waits in the wings. The year is dead, long live the new year!
I guess in timely fashion with the passing of New Year our house is finally
finished. Well okay if I am being totally honest there are a couple of
outstanding items but hey what the heck, pop the corks, set off the
fireworks, have a toast, who's to know! It has been a long time in the
making, at least it seems like it, October 2010 to December 2011. Now we
have a place to finally call our home, and with the new year around the
corner we can get our new lives here in Underberg into 1st and even 2nd gear
without having to babysit any builders. Despite that good news there is many
a thing for us to still sort out external to the house. Our main headache at
the moment being drainage. Living on a sloping property may be good for some
things but not with regards to heavy thundery African downpours. With the
summer rains not really having arrived in full force yet there have been
very few opportunities to watch and work on a plan. However last week with a
quick 50mm falling and a small flood of the garage we now know where the
weakness is in our existing strategy. A few hasty ditches and channels dug,
in the pouring rain I might add, and things are better if not perfect. Just
need to wait for the next deluge to watch and learn some more. Tsunamis
excepted I think we may have almost cracked it.
Apart from the water issues our other workload is the garden still and will
be for quite some time, probably until we are pushing up the daisies as
opposed to planting them! The veggie garden is bearing fruit slowly and with
a bit of luck and some sunshine the early new year will be a prosperous
time. The plum nightmare is almost coming to an end with the apple nightmare
soon to hit the headlines. Plums are delicious, love them fresh off the
tree, as jam, stewed, and frozen for another time. There is though a limit
to how many you can quite physically consume. Bags and bags of them have
been distributed out to neighbours, who knows how many bucket loads have
been picked off the bee infested ground and fed to the compost. The birds
have nailed many kilo, the bees have got drunk on them, and the wee striped
mice have had their fill. At least we only had one fair sized plum tree to
contend with. Apples though, 2 huge trees heavily fruit laden and one
smaller tree with quite a handful. They are not ripe yet but there is still
plenty of windfall to scoop up already. You soon discover when they are ripe
as the birds, bees, and mice make are to be seen back in town again!
As for now, after a very quiet Christmas in our new house we are celebrating
the New Year down on the coast with family. Well in celebrating I mean me
sitting here tapping on a keyboard. An hour to go and I am last man
standing, in here at least. Outside the music is booming, fireworks are
cracking, at least someone will be awake even if not bright eyed come the
hour. Tomorrow should be exciting as the natives head to the beaches in the
thousands for who knows what sort of drunken behaviour and most likely many
a death sadly too. Best observed from a distance if not avoided completely.
Perhaps the forecast of rain will dampen the spirits a bit.
Anyway, with a last tap, and a parting word, Happy New Year 2012 to one and
all wherever you may be and whatever you may be doing, celebrating or
sleeping through! Cheers.
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