More Parsley Than Cash

I was wandering around the garden recently, when the More Parsley Than Cash thought  breezed through my mind .. We may be temporarily broke, but we do have an amazing abundance of parsley growing in our garden, as well numerous other countable blessings!

In fact, this month of enforced moderation has been great for rediscovering just how little one really needs, in the material sense. I'm enjoying cooking with all our fresh herbs, giving away the parsley, and generally appreciating all the simple things at the moment...

These roses are growing in our experimental worm-garden out the back. I love the texture of the Mopane bark behind the flowers.

Time for some seasonal updates:
Migratory birds: In my last post, I anticipated the arrival of our pair of Paradise Flycatchers, who like to appear in our garden on the 9th of October every year. On the morning of the 9th, right on schedule, I was overjoyed to spot the flash of a long, cinnamon coloured tail in the trees, and to hear their chattery calls, absent for so long! I've become extremely attached to these birds, and their annual re-appearance means a lot to me.

Research tells me that the same birds come to the same place, every year! I can't post an image as any of my photos are just tiny specks - very hard to capture!

The Weather: I'm not going to dwell (too much) on the usual southern african complaint regarding October. In a nutshell: It's ferociously hot, and we are waiting for the rainy season to start after several months without a drop of rain. Traditionally, this is a time of year to be patiently endured: temperatures and tempers flare, bush fires rage, and all this against a backdrop of parched soil, and glaring blue skies. It does really make you  appreciate the miraculous springtime greenery on all the trees, defying the baked-dryness below.

Here are some buffaloes on the road to work - returning from an early morning visit to the river

Being a riverine town, we are luckier than others in the country right now, of course. Our river is beautiful and cooling, plus the bush fires and haze of October do produce spectacular sunsets. Thank goodness for our boat, which is our ticket to freedom on the water, and our saving grace at this time...

Murphy's Law: Several of our appliances, with their usual impeccable timing have recently chosen to terminate their services. Worst of all has been the appearance of an inscrutable electronic ERR message on our camera, which has now been sent off to South Africa for emergency repairs. While we wait for it to come back, we are having a slightly aperture-free time, only now having phone-cameras, and our small point and press digitals.

Interestingly some experiences can be better without the camera. On the river last weekend, we came across a group of otters sitting on the rocks, munching their freshly caught fish - and simply enjoyed watching them through the binoculars - instead of  through a camera viewfinder, wishing madly for a zoomier lens!


The level of the river: If any readers would like to note how the level of the river has dropped, here is a photo of my favourite ex-semi-submerged palm tree, which is now a fully visible long-stemmed palm tree, growing out of a river bank! Older photo from earlier this year, on the right.

The bunch of bananas: (having done nothing since monitoring began in June - See previous blogpost here) has suddenly put on a growth spurt. No need for a photo as it still looks identical, only with fatter bright green bananas. The tree, however has fallen over. We suspect it was already weak, and has been jumped on  just one too many times by baboons... Despite propping it up, it seems to be suffering from some type of waterlogging and looks very ill. We are considering harvesting the bunch, in case the tree does not make it. Hopefully the fruit will then ripen in a baboon free enviromnent, controlled by us!

The Dogs and Cats: A couple of weeks back, our local Vet dropped by my office, uttering something like this:  Bye...off to the States... back just before Christmas.. Hope your animals will be fine! Naturally, later that same evening, it came to pass that we discovered Smokey- the-dog had been bitten by 'something' hideous, and he was in a bad way. After a worrying time, administering some bush remedies, and praying for him to make it through the night, our tough dog made a full recovery thanks to telephonic advice and over the counter medicines from our pharmacy. A half chewed up cobra was found in the garden, revealing the identity of the inflicter of the bite.

We wondered if Smokey might finally have learned his lesson regarding tangling with cobras?

Unfortunately, this question was answered far too soon...last night he was spat in one of his eyes by another spitting cobra, but that is an old, familiar trouble and very easy to fix. I am so pleased that we have been confined to base this month, in order to deal with all the dog/snake dramas round here!

In case I have not stressed this enough, it is H O T. It has been up in the forties celsius regularly. The intelligent cats are dealing with it by sleeping their days away, sprawled out under the fans.

 I could also now write a book about how to introduce a new cat to a territory filled with other cats, and how this has broken every rule set down in the online guidelines I consulted back in April! However, I can finally report that the grey newcomer and his territorial brother have broken new grounds in their reconciliation program!

Connie-the-dog has had her first haircut using her special Australian sheep shears, specially posted to her by Peter and Bernie in Australia! I think she looks rather fetching (and a lot cooler!) This photo is taken in the orchard, during our afternoon walk.

The Warthogs: They are also trying to hide from the October weather. This one is risking having his snout driven over when the absent vehicle returns, but does not seem too worried. I think this is one of last year's ex-piglets. I haven't seen any new piglets yet, for this season, but watch this space!

Even being a boring stay at home, I don't seem to have had time enough to post more often on the blog, although I seem to have a lot to say this time!

If you made it all the way to the end, thanks for sticking it out, and do accept some slightly parched, midweek greetings from October-land, where heavy overcast skies are starting to build up...

God's Window (and many other places!)

I think we've been back from our trip to South Africa for about 2 weeks already - this blogspot is definitely overdue for its customary mix of drive-by shots and random notes..

Firstly, a typical ridiculous blogger's shot, taken in the pre-dawn blur!On departure from here - our GPS depicting the essence of a road trip in our part of  northern botswana. I do enjoy this symbolic representation of the open road round here... On setting forth, she instructs us to "Drive 489 kilometres South" and promptly goes to sleep until then - when we reach the traffic circle for our first change of direction! 

Doctor Livingstone, I presume? Having travelled a thousand km  from our spot bordering Livingstone's actual epic journeys, I was intrigued to re-encounter him in the concrete jungle, operating his lawnmower atop this roof. I hope you can see there is even some grass up there for him to mow!

Actually, this is where we met up with Blogger Janet, at the store's coffee bar in freezing cold Jo'burg. It was a bit difficult to place her in the city with a spotless vehicle, (last seen travelling dustily around Botswana and Namibia).

*I have now learned that there is actually a reason for the strange mixture of Dr L and a lawnmower, but this will have to wait for another blogpost!

Here is one of the reasons we struggle to adapt to cities. Hemmed in by metal boxes, crawling along the highway, and envying the motorcyclist on the left who is about to make his big break ...

After catching up with our city-dwelling family members, we could not wait to escape, and head for the hills... 3 nights in a beautiful stone cottage in the mountains. 

 

Luckily our vacation needs are supremely compatible. The art of fly-fishing combines well with my often neglected reading habit, and we both love any natural, serene location. Preferably a different place each time, of course!

Follwing a stream along the mountainside, we found this lovely waterfall dropping the water down to our level. Pity the wonderful natural swimming pool was way too cold...  More photos of this waterfall over here!

Once again, we hit the road... Just for a complete contrast, note the GPS now showing us contours and forests! A novelty for us table-land dwellers to drive on the curves and gradients.

Doing our essential car servicing is always a good opportunity(excuse) to visit  people and places, and with our travelling miles in the car, it comes round fairly often. In this case we convinced my sister and family to meet up with us in the lovely wildlife area inhabited by our uncle. Always a joy to catch up with family, especially our fast growing twin nephews! 

 

We even breezed into vist Val and KJ, of Monkeys on the Roof fame. Nice to finally see the Roof in real life (it's a magical place).

One of my holiday highlights was seeing God's Window in Mpumalanga. I think this is our fourth attempted viewing/visit in the past 15 years or so, the first attempt being during our honeymoon! Then, and on each successive arrival, my enthusiastic husband has raved about the amazing view, and I have been confronted with nothing but a solid blanket of impenetrable mist. 

Over the years, I have therefore become very keen on seeing it with the misty curtains drawn back. This time we were lucky - and I think it was 100% worth it!! I do hope this photo does it a bit of justice.

It is always good to be home, and at the risk of making this blogpost impossibly long, I just have to insert a homeward bound roadscape again. Here the road ahead is almost obscured by bushfire smoke, while brand new green leaves liven up the wintry tones of the dry season.

The dry season is now heading for its worst phase - October is a month to be endured as the temperatures soar, waiting for the Rains to come. At the same time, so many of the trees are miraculously bursting forth with greenery, yet since about March,  not a drop of rain has fallen!


Equinox has come and gone, and I have seen the first advertisements for Christmas products and events............ But for now, the next expected milestone is the arrival of the migratory Paradise Flycatchers in our garden. We won't be going anywhere for a while, so perhaps my blog will become more frequent than its current monthly status?!


Mid week greetings to all reading this, from the hot, dry dustiness, tinged with green!