Eight years!

 Good morning, dear Blogger friends. Despite my best intentions, I don't seem to get back to Blogger once I've posted. Thank you for your kind comments.

Feedback on the Laptop. No, my old one is gone/dead/blown up. And I am still using the farm machine. It just wasn't in my budget to purchase a new laptop at this time of the year. 

However, at the beginning of August, I wrote in for a competition on the radio (I have no TV; I only listen to the radio) and I WON a considerable amount of money in vouchers!

Takealot is a website on which I could purchase a laptop of my choice. Angus has ordered it for me, which will be shipped to his home in the Free State. He will insert SSD, from my old laptop and One Drive and ensure that all my files are retrieved and saved onto my new laptop.  He will send it to me via Postnet another great service we have in South Africa.

WHOOPEE. Soon I will have my new laptop, called an IdeaPad. 

And then...

...as you can see by the heading of this post, today 16 September 2024; we arrived here on 16 September 2016. 

 I have been in Champagne Valley, Central Drakensberg for eight years!  

HAVE A WONDERFUL MONDAY! 

Eclectic mix of Saturday critters

 Good afternoon, dear Blogger friends. Life is normal again, thank goodness and one routine that has been re-established is that Skabby and I get out there for a walk. 

Last week as I approached the dam, I once again, noticed the perfect reflection of an electrical pole above the bank.

I called my photographic assistant to jump in for a swim. He did...

... and I was ready with my camera! 

Lovely zig-zag images made for great photo ops! 

After having acquitted himself of a task well done, the canine photographic assistant, treated himself to a fresh patty

On the way back, I stopped to take photos of the hay bales and the cows grazing against a backdrop, in the far distance, of the majestic mountain peaks. 

This bucolic scene is part of my daily existence 

This young calf was alone, and seemed to be waiting. His mum has obviously gone to the day paddock for the day

While I was thinking about this little guy, a cow came up the road bellowing, she was mooing so loudly. All the calves in the nursery came towards the fence but not one reacted to her mooing. This lone calf also paid no attention to the lady's call. She was clearly missing her calf. Then she turned around and galloped (strange sight to see a cow galloping) back to the paddock where she'd spent the night. The older heifers in the paddock adjacent to the nursery, ran along the fence with her. 

I'd leashed Skabby  up again and stopped at the farmyard gate to watch the cow. She raced into the paddock where she located a young calf and called him to come with her. 

Circled is a very happy mama having found her baby! 

She came running up the road with her calf in tow!

She found, to her surprise, that her calf had remained in the paddock (see open gate top left of photo

Here she is with her calf, on their way to the cows grazing the lush grass along the river 

I'm listening to the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the nation on easing restrictions during Covd-19. The number of daily infections have decreased from 12,000 to 5,000. The recovery rate since 13th July, CR's last address, has increased from 48% to 80%. 

Cigarettes may be sold for the first time in four months. Doesn't affect me in any way but I felt for the smokers. Black market sales rocketed during this period. The alcohol ban has been lifted for the second time; I'm also not a drinker but I'm pleased for the wine industry in our country. 

I am linking to Saturday Critters with Eileen, here 

Have a safe a wonderful Saturday! 

Meeting new Critters

While hiking on Tuesday, friend Jenny Braithewaite told us about a pair of Hamerkop building a nest in her garden. She invited us to come and have tea that afternoon to see it. 

The Hamerkop nest is massive and strong enough to support a man's weight (do read the link provided above to learn more about this interesting bird

A Harlequin Great Dane ran up and greeted us 

Jenny's granddaughter Lexi and one of her four cat ran to greet us! 

When this cutie got nearer she became shy! 

Jenny, a widow, lives in a cottage next to the main farm house. Her garden which she shares with her son and daughter-in-law, teems with pet cats, dogs and chickens. Lexi is an animal lover like I've never seen before!

One of Jenny's two kittens sleeps in a salad bowl on the dining table

She posed beautifully 

I'm linking to Saturday Critters with Eileen here

HAPPY SATURDAY TO YOU ALL! 

Special Critters beginning July 2016

Earlier this week, my house-lady, Erica brought her eight-year-old son, Tumi to work with her. Tumi is the same age as Bethany, John and Debbie's second daughter. He loved playing with the cats, and Ginger and later, Chappie, loved being stroked by this gentle little boy.

Tumi, looking a lot more serious than he actually is! 

When Tumi was a baby, his mom, Erica worked for in another household here in Marquard. Erica's mom, Emily was working for me at the time. She brought Tumi to work and would piggyback him (as is traditional) while she worked. When he needed to sleep, she'd lay him in the middle of my double bed with pillows around him to prevent him from rolling off. 

Scrolling through my blog, I found a photo of the oldest grandson, Joshua with Tumi who's riding a plastic scooter. Tumi and Emily's older grandson, Karabo have been part of our family ever since 2002; especially while John and Debbie lived here in Marquard. The children were of an age and would spend many a day playing together here at our home. 

Tumi, around two years and Joshua four-years-old

On Thursday Rina visited and I convinced her to go walking with the dogs. Here she's throwing a stick into the water for Skabenga to retrieve

Which he did, good boy! 

As old as she is, Eddy takes a dip every day that we're on the golf course

Skabenga is there too!

For the past six months, Grant's been complaining that his belt isn't successfully holding up his jeans. We're searched in the city for braces and eventually yesterday I managed to find a natty grey pair.  

The Vintage Marquard style

Blogger and FB friend, Betsy said he looks like the Mountain Man from Tennessee! 

Yesterday morning I snapped the moon: last quarter over Rina's house

Last evening I photographed the sunset from her house - over the retirement village

I also picked up a contrail with the setting sun

Zooming in as much as I could, I managed to get a small glimpse of the actual aircraft glittering in the sun 

I'm linking to Saturday Critters with Eileen here

HAPPY SATURDAY TO YOU ALL! 

Another eclectic mix of critters

Traveling to the city of Bloemfontein at the end of November on the bike, Grant pointed to one dam we pass on the National Freeway. On the way back later that day, we stopped and I took photos. 

Not very good, but photos all the same...

A pair of Greater Flamingo

Another, slightly clearer photo with a Little Grebe in the foreground and two Reed Cormorants at the back

A light plane flew over the gathering of bikes doing the annual Toy Run

Back home I captured the Malachite Sunbird male in silhouette

An agapantha with shadows on the wall behind it

So far with the severe drought, I'm managing to save my indigenous perennials by watering them by hand - a cupful at a time ! 

My beautiful Skabenga, now seven months old!

We jokingly call him our Russian guard dog which translates from Afrikaans as a "resting guard dog"! 

We've had several forecasts of rains. The clouds build up, the atmosphere is heavy and then the wind comes up and blows everything away! 

God's promise - a double rainbow after a smattering of raindrops earlier this week

On Thursday evening Angus, Amanda and children came over after they had had their supper. Angus wanted to ask Grant something about his off-road motorbike. The two older children followed me into the kitchen. When Abby saw the bottle of honey on the kitchen table, she asked for a slice of bread with honey. Immediately Joel asked for bread and Bovril. I made their sandwiches, poured a cup of milk each and set them down at the kitchen table. Joel asked why there was a white circle around the honey. I explained that it was made by a chalk pencil which keeps the ants away. They wanted to know  whether the line could be erased so I showed them it could, by wiping it off with paper towel.  Then I pulled the chalk, its end still in its plastic packet,  out of the box and handed it to Joel. I asked him to make half a circle and to write his name. Then I held Abby's hand with the chalk in it, made the other half of the circle and wrote her name. They were so proud of this that once they'd finished their snack, they ran outdoors and called Rina to come take a look. 

The children with their names written in chalk around the circled honey bottle (see the Bovril smear on Joel's face)

Skabenga is always near the children - especially when they're having a snack

I'm linking to Saturday Critters with Eileen here. Thanks Eileen for hosting this interesting meme.

May you all have a wonderful weekend. 

Good fences, great memories

While in a neighboring town recently, we parked the car and walked to the shop on the next corner. I lagged behind taking photos of a church which is very near to my heart. My paternal grandparents, Hendrik and Eliza Marais were married in this church just after WWI, on 21 November 1918. My dad, an only child was born in 22 October 1919. When he was three months old, he was christened in this church. 

On 20 May, 1966, my grandmother died on the farm where she and my granddad lived. She was buried from this church.  My grandfather came to live with my parents and us four children, in a town 400 km down the road. Three years later, on 24 September, 1969, my grandfather passed away. He'd lived a month past his 85th birthday which he'd celebrated with great gusto with family and friends. 

My grandfather's wish was to be buried with his wife in the Free State. There was no funeral transport service in the mid-sixties. My mum's older brother, Raymond offered to help. He collected the coffin from the freezers in the city morgue where my grandfather had been interned;  he and my cousin loaded it on the back of the pick-up truck and arrived at our home twenty minutes later. Grant, with whom I'd started going out earlier that year, wanted to attend the funeral with us. So he sat on the back of the pick-up, alongside the old man. (Grant was very much in love with me those days)My dad and mom and us kids, now teenagers,  traveled behind the "hearse". 

When we arrived in this town, my uncle and cousin off-loaded the coffin at the undertakers and we drove out to my dad's relations on a farm. We stayed with them until the day of the funeral, my grandfather was buried from the church in town; then we, as a family, returned home to Kwa-Zulu Natal. I remember Grant saying he wouldn't mind living in the Free State. I also remember looking at him with horror. (The joke was on me in the end, wasn't it?) 

The fence surrounding the church

The logs along the fence which encloses the whole property,  are petrified wood

Rina, who turned back when she saw I wasn't with them, mused that perhaps the rock above was previously yellow wood? 

I held my phone over the fence trying to get photos the "wooden" logs and autumn leaves lying around

Another picture of the cut logs lying inside the fence

The beautiful gardens surrounding the church

Great memories are evoked whenever I'm in this Free State town and walk past the church. 

I'm linking my post to Good Fences Thursday which you can visit here

Happy Thursday to you all!