And here we are

The dream of living on our little piece (peace??) of land eventually realised. From offer to purchase to registered owners took, almost to the day, a full year. But we somehow managed to convince the powers that be that two self employed entrepreneurs will be responsible land owners.

I could never have guessed that throwing two adults in the midst of a neglected property in the heart of mink and manure country could result in such a kaleidoscope of emotional experiences. It has opened rusted emotional doors, send us way back to childhood dreams and horrors, through psychedelic adult memories right back to the reality of flooded fences and washed away roads. We have learned about ourselves and each other through anger and tears but we have also studied our local African bullfrogs in wonder, delighted in the fascination of our children with the crabs down at the dam and stared in unbelieve as the waters from our local little stream rose to a power full river racing through the bottom of our property.

Despite the dream of becoming more sustainable and building a veggie patch and chicken coop to proof the commitment, we have not had much success in any of these endeavours. I am starting to dread full colour pictures of fat round organic veggies and promises of a greener future – my tomatoes started with enthusiasm and then turned white and rotted on the stem. The only joy I had from my beautiful pumpkin flowers was the flower dolmades that was lovingly made by Nana when she came to visit from Crete (a whole new story), then the leaves all turned brown and died. Okra has provided some confidence, we have had two good Cretan meals from that hardy little plant and the brinjals have also kept hunger from the door. Month-end the business will be moving from our little country flat to a very corporate office park and the two chickens that currently entertain us there will be relocated home – their little spot has been ready and waiting for about six weeks.

We have truly settled in here now, our candles are on standby to help us cope with all the electrical outages, we have come to enjoy the shocking experience accompanying the opening of taps when you are in the shower and the call of the peacocks don’t wake us at night anymore. John has turned into a DYI guru that can fix electrical fences, build outbuildings and even understand the mysteries of washing dishes.

We are slowly building a fun loving and emotionally safe future.

Let's party

It was my birthday recently.......and how do i know I am a year older? I tell you what, it happens when you plan an evening of raucous sex and good food and instead of fun, you fall asleep by 8:30, only to wake up in the middle of the night with your mind racing on all the business decisions that needs to be made.

What has happened to me?

Anyway the party we had over the weekend was a lot of fun, even it was a sweltering hot summers day! It was the first party that I have ever hosted for myself and it was at our own little home. I rented some tables, chairs, cutlery and crockery with caribbean umbrellas, all set up in the bottom of our garden/ read untended grassland. John organised greek lamb on the spit with roast potatoes, fresh greek salad and crispy bread rolls. For table decorations I combined greek imagery with fresh food colours and came up with my own eclectic creation. The day was lovely!

Caribbean colours in the highveld

My friends, some of whom I have known all my life

when I think Greek food, I think lemons and brinjals

Our Chef! Love you John, you are just the best

Weekends are just the best

Because then we can get to do all the things we love, like

Sleeping on our couch

Or riding our beautiful baby horse
Visvinger (aka Fishfinger)

And paddling in our lovely dam

with Puppies joining in on all the fun in the sun escapades

And our little rescue horse watching everything from a safe distance

All in all, I would say....most agreeable! Yes, definately, most agreeable

Chaos reigns and minds are lost

The more I think I hate routine and too much order, the more I learn that without it I am lost. The chaos of the move and renovations have gone to my head and I find myself at a loss for the most basic things. Like the keys, and does this house have keys......new ones, old ones, changed locks and not to forget about all the keypads and pin numbers. Good heavens, did you say you gave me a little booklet with the details on how to change the code?? are you insane? does this mean that I am responsible for finding it, oh yes, I do remember, I saw the electrical compliance certificate just the other day. It was lying here somewhere....what do you mean you cannot find the invoice for the transfer duties to be paid yesterday, it was right here, I think......aaahh there is that dentist's number I have been looking for, oh yes, you are waiting for the booklet on how to change the keypad numbers.......

Do you like how we have changed the single garage into a family room?

we broke that door out that you can see just right of the chair and made it into a big square opening through to the kitchen and the lounge area.

The dust left by grinding the bricks were unbelieveable

The best part was going with John to the tile place to select our tiles for this room. I know it was just a couple of tiles but just doing that together for our house made me feel incredibly happy and belonging to a family again. It truly is the little things in life that brings the most gratification and happiness.

Still a bit of work to be done to finish it all off but I do believe it will be a really nice room once it is all done and it has added a lot of living space to our home. The tiles we selected are called Provence Pewter - a mixture of pewter greys, greens and sandstone type colours.

I think we should paint that solid long wall a darkish pewter colour and then have a mosaic of interesting photos/frames in a diamond type shape in the centre. Just to break that wall up a bit.....

And in stead of the four car garage and third bedroom, we settled on carport next to lounge. No sense in adding a garage bigger than the cottage itself. More so since we are thinking about building a family home at a later stage

I am so glad this mess is nearly done so I can enjoy my little country mouse house

Head Space

Owning a little property like the one just bought has been a dream of mine for a very long time. But before that, it was a dream shared. Shared in a previous unity, a forgotten future. Now that I have infected John with my dream and we are on the cusp of changing lifestyles and building a future, I find myself sad and slightly forlorn.

I dont want the past back, no
I want the future as it is dreamt
I just feel
bereaved

Walking the land

So the big nasty conference was a roaring success.

The nails looked smashing..doll, the outfits were just devine, and we even managed to do a LOT of good business.

Or at least open those doors to the you know who in the mining industry. We do understand though that the hard work starts now, as we need to sign those deals and get the business into MTS to really make sure the conference worked for us as it was supposed to. We had our very first meeting this week past and hopefully we will be able to follow up on the rest early this coming week.

And then, believe it or not, but the property eventually came through. Yes, we have a move in date of this coming Saturday, the 5th of June. I hope, if we can get the fence repaired and the gate motor that got stolen re-installed so we can at least be safe in our new abode. I took myself and the doggies for a walk there today and this is what we saw

Our dam at the bottom of the property, where I saw some Egyptian Geese the other day

The Stables, OMG - did I mention that there were stables?

And yes, I know, but have some imagination - this is a menage!

The paddocks and lunge ring at the bottom of the property, with Nikita running across this vast expanse of land, her tongue dragging on the grass

My new kitchen and lounge.... I know, lots of work here

Maybe Just Maybe

We are in the market to purchase another property. Now I know that we have not even taken ownership of the land we bought last year.

I am seriously excited about the new prospect.....see it is an equestrian property in the heart of horseland. There is very little on it. Just an old cottage and a huge garden. If we take it, it will be a fixer upper and a serious project for us.

I have no idea what we will do about the other land in the estate. Suppose it remains a good investment

Halfway through winter and still running

June has been a really hectic month and I am still trying to slow down, consolidate and process all that has happened in thirty short days. And short these days were, being in the middle of winter and freezing cold. But this is just how it is for me, if I do not pack my winters full of goodie bags, I get depressed and then it is a mission to get me from under the duvet. But not this June, Oh no, our month started with a wonderful weekend of offroad fun, for which I rented a little trailer and took E and myself off to join our offroad club in a weekend of camping at the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary.

The convoy of about six vehicles travelled together to Swaziland and just before lunch time we went through one of the lessor known border posts.
The scenary at the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary where we stayed were absolutely magnificent and I managed to capture this nostalgic scene at the local weir.
It was a lot of fun staying in our little tent and I was very proud of the way in which E managed to help me around the camp. Setting up the tent, helping mom around the camp site and his personal favourite - farting as loud and as much as possible in the clear mountain air.
The Nyalas were really tame and provided us with hours of entertainment. That is if they did not manage to steal everything edible available at your camp.

Some boulder bashing on top of a mountain, believe it or not, but thanks to some good guidance and nerves of steel, we all made it through here without a scratch to any of the vehicles.
After that rather tight squeeze I needed some relieve and this I must say, was the best wee view in the world ;-)
Followed by a lovely picnic and a well deserved rest on top of the mountain

We visited Swazi Candles the next day and I was amazed at the skill of the artists who, seemingly without effort, created the most the beautiful candles I have ever seen. This gentleman made an elephant candle in about 10 or so minutes whilst E and me stood watching him. Needless to say, I spend a fortune right there in gifts and little things for my home.
As I came back from my Swazi trip, John and I renewed our discussions around property, our different needs and how we could possibly accommodate a city sleeker and country bumpkin in one house. This resulted in some serious thinking and the purchase of a stand where we plan to build a city home in a country estate, just a couple of km's north of E's school.

The next weekend I was off to Porterville to share experiences with beautiful women in a function which was co sponsored by Jacobs Quest and the Diva Africa Programme. I felt privileged to be invited as a speaker at the gala dinner and got to dance the night away with all the lovely local ladies.
And just to top it all off, I bought myself a lovely new digital camera with all the functionality I have been drooling about for years but could never quite muster the courage to splash out on. Now I just need to figure out how to download the photos from the camera to my computer and we should be ready for some serious playing and sharing ;-)