Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Why

2018-04-29 | puppy1952

My contribution to this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Why

Why am I responding to a prompt so late on a Sunday night? Well the answer is simple. Friday 27 April was a public holiday, Freedom Day, which commemorates the first Free and Fair, Democratic Elections in our country. We are also celebrating Workers’ Day on Tuesday 1 May so the school have been given Monday off too so that a nice long 5-day weekend can be enjoyed. Our daughter took came up for the weekend and her friends, Cara and Sandy and their parents Doug and Bridgette joined us on Saturday too.

Of course Struisbaai is brimming over with visitors who are making the most of what remains of the Summer before Autumn says, “Enough already, it’s my turn to herald the Winter.” We’ve made sure our guests get the most of what the Southern Point has to offer too and have done the usual touristy things, walked on the beach and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

Our Guests at the Southern Tip of Africa

The Gorgeous Girls on the Struisbaai Board Walk

But back to Why I am sitting at my computer this late. My guests have retired to bed. The daughters have gone off to the Irish Pub down the road and although they are well and truly adult, someone needs to wait up for them to return home safely. No that’s not the whole truth. I had an after dinner coffee – and that’s never a good thing. If I try to go to sleep now, I will just toss and turn for the next three hours so why not write a blog instead!

Why did I drink coffee after dinner when I know that it’s going to prevent me from sleeping! Because I love coffee that’s why. And I really enjoy a cup with a small piece of dark chocolate after an excellent dinner with good conversation and lovely company. Losing some sleep is a small price to pay for the pleasure that indulgence gives me. Just hang on a sec. I’m going to pour myself a second cup!

Essential Foods for Teachers

Ah that’s better. Now where was I – Oh yes – why I drink coffee. Coffee is an essential food for teachers. Without coffee and chocolate teachers cannot do their jobs properly. It has these magical properties that raise the levels of serotonin which make female teacher calm and happy and able to cope with the stresses of their job. So I got a taste for it in my past life as a teacher of very young children and now I can’t give it up – nor do I want to. Please do not google the truth of the previous claim – trust me – it’s true.

I had no intention of writing about coffee today but this was the result of stream of consciousness responding to the prompt of WHY!

Cee’s Black and White Challenge – Two

2018-04-27 | puppy1952

This week the challenge is to post two very different things in one photograph. This did indeed present a challenge as I really wanted to post a photo or six with two elephants, two zebra, two giraffe etc ‘cos I’ve got lots of those. But here is what I did manage to find.

Man and Fish

Boy and Puppy

Wattled Starling and Lilac-breasted Roller – both birds but different species!

Great-great Aunt and Great-great Niece

Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge – Lines

2018-04-26 | puppy1952

Here is my contribution to this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge

Lines on a water plant – Lake Panic, Kruger National Park

Lines on elephants – Addo Elephant Park

Lines on Zebra – Addo Elephant Park

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Lines of the sun hanging on my garden wall

Fun Photo Challenge – Busy

2018-04-26 | puppy1952

Here is my contribution to this week’s Fun Photo Challenge from Cee

My Great-Nephew- busy in the garden

Thai Chef – Busy making me a delicious omelette

My grandson busy? on the computer

Busy in the Kitchen

Busy in the garden

Busy building a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle

Share Your World – 23 April 2018

2018-04-24 | puppy1952

There are some interesting questions on Cee’s Share Your World this week. Here are my answers

If you could have an endless supply of any food, what would you get?

There are a few I would like to have to hand at any given moment.

Biltong – for those who are far from our shores this can be likened to jerky but is a thousand times nicer. It’s a snack most South Africans can’t live without
Egg and Bacon – Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day
Olives
Feta Cheese
Avocado Pear
Spinach

The last four items are my favorite food. Any dish with these ingredients will make me happy.

List at least five movies or books that cheer you up.

I’ve never thought of a book as cheering me up – grabbing my attention and fascinating me yes – but cheering me up I’m not so sure. But here goes.

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hannf is a delightful, feel good book. It was made into a movie too and that was equally as good.
The movie Yentl – starring Barbara Streisand is a fantastic story that fascinates and amuses.
Pretty Woman is another great movie that is super entertaining.
If you really want to be cheered up there’s nothing to beat re-watching – Shirley Valentine
A South African book that really made me laugh at the same time as educating me about the lives of Muslim women in South Africa was Confessions of a Gambler by Rayda Jacobs

If you were a mouse in your house in the evening, what would you see your family doing?

If I were a mouse in my house that I live in now with my husband and it’s just the two of us, the scene would not be all that interesting. However, if I were a mouse in the house of my family when we were altogether it would be far more fun.

I would scurry into the kitchen to see if I could grab a morsel of whatever Grandpa or Grandma were cooking and probably see them both discussing the evening meal for the gang. I’d hear Gran call – Josh, please come set the table – and he would obediently get down to the task.

I’d scurry off down the passage into Lisa’s room and find her reading or watching a soapie.

In Jay’s room I’d want to scurry right out again as there would be a pile of stuff lying around while the young man was staring at a screen playing some sort of horrible war game. I would hear him yell out in delight when he managed to conquer his mortal enemy.

Then I’d move on to Lolz and find her checking emails or texting her friends.

Finally they’d all gather around the dinner table and the conversation would be most interesting to listen to and I’d roll around on my mousy back laughing at the quips Jay made, and the retorts from Josh while the adults tried to give them worldly advice about Life. It would be fun listening to reports on everyone’s day. Gran would tell the latest funny things the kids in her class had done. Gramps would lecture about the virtues of working hard. The daughters would tell about their work day at the bank and everybody would mention their plans for the weekend. I might have to scurry off in a hurry though because the cats might see me and that would be the end of me.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

On our way home Addo Elephant Park we stopped at Jeffrey’s Bay to meet up with our dear friends Jim and Maureen. We met for breakfast at a lovely little restaurant and then went to enjoy the view over the bay. Being with good friends always makes me smile.

Meeting up with Jim and Maureen at Jeffrey’s Bay

Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge – 22 April 2018

2018-04-23 | puppy1952

Cee’s Odd Ball Challenge

I saw this on the road travelling on the Garden Route last week.

A novel signpost indicating the road to Stilbaai – Western Cape, South Africa

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Spoke

2018-04-21 | puppy1952

“Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “spoke.” Use it somewhere, in some form, in your post. “

Here is my contribution to this week’s Stream of Consciousness Prompt

In a stream of consciousness exercise one has to just let the fingers do the typing and write anything that comes into one’s head after being given a word as a prompt.

I think to myself – Spoke – what can I write about spoke. I spoke to my daughter on the phone yesterday. We usually keep in touch with text messages. I like to speak but not on the phone. I don’t know why this is. It’s not that I won’t speak over the phone but I prefer to see the person to whom I am speaking. This is odd because I’m quite happy to text long and involved messages. Most of my friends prefer to chat and they’re the ones who end up saying – enough of this texting I am going to ring you. And they do and I end up being fine with a long verbal chat.

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But texting is still my preferred method of distance communication. As I write now the reasons for this are flooding my head. I think it might be that texting is slower, giving one more time to think about the words to choose and being able to delete when you see what one’s saying is not quite right. Also one can multitask while texting – check on the dinner, talk to one’s husband without saying – not now I’m on the phone!

But back to the daughter with whom I spoke yesterday. We’d had a lovely text conversation and then the topic of the long weekend came up – and that required verbal interaction. Yes – there are times when speaking one to one is the only way to make arrangements. Although texting them also gives one a reference especially when one is of a certain forgetful age!

So I spoke to my daughter and I look forward to seeing her in the flesh next weekend and having a proper one to one conversation where I can see her face, and read her feelings and get the full pleasure of proper chat!

Cee’s Black and White Challenge – Any kind of seating

2018-04-21 | puppy1952

Here is my contribution to this week’s black and white challenge from Cee

Kirstenbosch Bench

Seating in a self catering cottage

Coffee Shop Seating

Deck seating – Agulhas Rest Camp

Old Bench on Good Hope Olive Farm

Coffee Shop outdoor seating

Keurboom Beach

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Bench in my garden

Fun Photo Challenge – Free and Easy

2018-04-19 | puppy1952

Here is my contribution go this week’s Fun Photo Challenge from Cee

012 Earl and Allan on Boat as seen from Early Mist 3-001

Free and Easy Lifestyle – Fishing on the lake at Sani Valley Lodge

Magpie Geese swimming free and easy – Australia 2014

Free and Easy Fun on the Rocks – Cape Agulhas 2010

Free and Easy on the beach – Struisbaai 2010

Free and Easy Toasted Marshmallows – Struisbaai 2010

Taking to the sky – fee and easy – Greater Flamingos – False Bay Ecology Park

Free and Easy in the Sea – Fish Hoek Beach – 2006

Share Your World 16 April 2018

2018-04-16 | puppy1952

These are my answers to this weeks Share Your World from Cee

List things or events that changed your life?

Birth of my child (1979)
Leaving a bad relationship (1982)
Meeting my current husband (1982)
Taking up bird watching as a hobby
Retirement

Complete this sentence: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s…

Yes it’s definitely a bird!

My eye will always notice a bird. Even when everybody else is looking at a leopard in a tree, I will say – do you see that bird over there!

Yellow-throated Longclaw

What genre of music do you like?

I enjoy quite a few genres – hate the grating, head banging, loud, heavy metal type of music.

Obviously love rock ‘n roll from the 60s. Music with a beat that you can dance to.

My favourite artists are in no particular order – Madonna, Michael Jackson, James Blunt, The Beatles, Cliff, Elvis, Barbara Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Adele, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez. The list goes on. I also enjoy classical music.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

Well – I was in a National Park over the weekend and there was a lot to smile about. Who wouldn’t smile watching a tonne of elephants wallowing in waterholes.

I really appreciate the fact that I live in a country where conservation is taken seriously in spite of a number of problems we otherwise might be having. Seeing a game guard with an anti-poaching dog really filled my heart with joy.

Addo Elephant Park – Last Day

2018-04-15 | puppy1952

I am not lying when I tell you that I saw a lion today but he was far away and lying flat in the long grass – so I’m not even going to bore you with a bad photograph!

There are more interesting things to write about but this will be a short post. I took dozens of photographs; too many to post and difficult to know which ones to choose. So I am going to be brief and hope you enjoy the photo story instead.

In a small park like Addo it’s easy to get around the whole game area in a day. It’s always wise to try to stick to early morning and late afternoon but as a day visitor this is not so easy. We might have had a chance to see lions had we stayed on till the end of the day but that would be exhausting.

The main stars of Addo are definitely the elephants. Zebra can be mighty entertaining too and even though the warthogs are everywhere, I just love them and can watch their antics for hours.

This poaching monitor and his anti poaching dog kindly posed for a photo at the entrance. Dogs like this one are invaluable in keeping poaching to a minimum

A Pale-chanting Goshawk was more obliging than the lions we saw nearby

Such an attractive antelope is the male kudu

So easy to ignore these guys after a while – but they’re really cute

Hapoor Waterhole hosted a huge herd of ellies this morning

They just kept coming

Group Bath-time!

Breathing with a built in snorkel!

Fun fun fun

Here we go again

Elephants just wanna have fun

We came across three zebras having a group hug!

At Marion Baree Waterhole another group of ellies were kicking up mud

Glorious Mud

Water and mud play is good for kids, Mom

This little one certainly enjoyed it

Mommy Pig and Baby Porkie looked on enviously waiting for their turn.

It was our last day visiting Addo today but we will be back another time. It’s such a fab place to visit.

Addo Elephant Park – Another day in Elephantasia

2018-04-14 | puppy1952

Staying outside of a game reserve is not ideal but it’s better than nothing. We’re loving The Homestead which is just a short distance from the entrance gate. Day visitors may only enter the game viewing at 7:00 am while for residents it’s an hour earlier. In the past we would be first at the gate! But today we only woke up at 7 and entered the park after 8. Then we had a leisurely breakfast at The Cattle Baron before setting off on our game drive.

There are many different types of antelope in the park and they’re all thriving. First we were greeted by this beauty.

Lovely male kudu with another in the background

Addo Elephant Park is one of the few places in the country that is home to the flightless dung beetle. Visitors are warned to watch out for them on the roads as they cannot fly away to safety.

The flightless dung beetles mostly feed on elephant or buffalo faeces, but they have been recorded to also feed on dung from other species such as rabbits, baboons, antelope and ostrich. Read about dung beetles here

We really enjoy the birdlife in the parks we visit but Autumn in Addo hasn’t produced anything too exciting. These are some of the birds we managed to photograph

Cape Wagtail collecting nesting material

Speckled Mousebird

Cape Glossy Starling

Red-necked spurfowl

Southern Boubou

Capped Wheatear

Tortoises tend to be less plentiful as winter approaches but we did find one who was still quite wide awake

We found lots of plains animals in the south today. There are a number of waterholes that attract them and the grazing in also very good. All the animals are looking very healthy. We enjoyed seeing a number of different species making Addo look like what one expects Africa to be. It was lovely to see a mix of zebra, kudu, red hartebeest, warthogs and elephants spread across the veld.

We learned that elephants were starting to dominate the waterholes and leaving little over for the other creatures. So the authorities have placed an electric fence around one we saw today. The wires hang down to a certain height and prevent the elephants from drinking but are high enough for the smaller animals to be unaffected. No chance of the zebras being squirted by elephants at this waterhole!