Wheatlands News

One of the things that Greg and I have in common is that we really wanted to live in an old farmhouse-style house in a small country town. She was at home on the quad It was a romantic dream that led us to buying a really lovely property in Moorreesburg - 5m high ceilings, Oregan pine floors, a swimming pool and loads of space indoors and out. Our lives there were a mixture of fun and frustration. We discovered that it is not always easy to live in a country town where many of the people are still fuming about the English victory in the South African (Boer) war over a century ago. We also met some wonderful people, and made some friendships that we don't keep up nearly enough. big wheels One of the highlights of the Moorreesburg year is the Skou and it is a highlight of our year too, even though we no longer live in our lovely Swartland home. This year, we had even more fun than usual because we decided to take Taylor with us. Spray on tattoo! ...

We may have lost the lapa ( I wrote about it here and here ) and the palm trees were cut down, but we have been left with a wonderful treasure trove of wood that Greg has been using to build all sorts of cool structures in our garden. Next to the washing line is the beginning of a wall that Greg is building with the palm tree pieces. I love the way it curves around the avocado tree that I grew from a pip. I think it is important that you notice that tree. It is one of my biggest achievements ... my thumbs are decidedly not green but somehow this tree has survived a couple of transplants and a scorching Moorreesburg summer and is still growing. Next are a screen that Greg built in front of the pool pump and the walls he built to hide the door of the outside toilet. It would have originally been the only toilet in the house, but thankfully we have one inside now. I'm always a bit wary of all the spiders who live out there, and I always hated it if the door was left open ...

Why do people who want to make horrible hateful posts on Facebook pages or news stories almost always use pseudonoms? What kind of person has such strong opinions that they feel compelled to share, but are too afraid to say who they are? Why is it that even the graveyards of Moorreesburg (and, I'm sure, many other places) reflect the disparity and inequalities in our society? The solid, granite-entombed citizens at the top of the hill and piles of sand and wooden crosses further down. If you look closely, you'll see that the flowers on this grave are inside water-filled, upturned cooldrink bottles. Ingenious. We were at Moorreesburg's graveyard so that Greg could bury Margaret, one of Cape Town's homeless whose sister lives here. What was really heartening was the fact that two official government Social Welfare cars brought people who had known her and worked with her to the service. What on earth made the designers of this hotel on Cape Town's Orange St th...

Yes, I know I have been gone for a while, but this is a season of a new discipline (and a new diet...) For the past couple of days I've been feeling very flu-ey and particularly sorry for myself. So last night, after the end of a long day behind the computer forcing myself to write semi-coherently about the scintillating topic of racial transformation in South Africa's insurance industry, all I wanted to do was slather myself in vicks vapo-rub and go to bed. With honey and lemon, but without the honey because of the diet. What I actually did was to go to a bizarre Moorreesburg version of a Mexican night because friends phoned us to say they were there and that we absolutely had to come. It is a very big deal, you understand. There is only usually one place open at night in Moorreesburg... a horrible dive called Guttos where we once waited two hours for our steak order before giving up and going home. So the thought that there was actually somewhere elso open was enough ...