Braais, bugs and breakfast!

Today is 'Heritage Day' aka 'National Braai Day'. As I write this I can smell braai fires wafting round the village, and our wors and steak is defrosting in the kitchen! It is a perfect day, calm and still with a small nip in the air that tells us that although spring is here, winter is still lurking round corners and in shady areas! I started off the morning in socks and slippers and a fleecy top but after much exertion with a broom on the veranda, I went to change. Half an hour later I was back in the fleece but am being extremely brave about the socks and slippers bit! In fact, I am wearing my Birkenstocks, remember the ones that did the world tour a while ago?

Statice and bokbaaivygies.

And my garden is a picture! Statice is mixed with vygies, geraniums are tumbling over rocks as they have finally had a chance to grow because the veld is green and the bokkies have alternate fynbos to eat. Come summer they will be pruning my geraniums to within an inch of their lives!

Yes, Another Cook Book!

I am one of those strange people who hate cooking but love cook books! I have a vast collection (I think I have mentioned this before) and regularly page through them to find exciting things to make, that is if I was going to make anything exciting!

The first recipe (or is that 'cook') book I really remember well was one that was given to my mum by her close friend when we left England, way back in the middle of the last century! (That sounds scary, but it is true!) It was written in 1960 by an American lady called Peg Bracken and was called 'The I Hate to Cook Book'. Mum regularly made a particular chicken dish called 'Saturday Chicken', an easy and delicious recipe that calls for a tin of mushroom soup, cream and chicken pieces and that's basically it! She made it for special occasions and when (if) people came for dinner, and she usually made a lovely cream cheese tart to follow. It became a favourite of mine too and I cannot remember how many times I have made it and shared the recipe with friends over the years. Funnily enough, I think that the first time I ever made it on a Saturday was just the other day!! Even Rob commented! There is a 'Sunday Chicken' too, that's a curry version of Saturday!

The book has been well used obviously!

Picnic in the Park!

Yesterday we went on a picnic! It's one that has been in the planning stages for at least a month, but the weather kept upsetting our timing, which was just as well as it turned out. Keep reading to discover why!

Our wild flowers are out! Beautiful but shy if the sun is not just right, but on a sunny, calm day the few hours between 11 and 3 are the best viewing time. And the best picnicking time! So, it seemed the perfect way to kill several birds with one stone, namely, see our friends, see the flowers and have a lekker relaxing time with a picnic and all those forbidden things like crisps and brownies and koeksusters!

Pam and Rob ready for action!

Spring has Sprung................a Leak!

Spring Day! Even though we are surrounded by water and snow! We have had several days of almost non-stop rain and on Thursday afternoon we had hail! Small pieces I admit, but it's unheard of in our part of the world. Even more unusual, Cape Town reported snow on the top of Table Mountain, and pictures showed the freezing conditions with happy folk building snowmen and doing head-stands in the snow. (Why I ask you?)

So, yesterday after hearing reports of the Berg River overflowing its banks all the way to Velddrif, we decided to go and see for ourselves. (And have fish and chips for lunch.....this sounds familiar doesn't it?)

Our Bok River, looking upstream.