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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I picked the last of the rampant pumpkins, and boy, am I glad that it was at last stopping to bear more fruit. My freezer is so overstacked with the stuff that I hardly have place for anything else. I have experimented a lot as my plants was really doing their utmost, and although I gave away a lot, I was still swamped with this overeager pumpkins. At first I just peeled and cleaned them, and then cut them into cubes to freeze, but as that takes up a lot of space, I decided to make pumpkin fritters, which can be stacked, and don't take such a lot of space. Then I just I started boiling it, mash it up, and froze it in small containers, enough for two meals. In South Africa we eat a lot of sweet stuff with our meals. It had changed the last couple of years, but I still sometimes make a meal like my mum did. That means stewed meat, red or chicken, with potatoes, carrots, beans and just anything you like! This is usually a bitty overcooked, as the meat has to be very tender, although the veggies are put in later. Sometimes this is curried, and we have a lovely prepared curry powder, Cartwrights, that is delicious, and don't really need anything else. My generation had started experimenting with different options, and I nowadays have a huge glass container filled with every spice on the planet that I can use.  Anyway, we kind of stew our pumpkin and sweet potatoes with lots of sugar and butter, until it caramalises, and we even put in a little ginger or cinnamon sometimes. It is a delicious accompaniment for our rich stews and rice, and it is small wonder that we are not the heaviest people on earth.
So yesterday I had cooked up another batch of pumpkin that was left over after my bottles ran out, as I had now started bottling the stuff. I had to knead my two weekly batch of bread, and while I was getting everything together, my eyes fell on the cooked pumpkin. I decided to mash it up, and put it into my bread dough, wondering if it would make a nice batch of bread.
The bread came out beautifully, a lovely soft yellow colour, and don't even taste very sweet! I kept on 'tasting' all through the afternoon, and actually finished a whole loaf by bedtime!
The weather must have been just perfect for pumpkins this year, as only a few people appreciated a gift of a pumpkin, the other having the same bumper crop as myself.
The preparation of the winter veggie beds are coming on nicely, but I will have to do all the work myself, as I refuse to take Nicky back. He is the man I usually take on for a day now and then, as he is one of the guys who drinks so much that the farmers won;t take him on for the fruit picking, and sometimes turns up at my place quite drunk. He had become very militant suddenly since the ANC had taken Haarlem during the last election, and if I tell him what I want done, he will tell me shortly that he can see what must be done, I don't have to tell him, and then gets cross when he had not done what I wanted, and gets a scolding! Like the last time.
I asked for all the weeds to be dugged out, but found later that he had just done a small piece, and the rest was just hacked off! The problem is that most people here have no idea about democracy, and if a party for instance offers them a food hamper every Xmas, they will vote for that party. That is why we will never have a democratic government.

I am so glad the fruit picking is over, as now we would get garden workers again. All the able men work on the farms during this time, leaving only the old and alcohol infused for us to pick from. so we do everything ourselves! Nicky, the guy who always works for me came yesterday, and I almost sang out loud I was so glad. My beds for the winter veggies have to be sorted, and fast.
A while ago Joy again spoke to me about the three hundred year old pepper tree that she wants out. 'And,' she said pulling herself up to her full five feet, I'I found out that this tree is on the list of trees to be destroyed.' As this tree had not as much as put out one shoot around it in all this years, I went onto the internet to see if that was indeed true.  Where she got her info from I don't know, as I found that there are two completely different species of Pepper trees, the one here being the Calofornian Pepper. The other one is indeed an invasive tree, the Brazilian Pepper. It is more of a shrub, bearing red berries that is poisonous, and it spreads very rapidly, invading huge areas.
I told Joy this, and she just looked mutinous, and told me that she believed her informant, and anyway, she said, she also had a look in some tree book!
But as there is no comparison between this two trees, our one being a huge tree with a trunk of about six meters around, with very fine feathery leaves, and the Brazilian one has long shiny ones, I could not see how she got to her conclusion.
She told me that anyway, she was busy cultivating an indigenous garden, and did not want the tree. I go walking a lot in the mountains, and here, where we have little rain in the Karroo, the smaller plants grow under the bigger plants and shrubs. I almost begged her not to have the tree killed, but she again looked mutinous, and said: 'Hello-o-o? My place!' I was in a state of depression, as I so loved this old lady that have stood for about three hundred years, and in which shade we had so many delightful family gatherings!
As Joy has a doctorate in Zoology, I just assumed that she would not only be knowledgeable about fauna, but also know something about flora. When she first moved in, and she told me that the old Willow must go, I was surprised, and told her that it was no Willow, but a three hundred year old Pepper. I am really worried, and prayed every night that she would realise the history and beauty that she was going to destry, as this tree was planted by the first settlers in Haarlem. I found a few pictures of some of the branches of the old tree,and on one of these Andreas sits playing underneath it.

The tiny baby Emil has now grown to be the most beautiful and ondeunde little boy. He was three years old in April, and in three days time it will be three years since the tragedy of his mummy dying in a car crash. They came to visit with me this past week-end, and both the boys just love it here. Andreas, the ten year old cries every time they have to leave. I think it is just the freeedom of movement that they have here, as Andreas brings his bicycle with, and he and Sheila's grandsons are cruising the dusty Haarlem roads all week-end long. The little one has to be watched all the time, because he can crawl through the gate, and when he sees an animal outside grazing, as the animals here do, he sneaks away and runs after them.
But life here is getting just a bit uncomfortable. A few days ago,  at 9.30 on the Saturday night, I was sitting at my computer, which is in my bedroom, and right behind the door, when there was a kind of a timid knock on the door. I sat listening, thinking that it was the wind rattling the door, but then there was another knock, this time a bit louder, and by this time I was suspicious, and just a bitty afraid. When a third knock, this time a lot louder came, I raised my voice to a nice level, and shouted that who-ever was out there, better run and run fast, as I was getting my gun ready. I did run for my safe to get the gun. It was pitch dark outside, and as my house was surrounded by trees and shrubs, I couldn't see anybody, so I switched on all the lights, then tried to phone the police, but as things are here, the two on night duty must have been at the shebeen, or fast asleep. I heard from Berty, the woman who was nanny to little Emil, and from some other people, that the police join into the fun at the shebeens. A shebeen is an illegal place mainly for drinking, and there are some pretty horrible stories about under age young girls getting drunk and raped.
I went back to bed at about two in the morning, but sleep just would not come. My house is quite secure, with safety doors to every entrance, and thick safety bars in front of the windows, so coming in would be difficult, but as the saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way!
My scalp however crawled when Joy went to the municipality a few days later, and was told that someone was murdered some days ago. I have written in one of my blogs about mad Larry, who sleeps in his one roomed house, a large enough shed, with all his animals, including two pigs, safely locked up with him. Well, it was mad Larry that was beaten to death with a hammer, and mad Larry's house was next to Sheila, who is my next door neigbour!
This time of year Haarlem is teeming with pickers from all over, and there are always a lot of break-ins when they are around, and as soon as they leave, things go quiet again, with still some break-ins, but not half as bad! Poor old mad Larry must have opened his door to one of them, as he was never seen after dark, as when dusk falls, like me, he locked himself and his animals in. I am still getting quite shivery thinking about that knocks on my door. Now my children are all nagging me to go back to the city, but I just can't even think about being cooped up in a small yard, maybe in a flat.

Not even the big five could be as destructive as the tiny members of our wild life here in South Africa. The damage the small birds are doing to my roof is immense, and even loving all wild creatures with all my heart, I will at this moment happily wring all this birdies's little necks! And clever! I watched this Finch sitting on my wooden fence, and he was kind of singing like a strange song for a Finch, all the time watching the house with beady eyes! I ran to get my camera, and when I came back he was still chirping, but now there was a few different notes thrown in. I watched in awe, as suddenly his whole song changed, and when that happened, a whole bally flock of Finches descended on my roof from the mighty old Pine tree. Threw camera down and ran for my catapult! So now I spend my mornings shooting stones at the thieving birds, who just fly away to the tree, coming back chirping excitedly the moment my back is turned! Luckily for me, the two crows who nest in the tree usually came back from their hunting expeditions during mid morning, and as the Finches have much more respect for them as for me, they leave till the next morning.
There is also a lot of baboons on the rampage at this time of the year. The apple picking is now just over, and the moment the pickers leave, the baboons move in. There is always some undersized or stung apples left, and as food is scares up in the dry mountains, this apples are of much value to them. The problem is that they wreck the trees, tearing off branches! The farmers now have a kind of an alarm that goes off when the Babboons move in, but that makes for some loss of sleep many a night as the sound of that is earsplitting! My new neigbour is quiet about cutting down the old Pepper tree, so I sincerely hope that she had forgotten all about it. She had gone to Port Elizaneth to get the Labrador puppy, which is the sweetest little thing. Joy called her Sweetpea, and I have never seen such a clever pup in all of my life. Only about eight weeks old, I saw her stumble down the many steps leading into the garden, made a pee or otherwise, then scramble up the steps again. All this with lots of effort! Seeing this pup frollicking around, made me so sad, as I really miss old Hendrik, Irma's Labrador who died in my house. He was buried with a huge bunch of Arum lilies in his arms down on the river bank, but during one of the big floods we get here, all traces of his grave had disappeared. But Hendrik lives on, as a whole bunch of almost Labradors are walking the streets of Haarlem. Think he was one busy male!
My artist friend Johan and me went on a photo taking trip in the mountains, and this is one high up. On the top photo, if one take a good look, the Finch is sitting!

If you haven't been living in South Africa ever, you will never understand the different people living here. And the most colouful and irrisponsible of all the different groups are the coloured people, who had as forefathers some of the old Dutch, Scottish, English, German and other Caucasians  that came over here for a new life in 1652, and most without wives, they took some of the Koi girls as wives!  Well, 1652 is when the Dutch came, the others came later, but they are the reason for our coloured group.
yesterday I had to go to george for some provisions, and after the hundred and forty km drive, I desperately needed a toilet, so I stopped at a small square where I have long ago used the public toilets, and they were always nice and clean.
This morning however, What met my eyes at entering, made them pop a wee bit, as at the only remaining handbasin, the other two having seen better days some time ago, with a huge crack in the one, and no taps on the other, was being used by the strangest creature, who was so vigorously brushing his or her teeth, that the toothpaste flew across the place in sticky drops. It was a cross dressing man, dressed all in ladies clothes, and he must have been a traveller or something like that, maybe homeless, for next to him was a weathered sportsbag, with a long black wig draped over it, ready I suppose to put on after he or she had done her ablution.
All the toilets were taken, and I stood just outside the door to evade the flying toothpaste, but the toilets stayed closed, no sound coming out of there. The cross dresser had enough, I think he was tired of me standing outside, and started shouting abuse at the women in the toilets, and suddenly they appeared to have voices, and the battle of the words that now followed was indeed enlightening! I will not repeat that, as it is quite bad, but still quite entertaining. I decided to leave and drive to the mall with my by now aching bladder, but mr Gay had no intention it seemed to allow anyone to do me out of a pee, and he ordered the young girl standing outside smoking, and who seemed to be the the caretaker, to unlock a door which had a huge yale lock keeping its contents safe. She at first refused, but my do gooder was intent not to let me go without using a toilet. I told her not to worry, and started to leave, but she suddenly decided to open that door for me.
When I came out, and wanted to wash my hands, I saw with horror that my friend was washing some aalso weathered

underpants in the only basin, and he looked at me, and told me that a "girl must be clean, don't you think?" But he was by now intent on doing the right thing by me, so he opened the tap, and told me to wash quickly. I very gingerly held my hands under the running tap, and quickly rinsed them.
I was giggling for a long time after that, but also sad and have quite a warm feeling for that poor misguided human, who took up battle for me!

I just love the animals that eat their way around the village!

Joy, my new neigbor had decided to get herself a companion in the form of a Labrador. She went onto the internet, and found some breeder, but the cost of one puppy was astronomical. My granddaughter Kristani, one terribly passionate and sometimes indiscrimanate lover of all animals, heard about joy's wish for a Labrador, and she phoned me with the news that at the spca kennels in Humansdorp, they have a lovely ten month old, fully trained  Labrador, whose people moved to Australia, and couln't take him with.I told Joy about it, she gave me one very fierce stare, and said : "thank you, but I will get my own dog!" Self felt very bad, only wanted to help her and the lovely ten month old pup!
During the past few months I had ample time to get to know Joy's traits and funny sides, the sides we all have. She is fiercely jealous of all her posessions, and when she spoke to me about her veggy garden, and I thought to give her some advice, me having tried and failed, and tried and conquered some, she pulled herself up to her very skinny height of about five one, narrowed her eys, and said: "Halo-o-o! MY garden!" So self retreated hastily to lick my stung self confidence. Never again would I try and be helpful.
She and Ronalee started off quite hands around the bladder, as we say, it just doesn't make as much sense as when said in Afrikaans, and Ronalee, who do not have many friends came daily, bringing plants, and fruit, and veggies. I was glad that Ronalee had taken her under her wing, as she was very knowledeable about what grows here, and what not. But the love affair did not last very long, and the daily visits started getting less and less. I wonder if she also said to Ronalee what she said to me!
Apart from some strange ways we get along really well. Thing is, I myself can also be a bitty strange sometimes! Not in the same way though.
Today was a lovely sunny day, and I started off in the garden with much gusto, but less energy. But as the morning wore on, and I cleared all the clinging Morning Glories that had sprung up while I was away and was intent on strangling all my plants, I felt better and better, the exercise doing me really good. I was very passive for the last month while in Cape Town, although I had given Stephan and Trienkie's garden a make-over. Will have to get fit again, but when the wind blows sleety rain around the freezing plot, I just do not want to go out and get fit! We have very cold and wet winters in this area.
It is now time to plant broad beans, beans and all the brassicas, and I just have to get rid of the weeds. While I was away they had a field day, and my veggie plot, that I try and keep free of weeds, are overgrown with pesty little weedies! The pumpkins are still producing, and at the moment there are four fair sized ones growing fatter by the day. But coming home after a long absense might be a bitty bad on seeing the weeds, but oh, the scene welcoming one when you turn off the main road is just breataking!

Nature is indeed a wondrous thing, and if you keep your eyes open to this wonderful world of us, you are bound to see some pretty strange happenings.
In my previous post I wrote about the house martins wrecking my thatch roof, and it worried me a lot, as the rainy season had just started, and there are quite a few more leaks for me to plug.
So this morning I heard this very agitated birdsong on my roof, grabbed my catapult, and without giving a thought to my bare feet, I unlocked the two locks I have on my door for safety. There was a flock of birds on the roof, kwettering raucously, and pulling with vengeance on my poor thatch! But this time it wasn't only the House-martins, but a big flock of finches had seen the benefits of this handy material, and joined in the fun! I let rip with some decent sized stones, and the birds then flew to Sheila's roof, also thatched, and started their deed of destroying there.
I saw the Finches fly into the huge old Pine tree with their loot, and the House-martins underneath Bush's roof with theirs and the thought of this birdies nesting there from now on, my roof just so handy for any repair work, made my ruined hair stand on end. But then, at about ten o'clock, the two black crows that had been nesting in that tree for a few years now, returned from where-ever they went hunting, and suddenly all hell broke loose. The crows were furious, and in their kind of hoarse, earsplitting cries, they started chasing the smaller birds, whose nests were just starting to take shape. I had no sympathy because of my ruined thatch, but must admit, if I went to so much trouble building a house, and then was chased away, I would be devastated , I would need some sympathy. So I did  sympathize just a teeny bit!
I decided to get my binoculars to have a better look at what was happening in the tree, as the smaller birds were now flying around and dive bombing the crows, which in their turn made a terrible racket!
It was quite a horrible scene that met my eyes! The crows were hopping from nest to nest, grab it between their sharp beaks, then shake it until the thatch and some finer grass, and a few feathers floated down to the ground! It was such a horrible sight, and I now felt so sorry for the birds, that I shot a few nice stones up the tree, Unfortunately it did not reach high enough, and the crows just went raucously on their way of destruction!
It is seriously becoming winter now, and I have to plug all the openings where the windows and doors did not close properly. I should have had this fixed already, and did indeed do a lot of the work myself, but there are just some things that a woman alone can't do. The tree on the right is the bone of contention, and just across the road from me.

On top of all my sorrows with the moles, peacocks, rats, cows, pigs, and a lot more, the Housemartins had decided while I was away, that my thatching is just the thing to built their nests from! I got home to find that the rain had poured in at a few different places, where there never was a leak. It took me the best of two days to get all the mouldy things cleaned, and had to throw away some of the bedding, as it was unusable.
 I couldn't understand why it suddenly leaked at this new spots, but the next day I went to open the gate in order to go shopping, when my eyes caught some movement on the roof. It was two Housemartins plucking away lustily at the thatching, and I almost hyperventilated when I saw the huge gaping spots where they had already removed the thatch! I went to the co-op for help, but they had no solution, so I bought a can of foam spray that is sprayed in gaps when windows or such things don't fit properly.
So weaponed with this, I put up the ladder, which was a bitty rickety, the ground not very even, and sprayed the foam into the holes on the side of the house where the roof was low enough to reach. The front was a different story, as it was very high, and I just do not have the guts of five years back when I put the ladder on a table to reach the highest spots. I tried a few times, but every time the ladder wiggled a bit, my heart almost stopped, so after a while I aborted that effort, and decided to spray the foam from the ground, as I found that this can sprayed to the top of the roof on the side I did first. It did not work, so I tried to stand on the ladder just under the roof, and spray blindly, hoping to find the target! Bally great mess! Some of the foam got caught by the overhanging thatch, and low and behold, a huge piece dropped on my just washed head!
Now that was a disaster, as this stuff did not dissolve in water, so I ran for the turps, which did not do the trick either. I decided to wait until the stuff was dry, and then try to get it off, which was a big mistake, as it grew to an enormous size when it started to expand, and I had to cut off all the hair that the stuff stuck to. Must say, there is quite a resemblance between my tattered hairstyle, and my tattered roof!
Joy was glad when I got back, she is my new neighbour, as she had to lock herself in as soon as dusk fell, being scared of the thugs always prowling for somewhere to do their mischief.. Over the week-end, on our country's freedom day, an eighty seven year old nun was raped and murdered, her hands binded with her rosary. Darn it, it is twenty years since the new government took over, and when something like this happens, the nun's fate is nothing to the world, as the poor man who did it was so disadvantsged, and I bet my sox on the fact that he will be out in a few months!
The top picture shows my new beigbour, then just how pretty my garden is, and on the bottom one some of the damage the birds did can be seen.

It rained a lot while I was away, and all the small stones I used to fill up gaps in my little stone path had been washed out, making it quite a journey to get to the back garden via the kitchen door. The Jerusalem artichokes was in full bloom, and my garden looked lovely! It is nice to be home, and I think it might be quite some time before I drive all that way on my own again.
I was driving quite merrilly along this quite lonely road, when between a village called Ladismith, and the next one called Barrydale, my car's engin just suddenly stopped running. And I mean just that, as there was not even a click when I turned the key. I was devastated, as it was on one of the loneliest stretches on this road, with miles and miles of small brown shrubs and reddish brown stones scattered willy nilly inbetween. And it was hot, like in about 38 celcius, the sun one big whitish ball burning down mercilessly.
When I found that there was no reception for my cell phone, my cup ran over, as I now had to walk about three hundred meters to be out from between the two small hills on both sides. Not a wise thing to do, as there are such a lot of crime in South Africa nowadays, that a woman alone is in a precarious spot if alone and walking on such a lonely road. I assesed the situation, and realised that the car would actually run back if given a small push, and in that way I could hopefully get out from between the mountains, and get reception. So I trien sitting in the car and get it running by pushing with my foot, but in the end I had to get out, give a push, then dived back in. Almost a wee disaster, me not that fast anymore, and the diving back in not at all easy, but got the car reversing quite nicely down the small rise.
I then had reception, and phoned Trienkie, as Stephan and she had the particulars of my insurance, because my lovely son in law insisted on paying that for me. So I left all to them, the reception not of the best, and sat in the small bit of shade that the car made. A white Toyata truck stopped, an I started hyperventilating, as I was very, very scared. But out got two women, and asked me if I needed help. As I had word from Trienkie that they were doing their best to get a tow truck to me as soon as possible, the one woman gave me a paper with her cell number, and said that I must phone her if I needed a place to sleep, as she had an extra bed.
I was very thirsty, as I had planned to buy something to drink at the next village, so the woman, whose name was Wilma, gave me a small bottle with water, and they left. I was by now burning up, as only part of me fitted in the car's shadow, and was feeling very sorry for myself, when back came Wilma, with a big plastic bottle filled with ice cold water, a yogurt, and an apple. I was so thankful, and when she told me that she and her little boy would stay with me until the tow truck came for me, I was very much amazed. Wilma worked at the church as she is a social worker, and they look after the farm kids, whose parents are all drinking too much, and neglecting their offspring. And this says a lot for South Africans, as I am a white woman, and Wilma is a coloured woman, the result of marriages between the old Dutch who came to South Africa in 1652, and the khoi people then living here. There was as yet no black people living in South Africa at that stage.The press always depicts the different races here as hating each other, but there is indeed a lot of goodwill.
 After about four hours the tow truck arrived, Wilma and self said goodbye, and I promised to have tea with her on my way back. I was then taken to Swellendam, about one hundred kilometers away, where I slept in a guest house, and resumed my journey the next morning, my car having been fixed.

A bitty tired, but safely home! Had to drive to cape Town, which is six hundred kl away, as Trienkie my youngest sprout, with a hubby and two boys, had nobody to look after the kids during the school holidays. She does have a fantastic black woman named Angelina who usually looks after them, but as it was Easter, she wanted to go to a big church gathering for the week. And seeing that she never asks for time off, or come late for no reason, Trienkie asked if I would come.
Cape Town, like the rest of the country have a hard time marrying the western and black cultures, and it is very hard for me with a Europian upbringing to understand the way Africa thinks. Like on the day that Jan brought me back to Trienkie's house after I have spent a few days with him and Erna and the kids. We saw the smoke billowing into the sky, but had no idea what it could be, until we got closer. The street leading out of the suburbs and into the city was blocked with tyres heaped upon each other, and then put on fire! It was a horrible scene of smoke and flames and angry people, with the policemen standing on watch. What was very noticable was all the taxis standing parked around the scene, so we assumed that it was another taxi war, which indeed it was.
As all the taxis wanted this part of the suburbs as their chief pick up place, there was such a congestion that the city had decided to zone the areas, and of course the ones taken out of the biggest hub was not at all happy with this state of affairs, so they decided to block off the roads so that the ones doing bussiness there could not get out! To me it seems so stupid, but a lot of blood had been shed in the past because of this taxi wars going on and on. One year a lot of taxi drivers, and a lot more innocent passengers were killed, and it took a long time to stabilize the industry again.
We then had to turn around and take another route that was twice as long, and made Jan hours late for his conference!
Trienkie and Stephan are both in full time jobs, and that was why I decided to treat them to a garden make over! Trienkie was delighted, and we drove to the nursery for plants, but Stephan, who hates working with his hands, just snorted and left the scene mumbling to himself. I think he thought that he would have to do all the work, but I soon put his soul at rest, and told him that he was really not expected to do anything. I think if you don't like gardening, you can't be made to like it, so I started digging!
I told them that I would murder them if I came back from Jan, and everything was dead from lack of water, and appointed my six year old grandson to see to it that my newly planted stuff were watered regularly. He did, and Trienkie laughingly told me that every evening he told them to go and water his Ouma's plants! In the bottom picture, I think they were contemplating sending the interfering old Mama back home!!!!
But my own garden looked wonderful after all the rain we had while I was away! Just a wee bitty overgrown with weeds!

I was getting a lot of heart palpitations lately, just looking over to my neigbour's place, as surely and slowly she was turning it into a desolate piece of semi desert! When she had destroyed all the shrubs and flowers, she started destroying the lawn that was always so green and pretty! I sighed, gave her the funny eye, asked her why she was taking out all the beautiful things, and tried not to look over to where the once beautiful garden was no more! Apparently she was going to grow only indigenous plants, but in the meantime she had started to take out all the Agapanthus, which is a plant only found naturally in Southern Africa!
In the meantime the seedlings she had brought from Natal was doing well, most of them anyway, but I was a bit worried for her sake, as she had no clue about the icy cold winters of Haarlem, where the continuous frost simply kills off anything not hardy enough! And she had planted a whole bunch of summer veggies, as Natal, where she had germinated the seeds, had a s a sub tropical  climate, where you can grow stuff right through the year. I could already feel the chill in the air, and the nights had become bitterly cold, so cold that my faithful hot water bottle was now my nightly companion! The days were still okay, as we had a lot of sunshiny days, strange for this time of the year, when it could be wet and nasty!
In the meantime I had harvested some more of my monster like pumpkins. I decided to slice them up, and to then freeze every piece separately, to see if it could be done successfully! And it really works, as I was scared that it would go all soggy like tomatoes, and a few other veggies. I love pumpkin slices that is roasted in the oven, so I tried a frozen slice, and voila, it stayed nice and firm!
I got a raspberry plant from Ronalee, a cultivated one, as my wild one is a wee bitty wayward, sending out tendrils like crazy, but it only made a few flowers that dropped off after a few days. The cultivated one however, after a very slow start, and me wanting to dig it up, suddenly produced masses of flowers, and a few days ago I found the plant covered in beautiful red berries!! Now that is a bonus, as raspberries is not often sold in our supermarkets, and if you do find it, it is very expensive.
Johan came to visit, and I introduced him to my new neigbour, who told him without even a trace of feeling bad, that she was having the 'old Willow' taken out! Poor Johan was caught unawares, and nearly swallowed his pipe from shock, as I had not told anybody that she was having that done. After a moment of coughing and eye rolling, he asked her why she wanted the tree out at all? And, he also told her that it was a very old pepper tree. But she clamped up like a bally musscle, and just did not answer him, but started talking about other things she was going to do.
I was now again very upset, as I had thought that because she never mentioned it again, she had decided not to do it! So I am one very sad woman!
I love the foto where Erna and the kids were making a cake, while my little Emil was SO wanting to have a peep!

I nearly collapsed from pure shock, when my new neigbour told me that the old Willow tree in front of the house will have to go! I stuttered and spluttered, and nearly had one kingsize fit, as the tree she was talking about was a three hundred year old Californian Pepper tree, planted by the first settlers who settled in the village! I begged her to please not cut it down, as it is part of the history of Haarlem! But this woman just looked at me, and said: 'Halo-o-o, my place!!' So I just went back to my own house, but I was a troubled soul indeed, as the tree had so many memories for me, because we as a family sat underneath it so many times, appreciating the dappled shade when the sun was blazing down! But I hoped and prayed that she would come to her senses, and realize the historical value.
Then she got a gardener to help her, and I was aghast when I realized that she was about to rid the whole place of its lovely trees and shrubs! First to go was the roses. She came over, and told me that she had taken out all the roses, and if I want it I can come and collect them! So I went over and dragged all the rosebushes across, and after about six hours, and bleeding from numerous 'wounds' caused by the rose thorns, I stood back, admiring the day's work. It took some real muscle to dig holes deep enough and wide enough, as after about a foot of lovely black soil, I hit the Haarlem clay!  So of course I had to dig really large and deep holes for the roots to grow, and not smother to death!
Tonight the old body is feeling just a wee bitty stiff, and the old back aches like the blazes, but I am a satisfied woman, as I have saved seven rose bushes! now I can only pray that they grow.
In Front of the veranda Jan and Nina had planted a few shrubs that wouldn't grow to high, and one of this was a beautiful Cape bottlebrush, and this plant was a marvel, as it sported an enormous amount of red 'brushes' every year. I nearly had another fit when I saw the poor shrub lying just outside her gate, sawn into small pieces, and the poor roots all dried up in the harsh sun. Felt like stalking over and chop this person up and put her outside to dry out! I was so cross, but couldn't say a word, as it is her place.
She came over the next day to tell me that the other shrubs will also be taken out that day, and did I want them. So I started digging again, my poor back complaining by creaking and trying to go into a huge spasm, but I persevered, and when she chucked this beautiful shrubs in front of my gate, I was ready for the planting! I was not very chaffed with my new neigbour at that stage, and went to bed that night wondering what will be the next plants to be destroyed! At least my garden was getting some lovely new plants, and as I love roses, I hope the ones I got from my neigbour would grow as well as mine!

Sometimes it is just so much better to do things yourself. The tomatoe plants had to come out, and that seemed a mammoth task, as they had grown so tall, and the ones I did not stake took over every available space. It was nice to have such an abundance of this tomatoes, but looking at my back garden, and to some extent my front, my courage just sagged down to my shoes as we say in Afrikaans [my moed sak tot in my skoene].
So when I heard this plaintiff 'mevrou! mevrou! 'meaning mrs, mrs,', and I saw the scrawny body of Nicky, who sometimes do some gardening work for me, leaning over the gate, I was quite glad, although I swore never to take him on again. We now have a fixed rate that we have to pay gardeners and domestic workers, and the people are very stern about that, but they don't think it wrong to stand chatting for fifteen minutes with a passing friend, or disappear for fifteen minutes to buy cigarettes.
The last time I had Nicky, he worked for an hour, then told me that he had to fetch his pills from the clinic, and stayed away for about two hours. When he finished later, and I told him that I had deducted the two hours pay, he got really angry, and turned just a bitty nasty.So I asked him to explain to me why, when he had no other work, did he choose to come on a day that he had to go to the clinic! he just muttered something unintelegable, gave me one furious look, and stomped off, and I had not seen him for about six weeks since!
But both our wraths have now wore off, and I said okay, I'll take him for the day, but no chatting, running to the shop, or going to the clinic!
So I showed him the tomato bushes, and told him that there was a lot of plants underneath, and to be careful, and not take them out. He gave me a nasty glare, pulled his back up straight, and told me haughtily that he knew flowers from weeds, thank you! The piece of garden where most of the tomatoes grew, was where I had planted a lot of indigenous plants, as I wanted to convert the whole place, and just plant water wise stuff.
I had a few orders for the bags that I make, so I went on with that, hoping that my cheeky gardener would know which plants to take out. When his teatime came, I made him a cuppa and a sandwich, and decided to have a look at what he was doing. He had started on the part where there was no flowers or other plants, so I told him again to be careful when he got to my indigenous patch.
When he went on lunch I went round to have a peep, and to my bally disgust he had removed every single indigenous plant, even the aloes, leaving only a clump of daisies, and some strawberries that grew on the side!
Almost did him some bodily harm when he came back, but he could not understand what I was making such a fuss about, as, he explained patiently, he had taken out all the weeds! I told him to show me where he ditched them, and there was my beautiful, pampered plants, looking very sad indeed! 'Oh, but that is weeds!' he told me, looking at me with great pity, and I just again realized, do things yourself, or suffer the consequences!!!!

I have never seen a thinner person that is healthy and full of energy, like my new neighbour! She was like a small insect, buzzing around the garden, putting in seedlings all day long. She had brought trays and trays of veggie seedlings from Natal, but I have my doubts about the outcome, as we have freezing winters, while Natal have a sub tropical climate! And with the winter already staring to pinch with its icy cold fingers, I know that the early frost will also start soon.
I myself in the meantime was also busy in the garden, preparing to plant some winter crops. Ronalee had given me a few broadbean seeds, and I was kind of building up a raised bed so that the bally moles can't get to them. I am like a woman demented when it came to the moles, and although it looks like I am getting the upperhand, the battle is far from over. I can deal with the pigs, peacocks, cattle, slugs and other above ground critters, but this spooky creeper moles have me in a state of great hate and I have no greater wish at the moment, but to take revenge for all my plants that have been destryed by them.
After a week of my new neighbour sleeping on the floor of her kitchen, and getting fresh stuff from my freezer every morning, she told me that her furniture will be arriving sometime during the morning. She took out some stuff, which included a large yogurt, a liter of long life milk, a liter of juice, and some cheese and other stuff. I left to do some shopping just as the furniture truck arrived, and the last I saw of her was a smiling and happy face, for now she had her things at last.
I visited with Louise as well, and on coming back I found the furniture truck gone, but a furious looking woman standing at the gate!
I was told that after the truck had left, she found her cold bag open, and the yogurt, as well as the liter of juice gone, and had ordered the truck back so she could deal with the driver and his team. I thought it bizarre that she could order the huge truck back, and that for only a yogurt and a juice, but she informed me coldly that it is her stuff, and she will not allow them to get away with the theft. When at first the driver refused to come back, she told him that in that case she would phone their employer, and let him then deal with it. They must have been scared to be reported, so they turned back, although they were already about sixty kilometers away!
Then followed the most bizarre and comical episode that I have seen in a long time. The huge truck pulled onto the curve, and out climbed this five massive, non smiling and angry Zulus, but Joy gave no sign of being scared, just marched them all onto her veranda! The next few minutes were very enjoyable, only for me I guess, as I took up a stance at my bedroom door, from where I had an excellent view of the proceedings. Joy was like a little cockerel, face red with anger, and the five huge men just standing there, looking at her with stricken faces! She then stopped jumping around from pure rage, and tackled them one by one, and every one of them shaking their heads in denial, so in the end she had to let them go, not very happily, but the men stood there like bloody rocks of Gibraltar, not budging an inch, and not splitting on who-ever had taken the stuff! But they were guilty, otherwise they would not have turned back! The womwn in the foto is my neighbour, but couldn't get her face.

People are strange! Jan had to come and remove the whole bio-gas installation from his old house, because the new owner did not want it! What is wrong with her! She could do all her cooking, fridge, and some lights on that, saving a bag of money. Jan was busy connecting all the rooms to the system for lighting, and now he had to remove it all!So at last one late afternoon, this doctor in Zoology arrived, in a brand new Chevvy truck, and she was small, and very, very thin, with hair cut as short as a man's. I sensed a difficult person the moment she got out of her truck, and strided with a very sure of herself attitude onto her new property.
I saw her come back out after a while, and unloading first some sleeping gear, and a kettle, pots, and a small electrical plate for cooking. So I went out to introduce myself, and found her very pleasant, not at all the sourpuss like I thought her on first laying eyes on her. Then she started unloading plants. It was like unloading the complete stock of a small nursery, as there were hundreds of small seedlings in trays, big enough to be planted out. Then out came bags with cuttings, and soon the whole yard in front of her house were covered in seedlings and cuttings. I was quite astonished, but I kept the old pose, and asked her if she wanted a cuppa, which she said no thank you to, but she then asked if she could keep her yogurt, milk and butter in my fridge, as she had of course no way of keeping it cool.
I watched the scuttling around with interest, and when she brought over her stuff for me to keep cool, she told me that she was going to grow veggies for the market. She wanted to use the barn as a small roadstall, and open it on Saturdays and Sundays, and sell her ware from there.
I told her that she could sleep in my bottom room, as she intended to camp in her house until her furniture arrived, but she was very adamant to sleep in her sleeping bag in her own house. The next morning she came to my house with a cooler bag, which she filled with all the stuff from the fridge that she needed for the day, as she did not want to bother me every time she wanted something.
The next few days was like a strange comedy playing off in her yard. I marvelled at the speed that she could work up with a large consignment of plants stacked up high in her thin arms, her little legs buckling under the weight, and wondered how she found her way through the small gate leading to Jan's old veggie patch, as she surely could not see a thing in front of her. She was like a very busy bee, buzzing around like mad, sweat running down her face!
I was wondering about the seedlings that she had brought from Natal, which had a subtropical climate, and with our freezing winter just around the corner, the chances of any of that surviving was quite slim, or so I thought.

It was the strangest wedding ceremony ever! With the poor bridal couple hanging on to the gazebo, and the wedding official hanging onto the table arrangements, it was like some bizarre comedy, and I am sure I wasn't the only guest having a struggle to keep a straight face! But what made it even stranger, was that the gusts would stop for a few seconds, then,  every time when Jan tried to put the ring on Erna's finger, up would jump the wind, and the couple had to grab hold of the gazebo again. After a few seconds the gust would die down, the couple pulled their clothes and their dignity straight, and the official would hold out the ring again. And time after time the same thing happened, and I had the most bizarre thought, and that was that Nina was cross with Jan getting married again, and was trying to prevent the marriage! Afterwards Trienkie told me that she had the same thoughts! Weird!
That made us remember again something strange that happened a day or two after Nina died. We were all sitting in my sitting room, very sad and in shock, when a toy that was lying on the dresser, far from any of us, and that said a few sentences when pressed on its tummy, suddenly said: 'Pickaboo, I see you!' Gosh, we were so shocked, and until today we can't work out how the toy came to talk, with not one of us near it!
After the wedding, which in the end was quite a rushed affair, we all drove out to a wine farm just out of Noordhoek where the couple live, and had a most delicious picnic meal. Erna has a beautiful, caring family, and they are so nice to Jan's kids. I am sure that it will be a very happy marriage.
As the couple could not go on honeymoon at the moment, I volunteered to look after the kids for the rest of the week-end so that they could at least have a few days on their own.
Then it was back to Haarlem, but before I could leave we had another death, this time my best friend Edythe's husband Cliffie. That was so sad, as he was the most beautiful and honorable man ever, and I knew that Edythe would have a hard time living alone, as she is definitely not one for that. So I had to stay in Cape Town till the funeral, which was very, very sad, But they are in their eighties, and had a good innings! On the foto Cliffie and Edythe came to visit me, but the weather was so cold they had to be covered up all day long, and that was mid summer. Haarlem has a stranger than strange climate!
Haarlem was hot and dry, and I found most of my plants in bad shape, and my poor hanging plants quite dead. Luckily I had no veggies planted, so I didn't cry too much.
I was now waiting in suspense for my new neighbor to arrive, and was quite eager to meet her, as, according to Ronalee and the agent, she was a very strange woman indeed!

So I am in cape Town, and the traffic is driving me mad. When your traffic jams are usually a few pigs wandering across the road, or a few cows standing gazing at you with their liquid brown eyes, refusing to budge, or a few horses, or a donkey or two, you get a bitty flustered if suddenly there are cars coming at you and towards you at speeds that threatens to stop your heart, one feels a strong inclination to turn tail and go home!
 But I have a present to get, and as both Jan and Erna had their own homes for many years, and that houses are now thrown together, with the result that there are no mod cons that they do not have. I think, although I hate the impersonal way of giving money, that I will just resort to that, and be done. As it is the end of the month also, the parking at the malls are packed, and maybe if I was a wee mouse I could shuffle in somewhere.
In the end that is what I did, and now we are getting dressed for the wedding. It will be a very simple affair that will happen in a park near to Erna's house, with just close friends and family attending. Jan had never been one for huge gatherings, and it seems that Erna is of the same mind.
It was a windy day, and when we got to the rendevouz, we found a gazebo had been erected, but this thing was threatening to blow away, and the woman who was going to marry them, and Erna's friend who were responsible for the arrangements, were hanging onto this with all their strength. So we offered our help, as the two women still had to dress the table with all the adornments. In the first place the beautiful white cloth intended for the table kept on blowing away, and while Trienkie and self hung onto the gazebo for dear life, Stephan and the wedding woman sprinted across the fields chasing down the tablecloth, the bunch of flowers that were now not a bunch anymore, and other smaller items. I had really serious doubts about the wedding taking place in this park, but then the wind dropped a wee bit, with occasional gusts fluttering everything into a bit of chaos, but at least it was not that hard,
But the table that was supposed to be so pretty looked just a wee bit moth eaten, and Erna's poor friend had the task of trying to anticipate the next gust, and try to protect the arrangements. The kids enjoyed every minute of this, and were running all over the place, while we were hoping that the gusts would die down before the ceremony!
And  first Jan came, looking so handsome in his wedding clothes, and with him came the wind again, trying to blow everything away. So the poor bridegroom could be seen hanging onto the gazebo, as this time the wind had decided to really play up! My poor child looked very stressed out, and it was quite funny to see the man of the day trying to keep his little 'chapel' standing, while I had my hands full trying to keep little Emil clean!
Then Erna arrived! She looked so beautiful, and I again thank God for sending a woman like that on my child's way after the tragedy he had undergone!