, all the gadgets for trapping them, and hundreds of home remedies, given by well meaning friends and other, all to no avail. The trapping gadget, that boasted in big black letters about how fantastic it was, as it would catch me mole after mole, ridding my place in no time of the wee pests, was just another good for nothing gadget, as not even one mole walked into this trap.
But this morning I am on my way to the shop, as soon as it opened at eight, to buy 'chappies bubble gum'. And why do you need bubble gum, my dear friend Edythe asked me, quite surprised that I had at my age suddenly got addicted to 'chappies'! The thing is, Ronalee, my neigbour, who had also tried everything on the market, and all the hints and tips given out by well meaning friends and family, had another tip that was sure and guaranteed to kill evey mole on her homestead. And so Ronalee rushed up to the local Savers Lane, a small shop catering for the villagers, and said to sell chappies, and bought a bag full of bubble gum.
I did not hear anything more for a few days, but then Fred and Jeanine came to visit me, and they told me that Ronalee had just that morning found a dead mole on the grass! As I had never even had the privelage yet of seeing one of this critters that had been given me such a lot of trouble, I was delighted with this news!
So this works like this, for people with creeper moles. A chappie is cut into quarters, without removing the paper, as the human smell puts this pests of their food apparently, then shake a piece into a fresh hole, usually hid underneath a stone or bigger plant, and voila! You wait!
As no autopsy was done on Ronalee's dead mole, nobody knew whether it died of old age, illness, or the gum, but hey, I am so desperate that I would try just about everything! I will have one big celebration if this works, and will keep all and everybody posted.

Little Emil had grown such a lot while I was away, and I can't believe that he was now talking, albeit a lot of babble that we can't understand, but he himself knew exactly what he said, as he usually showed us by pointing his finger at the object, usually food of some sort. I was really a bit down, as Jan had now decided to move to Cape Town the end of December, as his relationship with Erna was blooming.
The only thing that reconciled me to the fact that they were leaving, was the fact that Jan had gotten his mojo back, and gone was the terrible sagging of his body, and sad, sad eyes!

Just when my confidence had soared to such heights as to allow me to face a few oncoming cars, and kept on cycling, albeit with a back like a ramrod and a heart that fluttered like a frightened bird, it was time to say goodbye to this beautiful country, and to my beautiful kids, and go home!
The last two weeks were spent picking walnuts that were hanging like green jewels on the rows of trees along the footpath where we had earlier picked the berries. We ignored all the advice on cleaning the walnuts,specially the bit on wearing strong gloves, as walnuts dye the skin, and Irma found us two pairs of thin, hairdyeing ones, and we started peeling with much enthusiasm! We laughed about all the old woman stories about black fingers that had to wear of, as nothing lifted walnut dye, but after about three hours of peeling, this not an easy task, the thin gloves long since discarded, we did notice a light brown tinge on our fingers. By dinnertime they were dark brown, and the next morning we woke up with pitch black fingers!
And nothing would lift it! We scrubbed, and used all the chemical cleaners we could find, but to no avail, and I must admit, my believe in old woman stories were restored!
Karel's family were absolutely delightful, and we spent a lot of time with them. The Saturday before I left, Jan, Karel's brother invited us over for his prize waffles, proper Belgian ones, and I ate my fill! Actually so much, as they were delicious, and I had way to much, that I was queasy for two days! Then Karel's Mum asked us over for a 'kaas skotel' (cheese meal), and she had some wonderful kinds of cheese that I had never even seen, South Africa not yet up to scratch when it came to dairy products. I ate so much, and the cheeses were so rich, that I had a really bad tummy the next day!
Now I am back in good old South Africa, where the sun welcomed me with its warm rays as I came out of the airport building, and the smiles on my two grandsons's faces when they spotted me made me feel warm and wanted. I spent a few days with them, then drove back home, the bare dry scenery of the Karroo looking even more dry and arrid after the lush greens of Belgium
As when I came back from Scotland before, the beasties had taken over my house, and after inspecting the onions to see if Bush had kept them alive, which he did, I set to on clearing away the cobwebs and dead insects, while the huge rainspiders watched me disgustedly! Or so I thought! Some of these spiders are as big as my hand, but as they are not poisonous, I let them be, and they were actually like companions, sitting on the walls or hanging on the thatch, watching me come and go!.

Murphy's law is a wonderful and sometimes quite a disconcerting one! We were picking enough berries to fill a lot of bottles with jams and syrups, and it was just wonderful to be out on such a nice day, and be in such a wonderful place. In South Africa it is not possible for two women to go out alone like this, as it is plainly to dangerous'
 We haven't seen any cyclist for ages, when we decided to have the snacks that we had brought along, and we duly found a table with bunks on two sides, and unpacked our goodies with relish! We both needed a toilet, but of such a commodity there was not a sight, so Irma decided to use a clump of shrubs that allowed for some privacy! All went well, and Irma came back smiling her relieve with her bladder now empty, and while she kept watch. I took the plunge, a wee bitty apprehensive, as the trees did not completely covered one, but as there was nobody on the path for ages, I did not feel too scared. But, as I said, old Murphy is one spiteful culprit, and I just had my jeans lowered, when a loud swish sound came to my ears, and by now I knew what a bicycle, or rather a lot of the things, sounded like, and I desperately tried to crouch deeper under the branches, but to no avail! Time to pull up my jeans there was not, and I saw how about a dozen guys came swishing around the bend, and this led them straight to the trees where I was now in great anguish, before the path turned again.
Of course they saw me, well luckily only my torso, but they knew well enough what I was doing, and one of them shouted at the top of his voice: Bon appe-pee, and the others joined in, and with great smiles they all copied the first guy! I was bally embarrassed, and of course my darling daughter was in hysterics!
All too soon it was time to go back, and the thought of taking the bicycle on the roads again made me shiver and shake, but I knew I had to do it!
Brambles make the most beautiful jam, and the next day we were busy boiling for quite some time. The Belgians love their bread, and with this home made jam, and Irma's self baked bread, it was small wonder that I did not bulge like a bullfrog after the two months with the children. Then Irma spotted some 'flier besse', I don't know what it is called in English, and we set out again with plenty of bags to fill, and I must say, the cycling was becoming a lot more comfortable! Then it was again operation jam cooking!
On weekends we drove to distant places, and we went to a place called Staden, where my dad came from, as my maiden name was van Staden. We also went to Dinant, in the French part of Belgium, to have a look at a small town called le Roux, my mother's maiden name. It was nice to see where my family came from, but sad, as the French Protestants were of course murdered by the Catholics in France, and the ones that escaped the killings, fled all over the world. Belgium did not know what to do with them, and a lot were sent to the then Dutch owned Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. I must say, I felt very much at home over there!

After one tremendously nerve wracking cycle, meaning getting off about twenty times, pushing the bicycle passed the waiting cars, blushing at the incredulous looks that was given, and some nasty ones, we reached the river! And there was this wonderful cycle road, with no cars allowed! I still was a wee bitty scared, as a lot of cyclists were out on their morning run, and as the little road was so narrow, I still got off when I saw a group approaching, and very nonchalantly looked at the views, hoping that I indeed looked like a salted cyclist, just enjoying the countryside. Irma was much amused, but later on she got a bitty impatient, but I just kept my upper lip stiff, and tried not to fall off the bicycle!
The brambles were indeed giving there best, and the branches were loaded with beautiful ripe berries! Of course we just saw the berries, and not what was underneath the bushes, and soon we were both running in circles, our legs on fire! We never noticed that the low vegetation underneath the bramble bushes were nettles, and soon our poor legs were all red and swollen, and SORE!!
But being 'hardy' South Africans, we ooh and aah-ed until the pain had subsided, and then tried to flatten the nettles enough so we could reach the bally berries, which was winking and glittering in their full glory! It was not the end of the pain, the nettles having a wonderful ability to jump back up just when we leaned over them, our bellies exposed, and gave us a good swipe, sending us off screaming and doing a fair bit of swearing!
We were quite upset when another couple stopped, took two huge bags from their saddle bags, and started filling them up. As we had already flattened the nettles, they had a lot less to cope with than the two of us, and besides that, they were expert berry pickers, avoiding the sharp thorns of the bramble bush with a lot more ease than we did!
But it was a brilliant morning, the sun giving its best, and afterwards we found a nice spot where we just lay on the gras, Irma thinking nice thoughts, as her face were serene and calm, while I was suddenly hit by the hideous thought that I had soon to go on the road again! the thought that this time I had a loaded saddlebag was quite disconcerting, and quite spoiled the wonderful sunshine and views for me!

My time in Belgium was just wonderful, and during the week when Karel was at work, Irma and self took busses and trains all over, and we did a fair amount of walking. But I was now quite fit, and with the tablets that slowed down my heartrate, I didn't get so tired anymore! What a blessing!
Then it was decided of course that we would go berry picking along the riverbanks, but as it is quite far, we had to use the bicycles. Kiana left hers for me, and as I was last on a bicycle a bout fifteen years ago when I worked in Holland, I was a bit of a scared cat, and eyed this two wheeled monster with apprehension!
The morning arrived for our first excursion, and I was maar a bitty shaking when I took the handles to push this scary thing from the garage, and almost fainted when I saw the amount of older men already seated in the sun in front of Rico's pub, just across the road from where we were to take off!
I hyperventilated! Badly! The reason for half of my fear was the cobbled road that I had to cross, right in front of this audience, and this audience were watching us with interest while sipping their early morning coffee. Well, I hope it was coffee! I could see in my mind's eye how I would give a few pedals, and then my wheels will be caught between the cobbles, and having done no peddling on cobbles before, I would bite the dust, or is it cobbles, and seeing the smiles already on the audience's faces, I just knew that that would be of big enjoyment to them.
Irma cycled across the road, and stood at the corner in front of the bakery, trying to cajole me take the plunge. I was sweating and shaking, but now the old men had joined Irma in her quest to get me across the road, and they were shouting all kinds of helpful hints at me, so, after shivering once more, I took a very deep breath, and set of! By the grace of all the gods I stayed upright, and with the sound of loud clapping and shouting, I rounded the corner, and out of their sight!
All went well for the first few minutes, until a car came from the front, and I had nowhere to go, as there were cars parked along the very narrow road. Irma was some way ahead of me, and although both she and Karel had tried to imprint it in my brain that cyclists always have right of way in Belgium, I panicked, and jumped off the bicycle. The car stood facing me, and the driver and his passenger was giving me some strange finger signs, but I thought to myself, oh, bugger off, and just go! They didn't go, and iRma, who had by this time looked back and saw my dilemma, had come back, and told me that the car was waiting for me to go! So I pushed the bike passed them, and I could see their incredulous faces staring at me, but at least I was rid of them!

The thieves were caught within three days, as they had stashed their loot up in the mountain, not knowing that some of the villagers had seen them do it. There were four of them, all quite young, and I felt sad, as the youngsters here grow up with parents that are drunk the whole week-end, and with nothing to do, they soon get into trouble when they fall into the hands of the drug lords. Tic is a very popular drug used by the youth, and the drug lords get the kids used to the drugs, then use them to do the break-ins, and they then get payed with drugs!
Jan came back from Johannesburg, and broke the news that he was thinking of moving to Capetown, not immediately, but by the end of the year. I was upset, as the baby, well toddler, is so close to me, and to take the kids away would break my heart.
But first I was going to visit Irma and Karel in Belgium for two months.
Trienkie, my youngest have the most amazing husband, who said he would look after the kids, and she could go with me, and stay for ten days!
The flight to Belgium was fraught with upheavel and bad bally luck. Firstly our flight from Capetown was delayed, and we had to be put on another flight, as we had the flight from Johannesburg to Abu Dabhi to catch, and our plane had some or other pain!
Then we were delayed at the Abu Dabhi airport for eight hours, and we were very tired and bleary eyed when at last we landed at Brussels.
But it was a wonderful time, and while Trienkie was there, we did a lot of trips to show her around, and the highlite was of course to drink our pintje! That is a pint of Belgium beer of course. I just love the old towns and villages, and Karel drove us to Dinant, where we had a look at a small village called le Roux, which is where my family came from, mother being a le Roux. I sometimes get sad, thinking that my forefathers were driven from France because they were protestants, they then went to Belgium, and from there they were sent to Africa, and left!
Bush had to look after the onions, well, he just had to water them, and it would be ready to harvest when I came back!
Knowing that Jan would be moving to Capetown also when I got back, I was feeling really upset, but soon got over it for the time being, as Irma insisted that we go berry picking, but to get to the river, we had to cycle! Oh good heavens, I did not look forward to Trienkie's leaving, as then we would take to the roads on the bicycles!

I had heard somebody run away in the direction of the river when I talked to the cat, and the others that was still in the house must have gone there too, as they couldn't go out in front. When the police came they were all gone, and after extensive searching up and down the river, they did not find any thieves, but they did find Jan's bicycle stowed away underneath some brush!
I was in a state, as now the house was open to every thief around, but the two policemen and Gary kind of balanced the doors in the opening, and we stacked some furniture against it on the inside. But I was worried, as the thieves could come back when the police and Gary left, knowing that I would be inside my own house, and couldn't see what was happening at Jan's place.
I had decided to only phone Jan in the morning, as it was of no use unsettling him, as he was six hundred kilometers away, and I did not want him to jump in the car and drive home in a fury!
Nothing much was taken, as I had surprised them, and they had to flee without their loot. A lot of stuff was packed together at the door that was taken out, ready to be taken away, and by the amount of stuff I knew that they must have been waiting for a small truck to take it away. All over the house were heaps of burned paper, I suppose the paper having been lit to see, as they dared not put any lights on. They could easily have put the house on fire, as the wooden floor in the kitchen was badly scarred where they had lit some paper!
The next morning I waited in vain for the police to come and take my statement, as they suggested the previous night.
Two days later Jan had to go to Johannesburg for work, and I was so scared to stay alone with the two kids, worrying that the thieves would see that Jan was away again, and come back for their loot, as we were still waiting for Elliot the builder to come and help Jan put the doors back. Of the police there was yet no sign, and they never came to take my statement, and send for the fingerprint guy.So I took a huge rock, tied it securely to a rope, and suspended this over the top step leading up to the veranda, with a thin piece of gut tied to a chair spanning the same step about a foot from the floor,  as a trigger when pushed against with a foot!
Knew it would probably not work, but it made me feel a lot better, although for the three nights Jan was away, I did not get a lot of sleep. I was safe enough with the kids in my own home, but as this people do such a lot of damage when looting, I worried about Jan's stuff!
As the police in Haarlem seemed to have disappeared, never answering their phone, I decided to phone Uniondale police station, and they were horrified that our police never even took a statement, or get fingerprints taken, and less than an hour later, they were at my door. They had a hearty laugh about my device to flatten the thieves with a rock, but after they had a good look at it, told me that is wasn't a bad invention at all!

Jan was now becoming quite serious about Erna, the woman he had met some weeks before, and he was driving up and down to Capetown over week-ends. As it is about six hundred kl to capetown, I was in a state of nervous worry all the time. South African roads could be the most dangerous in the world, and we have a lot of road deaths. The causes of this is mostly drunken driving, unlicensed drivers, and of course the mini taxis. This taxis, that can seat about ten people, were usually overloaded to a point where the driver could have no control over the steering. Many people die almost daily in this mini bus taxis, and the causes are always either overloading, or negligence. One taxi that had gone off the road in the Eastern Cape had thirty six passengers instead of the ten it was licensed for. Most of the people died, but this did not stop the overloading, or the negligence.
I went to my friend Louise in Uniondale to watch the Wimbledon tennis, and had to come home in the dark, something I never do when Jan was away. On opening the gate I saw that it was tampered with, but as the cattle always try to push it open for a little nibble at our plants and vegies, I did not take too much notice.
Jan's cat was waiting for me, and he was maauwing so loud and and distressfully, that I decided to go over to their house and feed the cat before unlocking my house.
Jan's house has a long veranda at the back, that span the whole length of the house. The moon was almost full, so I could see good enough, and proceeded to fill the cat's bowl from the tin holder, but something was troubling me, although I did not immediately grasped what that was. But I knew that my eyes had caught sight of something strange, and as I looked around, I saw that the huge sliding doors were standing against the wall, and a big hole where they should have been.
That was when I heard a noise inside the house, and the next moment I also heard somebody running away.
The doors all came out onto this veranda, and I was at the furthest one, with no escape if the person or persons came out of the doors they had removed, and I knew that nobody would hear me scream!
If anybody's feet ever had wings, as the saying goes, mine had wings that night, as I just kind of glided down the steps, and over the many flowers and a rockery, quite missing the path!
I had two locks to undo at my house, but as I was trembling like a bally jelly, it was very difficult, and by the time I was safely locked inside, I was a wreck. I phoned Gary as he was the closest, and he undertook to phone the police, and within minutes he was at my house with his shotgun.
As usual, our police took their time, so Gary phoned them and said to be there in five minutes, or he was going to shoot the perpetrators. That shook them up, as most of them are in cahoots with the thieving lot, as I well knew. When we first bought our places, somebody broke into my bathroom where Irma had stored her things, her house not having doors yet, and although nothing was ever found, one of the cleaning women for the police came to tell us that they were using Irma's kettle in the office! She was too scared to say much, and she begged us not to name her as the person who told us.
On inquiry, they laughed their bally heads off, and told us that they had clubbed together to buy this expensive kettle, and there was nothing we could do about it!

We are having some foul weather, and it is so cold at night that I sleep with a thick woolly scarf around my neck, and woolly gloves.The frost in the mornings are so heavy that my place look like it had snowed during the night! I have lost a lot of my young shrubs, and even my broadbeans that is supposed to be frost resistant, were lying flat and stiff this morning. The only things that is not at all affected by this frost, are my onion seedlings, which are almost ready to plant out. It could have been done the previous week, but one of the farmers told me that the soil is still to cold, and the tender seedlings would not be able to establish themselves quickly enough to survive. Made sense to me, so we postponed the planting.
I have now started on a new war against the moles to help my strawberries survive that little pests, and that is to dig long furrows, put some shading net in, then fill it with soil, fold the netting over to cover the soil, and plant the strawberries in small holes cut into the shading net. It  is done by many farmers to protect their crops, but of course they use commercial stuff,and I now hope that mine will also survive! Of course there is still Sheila's bally peacock, and this beauty is already eyeing my beds with greedy eyes, hoping for some good feasts in the near future. But I have my catapult always at the ready, as I use it to scare of the cats that are always on the prowl for a nice little bird! And I must say, I have become pretty efficient in the use of that weapon! And I have collected a box full of small pebbles!
Baby Emil is now big, and very, very busy, and poor Berty, who took a lot of chances by keeping him in the cot while she watched telly, had quite a hard time. No more standing crying in the cot, as the little man had worked out how to pull himself up onto the top rails, then sliding down on the other side, and voila, he was a free baby! Not always without mishap, as he had a few healthy blue bumps as witness to his escape efforts! Berty tried for a while to keep him quiet and in the cot by giving him bottle after bottle, until his dad got sniff in the nose, after catching her giving him milk when he was supposed to get his lunch.
A lively exchange of words followed, and Jan told her to either start doing her job, or go. He then took the telly out of the family room to keep temptation away from her, and for a few days she was just a wee bit unfriendly, but soon perked up when we took no notice.
It was going on for two years since the boys escaped the accident in which their mother died, and I cry a lot for them, as it is so sad that the little Emil will never know his mum! Andreas have luckily no after effects, and his broken arm and leg, and also his cracked scull had mended nicely. The bit above his eyebrow, where a piece of bone had to be planted in, is now without any scarring!

Today was bread baking day, and I kneaded my dough first thing after my cuppa after getting out of my warm bed. It is very cold at the moment, and the wind was blowing icicles against my window when I woke up, so I just snuggled in deep under my duvet, and dreamt about the best things happening in my life nowadays. But, life being quite unfair to us sometimes, I was whacked out of my state of half conciencness by loud knocking on my front door, so I fell out of bed, giving a few not to nice ladylike snorts and so so on, and made my way up the steep steps to my sittingroom.
It was Bush, wanting the scathe and fork, as he was going to weed the little onion seedlings that was coming on nicely. I find onions very hardy, as that wee seedlings just shake of the frost, and keep on growing, and that while a lot of my big shrubs have been totally ruined! The frost this year is quite heavy, and even my Fuschias and other flowers that I covered every night were just dried-up skeletons, and I hope that they would grow back.
As this is the time when the apples are harvested, I had an abundance of the wonderful stuff, and my freezer is already full of cooked apples, enough to last me through the next  months until the next season. I have found a wonderful way of using the cooked apples, and as I don't put sugar with, I can have a pud every night. This is what I do: Using a piece of puff pastry, about as long as my baking tray, and wide enough to put a good helping of apple in, is what I do. The apple is put lengthwise onto the pastry, which is then folded over, like on my foto, and baked until the pastry is nice and golden. Then I make a nice caramel sauce, and when the pastry is done, I prick it, and pour the sauce over. Delicious with custard or icecream, and very easy!
On my baking day I also have pizza. I save a piece of dough, and when my bread are all done, I bake the pizza, and it is so so nice! As I live so far from a town, take-aways are something I only dream about! Sometimes I would get an overwhelming craving for a Steers burger, or some Kentucky, but with no hope of getting it, I have invented quite a few nice recipies, not with quite the same lure as a take-away, but nevertheless, I try! I think just the idea that I can't get it, makes me want it more than I really lust after it!

My son Jan, had met a woman, a lovely person, that he liked very much, and I hoped and prayed that something would come of it. He was getting thinner by the day, I think the loneliness, worries about the eldest son who was very much addicted to computer games, struggles to come to terms with his lot, and the baby and eight year old Andreas to cope with had a very big impact, and I feared for his well being. It was extremely difficult for me also, as I was in and out of hospital every three months, and when he had to go to Johannesburg for work, and I was away, it was a big problem.
So when I saw his eyes shining again with a lust for life, and his whole being just getting to life again, I was extremely thankful. Erna was just the right person at the right time, as she was kind, and caring, and happy.
So now, almost every second week-end, he and the boys were off to Cape Town, which is almost six hundred kilometers away, but I was one very happy mother, as I could see my child getting out of the dark hole he was in for over a year.
My little Emile was growing up too fast, and was a very busy little boy. It was so cute when Sheila's cows passed, and he would stand a the gate shouting moo, moo! Another wonderful thing that was happening at this stage, was that through Erna's love and care, Andreas was gaining self confidence, something he had very little of before. Altogether just a good time in our lives.
Bush had now made the beds for the onion seeds, and we had sown it, and are waiting now for the day the wee green specks would pop out of the soil. The onions I had sown in the holders are already quite strong, and I think that it won't be too long before Bush can plant them out. he is in high spirits, telling me every day how rich we were going to become, and the first thing he would buy was a 'bakkie', meaning a small truck.
After days and many trips to the municipal offices, oom Vlei, the man responsible for the water affairs, at last came to fix my broken connection. But not before I asked oom Awie, another guy working for Sheila to help me, and he had a look, and shook his head, announcing that he would not be able to do it. He said that he passed oom Vlei, who was basking in the sun sitting in his 'bakkie', and I told him to tell oom Vlei that, if my connection wasn't fix that same day, I would phone the authorities in George. Darn it, I already had to buy the new stuff out of my own pocket, as oom Vlei said there was no money to buy it! But my threat did work, and the connection was fixed!

I had a super week-end, specially Sunday, when my friend Louise and self went to Willowmore for lunch, and the to a farm to look at the woman's collection of fossils collected in the koppies (low mountains) of their farm. I was overawed, and now believe that the scientists'e.s stories that the Karroo, that is this very dry part of South Africa on the other side of the mountains from where I live, and where only the toughest farmers and animals survive, is indeed true! It is then no surprise that sheep and goats are the most important live-stock here-abouts. This woman showed us the most wonderful fossils of small animals and also leaves, but the most wonderful was the fossils of all kinds of sea shells, and mussels. Looking over this dry and desolate countryside, it is indeed hard to believe that thousands of years fish swam around and inbetween the koppies!
I have sown a lot of seeds in holders, and now Bush had made beds for him to sow half of the seeds directly into the ground, so that we can see which will do best.
My connection to the main water supply had gone awry, and whatever I did, it would not close properly, with the result that water is spouting out of the sprinklers all the time, and my newly ploughed land was fast becoming sodden! I went up to the municipality's offices, and asked them to ask Oom Vlei, the general over see-er and maintenance man, to come and have a look. It took him about five days, and only after Berty Emil's nanny visited, and promised to work his gall a bit, did he arrive, complete with two helpers!
The helpers looked, hmm and hahed, the told me what I already knew, and that was that the whole gadget was busted.As this connection is the municipality's baby to keep up, I asked Oom Vlei when he would be able to fix it. He looked around my ploughed land, then fixed his eyes on the far hills, and pronounced that they could do it now, but they did not have such a gadget. I thought that they did not have it with them, but no, he said, if I wanted it done, I will have to buy my own, as he had no money left in the kitty to buy one! I was aghast, as he should have this in stock, as all the small farmers would need new ones from time to time!
I just don't know what our country is coming to! So I had to drive all the way to Misgund, and pay for this thing out of my own pocket. But I am just not leaving this case just there, and would complain to the George municipality, of which we are a part of.
But the above sunset scene from my back door when the sun went down was just amazing, and between that and the little Emil's smile, things that bothered me became much less less important.