Sausage Tree Flowers!

Our Sausage tree is flowering for the first time! It was planted about 4 years ago and is going strong! For those who don't know this tree I will post photos of the fruit in a few months!! The flowers bloom at night and the perfume attracts the dwarf epauleted bat,it's pollinator. (Like I need more bats living around our house!)You need to make very sure never to park your car under neath this lovely shady tree when it bears it's fruit as those sausage like fruits can weigh up to 6.8 kg!People do like to park their cars underneath these trees for some reason...it's a bit like parking under a mango tree in fruit..only ten times worse in resulting damage to your car!) I made doubly sure all those years ago to plant our tree where no right minded (sober) person would want to park their car! There is no other tree like it on earth! You are welcome to Google for more info on this!

These pics were taken late in the afternoon,but the flowers bloom at night.

Hallo World!

Newborn Piglets

These were born the day before yesterday

When I took these photos they were just minutes old,in fact, the last one nr. ten, was still catching it's first few gulping breaths ...

All ten are fine.

Also born on the same day were five lambs,one male the rest females!

As I am typing this my brown Chinese Goose is hatching baby geese..three out on the last count..

You don't want to disturb Mama Goose on her nest of hatching babies...ask me!!

"Aren't we suppose to suck on something??"

Fighting for a teat...

yum yum yum yum mmm...

Bush Fire Season

As I sat behind the laptop today the kitchen suddenly became omniously dark..I looked around outside to see the rainclouds approaching,but all I saw dead ahead of me was a cloud of smoke billowing out over the mountain right in front of me! The whole mountain burned..I tried to take pictures of the flames at night just now,but alas,my little camera just isn't good enough for such far ranging pictures...

The front area of that mountain is burning now too...

After noticing the fire, I found ashes around the inside of our house too as I was vacuuming...

Nature is such a powerful force...

Walking The Dogs On The Farm

Yesterday afternoon we took some of the dogs for a walk in the bush,both Jessica and Tarien were home to help. Some of the dogs are quite obedient and others are wayward souls totally emerged in their own little bubble...just like people I guess......

                                                                        Like this...

                 Minkie's sister going for a swim when she is supposed to listen up in the obedience class....

Then all the dogs wanted to go for a swim.....

Cules explaining to them hounds why they are not allowed to go swimming...

I was trying to show Minki she doesn't have to keep up with the hounds,she could just go on a nice stroll through the bush with me,her Mama....

All that got me was stuck in the thorns....she pulled me straight through the bushes trying to keep up with the pack..

I was actually stuck here and had two huge thorns stuck right through the soles of my slops...

Tarien was walking behind us, taking pictures and she was laughing herself silly at me being pulled trough the thorns.

Right there was when I wished I had worn those brand new hiking boots my hubby bought me just last week..

They had no business standing all shiny and new by my kitchen door..

One of the ponds drenched in late afternoon sun..

A huge wild orchid growing  in a young Mopane tree..,can you spot it to the left side of the road..

Oh yes,that time of year again....!!!

A Matumi tree growing next to a stream....

I always love it when we go for walks like this on the farm.....

Always a good giggle to be had at someone...,

Even if I am the one being made a fool of by a teenie weenie little Jack Russel..!!

The End

World Cup Rugby!!

It is eight 'o clock in the morning and we are getting ready to watch South Africa vs Fiji!! The friends are here and the daughter from varsity is home to watch with us, the blouwildebeest biltong and all the snacks are out... GO BOYS!!! Can South Africa win the world cup again?? Hope so....off to watch the game..all the supporters in Fiji ...ENJOY!!!

By Thunder!

I woke up at 4:15 am this morning having been awakened by a strange flash of light...I was sure someone came to help themselves to a couple of sheep out in the shed, so I woke Cules up,I told him I also heard a strange noise like something being shifted around or something...my mind totally couldn't grasp what it was hearing,,,being half asleep might have had something to do with it...He got, up grabbed his gun and jump outside through our bedroom window as it is the shortest route to the shed....At that moment there was a loud clap...,Cules almost hit the dirt,he has never had any military training but has seen plenty of movies I guess. What..??? Lightning, it got us totally by surprise,we have been preparing for the rainy season by building two more sheds for the sheep and such, but this was a bit early! My husband climbed back in through the window looking very sheepish ('scuse the pun) and I went of to make our first cup of coffee for the morning. At 5:22 it started raining...gentle soft Spring rain...! So as I sit here typing at 5:35 in the morning with the glorious smell of wet earth filling my whole being, I am thinking of Texwasgirl and everyone else around the world living in a drought stricken area....

                                             Soon,soon your rain should be coming now.

A scene from the farm during November/Desember

My First Ever Blog Post

The orange and mango trees are blossoming again,every morning and evening we are overwhelmed by the beautiful, "feel good" smell wafting into the house...it makes everyday jobs so much more enjoyable. It also reminded me that my first ever post was about this same subject around this time last year!! You can read that first ever attempt at blogging  here.

Arise!

In case somebody,somewhere out there..,wondered, if, by any chance I am still alive...I am! I arose,rose,roused...whatever.... one morning during the last week and drowned myself in gardening,I shopped for flower baskets,my husband bought me strawberry plants ( big mistake as I am now eyeing the hound pound as my potential safest ever strawberry patch...(without the  hounds..of course!)No ducks, geese,chickens, goats,sheep,horses, etc can get in there! Anyway,I spent a huge amount of time pondering where to plant which flowers and the seedlings looked like a lot more fun to buy,but coming home I realised I would have to plant them in seedling trays....DRAT!!

                                    So,I spent some quality time with the cats....

Shadow kept wanting to lick the camera...

Peanut knows how to "work" the camera...

So does Ginger....

The delinquent teenage rooster offered to help me wash the dishes....

I told him not to worry and went inside and baked my first ever London cheesecake!

It came out a success and Cules loved it!

Spreading Rosemary in a basket....

Pink Petunias...

I have no idea what these are called, but they were blue and I had to have them!!!

After all that, the packets of seed did not go off and plant themselves...sigh...

So I poured myself a glass of wine and pondered about where to plant what,and lurked around Blogland for a bit..

...and am so ashamed to have to admit that a week later those seed packets STILL haven't got the drift about planting themselves...

The bottle of wine though,has long been recycled I think!

Hope everyone else has been more productive than me this past week!

The End

Hippo Highway

Yesterday Cules and I went to the dam closest to the south side of our house, (the one that's wall burst during the floods last year) to see what is to be done about repairing it and discovered how our resident hippo just magically appears whenever without anyone seeing it cross the very busy road in between us and hippo haven...Since the dam is rather dry with the damaged wall...looky here!

A huge storm water pipe big enough for me to stand upright in !

(if I wanted too...I doubt I will ever feel like entering that pipe!)

In all the years we have lived here, we have never realised how big that pipe is,seeing as it is normally submerged under water...which is also no deterrent for a hippo!

Radja and Sun Jewel wondered what I was so nervous about ..

My horses don't seem to mind the hippos!

This is what it's like walking through most of that area...

You can't see a thing right in front of you..

Cules scooted to go and help a client while I lingered around to take some pics..

Off course it wasn't long before the horses suddenly started running  away in a panic towards home!

I swung around to at least take a pic of the death rush hippo,.. (have you seen that DVD?) .. for my children to show their children how their Mama met her fate...

Snigger,snigger..

"Did I scare you???"

You bet you did!!

She scared the daylights out of me...and obviously the horses..!

Aiy NEED My QUIET Space!!

Tambier  likes to take a nap every day at 12 noon on the dot. You can come visit any day at twelve noon.,.whether he is in his stable or outside in the paddock. It also doesn't really matter where or in what position...anywhere he finds himself at at 12 noon is OK with him.

He looks a bit dead....My first thought was that he swallowed the baling twine sticking out from under his mouth..,but dead horses don't snore loudly, do they...?

Or races along in his dreams,legs a galloping and moaning and all...while a dog is sticking her tongue down their ear...

He IS a Zen kinda horse....

I wonder what he was dreaming about and who was doing what to his ear?

Some people like Radja has NO understanding of Zen moments or rem sleep for that matter..

Radja was getting a bit upset about his friend's strange behaviour...

and wakes him up very rudely by biting his behind.

See that expression in Tambier's eye?

He was in a very comfortable, faraway place split seconds before...

'Come on old chap.., no time for daydreaming today..

Get yourself up ...

Time to go get lunch!