The vet is due to visit again

At the end of July, I posted about how I assisted our visiting veterinarian, Dr Mawaluko to neuter Matewis who belongs to my friend Amanda. In mid-October I posted again about assisting Dr Mawaluko to neuter our two adopted cats as well as spay the Guest House guard dog. (The two cats are thriving; sadly the dog died of heart failure a day later - yes Kay, I'm still blaming myself!)

Once again the time has come for Dr Mawaluko to pay us a visit here in Mwadui. This time it's not going to be uncomplicated. The cats in question are between five and seven strays who come to Amanda's house to eat the food which Michael takes her from our Guest House scraps. Although they come running when they see Michael walking towards Amanda's house, they are all as wild as anything. Amanda and Andre and Wessel and Louise' young son, Wessie are going to try and catch the cats tonight, lock them in the travel cages which I have lent her, and then I will phone the vet to come as fast as he can.

One again, the procedures and spaying will take place in our large bathroom. This will hopefully all happen on Wednesday.

One of the five cats which come to Amanda's house and which we help to feed. The others were in the bushes and hedge around the garden and only came forward to eat once we'd withdrawn from the area!

As Firefly from Port Elizabeth observed, I sure like cats. *sigh*

Meanwhile today is 5th November and in South Africa, this day is celebrated as Guy Fawkes. I sincerely hope that the people who let off huge crackers for hours tonight at least stop at a decent hour.  My dogs, like all other dogs around the world, hate fireworks. I wish the government would ban this barbaric celebration.

I'm linking this post to Our World Tuesday which you can access by clicking here

Relaxing weekend in Mwadui

As usual, the weekend in Mwadui was peaceful, restful and interesting. We went birding (twice: an hour on Saturday morning and another hour-and-a-half on Sunday morning); we also saw amazing birds last weekend but because of my erratic Internet which turned out to be a physical wiring connection error on the WiFi modem, I didn't post on Wild Bird Wednesday last week. I will be posting this week, for sure! 

As usual, we went to the club on Saturday evening and while we ladies sat around the round table (doh), the men were glued to the England/Australia rugby match. I took a large foccacia and beef sausage snacks and Hot English Mustard as snacks. Louise wanted a photo of our [regular] group; we all posed - husband's included - and then we realized that Amanda's husband, Andre wasn't with us. He was almost on top of the TV shouting at the biased ref! We called him and while we had several photos taken, Louise, who could see the screen, promised Andre that there was no try being scored. As we finished and he returned to his post, we saw that a try had indeed been scored. We all apologized, laughingly, to Andre! 

 A select group of friends; from left: Thys, Wessel (our IT friend!), his wife, Louise; reluctant poser, Andre, his wife, Amanda; Grant and moi! 

On Sunday morning, we went out for an hour-and-a-half and had a really enjoyable outing. When Grant dropped me off at home, I immediately prepared for a potjiekos meal which the Mzungu Expats had asked for. Michael had started the fire in our backyard, Regina had prepared the vegetables for me yesterday and all I had to do was to add the oil to the two pots (we had one chicken and one vegetarian potjie ) I've posted about this before: it's a crazy South African method of cooking a meal outside in a three-legged cast iron pot over coals.

By 11am when Grant came home from the office, the coals were ready to be placed under the pots, I added the vegetable oil and we were ready to go. Within a few minutes, Johan emerged from his cottage behind our house and Thys arrived from his quarters over at the Guest House. The men love potjie as they can fiddle with cooking as well. 

 Grant checking on the first vegetables to go in: onions

 Grant stirs in the chicken and herbs, while Thys takes charge of the vegetarian potjie

Thys gets down and does his job! 

A great day was had by these men who need a little light relief from running a mining project 24/7!

I wish you all a wonderful week ahead.

White - faced Whistling Ducks reflected

A pair of White-faced Whistling Duck reflected in the water

For more Weekend Reflection posts hosted by James, please click here