It’s been a while since I last posted, our phone cables were stolen and most of our neighbourhood was without phones lines and internet for almost a month. I am very grateful to have it back now and wanted to share a little of what we’ve been up to. September is my birthday month and Jenna gave me these exquisite Delphiniums as a gift. I loved having hem greeting me each time I walked into the lounge.
Another birthday gift, a subscription, Grow to Eat, this one from my hubby, such a wonderful magazine!!
Now that winter is officially over, our chickens have finished their moulting and are back to laying profusely. I always find it a little strange how, as soon as the weather begins to cool, they start to moult…
Many months ago, a female Praying Mantis appeared in the entrance hall of our home and layed a chrysalis (also called a ootheca, I had no idea!) right by the front door. I had given up hope of them ever hatching as months and months had passed and then suddenly there were hundreds.
The Vaal Dam is almost empty, there is no rain in sight and water restrictions have been imposed. I need to find a way to save our garden and veggie patch. I’ve started placing these water bottles near the base of our larger plants. Small holes are made at the base of the bottle so that the water can slowly leak out, almost like drip irrigation. An idea from the magazine above. It’s working exceptionally well so far! If you have any other ideas, please do let me know in the comments.
Of course, I had to include a photo of Lou. I find him extremely photogenic and adore him!! He always seems so wise 🙂
Our Bougainvillea seems to love the hot, dry weather, its blooms are incredibly vivid this year.
Thanks so much for reading our story and say hi in the comments if you have some time 🙂
I’m off to plant a few more mini reservoirs out in the garden.
Stolen? Really? Good luck with your garden. There is always enough water in our parts of the world. I try to be grateful when the rain doesn’t stop. All the best. Regula
Hi Regula,
Yes, they stole cables from a manhole in town and 3 suburbs were without phone lines and internet for almost a month while they were being repaired. This is a regular occurrence here in South Africa, the cable has copper wire inside and they sell this to whoever is prepared to pay for it. Really sad!!! How wonderful you have plenty of water!
Thanks for popping by 🙂
Good to have you back. Lovely pictures. It is unfortunate that some people will steal almost anything.
It has been a monsoon summer here in the northern US. Our ground is pretty saturated and now the east coast is facing a hurricane. Some of us have too much and others not enough. Ah that’s mother Nature.
Glad your back and I look forward to more pictures. Hugs!
Thanks so much Barbara!How wonderful to have saturated ground. Thanks so much for visiting here 🙂
Funny how far we’ve come with technology, but we get hung up on the simple fact that the copper that makes it work is worth stealing if you’re poor enough. Progress and yet no social progress. I remember about 40 years ago living in a bargain priced apartment building in a big US city. Someone stole the copper water pipes one day. Fortunately, they replaced them relatively quickly, Unfortunately, they were stolen again, almost immediately. I must say, this is the first time I’ve heard of this dilemma in a blog post, but it is part of what makes reading your blog interesting. I’m always curious about how people around the world live. The ootheca is fascinating; I certainly wouldn’t have known what it was. Your garden watering system seems like simplicity itself. It reminded me of a clay version I read about, called ollas (Permaculture Research Institute has a post about them). I should work on this idea myself next summer. Love Lou! So handsome. Good luck with your garden, which is always so cheering to us up north as winter sets in.
Hi Cath,
Thanks for your message 🙂 There is a lot of cable theft here, so much so that now they are phasing out copper cables and putting down fibre cable that will be buried under our tar roads. Copper pipes are also stolen here and they are replaced with plastic. I was also wondering about the chrysalis for the Pray Mantis and then I saw that is was called an Ootheca, I thought, how cool! Thanks for the mention about the ollas, I will definitely look that up!
🙂
How nice to hear from you. I’m not sure my family would cope with no internet for a month, although I am sure it would be good for them (and me). I love the photo of the hatched praying mantis. Perhaps you could knit one!
Hi Ginny 🙂
It was pretty rough, being offline, especially for our boys because they like to game occasionally but they actually got used to not having the internet and it was great!
Good to hear your “voice” again. Belated Happy Birthday wishes. The delphiniums are beautiful – what a lovely blue.
My laptop was gone two weeks for repairs and I sorely missed my social contacts and access to the public library system for reserving books, both paper copy and ebooks. I would have been a real mess without the internet for a month.
Hope the drought lifts soon for you. The plastic drip bottles are a good way to go. We have used large plastic buckets for bigger plants with good results many years ago during a drought here in Ohio. The next spring I bought many drought-tolerant plants at a rock garden society meeting. The flats were taken from the van and set along our steep drive till we could get them planted. Then the rains finally came and I watched my plants float down the drive in the downpours. When you try to outsmart Mother Nature she can be perverse in her retaliation.
Hi Barbara,
Thank you so much for my birthday wishes and for visiting here 🙂
I would have missed my laptop too. Before our cable loss I was using a tower pc and when I had to hotspot wifi using my phone, I started using a laptop, I’ve never really liked laptops but now I’m sold, I haven’t gone back to my tower and just love using my Mac.
I hope our drought lifts soon too, I just can’t bare watching my garden slowly fade… It’s so sad that you had to watch your plants wash away!!
Lovely that your rains returned.
ALWAYS a joy to read your news, whether coping with life’s challenges or appreciating its beauties. My current home is in Central Texas, which suffered severe drought 5 years ago, but this year we enjoyed abundant spring rains, so the lakes and dams are full again. We now collect all the rainwater we can in our rain barrel and plastic containers. One local man lives TOTALLY off rainwater collection in a system he created, even filtering it for drinking! Today I’m in Southern California to attend my 50th high school reunion and they are in SEVERE drought, in which terribly destructive wildfires can displace and destroy hundreds, even thousands, at a time.
Blessings abundantly to you and your family!
Well Linda, I was hoping your last post would be the first of many! Alas, it’s been nearly two months. Heavy sigh.
But hoping your muse is with you and you are busy designing your knit projects. Plus I know this time of year is busy with ordering seeds for your bounty in months to come.
Whenever you return and share, I and your other followers, will be happy for you,
Hi Cynthia,
Thank you for your message, and thanks for hanging in there, I know my posts have been sporadic. It has been such a crazy year but I will be posting more often now 🙂
Have a lovely Christmas
xx
Hi. I just dropped by from Ravelry. I was looking for a mug cozy and found yours then realized that I had seen your blog on Ginny’s Yarn Along. I find it crazy that the chickens molt as soon as it gets cold. Two weeks ago it was in the negatives here in Colorado and I have two chickens that were molting. But one lady has started laying again and I”m happy about that. Thanks again for the pattern.