Number twenty-three 13.12.2022

 

It is still raining in South Africa and as my wife would say, she always is of that opinion, “It is raining outside.” How grateful am I that it is indeed raining outside. There are how many people who are suffering the degrading circumstances when their homes are flooded – from the outside to the inside.

I had a lovely conversation with my brother-in-law who lives in Wellington, Western Cape about the weather and the rainfall in his part of the world. He is a geologist. He tells me that since last Sunday evening when it started raining in his town, till this morning they had 72mm and it is still drizzling. He is not aware of any damages or injuries in his town. The Western Cape is in a winter rainfall area and no rain in summer, and yet it is raining there.

Sutherland, Northern Cape Photo number one

Sutherland, Northern Cape Photo number two

His sister, who lives in Sutherland, Northern Cape, sent him photos she took of the devastating downpours they had there yesterday – after a seven-year drought it poured 105mm in a matter of some hours. The connecting road from their farm house to the main road is destroyed and her husband battles to get to the tarred road. Places around their homes, that they got used to as being bone dry, is now a wetland. Next to the house there in now a “river” flowing – that is what it looks like, but it is not, it was a day or two before the rain, bone-dry rock-hard soil. In a matter of moments that place was changed to something they don’t know how to handle. Photo number one shows “a river” which is not a river but gushing water from a ridge not far from the homestead and number two shows the area where it came to “rest.” Hours earlier, it was bone dry, hard baked brown soil.

My one neighbour keeps meticulous records of the precipitation for many, many years [19 years in Houghton and 19 years in Rivonia]. The average rainfall for Houghton for 19 years were 142mm and for Rivonia for the last 19 years were 162mm. For the first 12 days in Rivonia, it is 80 mm.

The video is just outside my office. The drizzling is so reassuring and have a calming effect on me. During the night I woke up with this sound. And I was praying for the people who were fleeing the storms and who were suffering as a result of the water flooding their safe places: their homes.

Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

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Number Fourteen 4 December 2022

 

Guinea Fowl - courtesy the internet

We will be living in Rivonia [not too far from Lilies Leaf Farm] for just on a year and what a blessing we’ve experienced. The “new” home is well kept and fully operational without needing repairs at all; we even have a working irrigation system going. Listening to some of the horrible stories’ friends tell us about their relocating to a “new” home, we are really and truly blessed. The garden is 70% smaller than the previous home and we get the opportunity to spend more time with our plants. I have such a lot of seedlings growing in my maternity ward.

Yesterday afternoon I had the most unique experience one can get while living in the city. I met some of the guinea fowls living in our area which is close by the Braamfontein Spruit. All of a sudden, we see an abundant bird life exploding around us. We also have Rietfontein Nature Reserve close by with porcupine, twisted and warped old trees; peace and tranquillity in the city. And the birds. And some buck.

Guinea Fowl - courtesy the internet

The other day my neighbour phoned me: “Neels, go outside and see guinea fowls are walking on your side of the pavement.” That alone took me back many years when I had guinea fowls in Morningside Sandton. I have lots of stories about these fascinating creatures. I had a special relationship with one of the males; we had shouting matches every other day; at times this got a bit noisy while you and your wife are having coffee on the stoep.

And then he got killed. Well, that is a sad story for another day. I am in no mood to tell that heart breaking story.

Yesterday was so special. It started a couple of days earlier on when I met this couple [I think they were married because they are always together]. A male guinea fowl and his female consort. Maybe she is the queens consort? I will ask them when I see them again.

They were running up and down the road and grass sidewalk trying desperately to enter through the palisade gate and fence. I greeted them and invited them to climb through. Yes, they were welcome to come into the enclosure. But, no, they wriggled to get through and eventually Madam made it. Hubbie became quite agitated and there was, what I think some sort of angst: he the other side of the palisade and she this side. I encouraged him and he squeezed through.

We walked home; they were walking next to me but at a respectful distance chatting to me as we go. We had a nice chat, while they were looking for all sorts of invisible things amongst the plants and grass. It was time for me to leave them and we said our good-byes. I left.

Yesterday, our visitors were on their way out when these two were on their way up from the bottom of the street to us standing on top. And then Madam saw me. She started to run. And I called her. Hubbie was not as keen to come; he had enough stuff to discover all over the place and he did not come any closer, keeping a keen eye on her. She ran towards me all the while talking to Hubbie encouraging him to join her. At least, she said to him, I am an old acquaintance of theirs, not so?

Eventually he came at bit closer. Reluctantly but he came. My friend standing next to me froze; he did not move; not making any noise; tense as tense can be; waiting and watching this lot unfolding in front of his eyes.  There she was; at arm’s length from us. She and I started chatting and he kept his distance. Eventually he joined the party and we three kept the conversation going. We had a long chat; I am sorry if you are unable to speak “Guinea Fowl” because you are losing out in life. Get a pair of birds, get training and enjoy life with the birds. It is worthwhile.

Suddenly, they turned around walking off, still making soft soothing noises as they took their leave of me and my friend.

Friend: “Oom Neels, do you do this every day?”

Me: “No. It was the very first time it happened.”

And I am longing for my guinea fowls of many years ago. They were special. They were unique. They were mine. They were …

Please write me your story: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

 

 

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Number 8 28.11.2022

The blue skies of Franschhoek, Western Cape

What a lovely sunshine day we have in Rivonia, Johannesburg, South Africa. My plants are growing; and I still have seeds to attend to. A friend’s mother came from India to visit and she brought me some seeds as a gift. It is time for me to get on and get in the soil. And maybe I will be able to write about it later on.

Yesterday I looked at my tender plants that are barely breaking soil; I wonder how on earth they are capable of doing that? They are so tender and fragile and here they break thru soil. So strong and yet so tender and fragile.

I learn such a lot working with my plants and seeds and stuff. Life and death are in my maternity ward. I think that I told you why I call it my “maternity ward”? Because of the simple fact that it is the place where plants are born and where some don’t make it and just pass on.

Today it is 22°; it is a lovely sunshine day and we have some wind. This reminds me of my late uncle Cobus Vorster [my late mom’s brother] who was rather blunt and fiery at times, especially when it comes to you expressing some opinion about the weather. When I would say: “Uncle Cobus, it is too hot today!” He would, without fail and hesitation, react to that: “Neels, keep quiet. You can’t do anything about the weather!” “Yes, Uncle Cobus. I know that. I am just saying.” He: “No, you were not just saying anything. We cannot do anything about the weather.” Or if I would say: “Uncle Cobus, it is cold today.” By this time, you can most probably read my mind – and you are spot on.  

Malawian pumpkin cut in half.

I am so proud of my Malawian pumpkin, well actually it is not mine. It is my neighbours’. She grew it from one of my pumpkins I gave her and then it came full circle back to me. And now I have some in the soil at my house in Rivonia.

The blue skies of South Africa are so spectacular! I took this image at Franschhoek in the Western Cape round about March 2022. And I still look at it and stand in awe and the spectacle it is.

Please write me a letter: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

 

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Number 5 25 November 2022

My sharpened knife, stone and sliced chillies with olive oil

Today I am cooking ox tongue. It is so exciting to cook again; I started cooking round about 2015 and then about 18 months ago I more or less stopped. I really don’t have a specific reason except to say that we were in the process of selling our home where we lived for almost 41 years and I got somewhat ill as well. I had to concentrate on the logistics of re-potting plants to take with, selling, transferring the house linked to the purchasing of the other property. And the logistics involved in that venture were involved: change of address, new internet providers, new neighbours new everything! Living in one property for as long as that, makes you forget what it is to get involved with this lot: what an adventure it was. It was more stressful than what we wanted to admit at the time. And one of the things that bit the dust was my cooking.  

But I have to come back to the cooking bit. Just the other day my new neighbour, who is a retired mining engineer, gave me about five or six different chillies [13 in all]. That night at round 23:00 I put on my apron and cut it in very fine pieces; all different shades of green with the whiteish pips and off-green of the insides. First of all, I had to sharpen my knife; I took a sharpening stone from my workshop and kept in the kitchen. Then the sharpening process began. First you wet the blade, then you wet the stone before can sharpen it. It was a kind of meditation to swipe the blade very rhythmically back and forth, back and forth. 50x. Now it is very sharp; the cuts are crisp and clean. When it slices through the flesh of the chillies, you feel it in the handle. There is no resistance from the chillies. Clean cuts. Wash the stone, put it away and use the knife.

Sterilize the bottles and take a teaspoon and put the sliced chillies inside the glass bottles. Pour pure olive oil on top to cover the flesh. Let it stand for an hour or two before screwing on the lid. I store it in the fridge and use straight from the fridge onto my plate.

And I took a small bottle as a present to my neighbour. He told me that he always cooks his chillies first before he bottles it. He was excited to try mine. I never cook the chillies; always the cold fresh chillies, sliced and stored in pure virgin olive oil. After a couple of days, even the olive oil gets infused with the chillies.

How to eat it? Very carefully. With a glass of cold milk close by. Don’t touch your lips or eyes after slicing it – you will regret it.

You will ask me what has this got to do with the ox tongue? Probably nothing – but wait, I will write something very special about the ox tongue. I got side tracked by the chillies and my knife and how to sharpen it. And how to preserve finely cut chillies in pure virgin oil. What the heck!! It is all about cooking – relax and enjoy it.

Now I am off to the kitchen to attend to the ox tongue.

Please write me a letter: neelscoertse@wirelessza.co.za

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THE NEW YEAR 2022 AND WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING SINCE MY LAST POST?

 Wild olive  tree [olea africana] in my previous home in Morningside Sandton

You may ask me what have I been doing with myself? Well, a lot of things happened in the meantime. All of a sudden I realised that I am not the world's greatest blogger! I assure you that a lot of things happened. 

The photograph of this wild olive tree [olea africana] is standing in the garden of my previous home in Morningside, Sandton. My wife planted it many years ago. This is a composite of the original image I took.

We sold the property after living there for almost 41 years - yes, we built it and now we are no longer living there. We are now living  in a home in Rivonia, Gauteng just about 6 kilometers from the previous property.

And we are so happy in this house - it is an abundant blessing. 

Our son is working in Qatar and of course he wanted to know what we were doing - you should remember that, that property was the only home that he knew although he was born in Parkhurst, Johannesburg.

I made a short video explaining to him what was happening to our garden. We moved from a rather big piece of land to a very small piece - now we are learning brand new gardening methods because it is container gardening. And I tackled the containers we had and painted it in preparation to move to the Rivonia. Please look at my video - the narrative is in Afrikaans our mother tongue.

The first pots I am pointing out were made by my paternal grandfather and his eldest son, Uncle Johannes. 

The four brown clay pots I got from friends who are sadly no longer with us - they passed long ago. The story behind these pots are that the indigenous people of the northern parts of South Africa made it. The ones in my video were relatively recently made. But another photographer friend who also did spelunking found similar pots deep down in the grottos and the indications are these were a couple of hundred years old. What I particularly like about this story is that the original markings on my pots are exactly the same as those deep deep down under the earth and a couple of hundred years old!! 

This is all for now - I will later tell you more about the move. 

I trust that you will be blessed during 2022.

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