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.

Traumatic Tuesday!

The two words that are heard most often in our home are 'Oh Basil!', followed by one of the following:

A scream if he has suddenly jumped on my back while I am bending over weeding in the garden or has tried to climb up Rob's back while he is in the bathroom.
A sigh if he has brought a mouse in to play. That gets us into 'MouseMode' with a plastic bowl and a fishing net.
A laugh if he has become one of Alfie's toys and is being dragged round the lounge by his ears.
Or a surprised tone if he simply arrives in the house looking innocent!

Basil checking the washing machine! (All pics thanks to Rob)

From Feral to Fireside!

Today is National Feral Cat Day.

We shall be celebrating of course, we have four of them! My sister will be celebrating even more than us as they have about thirteen at the moment, with the latest one Beckett, slowly moving in. He has progressed from hiding near the shed and slinking away as soon as he sees movement, to sitting on the patio chairs and spending the odd night on the computer chair! Next stop, on the bed with all the others! Phez (remember the kitten in the coffee mug?) has welcomed him with open paws and has probably told him about the plusses of being an inside cat! In a cushy household!

Daffy and Dopey trying out the couch! Alfie on the cushion above!

On the Road Again!

Well, we have Christened our new caravan! Both figuratively and literally! Read on...

Last week we decided to go to Stellenbosch to a caravan park called Mountain Breeze. Rob had contacted them a month or so ago to make sure that we could take Alfie and they said that as long as they didn't see him then it was ok! Rob explained that he was very very well behaved and that he was a celebrity in his own right. Rob stopped short of telling them that they should be honoured to have Alfie gracing their property, but I think they got the gist!

In the meantime, I had been racking my brain to think of a name that conjured up the van's personality, and finally came up with 'Hyacinth'. Let me explain further. There is a TV sitcom called 'Keeping Up Appearances' that we just loved when we watched it, and the main character is a lady called Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced Bookay). She is large, tries hard to be correct in everything that she does, and is a bit of a snob!! Not that our van is a snob, but she is larger than Gemsquash, and more up-market! She is also blue like a hyacinth, and, wait for it, this is the best part and comes from Rob.......'We had to make the carport higher sinth she wouldn't fit!'. Get it? A play on words there! (Try saying it out loud, lisp and all!)

Basil ready to come too! (Pic thanks to Isabel)

How many Bees does a Bee-eater eat?

No, it's not a tongue twister or a riddle but you will have to read on to find the answer to that question!

The day before yesterday I was washing up the breakfast things and staring idly out of the window wondering if it was misty or whether the windows could really be that salt-encrusted and grubby (and yes, they could and yes, they were!), when I saw a small flock of birds hovering and diving over the back garden. Their colour was the first thing that I noticed, turquoise flashes with yellow and brown and they were diving and catching insects in mid-flight. Occasionally they perched on the antenna wire that we have strung across the length of the garden, but they were far too fast for me to capture with my camera, I would have snapped sky and the odd bit of bush and no bird at all! So I borrowed these pictures from Google!

Like a painted porcelain statue! (Thanks to Google)

Happy Wrinklies Day!

Now, you may be forgiven for thinking that this sign below depicts 'Elderly Persons Crossing' outside a hospital, shopping centre or a Retirement Village. But no, it actually represents 'Wrinklies Day', or to put it correctly, 'International Day of Older Persons'! Which is today by the way!

Line Dancing for the Elderly!

We wrinklies make up a huge number round the world, and every year this number increases. By 2050 the number of older people will be twice the number of children in developed countries, and older persons in developing countries is expected to double. This may not mean very much until we give it numbers: There are approximately 600 million of us older people, that is 60+ years at the moment. This number will double by 2025, and is estimated to rise to 2 billion by 2050! That's a lot of dentures and walking sticks and support stockings and hip replacements coming up.