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Thursday, March 26, 2015

Good fences - Great neighborhood walk

Since being home, we've been walking in the evening. Really walking - not strolling. I always have my camera and when I stop to take photos, I have to dash to catch up the my serious walking partners, Grant and Rina. (LOL!)

Last week I posted several birds which I'd photographed on a walk and also a fence post featuring a Cape Glossy Starling.

On Sunday I stopped regularly to photograph fences and boundary walls around the houses which we passed on that day's walk! 

On the corner property at the end of our street walking towards town, I spotted a yellow day lily; I couldn't resist snapping it through the palisade fencing surrounding the garden. 
A day lily behind the palisade fence surrounding a property near our home

This old house (just visible in the photo) belongs to a dear man who worked for the municipality for two and a half decades. The old-fashioned gate and wire fence fronts his roses, peach and pomegranate trees
A banksia rose in flower against a chicken-wired fence
This imposing red-bricked wall surrounds the house which used to be the magisterial residence. The young magistrate has since moved into his in-law's home with his wife and family. I'm not at all sure who occupies this house now
This elegant grey palisade fence surrounds a house which used to belong to our older son and daughter-in-law, John and Debbie. When they moved to their land in the Drakensberg, they sold their Marquard property to people from Johannesburg city


The building to the right of the photo used to be stables. After renovating it, the new owners left the sandstone foundation visible
The houses in Marquard are old but well-built. Debbie renovated this house by ripping up the old carpets and having the wooden floors sanded. She broke down walls in the living area, added pillars for support and created a large open lounge/diningroom
This beautiful wall surrounds the home of our doctor. The gate entrance leads to a gym where the doctor's wife, Ida gives aerobics and spinning classes. Many an icy winter's morning, I've entered this property to spend an hour working out ! 
Directly opposite the doctor's residence, are the blue gates to the retirement center. MIL Pam lives in a building at the end of this tarred drive 
Directly next door to the doctor, is a gentleman whose family arrived in Marquard from Lebanon 100 years ago. He and his brother married two Free State girls, began to farm and made their fortune over the years. Today both couples have retired from farming (the sons take over) and live in town: one in their own home...
...and the other directly opposite, in their own home within the center
On the next corner, we stopped to chat to two friendly Labradors behind their chicken-wire fencing


At the end of the street, we turned right to walk along the two blocks before reaching our street again. I took photos of the greens and fairway as well as the newly risen sun as we passed. 
The barbed wire fence surrounds our beautiful golf course

The view of a green and the fairway stretching beyond
You can see my shadow as I stood in our neighbors' (Angus and Amanda's) garden to get this shot. On the right is their double garage, while our electric gate now sports varnished fence slots. This was done so that the cats don't hang themselves on the spiky palisades when entering or exiting our property
A close-up of our gate and the fence beyond


I'm linking my post to Good Fences Thursday hosted by TexWisGirl here 
















7 comments:

  1. all sorts of fences, from brick walls to chicken wire to metal gates, varnished wood. like them all! nice yards and homes in your neighborhood.

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  2. Hi Jo. Well that was a wonderful walking tour of around your home area. Great variety of gatedps.

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  3. Thanks for the tour. The retirement center looks like a village of tiny homes. - Margy

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  4. That was some walk Jo - I'm tired out now. I can only imagine having peach and pomegranate trees on tap.

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  5. you live in the land of fence it seems to me. and you find the most interesting ones to show us. i was shocked to read on a cold icy morning... i thought Africa was always HOT... learn something new every day

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  6. You see qyite a variety of looks when you go out for walks in your area!

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  7. love the chicken wire fence and barbwire fence.

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo