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!