It was a wet and dreary week-end, but nobody should complain, as we have a continious water shortage in this country! So I curled up with a book, that is of course after I had positioned all the buckets to catch the water from the leaks in the roof! I have done some clever stuff to combat the leaks, but well, not all of them worked out.
My best effort yet was to hang some boards, neatly painted, from the rafters, making it look strangely nice, and then I stuck some buckets on the boards. I had actually hung two of Irma's paintings like that, and it looked so nice that somebody bought both of them! It works a treat, but in the lower bedroom with the roof on one side about twelve feet high, sloping down to the window on the other side, and that being only about five feet, it was pretty impossible to work my magic there. So I took some very shiny insulation foil that Jan left, and stretched that between the rafters where it was leaking. The lowest sides I folded over, and the water is then caught in there. the only trouble I have with this arrangement, is that every time I tried to let the water out by straightening the parts that was folded over, something went wrong, and I had quite a few very dirty showerings! Will have to work on that. But at least my bed is dry now, as it is not a nice feeling to wake up with cold, wet feet in the middle of the night, with the bedding all brown and dirty from the water.
I had quotes to have the roof re-thatched, but that was too dear, then I bought some thatch, but I had to go back to Scotland before my neighbour, whom I paid very hansomely, fetched that, so the thatcher did a horrible job, and my daughter in law paid him without checking! I cried a lot on seeing my new roof when I got back, as half the thatch lay around the house, having been blown off, and the bits left on the roof looked like a very, very angry Porcupine! The thatcher did not put one new beam in, neither did he use even an inch of the thatching rope, and this wee pest had disappeared into thin air by now!
I feel like a tomatoe. I keep on picking, and drying, and freezing, but every second morning there are another huge load that had ripened. I have decided, to heck with trying to grow onions, tomatoes will be my next venture, to try and make some money. The cherry tomatoes seem to have no enemies here in the Langkloof where I live, and boy oh boy, they are hardy. This plants just came up from the previous year's seeds, and without any real attention, it is now driving me to distraction, there are so many. What is strange is that the seeds that came up outside my yard fence, seem to be doing even better than the ones I watered regularly! Anyhow, my neighbours enjoyed the presents I gave them!
Today I had my first raspberry. It was such a wonderful feeling to pick that one berry, as I thought the plant would never bear any fruit. I walked along the river one day, and spotted this red things hanging from a bush. It was wild raspberries, and I took two plants out, planted them in my garden, and after waiting two years, and on the brink of taking it out, the beautiful blossoms appeared, and then the rasberries. Hope the other don't take too long to also ripen.