Here is my contribution to this weeks Black and White challenge from Cee The topic is PETS. I no longer have pets but I enjoy taking photographs of my pet belonging to friends and family.
Lisa’s cats Mia and Shadow
Nameless Cat – A pet of a caravan park we stayed at
Lauren’s Dog Sheba in the river that runs through her property
Lauren’s Dogs Sheba and Lucy
Diane’s Dog loves to pose for portraits
Our new Gecko Caravan needs to be collected from Haenertzburg by 10 November and then we will take it into The Kruger National Park for four weeks.
So with the Ford Everest packed to the hilt with everything we need to furnish the caravan with all that it needs to function efficiently we set off on 1 November 2017. We overnighted in Middelburg, Eastern Cape and then headed to our kids in Kokstad where we will stay until Tuesday. From there we will go to Haenertzburg, stay for three days at a trout fishing lodge then head with new caravan into the Kruger National Park.
It was quite by chance that our visit to our daughter and son-in-law coincided with our granddaughter’s half term holiday. We arrived at 3:30 pm and she was home from St John’s school by 4:30. She has to go back on Tuesday and that’s the day we leave too.
The Earl brought fish from Struisbaai which was cooked in the Weber and shared with Sean and Nicoline and their daughter Robyn who is the same age as our grandson Simon. Their son is the same age as Shannon and is also away at school but his half-term was last weekend.
Shannon, Simon and Robyn
Sean, Nicoline and Allan
Grandpa, Lauren and Sean tucking into the delicious fish
It was great to see Sean and Nicoline as today they headed off for a second Honeymoon in Zanzibar. I am sure they are going to have a stunning time!
Open Gardens
It’s open gardens week in the area so I joined Barbara, Andrew and Heather on an amazing tour of three stunning gardens in Cedarville. This is dairy farming country and summer rainfall and soil ensure that plants grow with ease around here. In winter they have to worry about frost and sometimes snow so they choose plants that can resist those conditions. Our family have lovely gardens themselves but the ones we visited were on a different scale sizewise! If I didn’t know they were on private property I would have thought I was in a public park or botanical garden.
Kokstad Junior is Amazing
Today Lauren’s school had a craft and food market. Our grandson Simon was part of the steel drumming group who played to entertain the visitors. It was awesome! Their teacher is Bryan Clark and he has done wonders with the kids.
Here is a link to hear them play. https://youtu.be/Bmeku9837dE
Simon in the center – Robyn behind him
Our nephew, Aiden
It was a gorgeous day
Some of the stalls
The kids enjoying a smoothie
After enjoying looking at all the interesting stalls and enjoying a refreshing smoothie we headed home as it was very hot! More news tomorrow.
Here is my contribution to this week’s Share Your World from Cee
Where do you eat breakfast?
Funny you should ask, because this is my favourite meal of the day and it is usually quite an elaborate affair. I seldom eat breakfast in bed. I like to be up and dressed and seated at the table. Usually my darling husband cooks it for me, at least twice weekly we go to our favourite coffee shop where they don’t even ask what we want as the just know, and on rare occasions I am the chef. Properly brewed coffee is essential and no matter where I am the quality of the breakfast is greatly influenced by the quality of the coffee! If the weather is good I like it al fresco, if it’s in a cold place a roaring fire helps otherwise a lovely ambience indoors will do.
Typical Shipwreck Coffee Shop Breakfast – Fried eggs, bacon, cheese grillers tomato and coffee
Scrambled Eggs Al Fresco at my garden picnic table
Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want have a evening with?
My ideal evening is in the bush with friends who enjoy it as much as I do. There is nothing to beat, sitting outside your caravan, watching the flaming sun sink beneath the horizon, listening the sounds of the wild, glass of wine in hand exchanging stories about the day’s adventures. Priceless!
My fantasy companion would be Sir David Attenborough because I would love to chat to him about his lifetime of doing wildlife documentaries. What a fascinating life he has had. How lucky we are to be able to spend any number of evenings watching said documentaries!
If you could be a tree or plant, what would you be?
I would choose to be a Baobab Tree. She is the queen of trees. You cannot miss her standing proud on the African Savannah demanding to be admired. Not only would I be a wonderful sight to behold I would also be permanently among the wildlife that I love so much and I would be a great asset to their lives. Because the baobab has many useful properties, it is widely known as the Tree of Life. How wonderful to be a Life-giving Tree.
Baobab products are useful to mankind as among other stuff soap, rubber, glue, traditional medicine and cream of tartar are made from their products. But best of all it creates it’s own ecosystem and provides food and shelter for animals, birds and insects.
It is a deciduous tree so during the dry winters it has no leaves and its bare branches look like roots hence it’s nickname – the upside down tree.
In Winter it is The Upside Down Tree
In Summer It dons it’s leafy finery
What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.
The Earl and I left Struisbaai at 6 am this morning and considering the state of his health one year ago I appreciate how fit and well his is now. He coped well with the driving and we made sure to stop frequently. We are overnighting in Middelburg in the Eastern Cape and will do another day’s drive to Kokstad tomorrow. This is the start of a three month trip away and I will be blogging about our adventures as often as I can during this time.
Diary of an Adventurous Retiree 