Winter is coming (apologies to House Stark of Winterfell)

The night before last, I heard the Winter wind make its Winter noise at the bedroom window for the first time. And my feet were cold when I went to bed and when I woke up in the morning. Then, yesterday it rained, probably a good 5mm or so judging from how deeply the sand was wet. Yup, Winter is definitely on its way. *sigh*

I saw a change in the light/air a week or two ago already, when it was still February.  I never want to believe it so early in the year, but something about the quality of the light changes then already. Not quite enough to put your finger on, and you can almost convince yourself that you're imagining it. But you can only fool yourself for so long.  Once you hear the wind at the window and the rain starts, it's pretty much a sure thing.

Also, the figtree has lost most of its leaves already and the leaves of the hanepoot and the roses have started changing colour.  The sun only comes up at 6:45 and goes down at 19:15. By 8pm it is already dark while in Summer the sun isn't even down by then.  It feels like we didn't properly take advantage of the nice long Summer days at all. I think that every year. And it's probably true every year.

It's not so much that I dislike the Winter, it's more that when the seasons change, you really become aware of the passing of time.  As that is what bothers me.  It feels as if time is just rushing past without my really appreciating it.  And add up the days and the weeks and then the years are just flying past and we're getting older and it starts feeling as if time is running out.  I feel closer to a full-on midlife crisis at the changing of the seasons than at any other time during he year.  Especially when it is changing to Winter.  And it's not even past the equinox yet.

Maybe this year I will have my midlife crisis and shave my head and run away to India or something. Or maybe I will stop eating cheese or something life-changing like that. Get a tattoo or learn to meditate or levitate. Sort out all the clutter and go minimalist. Stop drinking coffee. Not bloody likely.

First AV project -- One Perfect Day...

(This video was inspired by Simoné's "August".)

I used iPhoto to cobble together some photos, video footage and music. Dirty camera lens, lots of shaky footage, noisy backgrounds etc, but it's a nice reminder of a lovely day.  Daniel _loves_ watching it over and over.

I've uploaded the mobile version because the HD version is more than 500Mb and will take forever to load.

The music is Come Back When You Can by Barcelona.

You know the rules!

Shannon and Simoné's first video is up, and has even been featured on their hero's website (http://pinchmysalt.tv/?cat=4). One of his funny videos was the inspiration for "You know the rules". How cool is that?


You Know The Rules from Penguin&Panda.Productions on Vimeo.

If it won't load -- watch it HERE.

Guerrilla Artists on Scooters

Decided that today was a good day to not sit around the house, so we decided to get out and do some guerrilla art. And get some scootering done too. The storm water dam near our house has finally got some water in after the rain, so that's where we headed.

The dogs were obviously very happy with the water and started sloshing around as soon as we got there. You could just imagine them standing there waiting for a (shot) duck to fall out of the sky. They looked very much like RETRIEVERS, and very at home in the water.

Shadow was trying his best to retrieve something from the bottom.

And Harley was smiling from ear to ear.

Then on to some Guerrilla Art...

I know that it's probably technically vandalism, but no-one ever goes to the "dam" except us, and we thought it could do with some decorating.

The three artists got to work right away. Daniel drew on "his" side with chalk:

And was very proud of his artwork:

The girls had some paint to use on their sides. Here are the artists hard at work and lost in their own worlds:

Then on to a hill for some downhill scootering. Shannon was trying all kinds of weird things:

Sarah wasn't trying anything funny, but still managed to come away with skinned knees and bleeding toes. Might have something to do with the inappropriate outfit she was wearing.

Daniel only hurt his thumb this time, so he must be getting better.

Then it was time to go home to rinse the dogs in the sea. They did swim properly but they still smell vaguely of stale pond-water. Was nice to get out of the house for a bit.

Recipe for Chocolate & Vanilla Retrievers

Had such a good laugh today. The kids wanted to scooter on the roads here behind us, so we took the dogs and the scooters and off we went. I asked them to scooter up and down the same road away from the busier roads so I wouldn't have to worry about the dogs' lack of car sense. I was taking some photos of the kids coming around the corner, and checked on the pups from time to time. They were just running around the bushes, sniffing and having a great time. When Shannon came around the corner again, I asked her to check on the dog farther on next to the road because his nose was all brown. It just looked like sand from far away, but when I took a photo and zoomed in, this is what I saw:

They had found a bit of muddy water (leaking pipe) in all that dryness, and were digging it up into a muddy puddle. Shadow quickly got into the action as well:

They were dipping their faces right under the water:

They were having so much fun, I just ignored the fact that the mud had to be removed again at a later stage:

This is what a thoroughly-dipped chocolate and vanilla Retriever looks like:

It was just so funny! I was sitting on the road laughing until the tears rolled down my face. The kids thought I was having a fit. I could hardly hold the camera still, I was laughing so hard. And the dirtier they got, the more I laughed.

At least their "self-cleaning mechanisms" have kicked in and they are basically clean again. And it was mostly sand and clean water, not real mud.

Musical Cats

I just had to laugh to myself last night. Daniel had already fallen asleep and I was watching TV in bed. As the night went on, more and more cats got onto the bed until I was firmly wedged in. I couldn't move much and before I put the TV off, I decided to sort out the cats into more manageable positions.

So, I got up and moved Claudie to the bottom right of the bed. If she lies against you and you move, she tends to hum and growl a bit. So, she went near the bottom of Daniel's feet, but out of kicking range. I moved Sassy to the pile of clothes on the rockingchair. She's a real pain on the bed as she wants to lie right up against you and no matter how many times you move away, she follows. I moved Fallafel to the bottom left of the bed near where my feet go. He normally sleeps quite still during the night and only sticks his nose in your face if he thinks it's time to get up. Tommy, who's always slept with the girls, is now on our bed as well because the girls have been coughing him awake at night. He's really heavy but doesn't move around too much, so I just sort of slid him along to the middle of the bed near the bottom. He barely moved a whisker. Shandy was sleeping on the decoder but she jumped off when I got out of bed.

Then, with all the cats sorted and mostly out of my space, I got into bed, knocked the pillows into shape and got comfortable. Just as I sighed contentedly to myself, Daniel sat straight up, twisted around and plonked down again with his head wedged into my ribs. You just can't win. :-) At least Stewart is back tonight and since he tends to growl and spit at the cats in the bed, only the most stubborn ones will be sleeping on the bed with us (usually Sassy).

One of the things I like about Winter

When the wind is off the sea, the seagulls float over our house.

(Will try to come up with a few more things, but that's all for now. It's cold. I don't like the cold. *grumble*)

Post-Holiday Blues

Been feeling quite out-of-sorts the last few days. Guess it's normal when coming back from holiday, but usually I am quite happy to be back home after being away. I'm not really a Mauritius package-holiday kind of person, but this holiday was different from the other 2 times for some reason. Can't figure out if it was this resort in particular, or the fact that we stayed longer than normal, or that we did nicer things this time around. Or maybe it was just nice to be warm.

It doesn't help much that it's been cold and miserable since we've come back. Right now the wind is howling in off the sea and whistling in at the bedroom window. (The reason that I am awake already -- 7am is early for me -- is that Daniel seems to be on Mauritius time still and has been waking up at 7am since we got back.)

I don't want to live in Mauritius permanently, but would love to stay there and take photos for a few months. Not palm-tree postcard kinds of pictures, but of the people and the dogs and the plants and the building and stuff. I would also like to understand the culture a bit more. It's such a strange mixture of different influences -- they drive on the left-hand-side of the road, speak French, look mostly Indian, and that's just the obvious things.

Will post some photos later once I've had a chance to go through them.

First rain of the season

Finally had a bit of rain after it had been threatening for a day or so. Went down to the beach when it stopped, and the top layer of sand was hardly wet. So, not a lot of rain. But it's still overcast, so there's a chance of a it more. Here's hoping.

Change of seasons

Just two days past the autumnal equinox and the weather seems to have gotten the message. I heard the Winter wind at the window during the night, just testing out its wings. No rain yet, but it's chilly and overcast today and the wind is still off the sea. The outside cats are all inside today, trying out different cold-weather sleeping spots. Musty is sleeping on the stove!

The Bougainvillia started dropping it's flowers right on cue exactly two days ago. I thought that it would be a bit behind the times as it suffered a lot during the renovations -- being cut down too much and not getting enough water -- and it's only just started flowering abundantly. But no. The hanepoot stopped sending out the curly bits for clinging on to things a while ago, but its leaves haven't started turning yet. It's quite sheltered in the courtyard, so the plants there could be excused for thinking that it's still Summer.

I felt the change of seasons a few weeks ago. Not something that I can pinpoint exactly, but just a small change in the air, a slight chill in the mornings, the sky a little bit bluer. And the inevitable Wille Weghol (probably best translated as "Wanderlust") that comes with it. It's not as if I hate the winter here, in fact, Winter here is mostly nicer than Summer, but whenever I feel the seasons changing, I feel like running away somewhere. Perhaps it is some remnant of when we (humans) lived much closer to the seasons, and our survival depended on being aware of when Winter was on its way, and knowing when it was time to move on to a safe place to spend the cold months. Either way, I feel it in my bones when the seasons are about to change, and it normally makes me slightly crazy for a while. But. That was a few weeks ago, and I am back to my normal (sane?) self again and looking forward to the storms and the rain.

Thoughts about my granny

Funny how things catch you unawares sometimes...

I was happily sitting in the sun with my magazine this afternoon -- a rare thing as I always think there's probably something more important I should be doing. The girls were in the pool and Daniel was playing WII, so I decided to take full advantage of Having Time to Myself. I started reading an article in the Woman & Home about a woman who was using some of her granny's kitchen utensils and how it made her wish to have her time with her granny back again, not as a young girl because her head was full of other things then, but as an adult. She wants to show her granny the rhubarb patch at her house, ask her how to keep the birds away from the gooseberries, things like that.

And then I was crying. Just like that. No warning, no previous thoughts of my granny. Strange how it can just be there under the surface and something like this brings it all bubbling (literally!) out.

My granny died when I was 17. And I dealt with it at the time, but what you don't get until much, much later, is that you don't get any of that time back again. You don't get to go back and ask your granny how to crochet Barbie bikinis, or how to make jam or why it's important to always rinse the rice 3 times before you cook it. My granny loved me as only a granny can love a child, without having to worry about how they are going to turn out one day, how they do in school or what they wear. They can see past all that, maybe because they have already raised children from childhood through to adulthood. They know that just because you choose to wear bright blue stockings with your tackies, or hide behind an over-long fringe all the time, doesn't mean you're going to turn out a social misfit and/or an axe-murderer. They see the big picture, and can slip you chocolate and a hug when you need it.

I suspect that perhaps I was crying about my mother, actually. The missing link, the link back through to the women in our family. My mom died 14 years ago, and if I let myself think about it, I miss her more and more as I get older. I look at my children, my daughters especially, and it seems that the line backwards stops with me; the chain is broken. And I feel stupid crying for my mom, when I am a grown woman, and she died such a long time ago. My mom and I fought a lot when I was growing up and she died just as we were starting to get each other (or when I started growing up, perhaps), and before I even got married or had children. Girls need their moms around when they become moms themselves. Even if it's just to chuckle to themselves when they see the grandkids giving their mom hell. We probably wouldn't have seen eye-to-eye about a lot of things, I am not kidding myself about that, but I so wish I could still phone her up. I want to ask her for her sherbet recipe, or tell her that we have a fig tree or complain about how my kids never clean up after themselves.

Perhaps you never get too old to need your mom. I am sorry that my mom died before I knew that, and before she knew that I knew.

Music to blog by

Listening to Leonard Cohen's album "New Skin for the Old Ceremony". Perhaps not his most popular songs or best-selling album, but if you're in just the right mood, it's magic -- poetry set to music, with a good pinch of social commentary thrown in.

At the risk of sounding my age, they just don't write them like this any more:

Why don't you try
-------------------

Why don't you try to do without him?
Why don't you try to live alone?
Do you really need his hands for your passion?
Do you really need his heart for your throne?
Do you need his labour for your baby?
Do you need his beast for the bone?
Do you need to hold a leash to be a lady?
I know you're going to make, make it on your own.
Why don't your try to forget him?
Just open up your dainty little hand.
You know this life is filled with many sweet companions,
many satisfying one-night stands.
Do you want to be the ditch around a tower?
Do you want to be the moonlight in his cave?
Do you want to give your blessing to his power
as he goes whistling past his daddy, past his daddy's grave.

I'd like to take you take you to the ceremony,
well, that is if I remember the way.
You see Jack and Jill they're going to join their misery,
I'm afraid it's time for everyone to pray.
You can see they've finally taken cover,
they're willing, yeah they're willing to obey.
Their vows are difficult, they're for each other,
so let nobody put a loophole, a loophole in their way.

Air temp 32degC, pool temp 30degC

Having our first really hot day of Spring today. No wind yet, sea turquoise. Days like this I really know why we like living here. Ask me again tomorrow when the South-Easter is howling, and I may have to think about it.

Cape Cobra

When we came back from the beach yesterday morning, Sarah shouted "Tommy's got a snake!" when she got the beginning of our path (first, as always). I thought it must just be a large lizard, and that she probably just saw the tail-end of it. But no. It was a small Cape Cobra. Tommy (Sarah's cat) either just saw it, or had been annoying it, but Sarah said he jumped a foot or two backwards into the air. Fortunately, he didn't seem to have been bitten, and he ran off without having to be closed up. Common sense. We closed Honey up just to be sure she didn't get too close.

I got a pole and the braai-tongs and a bucket and thought I'd do a Crocodile Hunter impersonation. Unfortunately, the little snake (30cm or so) was under a bush, so I couldn't get to it easily. I know you have to hold them down behind the head so that they can't bite, but doing that on soft sand didn't sound that easy. The snake had it's head up and flattened and was striking at the pole when I got too close. I just couldn't get to the back of its head with the braai-tongs (which handle was also a bit short for my liking).

So I forgot about Crocodile Hunter and did Damsel in Distress instead. I phoned the neighbours. I told them I wanted to try to catch the snake rather then kill it, but when they arrived with only a sharp spade, I knew the poor snake was history. Long story short, they confirmed that it was indeed a Cape Cobra (very poisonous), and killed it.

I am so, so cross with myself about this. The poor snake was only looking for a mouse or something, and ended up dead. Of course, I am justifying it to myself that I won't be very comfortable with kids and cats all over the place, thinking that there could be a deadly snake in the garden. Not that I would know if there are any anyway, as they obviously lay low most of the time (pun not intended).

In our 5 years here, I've never seen a snake close to the house, so maybe this poor little one had strayed a bit farther than normal from it's territory (are snakes territorial?). Let's hope the rest of its family stay away from our dune. It's horrible to just kill a snake on sight (even if you KNOW it's dangerous). There's no line that says "your space", "my space" and because of my ignorance of what to do, the snake ended up dead. It might just happily have slithered away never to be seen again, but just because I DON'T KNOW anything about snakes and their manner, I can make myself believe that killing it was the only option. People fool themselves about all sorts of things all the time. Ignorance is bliss and all that....

Flying Spiders

We've got spiders flying all over the place this morning. Nice still day (so far), and very hot so there are nice thermals for them get up into the air. When you look up into the sky, there are little strands of white spiderweb all over the place. There are a few swallows flying amongst the spiderwebs too, but the little spiders are so tiny, I don't know if they make much of a snack. The other day when we were driving back from Vredenburg, there were strands of spiderweb blowing from the telephone-lines all along the road. I wonder where all these little spiders hatched and where they are going to end up. Some of them are really high up in the sky so they could end up far, far from here.

I don't know anything about which kind of spiders do this, or if they all do. The only reason I know that spiders do this at all if from Charlotte's Web (the movie). Must look it up. They more you learn about things, the more you discover how little you know. Life is one long learning experience.

Forget WII, just give the kids a box

The kids have dragged the fridge's box off the rubbish heap in the driveway, and have happily been turning it into a house in the garden. They even have a granite offcut for a kitchen counter and a kitchen cupboard offcut for a shelf. Having a ball. So much for hi-tech. :-)

Some more pics too.

Keep waiting for that light at the end of the tunnel....

I should probably be dusting something or putting something away, but since there's still not any other rooms finished-finished, it's a bit of a waste of time. The minute we dust and polish something, someone seems to find a reason to sand something in that vicinity and it has to be cleaned all over again. Wasted effort.

The kitchen is ALMOST done. The granite went in yesterday, which has made quite a difference. The kitchen people are still fiddling around here trying to finish off the kitchen in the guest suite. As far as I knew they only had to put glass in 2 doors and put on 3 drawer-fronts and an extraction fan, so heaven knows what is taking so long. In our kitchen there's a few things that aren't right, but over-all it's looking like a completely different kitchen (which it is). I will keep the things that I'm unhappy with for the snag list, and not bore you to tears with it. I should probably clean and repack the kitchen tonight. Must see if there's any of Stewart's wine that I can drink for some motivation.

The paving has progressed quite a lot today, and is looking good. None of the 'grout' has been done yet, but they may get to that tomorrow and then it will look even better. I hope it doesn't take too long to set, as the pool is getting cleaned tomorrow and I will then run out of reasons to keep the kids out of the pool. Except that the water will still be very cold. That reminds me, I'd better go and look for a hosepipe to fill the pool to the brim as per the pool guy's instructions.

The painters are hard at work, but they still haven't finished any of the rooms. They hope to finish on Friday, so here's hoping. They varnished our wooden floor today, so it's off limits for a while. Tonight I officially have nowhere to sleep. Will have to have a sleepover with Shannon. Will probably have to wear Shannon's clothes too since I can't get to our wardrobe. Now that will be a sight to behold.

PG Glass has been to install the shower doors. The one in the guest suite looks fine, but the one on our bathroom has a big gap on the one side. They ran away very quickly before I could even check, so I will have to get them back here tomorrow. Fortunately, we've only paid the deposit so they have some incentive to come and fix it.

The plumber has installed our toilet, basin tap and shower-head. I've hoping it looks nice, but I can't get into the bathroom to see because it's full of bedroom furniture. The shower floor has been grouted, and all the other bathroom tiling done too. Some of the border tiles are a bit on the wonky side, but I will happily live with it if I can just have my bathroom back. It's been quite nice having a bath (in Shannon's bathroom) in the morning actually -- it's seem like a more relaxing way to start the day than having a quick shower.

Some more photos

Getting somewhere at last?

Don't want to sound prematurely optimistic, but it does seem that this week things have been moving forward a bit. The kitchen people haven't finished yet, but will come and do the last few things when the granite guy comes to do the countertops. They said that some of the drawerfronts didn't fit, so have to be made from scratch. My cookbookshelf is also still missing, and some of the drawer handles have to be done. I thought they would be finishing tomorrow but they obviously have to wait for the new doors and drawerfronts. Don't know when they discovered this but the people who spray the panels are very slow. I was hoping that I could pack things back into the kitchen, but that will have to wait a bit longer. The guest suite kitchenette in not that far from finished -- missing drawerfronts, glass in some of the doors and the extraction fan.

The painters have been busy in our room and on the staircase. The first coat of paint is on, so maybe they will finish that tomorrow. Lets hope they don't get distracted by something else. The floor still has to be sanded, so no moving back into our room for now. Would be nice to not have to dress out of a washing basket every day. Strange how you stat appreciating the small things in life -- like wardrobes! :-)

The windshield wall by the studio doors has been built and most of the one wall out to where the driveway gates have to go. One of the painters gave most of the new boundary walls its undercoat.

Buks has been busy tiling in our bathroom. It's looking rather nice so far. Unfortunately, we've now run out of the border tiles. We were planning at some stage to tile the shower differently, so I didn't measure in there for the border. Damn. Will have to get those sent up quickly before Buks goes off in a huff.

Kitchen troubles

The kitchen today looks worse and more unfinished than it did on Friday. Stewart noticed that the gap left for the new stove was too small (96cm instead on 102cm), so the kitchen people had to move some cupboards around today to fix that. Their solutions were all unsatisfactory, but in the end I managed to switch over to left-brain mode long enough to figure out how to sort it out. Living with Stewart for so long, some of his Virgo characteristics must have rubbed off. :-) There's still a problem with the extraction fan, but hopefully that will be fixed tomorrow.

The other team of kitchen people were busy building our wardrobe. So far it seems to be going smoothly. Fortunately, there's no appliances that have to fit in anywhere there. The guest suite kitchen is still the same as on Friday. Could have been worse, at least it didn't go backwards like the main kitchen.

The courtyard wall and the fishpond were plastered, and the top of the pool pump housing too.

We finally gave up and had Scooters pizza for supper. Blech! After more than 2 weeks without a kitchen it seemed like a good idea. But it wasn't.