Weekend of 15/16 March

The weekend was restful but oh so exciting birding-wise. (More about this later this week) 

I was the only woman at the club on Saturday night. The men were watching rugby while I sat on a bar stool (my right arm on the counter, my feet up on another bar stool!) and read my Kindle. As we drove home, Grant said it couldn't have been an interesting outing for me as the only woman there. But I said to him that I had read a great deal of my story and I then told him I'd seen quite a number of moves (tackles, scrums and not-awarded-tries), unfair referee decisions, goals kicked by national favorite half-back, the young, Durban-born Patrick Lambie, and comments of the rugby match by the experts in the studio at half time! I also gave him various tidbits of news which I'd gleaned while sending Whatsapp messages to Louise and Amanda who were at home in the camp; Thys' wife Elize and also our son, Angus in SA!  Mmm...

On Sunday we met up with friends, Wessel, young Wessie and Louise at the sewage works. The three men fished while Louise and I did what women do best: talked up a storm! 

At one point young Wessie hooked into a very big barbel (catfish) and called his mother to come and help him to land it. While he gave her instructions to "reel in, let it run"and more, he reached over and guided the line so that they could pull the fish onto the small bank. As the fish landed, it grunted loudly and Louise squealed. She said the fish looked as if it wanted to bite her!  

Wessie had to run around the dam to where his dad had parked the vehicle and fetch a pair of pliers. He needed to remove the hook from the fish so that it could be released into the water again. While I stood and took photos of Louise and "her" fish, a strange thing happened. The catfish flopped back into the dam and took to the depths. I rolled with laughter while Louise squealed to Wessie to "hurry up" as she was now fishing in reverse! 

Eventually Wessie returned with the pliers and with lots of shuddering from his mom, they both finally managed to guide the catfish back into the water. 

 Young Wessie instructs his mother how to hold the catfish (visible in front of her) 

Telling Wessie to "hurry up", Louise keeps hold of the catfish which is still attached to the rod

While Louise squealed and squirmed, the fish wriggled its way back into the water - still attached by hook to the line and the rod! 

 Wessie arrived and re-landed the catfish!

Then, once Wessie and Louise had removed the hook from the catfish' mouth, she then guided the fish back into the water ( not without much squealing and jumping back!)

Later we all sat and watched a beautiful rainbow above the mine behind the dam.  When the men said they're drawn a blank Louise reminded her that SHE had caught the only fish that day! 

 A beautiful rainbow over the mine

Driving home just after 7 pm, Grant stopped at several points on the haul road and just before our house, so that I could photograph the full moon. It was beautiful and I cannot wait to show "our African moon" off on Friday!

In keeping with my protest against the snow and intense winter weather in Western New York, where my blogger friend, Lori lives, I'm posting a beautiful lily pond. I took photos of this lily while we were out birding yesterday. 

 White pond lily 

The grass fronds in the foreground as I zoomed in on the pond lily

 A single finely formed grass created an ethereal effect as I tried to photograph the pond lily 

Another close-up of the white pond lily 

I wish you all a wonderful week ahead!