Settling down to a rhythm

It has been pretty hectic over the last year. So many new things to absorb. We are in a state of continuous flux right now, Little man going to see his new school today, I am continuing the pursuit of my new artistic life and mom is traveling even more.

Boeta turned 4 a month ago. How time flies. He is standing 112 cm tall and weighs nearly 21 kg. That means he is the average length of a 6-year-old right now. By all accounts he is doing well and bilingual enough to go to a English school, although it is our second language in the home.

We did take him on his birthday holiday this year again. We spend a few days in the Addo and then traveled to some other parks and new spots.

In the process we did a few mountain walks to waterfalls, which he enjoyed thoroughly.

So that is a quick update to the last 2 months. Have a great weekend.

 

Happy New Year

Hi, we are back from a trip to the cape. We would like to wish all our friends a happy, wonderful and fruitful 2017.

We flew down to Cape Town, collected Boeta’s Grandparents and set off to Struis bay for New Year.

Boeta got a late present, this was one of my favorite toys as a kid and he now has one too.

As we got to 2017, we popped a few drinks and shared some laughs.

We also drove around a little, exploring and just relaxing as much as we can. My camera never being to far away.

These house were some of the first from 1800’s.

The harbor.

Outlying farm

Boeta running the planks on the many walking areas.

More later…

 

Ho-ho-ho

For the purpose of keeping up to date with all that happened around the festive season, I have to include Christmas too. This was the reason for Boeta’s Grandparents staying with us and the first time Boeta had more of an idea what it was all about.

It started the previous day with preparations and for the first time a photo of the half-finished kitchen, I am nearly done, just the tiles and a few smaller touches. This is such a nice pick of mom doing her thing, I have to include this.

She is the heart of our house after all.

I took time to shoot a few more shots of her and Boeta.

The photo of Boeta and mom is after his afternoon nap, he loves waking up in her arms.

Christmas Day

We started by opening some gifts with Grandma and Grandpa, while they were still in bed that morning. We spread the opening of gifts over the whole morning for Boeta, otherwise it is too much and he does not enjoy each as he should. After the first session we had breakfast and then we did another stint.

We decided to change and do a Christmas photo shoot. I am pretty certain I do not have to add to much words to this, as you can easily see that we had some fun here…

Personally I would like to add that I love the photo and it represents all that my wife and Boeta’s mom is.

Elegant, motherly, soft touches, warm personality and full of love and again the heart of our house.

One final (official) photo we all liked.

We had a lovely Christmas dinner and after nap-time for the whole family we went to the beach for Boeta’s sake. I took the camera with and took a few shots.

Mom and Boeta watching sundown and throwing rocks.

Grandpa watching the sun going down.

So that was our day, Christmas 2015.

For us…

Perfect.

Last day

Next morning was the last morning on the farm in the Karoo. We started the morning s we do nearly every morning, with hour of book reading.

This is an important hour of bonding between mom and Boeta, while daddy get ready for the day ahead with Boeta. On this day we were on holiday, so daddy got ready for one last walk on his own, while Boeta got ready for the day with mom. The road to our next destination was waiting. But we had some time to walk around one last time.

I saw a pair of Pied Barbets having a disagreement. Sorry about the second shot, but message is clear to see.

My first stop was to see if I could capture the Rock Hyrax in the Agave plants. Many of the old farm have these near especially old houses, but I have never seen Rock Hyrax living in them and using it as obvious protection.

They were warming up in the early morning sun, so I got a few nice shots. As I passed them walking into the fields, they disappeared to the lower levels and protection. I heard a crow on the morning breeze and looked in the direction of the calls. It was slowly gliding along the road, probably looking for possible easy food from a car strike during the night.

The sounds of the sheep grew louder as I walked into the field. My senses were alive and I was determined to enjoy every sound, smell, sight as the crispness of the morning tingled on my face.

 More later…

 

Being stopped by grassy irritations…

Continuing our walk, we walked along one of the farm roads until we saw a gate that led us into the fields.

Boeta was reacting as we hoped and he really enjoyed the open karoo. The first thing we noticed was the flowering Aloe ferox.

Then we got a glimpse of 2 “Steenbok” antelope charging away from us as we got to the crest of a hill. They are not very big and pretty nimble.

We looked around and saw a Euphorbia specie with its fingers, some called these medusanoids.

We were now working in the open fields and Boeta got his first lesson. Some “Piercing Grass, Stickgrass, Three-Awned Grass, Buffalo Grass”, whatever you want to call it, started to collect on his sweatpants and in very sensitive area and it started to prick him. He stopped dead in his tracks.

It was pretty obvious what was going on and I could not help giggling. Luckily mom was close and came to the rescue of the confused toddler. She started removing the grass that got stuck like burdock.

He patiently waited for her to remove the causes of his discomfort, which seems to have been a great collection as mom took a while, and I started to look for other subjects to photograph.

Nope still busy….

Okay then, time to head back in any case, so I walked past them and took a shot back to the farmhouse from the top of the hill behind them.

Boeta eventually got freedom of movement back and was off again. As we walked back to the road we saw a dassie (Rock Hyrax) and I got a quick photo before it was gone.

Boeta also realized we were on our way back and he already remembered what was waiting for him there. He started picking up speed as we got near to the farmyard again.

When he saw the sheep, he was off and running with mom in hot pursuit. It was so much fun to witness his immediate and obvious love for the environment he found himself in. How do you know your kid is enjoying himself?? Tell him it is time to go home for dinner and a bath…He did not know it, but more fun was around the corner and the sheep would be there, the next day.

We walked past a flowering Ruschia species, a succulent plant (low bush) with small purple flowers.

First walk in the Karoo Heartland

Once we got offloaded and Boeta had his nap (Mom and Dad too), we decided toward late afternoon to take a walk on the farm. This was our reason for coming to this area, open spaces to let the little man run and explore. Sure enough, little man was off.

We decided to walk past the farmhouse and up the hill to get a nice view of the surrounds. As we got closer, someone came past with an old tractor to the great amusement of Boeta.

Some Kniphofia and other flowering plants in the farmyard.

As we walked through the farm gate, we took to the hill, following the road. Boeta was in another world, a new wonderful world with lots of…..rocks!!

C’mon then, you two oldies….we need to get there, today! The view from the top of the little hill, guess it would qualify as open spaces!

We walked on and mom gave the little man a loving touch asking him if he liked this new holiday spot and if he was enjoying himself.

Daddy decided, enough with the walking on the farm road, let’s go off-road and really have fun. Mom was slightly apprehensive, but we took to the fields in any case.

Some lovely and interesting plants to be found. Nothing growing specifically high.

Every now and Boeta would lose his footing a little with his new 3rd outing boots, which ended up to be the most valuable addition to his wardrobe and he did not want to wear anything else and it saved on a few possible issues with thorns and prickly stuff you find from time to time.

For daddy, it was the most anticipated week of the holiday. He wanted to spend time with his son and mom in the Karoo, as he was lucky enough to do for most of his childhood to late teens. This shot is sure one of the most special ones of that walk…..”pride“…..

It was getting late and we had to turn back and go light the barbecue for dinner. Everything basically worked with gas and candles. Magical. No other sounds of people, but us and the man (and his family) for miles around.

Boeta now took the lead as we walked back home with a proud mom and dad walking behind him, watching him just being a kid. BLISS!

Piano toddler x2 and giving grandparents a workout….

Some of the older followers may remember the little 9 month old loving the piano. Well, at nearly 2 years old he still loves the piano, but now he sits on his own and he can give a toddler version of piano performance. The perfect background to toddlerism, starting of with soft one note twinkle, slowly building up and then all hell breaks loose as we end with thunder and lightning.

He then decided to continue this thunderous end and charge poor grandma and grandpa, who seemed to enjoy his music so much.

If you charge grandma, she typically wants a kiss….”what’s wrong with women!?”

Now Grandpa is much more fun, he lifts and put me down so that I can do it again…and again.

Grandpa had to go sit down and Boeta kept coming…

Mom decided it is time to give Boeta’s grandparents a break and Boeta got his dinner while daddy lit a fire for our dinner.

This calmed the little man down and he decided to give the family another softer version, more a lullaby version of his piano skills. It was near bed-time after all. This time we started with thunder and lightning and ended with soft tones that had him fully immersed in the music, leaving a slightly stunned family.

Who said you cannot have fun when it rains?

Face to Face…with an Eagle-Owl.

Another of our great memories. …
A while back we visited a raptor rehab facility near Addo. The birds and snakes they have are either injured or taken from owners, who cannot look after them. In many cases they cannot be released, due to imprinting. Sad as some of the stories are, we met this beautiful Cape Eagle-Owl.

He had a Spotted Eagle-Owl as a friend.

It was such a fantastic experience to be close to these birds. They are used to educate students at schools about owls and they are full of games as well. We were told that by afternoon they like chasing the minder around the big cage. We found them in a great mood for some attention.

The Spotted Eagle-Owl
He likes a scratch. My wife got a bit of a shock, when he decided its better to get the TLC in a more direct way.

When he was not happy with this head-scratching he decided to gently ask her to move the finger another itch!

Yes, yes, much better…

The Cape Eagle-Owl

Our second eagle-owl did not really appreciate the attention given to his friend and decided it would be the best time to have a stare-down with someone or something.

He first tried me, then thought to have a go at the one-eyed camera lens.

Not satisfied with the lack of reaction, he decided to go at his minder and sure enough they had a good stare-down.

Goal achieved! Everybody is now certain who the boss is and he will allow a head scratch.

This was a great treat for us! We will go back next time we visit the area, just to look in on our new friends. I would rather see them in the wild, but on rare occasions like these, you cannot help but feel privileged for the chance to get really close and you walk away with a renewed appreciation for these incredibly beautiful birds.

Interesting 2014….Birds.

Interesting 2014….Birds.

On a birding front we saw many of the normal birds, but tried to present them in new ways.

Orange River White-eye (Zosterops pallidus)

We first showed you a bird from our previous region of residence in the Northern Cape, where these endemic White-eyes come from.

A tough little subject to capture on camera.

The Marabou was another subject, based on a post of a trip by mom to Uganda. These will forever remain fascinating birds to us.

The owl stare-down post was another favorite because these Spotted owls gave us personal contact and something we will forever remember.

The Greater double – collared Sunbirds and this photo with the nectar and tongue, lovely.

We saw them again in August on our trip in the Addo National Park.

Talking about small birds, the Firefinch, first time captured on camera and a great source of pleasure.

 

Another fun sight was the fighting Malachite Sunbirds. Another unique chance – something different.

The fun sighting was the very distant Secretary Birds on their nest, changing guard. It was an absolute lucky find, being so far away and even the long lens struggled, but from birding perspective, priceless.Red-necked Francolin’s offered some wonderful chances for photos.

A major find and capture was the Stanley’s Bustard. Again a lucky find, but so special.

The first ever sighting of the Forest Weaver….thrilling!

One of Boeta’s favorite birds would have been the Masked Weaver.

These kept hanging around the deck of the lodge, and kept him busy for periods.

 Daddy love the capture of the Kelp gull in a row…

And the performance given by the European sparrows also made the little man laugh and gave us a whole morning of fun, catching midges.

We can go on and on, lots of raptors and a nice list of birds we posted about during the year, all listed on the fauna page. We can summarize by saying this, if we just visited natural areas for the wildlife, it would have meant losing out by heaps, because adding birding to the list makes your trips and travels just that more exciting and fun. A last wave goodbye by the African Hoepoe to 2014.

Cupcaked…

After a few naps, I was back in my hanging chair in grandma’s kitchen. This time she had a big surprise for me. You see, my grandparents could not be at my first ever birthday and I guess they really wanted to be there for the cake, at least!

After my midday nap, grandma said that she had a surprise for me, just because they missed my birthday, I could choose one of these…

I was shocked, so many cakes to choose from and mommy was sitting right there. She never allows me more than a bite of any sweet stuff. A whole cake and I could choose it myself! I decided on the green one.But second guessed myself immediately, when mommy took the others away and left only the green one.

I still could not believe this. Mommy said it is because we are at grandma’s house and they can spoil their grandchildren a little, they earned that right. I thought, we need to visit more! Looking at the huge cake, I had to ask daddy too; “Can I eat it all?”

He said yes! I grabbed one of the halves, before anyone changed their minds and “stuffed” my face. I guess I was too hasty, because I could not get anything in. Mommy and Grandma started laughing, and when I took my hand away, the cake was still stuck to my hand. I showed mom.

The green stuff stuck to my hand, and painted my face and hands. It did taste very nice, so I just continued licking, sucking and stuffing, before they stopped me.

Mommy said that she would help me with the rest and she gave me the “cake” part, I learned that I tried to eat the icing first.

I think I will do that again in the future, because the icing is very nice. Daddy said that this is why we always have dinner before pudding. Mommy said I was properly caked and I said: “Thanks grandma, dad, take me out of this chair, I want to run!“

My first-est ever flight.

Everyone who is everyone knows by now that I took my first-est flight ever in my life. Mommy seems to like the flying cars, because she takes them to work and she said that daddy and me can come with her this time. Daddy seemed to like this idea too, so I decided that I will go with them, mainly because I did not want to stay home alone and it seemed a better idea to make sure they are okay. They may miss me too much, too.

Interestingly, this seemed to be a great thing, because when we went to the place the flying cars are found, many people came to see us off. Our neighbors girl also suddenly wanted to hold my hand, as if I suddenly became a very important person. I do like a little older girls, but mommy started to take pictures and I am not sure if I want to be seen liking girls yet, so I made as if I did not like it. I do have an image to uphold you know.

After a lot of people checking us, I think they lost their keys or something, because daddy took his out of his pocket and showed it to them after walking through a big arch that beeps, luckily I left mine at home. After a while we walked out to the flying car. I never knew they are so big. You need stairs to climb into them and daddy carried me up, leaving my stroller at the bottom, which seemed a silly thing to do. Daddy was very happy to see it again, when we climbed off the flying car, as some nice person who must have seen him forget it at the stairs, gave it back to him.

Inside, there are so many people who can ride along in these cars. I was totally astounded at all these people, I did not know there could be so many.

Another strange thing is that these cars have very small windows. I love the plastic curtains they added for us to play with. I wanted it down, daddy wanted it up, so we had fun, seeing who would win with this little argument. Daddy won, but just because he showed me all the cars outside, funny cars, they look a lot like my Lego cars, just bigger, with real people driving them.

It rained as well. I liked watching the water running down the window. Mommy said we must smile for yet another picture, because she wanted to remember this moment, as we go with her for the first time. She also asked if I would like to sit on her lap a little, because that would make her very happy. I did not want to make her cry, so I agreed to do this.

Just about the time I moved over to mommy, the flying car started to move, and I was not impressed. Daddy has an old diesel, and it moves much faster. I suddenly realized why we have to take mommy to work so early, this flying car with all the people takes forever to get anywhere. After a long time, it came to a crossing and stopped, then it turned slowly. I thought, I should have stayed home. Then mommy pulled out a bottle and gave it to me. I was glad, I was very thirsty. Just about then the flying car stopped again. I drank my bottle, but this must have been very funny, because when I was nearly finished mom and dad started laughing and laughing. They said I was drinking very fast, but I did say I was thirsty. The next moment, the flying car started revving its engines, daddy does that sometimes with the old diesel, but this is where they differ, because when this car started to move it slammed me tight into mommy, and she held me tighter, I think but cannot remember, I sucked the last part of the bottle with one go, because when I sucked again it was just air. Mommy did not see, so I kept sucking on it as my ears made some funny crackling noise when I did. The next moment we were in the ocean, I told daddy, “It’s the ocean”, but he smiled at me and said no son, it is the clouds. So, for those of you who do not know a flying car, they drive in the clouds.

I suddenly felt very tired and realized that it was my nap-time, so while I was sitting so tightly against mommy, I felt a warm fuzzy feeling coming over me. I thought, I remember this from not that long ago and ….. that is all I remember from my first-est ever flight with mommy and daddy.

Mom, Dad and our boy – our little family

As we came to the last stop, where we could allow our son to walk and experience the thick spekboom forests, it was, especially now, looking back, such a great 3 days. I see my wife, the person I have loved deeply for almost half of my life, who has achieved so much, given so much to me and everyone she has met, coaxing our 13 month son through the forest. Showing him all the wonders, his little mind filled with questions, what is this, that and everything else.

What a wonderful experience to be the dad in this group of three. This little blessing that joined us after so many years, making everything around him shine, becoming vivid, sharply, no crisply in focus as if it is touched by the beautiful dawn of another day, that freshness that is so nearly touchable before the sun fully brightens the day. We are three, mom, dad and son, but we are also ONE family.

We will be back, soon as we can, to this place where the elephants play in the water, the jackals and nightjars provide the background music of the night, this place where the dung beetle has right of way!

The Core of US…part 2 (Love)

My history with Struis Bay begin around 1994, when I went with a group of friends. I fell in love with Struis, the moment we arrived. I visited it a few more times, and on one occasion even invented “car trouble” to stay another day.

In 1995, I met a beautiful blue-eyed girl in my office, which I liked but did not think of any further as she was in a relationship with a friend of a work colleague. Later that year we met again at a function, and I gave her a lift to her vehicle, chit chatting all the way. When I got home, I told a friend, I met my wife in a tongue-in-cheek manner. I, again, did not pursue the matter due to the aforementioned condition.

This was a great time of getting to know self for me. I was coming from a 6 year relationship, and at that stage, I was in another on off relationship myself. This was to be an important time, for a boy was becoming a man learning and thinking about respect, love, honor, religion and many other life lessons through reflection and discussion with amongst people, my dad. I learned all about who I was and accepted myself and was comfortable with myself, recognizing where I could improve as well.

February 1996, I was not in any relationships, nor was she, so I asked her to an evening out. We had a great time, dancing and although she had a few suitors, I eventually got the nod, which also nearly did not happen, as I wrote her a letter, stating my intentions, which got lost behind a table (fell off) and she only got it 4 days later by pure luck.

I was in love and so was she. We loved talking and we spent hours doing that, nearly talked ourselves out of the relationship also, but by October that year we took the important decision to go on holiday together and it was at that point we both realized we wanted to get married. A few months earlier her mom was diagnosed with cancer, again, which was to play a big role in our eventual marriage date.

Pondering the future on the garden route lookout.

One of the big trees in the natural forests of Garden route

My first job was to ask fer her parents blessing and I made a date with them on a Friday morning. They lived in Struis Bay at the time, so I left at 6 am, and drove the 2 hours, stopping at a petrol station to freshen up, nervously fumbling with my hair brush. On arrival her mom had breakfast ready, which immediately made me feel a little more comfortable, and I asked for their blessing. She made me promise to look after their only child and I told them that I know she was their most precious gift and so is also mine and still is to this day.

In the second week of November we were back in Struis Bay, and we took a walk to the beach, specific part, called “Skulpiesbaai”, translated means “Bay of shells”. I had the ring in my pocket, constantly checking, because if it got lost there, it would be gone for sure. At a point, I dropped to my knees and asked her to be my wife. She accepted and I was as happy as a clam, excitedly walking back to “break” the news, only then did they cry (mom and daughter) and to be honest I felt cheated that she did not cry when I asked…just a joke, she obviously knew about it all long before then.

Skulpiesbaai

Skulpiesbaai

We planned out marriage for the end of 1997, but as time passed, her mom got sicker and we took the decision to move the ceremony to 12 April 1997. This ended up to be a great decision as my wife had both her parents present, as did I, on our important day. Next to the day Boeta was born, the best day of our lives.

After our 2 week honeymoon, we ended again in Struis Bay for our last stop, visiting “our” parents as a married couple for the first time.

So as you can see Struis Bay is like the “flame of a candle”, we keep getting drawn back to it and the “warmth” of its never-ending flickering light. The lighthouse at the point is not only a warning for ships passing the point of Africa, it is a beacon, a grounding point, to which we refer and come back to, every so often, the rock on which we built so much.

In part 3 (pain), we will continue the story.

Previous post: post 1 (Life)

Warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicas)

We found some Warthog in Addo National Park. Not the most beautiful animal you could ever see, but yet, there it is.

A muddy concoction of compactness, with a huge head, small eyes, and a wart just below the eyes, males have another set lower down, and then the canine teeth forms prominent tusks, growing outward and then upward. The weight of the males average around 80 kg.

They like open woodlands, grassland and floodplains. They feed on grass, roots, seeds, fruit, bark and even invertebrates. Interestingly babies eat mother’s dung to inoculate their gut with bacteria.

Their love for mud is for removing parasites and cooling off. They form loose families, usually males with 2 females and piglets. I managed to capture a meeting of 2 groups and in what is said to be a friendly meeting with recognition, some sniffing and possibly a bout of head pushing.

After the head pushing, all was good again, and everybody went on with their day’s task of foraging for food.

The Core of US…part 1 (Life)

On the tip of South Africa is a place called L’ Agulhas, and next to it Struis Bay. L ‘Agulhas point is where the warm currents of Indian and the cold currents of the Atlantic ocean meet. It is also the place we call home in our hearts for many reasons.         

It is a place that represents love, life, laughter, bliss, intense pain, heartache, loss and all the other human emotions not mentioned. Our story begin approximately 40 years ago, for one of us, in any case, and got richer as time past.

Long before I knew my husband, I went to Struis Bay for the holidays every December and January. My dad hooked up the old caravan on to the 1965 Mercedes, and we started the 3 hour drive to our annual spot. The Merc was an old fin-tail model and I was highly embarrassed that my dad drove such an old car.

I though it was the ugliest car in the world and to this day I have not developed an appreciation for cars of that era.

The trip took us over the Helderberg pass from Cape Town, through the fruit orchards, apples mostly, of the Grabouw region, to a town called Caledon, in the Overberg (Wheat growing region). From here you turn off the main route and drive down to the coast.

We spend our Christmas and New Year in Struis Bay’s caravan park. I remember the dances on Fridays and Saturdays, the little natural Harbour and the smell of fish being offloaded (Yellowtail in that part the year) and buying it fresh from the boat.

Lazing my days on the beach, the longest in the Southern Hemisphere of 14 kilometers, and how peaceful was the early morning or late afternoon walks on the beach, and yes a few holiday flings too.

My dad always booked our “spot” for the next year, the day when we left. It was always the exact same stand and many of our “neighbors” did the same, resulting in the same people coming back year after year. We always arrived when the caravan park was close to full and left when it was empty. It was always strange to get used to the hustle and bustle and once you get used to it, there was a sense of loss when everyone departed in the first week of the year. We always stayed until the middle of January. I only later (in my teenage years) came to appreciate the wonderful feeling of having the beach to yourself, doing my own thing and being able to be content with my own company.

In 1993, after my dad’s retirement, and some family discussion, my parents decided to permanently move to Struis Bay and bought a plot and built a small 2 bedroom home on it. They moved to Struis Bay in 1995.

In part 2, Love, we tell the continuing story of our deep relationship with Struis Bay.