Kokstad Christmas – Part 2

2017-12-26 | puppy1952

The weather on Christmas morning was a tad warmer than it had been. The kids woke us around 7 ish and said coffee would be served in front of The Tree. So we got up and started to get into our Christmas finery. The Earl put his foot into his shoe and said – “I can’t get my foot in – what’s in here?”

A frog in his shoe!

After releasing that little problem we headed over for the fun bit.

Pre-Breakfast snacks

The Tree

Simon and Grandpa waiting to start

Shan looking gorgeous in her Christmas outfit

Not to big to sit on Grampy’s lap

Our Beautiful Rural Family

Once fortified with Christmas cake, mince pies and coffee, we opened our gifts. The process more than the actual gifts gave us the most pleasure.

The cats gave Shan a name for her bedroom! Si got one too.

Gran and Grampy thrilled with a book all about The Kruger National Park

Military vehicle card game for Si

And some more Lego – which he just loves

After the gift opening ceremony a light brekkie was served. I decided to skip it – I mean why eat oats when mince pies are so yummy!

Soon it was time to join the Bakers on the other side of Kaag’s Post for a Christmas Braai. We pooled our chops, boerewors, carrot and pineapple salad and potato and butternut bake to the volume of food that others had brought. Of course there was way too much but it was all delicious and yes in spite of all good intentions we over-indulged on all the good stuff!

Sean seeing to the braai

Corne cooking pork on the Weber

Friends of the Bakers Corne and his lovely wife and kids joined us this year. Robyn and Shan took the little girls horse riding on the front lawn.

The Bakers are soon to be leaving Kokstad and relocating to George so it was the last time we would be celebrating Christmas at their beautiful home. Shan had us all write a sentence about the years of friendship we’ve had with them, printed out some memorable photographs and made the most stunning farewell card for them.

The Bakers

Robyn reads the card

I think the Bakers loved it. Farewell Nicoline, Sean, Scott and Robyn. We won’t be seeing you in Kokstad again but George is not so far away from Struisbaai so we hope to catch in The Western Cape soon.

We feast again!

You would think that after lunch nobody would want to move for the next few hours – but not these three young families. They all went onto the front lawn and had an energetic game of soccer – an excellent way to work off the excess.

A fun game of soccer

Even the dogs joined in

Why don’t the humans give us the ball

And in the end a human pile-up!

What a great day it was. It was cold by the time 5 o’clock came round but nothing could spoil our lovely Christmas.

Today we continued with celebrations when Andrew, Barbara and Shirl came over to share a roast gammon with us. And for the rest of the week, I believe we will be living on leftovers!

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful time with family and friends.

Kokstad Christmas – Part 1

2017-12-25 | puppy1952

Those of you who follow my blog regularly know that we are currently visiting our clan in Kokstad. We started our Christmas celebrations early. On Wednesday The Bakers came over for a pre-Christmas dinner. We wore the silly hats and pulled the surprise pack crackers and shared the corny jokes that popped out too. It really got us all into the Christmas spirit

Nicoline, Shan and Scott

Simon and Robyn

Al, Si, Shan, Scott, Me, Earl, Lauren

Al, Nicoline, Shan, Scott, Si, Robyn, Sean, Me, Lauren

We have had unseasonably cold weather this December so when we saw that the sun would be shining on Thursday we headed off to a dam in the mountains so the ‘boys’ could do some fishing. What a lovey cottage we had on The Du Plessis farm in the Swartberg.

It was Allan’s birthday on Friday. He and Simon were out fishing very early on on their return we presented the gifts and had a slap-up breakfast to celebrate his special day.

My Rural Family

Scrumptious Birthday Breakfast

Al is such a great dad and his kids expressed this so well in the cards they made.

Al, Earl and Simon fished and caught a total of nine bass. They kept two which The Earl cooked for lunch when we were back home.

Because of the iffy weather we have not done much outdoorsy stuff but on Sunday at the rude hour of 6:30 am my son-in-law and granddaughter knocked on the door – Hey Gran – do you want to come for a walk.

I thought it would be a gentle stroll along gravel paths suitable for a 65 year old grandmother.

Like this

But no – they took me on a bundu bashing ramble across farmlands, over barbed wire fences, through long, possibly snake-infested grass while dodging thorny thistles, low overhanging branches and rabbit holes.

Do you see the reed buck and the dog? – No? That’s how long the grass was!

Cody smelt a reed buck – but it was too clever for him and kept dead still – all we could see were it’s horns sticking up from the long grass.

We bent over to get through the trees

And climbed through many tricky fences

The plan was to cross the river over a bridge and then take the shortcut back to their farm but somehow the it seemed not to be there and so we headed back through the long grass observing many pretty buck and birds before reaching home two hours after we started out!

It was all worth the effort for the pretty scenes we saw

Lovely river – no bridge

Considering that Shan and Al both have much longer legs than I, I think I did okay to keep up with them – Yes my limbs felt like jelly at the end of it but it was great fun. I think I might join them again.

Today we celebrated Christmas with The Bakers and tomorrow we’re having the Macs over – More about that next time.

Warm Hospitality in Kokstad

2017-12-17 | puppy1952

It’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere and in KZN you would expect the weather to be super hot! But there has been lingering snow in the Drakensberg and Kokstad was gripped in some winter-like weather for over a week. Thankfully it’s warming up now and yesterday, instead of complaining about the cold, we complained about the heat!

One thing we’re not complaining about is the warm hospitality of the Kokstad friends and family. I don’t know what it is about this place but everybody is incredibly friendly. Perhaps it’s the beautiful environment in which they live and their relaxed lifestyle that causes them to be warm-hearted and kind. Most of the people we know here live on farms or small holdings and they are surrounded by beautiful mountains, streams, trees and have amazing gardens. Some might say that small places are friendlier but that’s not always true. Some small places are very cliquey and it may take years to be made to feel welcome there. Here in East Griqualand, we have found, you’re made to feel one of the family immediately.

So while the weather has been chilly we’ve been visiting. Thanks to the Clarkes for a lovely morning of catching up on their amazing four-month adventure off-roading through Africa with their two boys. The pancakes for tea were scrumptious, thanks Bryan.

The Flemmings had us over for dinner which was delicious. And sitting before their roaring fire was wonderful. Rose, your roast dinner was to die for.

Rose whipping up a Master Meal

Anti-clockwise from front – Neil, Rose, Lauren, Shannon, Allan, Simon, The Earl

Of course we have been catching up with the extended Stone/Mackenzie family too. We reminisced about spending so many Christmases together when we were still raising our own kids. They’re all grown now with kids of their own and what a great bunch those kids are.

Just a few of the extended family who popped in for tea

Barbara and Andrew’s cottage on The Farm

An outhouse used as an office and guest flat

Our kids went off for a golfing weekend to Pennington this weekend so we were left to our own devices. On Friday we had lunch with Barbs and Andrew and yesterday another of our clan arrived from Bloemfontein so we went to The Farm to greet them and have family braai.

Soon after the Bothas arrived, The Earl invited the kids to go to the dam to fish. I knew the Mackenzie boys would not hesitate. Rebecca, however, is a girlie girl and I expected her to decline. How wrong I was. “I’ve got my fishing rod,” she said. “Are you sure?” said Mom. “I don’t think we packed it.” “Of course, Dad did!” she insisted and went off to fetch it.

So off the merry little band went. How delighted we all were when they returned with two fat bass – both caught by 8 year-old girlie girl Rebecca!

Becca with her Bass

While the fisherfolk were off adventuring the rest of us enjoyed Barbara’s shady garden.

Caleb decided that the fishpond would be a good place to cool off.

The Earl cooked the bass as a starter before the braai. The kids insisted that they would not be eating fish – but all of them did! Becca only had a tiny bit but got a bit of scale so that put her off! The others were back for seconds.

Becca trying some fish

Little Emma loved her sisters fish

Seth said no way was he eating Bass – but here he is enjoying it!

The Earl had some willing helpers with the braai. Aiden and Seth helped chop wood. Henk has some braaing skills of his own and saved the day when the wood wouldn’t burn. The food was delicious and the bonding even better. And what a perfect evening it was after all the cold weather we’ve been having.

Getting the braai going

The essential Boerwors

Henk grilling the steak and chops

Catching up with Kokstad Clan

2017-11-04 | puppy1952

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