July events

Cat, Bobby, Louise and Mat

I've got you mum!

This month we have done a couple of things. There has been the World cup soccer on, we have watched bits, but they keep falling down for no reason and do not seem to have proper line ups, a bunch of wimps really. We started the month by going on a camping expedition to Belton on the Hill in Rutland near Rutland water. The camping site was only an hour away, so we did not have to spend hours in the car on busy highways on a Friday afternoon. I have not been camping for years and neither has Liz, so it was all great fun. My job was to get the braai up and running, while the tent was being erected, as everyone was hungry. I was more than happy to do this as my back was not up for that much exercise, the joys of age. We braaied some chicken burgers and sausages and basted the meat in some marinade I had prepared at home. Liz had made a sauce for the sadza, so I prepared some of that as well, we had tons to eat as we also had bread rolls and some potato salad made by Liz, we took so much food that I thought the cars would be only half full for the return trip, this did not appear to be the case, however, we obviously hadn't eaten and drunk enough, although we did try. The weather was truly great and so was the company, we also polished off copious amounts of lager, cider and wine. The camp site did have a shower and toilets available, so no hole digging like the good old days, talk about luxury. I prepared a full English breakfast in the morning an the skottel braai, bacon, sausages, eggs and black pudding, with beans on the side, no further food was required until the evening. We went for a little walk around Oakham on Saturday.

It was carnival time on Saturday in Ramsey. Liz and some of her workmates were as busy as little elves making dwarf costumes for the Co-op float. I gather an evening of sewing and merriment was enjoyed by Liz and her 'girls' while I was at work. The little dwarf hats were dyed in rooibos tea, and very good they looked too, as you can see from the pictures of the float. The procession through the town started at one o'clock, boy was it warm about 300 C with hardly any breeze. The people on the various floats were roasting in their costumes. There were quite a few floats in the parade which went from one end of town to the other, there were various trucks and vehicles, including an old American 1940s military truck. The Co-op vehicle was a curtain sided truck which Liz tried to clamber on to, but it was a bit too hard for her to climb, there was a ladder provided that she eventually was persuaded to use. There was much hilarity when she tried to get on and when she asked how she would get off the other end she was assured this would not be a problem as she would find a way! There were very good crowds lining the streets and they were bombarded with various sweets etc from the floats, some of the children on the roadside were a bit nonplussed and had to be urged to pick up the sweets, but once they saw them they got excited. The parade finally reached the bus parking area at the school and after a bit everyone got off, well nearly. The 'girls' with Liz sprung off the truck like the youngsters they were, Liz however found it a little more difficult and went into deaf mode when everyone started to explain about the railings underneath the bed of the truck, they formed a bit of a step ladder, but she managed to avoid them, even though they ran along the length of the truck. Catriona had to act as the catcher to help her of the vehicle, which she managed very well without any injury.

More sauce for the sadza?

The Liz serenade

Is this really summer?

The warm weather is with us at last. The dandelions are flourishing, in spite of my efforts to cut of their heads. The birds have now all sprung into action and are chirping from four in the morning,  can even hear them through the pillow over my head, no sleep after four boo hoo. The pond now has a lovely green tinge to it, but the fish are happy and so are the cats, as they don't risk freezing while drinking from this giant water 'bowl'. The cats have discovered a novel way of getting Liz to feed them. One of our cats, I think it was the fluffy one, caught a baby sparrow and brought it into the house. She was quite proud of this achievement and wanted us to share the joy, so she tormented it until it squawked enough for one of us to investigate the noise. I did have a look and took the poor little thing out and put it on a table outside, for it's own safety, ah peace once again. There was once again a terrible squawking, ten minutes later, and on investigation, if found both cats had the bird on a mat in the hall and were sitting eyeing it,ears pointed forward whilst it stood forlornly squawking, with one eye fixed in the direction from which a 'human' would materialise to investigate the noise. I am sure there was a smug expression on the black cat's face, when I took the bird away and placed it outside, the bird looked relieved too! Liz got the message and fed the 'monsters', they were happy and the bird finally gathered its strength and flew away.

We have had quite a few braais already and last night we had Liz's gang from work around for, quite, a few beers, for those not driving and a braai. We threw a few bits of chicken, some burgers from the local butcher and a few bits of salmon. We also had that culinary delight of sadza and gravy. Liz had a few meringues, a carrot cake and a loaf of fresh bread, she had prepared, for the guests, no cheese cake though, some were a little disappointed, but no one starved. We had a great evening and were able to sit outside the whole time, no drunken singing though, maybe next time. I have just finished the last of the dishes and am taking a break before making a start on Liz's breakfast, black pudding, bacon and fried egg, lots of lovely cholesterol and tomato sauce for Liz, perhaps I should just fry her a bowl  of tomato sauce!

Liz has a landmark day

It was Liz' birthday yesterday, what a great day she had too. One of the girls at work baked her a cake, she made a special effort, as Liz always bakes, the cake was very good too. I gave Liz a Canon camcorder, so that she could take pictures of her grandson on something other than her phone. We told the girls at work it was for blue movies, they collapsed in a heap at this, well the camera is blue, I don't know what all the fuss was about. She did not seem all that exited, at this lovely palm sized blue creation, but then Harry, the grandson came for a visit and recording started, now she was impressed. Harry was in full performance mode, and kept flashing his eyes at the camera, he is not camera shy, quite the opposite, when he sees the camera he starts to pose. The 'Old Dragon' also came to wish Liz a happy birthday and even had a little fun with Harry, who she helped to drink her 7 Up, he finished a glass of that and wanted more, I think she was quite taken with him. Catriona and Robyn gave her some lovely wind chimes, the bells, the bells!

The weather has now really started to warm up and the ride to work is no longer a chore. I have recently noticed that there was a pair of swans hanging around some rape seed in a field on my way to work, luckily there was a ditch between them and me, but yesterday on the way home I saw that they had a nest beside the ditch on the other side of the road, it also had at least one egg in it, I wonder if the queen knows? The presence of the swan so close to the road on my route to work has now disturbed me a little, as I know that swans can be very protective of their nests, rather like geese, but unlike geese, they are larger and are not as easy to handle when angry, I feel that should they decide to chase me I shall break all records on my bike as I pedal furiously away from them. I hope never to find out how fast I can ride, I shall keep the chain and pedals oiled so that they don't make any noise as I cycle past the nest.

Summer is here (or is it?)

Well summer seems to be peeking through the door, at last. We have had a couple of good days during the last week, almost went to work without gloves on! The flowers are all starting to blossom although the daffodils are over now, everything else is flowering, including the weeds, the dandelions seem to be particularly prolific this year, they also are short stemmed, I think this is top avoid being cut off in their prime by the random and in frequent passes of the lawnmower. I have heard of some even ducking as the mowers went over them, mine have been attacked by a weed eater (of the Flymo variety), so there was not much of a respite for them, and there are a few dandelion shaped holes in the lawn. The plants have nearly all risen to the top of the pond, although the fish still seem to be rather partial to the fresh young water-lily leaves, I hope to see the leaves eventually make it to the top of the pond unmolested. We have now had a few braais and now have some boerewors in stock. We had a nice little braai last night with a pork fillet and some sadza, pap to the South Africans, and went to see a play in the village hall afterwards, is that classified as dinner and theatre? There was even complimentary cheese and wine, ( that has made me thirsty better get a beer, only Bud though) we were unable to partake, too full from our braai. The play was really entertaining and amusing, far better than sitting at home watching the TV.

The latest story here is the volcanic ash, from Iceland, apparently it would not be a good idea to wash cars at the moment as the ash could cause severe damage to the paintwork, I think it is too late for our car, however. No planes have been flying until recently and the air force announced on Friday morning that they had grounded some of their aircraft, this did not happen until after several test flights over our house at about eleven at night.

Last weekend was a busy one for us, as all the kids visited us at one time and another, Louise and Matt were first and after I made the bacon sandwiches we went to a boot sale and then rushed home for a braai lunch that brought Robyn and Martin. We had a great meal and they all left at about six, only to be replaced by Philip, Ami and Harry. Harry is the apple of his grandma's eye and must have a houseful of toys and books, he is a reading fool. He was a happy little soul, even though full of the cold, which he has passed on to Liz.

Winter is over, or is it?

Apparently it is now summer here in England, or summer time at least, so it has started to get colder. We had a few lovely days last week, but they are now distant memories. I was able to trim the hedge, but didn't get to the lawn before the weather chilled down again, I may have to get out my fur coat and gloves to mow the grass. The morning rides in to work have been getting lighter and I have not needed to turn on the bicycle lights. I have been able to see the rabbits, dressed in coats and silly hats skating in the ditches with their scarves blowing out behind them. There were a couple of mornings when the rabbits were standing on the side of the roads with snorkels, goggles and flippers on, the ditches were that flooded with all the rain, and it is raining again. I think we are going to have to get one of those Everglades hover jet boats to get to work soon! I have had to take a few days off work so that all my annual leave can be used up. We just did a little bit of driving around to Wisbech and Spalding etc. I took Liz to a garden centre where she purchased some red gardening gloves, easier to see in our wonderfully verdant garden, ha ha. I think I got off quite lightly. When we got home I made us a nice salad with prawns (shrimps really) in a home made seafood sauce, mixed leaf salad and pasta, Liz was a little impatient and ate the salad while the prawns(shrimps) were still a little frozen. The salad was delicious and we threw away one of the dishes afterwards, without washing it, we have plenty, oh.... and it was broken,had a crack in it. We went to an auction on Saturday, but did not buy anything, as there was nothing we could not live without. I got the braai out of the garage and we had a couple of burgers for a late lunch, they were chilli burgers produced by our local butcher and did not shrink on the braai, a plus point in his favour, as the 125g shop bought ones always seem to shrink to about 50g size. I have, rather optimistically, left the braai out, maybe Easter will bring better weather.

Robyn seems to be doing quite well at university, she has been getting quite good grades, she should be able to earn good money soon and support us in the manner to which we would like to become accustomed. Catriona has now left home to live with her new boyfriend in Peterborough, so now we have another spare room, I may make that my computer room, as Liz has the other room for her music and sewing machine. We had a nice family get together for mother's day with Catriona, Bobby,Louise, Matt, Robyn and Marty and Bobby's parents at the Hartford Marina, the meal was not quite Oranjevlei standards, but that would be a hard act to follow anyway. The fish have now woken up and we have started to feed them, although the plants are still cowering in the bottom of the pond. The fish come rushing to anyone who goes near them, the other day on of our cats was a little disturbed when they all came to see her as she leapt up onto the side to get a drink, the splashing disturbed her and when Liz fed them she wanted some of their food, as it smelt ssssoooo good, meow!

Liz had a little go on Facebook, but found it a little annoying so decided to abandon it as a bad idea, she will stick to emails to people as it is a lot less invasive.

December 2009

Well December has passed along with the last remains of 2009. The old Dragon had her birthday on the 18^th and we all wished her well. The girls gave her a semi surprise birthday lunch at the Cross Keys in Upwood on the 19^th. We enjoyed a lovely lunch and the girls all brought their respective and respectful “other halves”, the old girls was delighted and the food was very good, it is hard to believe she has reached eighty, after all those years of telling us she was going to pop her clogs at any minute, hah. We had quite a bit of snow that week and I was little concerned that Lindsay would not be able to get the car on to the road because of the icy conditions, but he made it. The old girl was delighted with all the fuss, I am sure she will be talking about it for a while, the food at the pub was mainly seafood and very reasonable priced. My jumper has the logo of m favourite whisky, at least that's what Liz said. Matt has that look again, as though the camera might explode, it didn't.

Liz had a wonderful Christmas, we saw all the kids and went to see her grandson, Harry, he was knackered when we saw him, at about eleven, he could barely keep his little eyes open. Liz got Harry loads of presents, if this goes on we will have to get a bakkie and Philip will have to get a bigger house. We took Catriona and her new paramour Bobby with us and Louise and Matt met us there. We went home and dropped off Cat and Bobby and then went on to see the old Dragon and Lindsay, they were also delighted to see us and offered more tea or coffee, we were already full and had to decline. We went home to prepare dinner for four of us, Louise, Matt, Liz and I, Robyn and Marty were coming around afterwards and Cat and Bobby were have lunch with Bobby's family. We had a lovely roast leg of lamb, a spit braai would have been better, but conditions were not right for that option.

As everyone may or may not know we have had a bit of extreme weather recently, but the deepest snowdrifts here were only about one centimetre, so the media were probably not interested in our area, not enough drama. We had a couple of days before Christmas when the temperature never got much above minus 7⁰ C, it was pretty icy, we all got fed up with trying to scrape the ice of our windscreens, although the screen on my bike was OK! As you can see from the picture the car park was covered in snow, at least two centimetres, drifts everywhere, ha ha. The morning rides in to work were quite invigorating and it usually took half an hour for my ears to defrost once I got to work, but I am still not going to wear one of those strange hats, a man must retain some dignity. I have seen quite a few men wearing hats with pom-poms on top and even saw someone wearing a tea cosy holes for the spout and all. The pond has been frozen over since before Christmas and the cats and birds have been holding skating sessions on it. There are paw prints and bird footprints everywhere. The rain has arrived and started to defrost everything, the icebergs in the pond are quite large, but the cats have stopped hopping on to the water for a drink. They are quite disgusted with the cold and wet and even their calls of nature are reluctant trips, the black one plays with the cat flap for about half an hour before she goes out, I think she is trying to acclimatise before leaving the building, so that it is not such a shock, perhaps I should install a special air lock for them? We had a few hiccups with the heating just before Christmas, but it seems to have settled down now, I think it was too cold and things were freezing. A section of the guttering has fallen down, frozen solid inside, so when it warms up I will have to climb up there and replace the down pipe section. The auction, last week was cancelled because of the weather, but changed to this Saturday, we did not see anything we could not live without and it was pouring with rain, so we left early. There is another auction next weekend, so we'll go to that.

Work has been quite busy for me, we had the lady with the faulty fuel gauge come in again, ( note to self:I must offer her £100 for her car) we managed to squeeze in £1,78 worth of fuel, although I think about thirty pence worth went onto the forecourt, she was relieved that her lack of faith in the fuel gauge was justified and she, once again, had a full fuel tank! The poor old thing told me she was going to Somersham. About seven miles away, so maybe we will be able to squeeze more than £2 worth of fuel in and she will be able to use the £20 note she wanted to use for her fuel.