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!