Knysna by the Sea!

What a wonderful week I have had! Last Sunday I packed the car and headed off to spend a week with my daughter. They are now 'home' again in Knysna after several years in the desert sand and heat! My drive there took me all day, through small towns, empty, straight roads and beautiful passes that were so twisty and turny that I thought that I may be driving up my own exhaust! Finally I drove into Knysna, triumphant, tired and thirsty. (A very good dry white wine sorted out that problem though and Stuart cooked a wonderful chicken for dinner!)

A layout of the Island, spot P 44, their house!!

At the moment they are staying on Thesen Island, so we went for some lovely early morning (yes, 6.30, gulp) walks. The bird life is stunning, but even though I was desperate to see a Knysna Lourie, and kept my eyes open everywhere we went, I was disappointed. One day!!!

Our first (but not last) breakfast. Look at the view of the Heads.

More Eggcitement on the Corner!

How many times have I begun a blog with the words...'this is not the blog that I had planned for today but life got in the way.....''?

Well, it's happened again!

Remember last month I mentioned that Pieta the goose had started laying eggs (and very tasty they were too)? Naturally they were not fertile, but Philip has geese at the nursery and they, too, were laying. The difference being that the nursery eggs were fertile, and plentiful! So he brought five eggs home and popped them under Pieta who happily sat, and sat, and sat!

Before the 'Summer Hut' was built.

Up until then we had had wonderful sunny weather, so much so, that Philip built a little 'summer hut' so Pieta was in the shade. Then the weather changed and the rain came lashing down! But Pieta was protected from the worst of it by her 'summer hut' and the roof that angled the rain away.

Oh, I do Like to be Beside the Seaside.........!

I know that it's not officially New Post Time, but I just had to share a couple of photos with you (thanks to Rob and the power of his mobile phone!)

Yesterday we set off at 5.30 (after watching 'Eastenders', sad people but hey!) for our daily walk. We always meet up with friends and their two dogs and we usually do a meander to the fishing area and then a quick round-the-block before we head home for a glass of refreshment. As we arrived at the little path going down to the beach, we saw Phillip, Nicola and the gaggle heading to the sea for their daily swim. Well, the geese were, Nicola and Phillip paddled in the shallows!

The neighbours heading to the beach.

When you think of it, these little souls did the equivalent of a human 'Comrades Marathon'. We live a good 500 metres from the beach, and when you are only 15 cms from the ground, that's a lot of walking! And Peta has been doing it since she was only 6 cms from the ground!

Astro doing her 'Life Guard' impersonation!

I must say that it amazes me that they swim in salt water, but there they were, floating and swimming and flapping their little stumpy wings and eating the seaweed that looks like thin green plastic bags!
Alfie and the other two dogs made sure that they stayed out of Peta's reach and paddled a little way away, but Astro was there in the water with the geese, making sure that they stayed within easy reach. And after they had all had enough, out they came and headed home! Peta in the lead and everyone else following.

Today they will do it all over again!

When we came back from our walk, they were all relaxing on the grass.
What a privilege to live among nature like we do.

Alfie's Goose is Cooked!

I know that I have mentioned the six Egyptian Geese that Nicola and her goose Peta are raising?

Well, these little souls are growing by the day and are now quite adept at grazing with their large foster mother every evening on the Scott's lawn. We were chatting to them the other evening (are you surprised? I thought not!) and we realised that the six littlies arrived on Christmas Eve.

Peta and her brood. (Pics thanks to Rob)

Basil's Goose is un-cooked!

Basil has a new 'friend'.

Piet, a few weeks old.

Meet Piet the gosling! He (or she) belongs to our neighbours on the corner, they own the local Nursery (Plants that it, not poultry!) and Piet was born (hatched?) there. But, he was bullied by the others and was being pecked and shoved around, so Phillip brought him home for safety.