Four...almost five weeks old

Titan, as he has been named is now almost five weeks old.  He is so precious and I feel blessed to have witnessed the life of a foal from day one.  It is such a pity that we missed out on the whole birthing process, but despite that it is a journey that I love to watch and be a part of every day.  His vision is improving and we think it is his judgement of distance that is still not quite in place as we often see him bucking his back legs, then taking off and running at high speed only to come to a grinding halt as he almost runs into something.
He recognizes us from a distance now too and will happily trot over to meet us.  We can pat him and rub him all over and he doesn't mind one bit, he just has a problem with us getting close to his face and pulls back, but I am sure it is all in attempting to focus....

Lots n lots of Prickly Pears

When we moved here there was a huge...and I mean huge, prickly pear cactus out the back which to me was...and always has been an absolute eye sore.  Not being the gardening type though, unlike my sister who loves to spend time in her garden, I don't ever have much say about what goes, what stays and what gets brought in and planted.  Not that I mind, mind you because although I love a pretty garden and can admire all the beauty around me, I just can't get down and dirty so to speak.  I blame my parents for my mindset about gardening, for if I had been given a nicer job in the garden when I was younger, other than weeding the rockery, then today I may be more interested...big tongue in cheek here and lots of lol's.........

In our front garden in KZN, we have an absolute monstrosity of a wild banana plant, just at the top of the steps which is taller than the house....and as much as I hate it with a passion, Johan loves it to bits.  I always joke that if he dies before me, I will have it dug out before he is buried....hehe.  Anyway the prickly pear is for me in the same category and the thing is we hardly ever eat the fruit!!!!!  It's just too finicky for my liking, firstly because you have to be careful how you pick the fruit to make sure you don't get any of the thorns in your fingers, and then you have to burn the thorns off before you can peel and eat it.  Then don't let me get started on how you have to find space in the fridge to make the fruit cold before you actually eat them, because if not then you can expect the runs in a big way (and I have first hand experience with that let me tell you).... The birds have a go at it long before we do, and in the past, before we erected fencing around the house, the sheep and August would munch in delight at the fruit.

Two days ago we were doing 'whatever', each of us minding our own business, when the dogs rushed outside and started barking frantically.  They were each of them looking to the corner and we none of us could immediately see what it was upsetting them.  There wasn't a strange cat in a tree, or the cattle next door, nor a bird flapping around - then suddenly NiQi realized that the prickly pear had broken and fallen over...  My word what a thing, when we went to investigate properly.  The cactus isn't rotten to have made it break, but the sheer weight of all the fruit on it made it top heavy and it collapsed under the strain.

Now I feel really guilty that there is all this fruit lying going to waste, so yesterday I searched for a recipe on Google for prickly pear jam or jelly.  Now I have one, I better go outside and pick up all the fruit and turn it into something palatable.....

The Library

My word but it seems forever since I was last on my blog...I don't know where the time goes.  I must say yesterday I was thankful for a cooler day, so it wasn't as unpleasant and I managed to get a few things done.

NiQi helped me on Sunday afternoon to move most of the books over to the library which was a flippin' sweaty job. All that is left now, are the boxes under Johan and my bed, but I will leave them till this coming weekend.  They have been stored under there for so long that I am a bit nervous to pull them out, just in case a spider or something has made itself at home there.  NiQi and I did transport a frog over already and as I put the box down it jumped out so we had to catch it and put it outside before we locked up.

It has been almost a year since we proposed opening a library in our area and it has been a long slow process but eventually we will get there.  I am excited for the day that it will eventually open and in the meantime 'moi' is doing everything...or so it seems, to make it happen.  We have had many donations of books thus far, mostly coming from the KZN area, and all English   We have had a decent number of Afrikaans books too, donated by people in and around our area, but many of them are really old...although as they say, the cover of a book may be old but the content is often new, so there you are.  When we have our next meeting I will again ask for volunteers to help me and see where we go from there....

I really hope that others will gain pleasure from the library and if they don't already have a passion for reading that they will develop one.  I have loved reading for as long as I can remember and still today it is for me a 'guilty pleasure'.  If I sit and read I always feel that I should be doing something else.....when we first moved to South Africa my Grandad used to send us comics in the post.  They came rolled up together with brown paper around them and I remember us all in our respective places pouring over them and reading from cover to cover.  Each of us received a different comic and when we were finished with our own, we would swap with each other until we had read them all.  Every time I would have my siblings moaning at me because I read so slowly, but it didn't bother me, I just carried on reading.

When our children were small I decided that I was going to read to them every night to try and broaden their imagination and instill in them the same love of reading that I had.  There is a 6 1/2 year gap in age between Matthew and NiQi and I read until NiQi was in grade four...there was many a night that Matthew would be listening whilst doing his own homework, even though he was by that stage way to big to be listening to children's stories.  I remember that Matthew's favourite story was 'The Ugly Duckling'  and every time we read it he would cry for the duckling that no one loved.  Mark's favourite story was Hansel and Gretel and it was read so often to him that if I skipped a word or a page he would pick up on it, tell me so and correct me.  Sadly our children have taken after Johan when it comes to books and reading, although I do believe that these days Matthew is prone to picking up a book to read when he finds the time.

AAAAH yes, the wonderful world of books...each with their own story, both with the words inside and their journey as a whole....

packed in the kitchen for the time being

Official Anniversary

Today Johan and I have officially been married for 32 years and I can honestly say I don't know where the time has gone.  Johan was 22 and I was 20 when we walked down the aisle all those years ago...the first to marry between all our friends, we enjoyed many years together before attending someone else's wedding.

I was intrigued to meet Johan as I heard some in the office speaking about him before he started at our offices....not because he was famous or anything like that but he was the nephew of  one the ladies in personnel and had recently finished a year at Bible College.  So the first morning I saw him walking down the passage I must say I was impressed by what I saw.  The long and the short of our story is that we ended up getting married.

Our wedding date was set for the 9th January 1982, my aunt and uncle came over from the UK for Christmas and stayed for our wedding.  Right up to the week before, everything was going as planned...then suddenly the Monday before, our minister phoned my mum at home to say that he had been called away urgently and he wouldn't be back to marry us on Saturday.  There would be a lay preacher who could perform the ceremony for us but we would have to go to church that afternoon to perform an official ceremony...and so we did.  The date was 4th January, 5 days before we had planned, it was just Johan and I, our minister and my parents as witnesses.  I remember our minister saying to my parents that we are officially married and so the date that appears on our marriage certificate and in our ID books is the fourth, even though we only had the ceremony - as planned - on the 9th.

Unique, yes, to us anyway, and for 32 years we have celebrated a double anniversary every year....

engaged...

married...

Goodbye Frikkie

One of the African Grey's I hand reared earlier this year went to a colleague of Johan's at work and while they were away on holiday we (meaning me) looked after it for them.

He has become an Afrikaans bird now but I think he must have vaguely remembered me and been listening to me talking to the other birds whilst he has been here as two days ago we heard him say 'Hello boy' just as I do...hehe.  Johan told Hannes when he phoned this morning to say they were going to come and fetch him, that he has been anglicized now...lol

He's gone home now but I'm sure we'll see him again and in the meantime the birds on the front verandah are somewhat subdued...I wonder if they miss him?

New Year, clean house...

New Years day was spent packing away the Christmas decorations and as long as it takes me to unpack and set up, it takes even longer to pack away.  Everything must be neatly wrapped and packed so it doesn't get bent, broken or damaged before stored away in the various kists.  The larger fabric decorations are lightly washed before packing ready for the next time of use.

Now our home looks so bare as there is very little left out...just candles and lamps etc....takes some getting used to after all the colour we've just had out...

After inspecting and looking for a good spot this is where Rolo settled...

New Years Eve Supper

New Years evening NiQi decided she would stick Johan and I to supper which was really kind of her.  We don't go out very often, especially not to eat out anyway, so it was a real treat for us.

We didn't go too far and left about six o'clock so we wouldn't be too late and it's a good thing we did as we hadn't booked a table in advance.  Before leaving we closed the pups and William in the Kitchen and Trinity and Purdy in the tack room just in case anyone near by decided to let off fire crackers and scare the poor dogs.  It's bad enough that the birds flap around if they hear loud noises unexpectedly, but there is not much we can do about them. I must say though that in all the years we have lived here there have been very few occasions that fireworks or crackers have been lit....but you never know when it may happen so it was best to take precautions.

We were surprized to note that most of the eating places closer to us were closed for the night as we thought it would be a night many would stay open till midnight to see in the new year.  We obviously don't think like a restaurateur...lol... so we really had no choice but to go to Mikes Kitchen.  When we arrived it was fairly empty but by the time we left it had filled up and was really buzzing.  NiQi phoned Kyle and asked if he wanted to stop by on the way home as his shift ended at 7 pm, so he did, and just stayed to have an orange juice before going home.

Supper was filling and in true family style, both NiQi and I asked for a doggy bag so that we could have pudding...hehe.  Johan ate a 700g T bone steak which really looked good, but left no space for pudding at all...silly man....

Anyway thanks Nix...you spoil us, and we do appreciate all your thoughtful gestures...oh and PS...it's daddy and my anniversary one of these days!!!!!

starting with crumbed mushrooms

a silly moment...

grubs up...

followed by chicken medallions...

700g gone...

doggy bags

hmmm let me think now, so much choice...

making an aeroplane with my serviette while I wait...

ending off with black cherry cheesecake and cappuccino

my chocolate mousse