Meet Kayla

My first grandbaby, born to my son and his wife.

Isn’t she just the cutest little thing ever

She was born after a long day of labour (9am – 4.20 am the next day – 17 feb). After all the worry and fuss, she arrived by natural birth and needed no surgery. We are all so very happy that all went well.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

I’m sneaky.

Sometimes you just have to be…..

especially with a point-and-click camera in the bush…

without those super duper long fancy lenses…….

you have to sneak…….

to get close to your subject

without it fleeing……….

or biting you

 

Calling it quits

is sometimes necessary when painting pictures.  This still life was supposed to just be a quick colour study but turned into a really fun painting.  The problem is that it’s just painted on paper and that I really rushed parts of it.  I wanted it to have a half finished rustic look which I think I have acheived but the picture lacks depth and dimension.  I could fix it up but because its just on paper, it’s really not worth doing.

Even although there are many problems with this painting, I really like it just like it is – with its half finished and flat look.  I might just frame it and hang it up on one of my rock walls…….

 

What’s happening in the Slowveld?

I find I am having less and less time to sit and write blog posts lately so I have decided to quickly update you all on what’s been happening around here.  I am sure I will get my groove back again soon and post regularly.

• My rethatch project on the Bean’s cottage is complete but I am really not happy with the end product.  It also performed very poorly through our floods.  As I am not prepared to work with the man who did the roof again, I am going to have to get someone in to fix up the mistakes so that the roof is sound.  I don’t think it will be a very big job.
• My Tuscan patio is almost complete and I finally found a creeper to grow on it while I was in JHB.  Unfortunately the creeper did not like having half a foot of water floating around its roots for three days and gave up the ghost.  I think I am just going to plant a Bougainvillea now.  I still also need to do the paving blocks.  Once it’s done I will share a photo.
• The Bean has decided not to attend university this year and is taking a gap year before she starts her degree next year.  She will be spending her gap year in the UK and in Johannesburg.  She will be doing a TEFL course in the second half of the year so that should keep her brain on track for her studies in 2013.  I am going to miss her dreadfully.
• I have started a small mornings only job in town to help out friends with their business.  My hours are flexible so it fits in really well with my B&B work.  It also helps now after the floods as I am unable to have guests in the B&B until our water runs clear again.  The swimming pool is now half full and looks something like pea and carrot soup.  This weekend I am going to pump all of the water out and will only fill it up again once we have clean water.
• On the water issue, I followed the advice of one of my blog readers and now use a flocculent to clear water for washing clothes.  I hoped the technique would also work for the swimming pool but unfortunately even when I do get the silt to sediment out using Aluminium Sulphate, the sediment is still so fine that it passes right through my pools filtration system and pumps straight back into the pool.
• My son and his wife will be having their baby this month sometime and I will be dashing down to Johannesburg for two days to visit my first grandbaby.  There are some concerns about the baby and she may need surgery post birth so please think of them through this difficult time.

To my fellow bloggers, I have not been reading any blogs lately and miss them so much.  I promise I will be back and commenting as soon as I am able.  Happy blogging….. J

 

100 000 views

100,094 views  - wow! Thank you all for visiting and supporting my blog.

Colourful visitors

I watched these critters almost devour a complete tree the other day.  When they landed on one of my cycads I photographed them and then sent them on their way in a very un-eco-friendly manner.  Sorry but you can’t eat my cycads!  I was glad to see the back of them.

Can you see how the middle locust is scratching his head?

A dream coming true.

Since I moved to my farm one of my priorities has been to become as self-sustainable as possible. Last winter I attempted growing some vegetables. I only had one bed and although I got some rocket, tomatoes and a few leeks I fought an ongoing battle with heat, hippos, buck and a zillion creepy crawlies (and my cat who thought it was his giant litter box).

In our climate it is ideal to have a cool or shaded house to grow veggies.  I have been lucky enough to have been able to trade some old fence poles and fencing with a local farmer and friend Alf. He is building me a shade-cloth house.  The work began on Saturday and should be finished in the next week or two.  Just in time for me to start as our main growing season which starts in February, going right through our winter and into spring. Not much grows between November and January when we have our hottest months.

Here are a few pictures of the veggie house going up.  90% of the resources used to build it are recycled which fits into my plans perfectly.  Now I just have to find 50 old broken plastic crates as I will be using them as beds. I have to line them with old shade cloth too so I am also searching for bits and pieces from local farmers.

As you can see, it looks like a big cloth tent.  It is stitched onto the frame.  We just need to get the sides up and the gate put in and it will be ready for service.  At last I can begin growing my food in earnest.