Laugh a little at least.

I had quite a lot of language problems when working in the UK as lots of little words came to mind, some of which I can`t put on this page.

It`s terrible when you get old as most youngsters are into cell phones and         technology. Their favorite saying is ( did you plug your brain cell in last night) 🙂

I had a tooth pulled a couple of weeks ago, now I have to see a Maxillo facial surgeon to have the hole plugged that goes from mouth to nose. It was quite a shock when washing my mouth out and suddenly having a waterfall from your nose. Does anyone have any info on this problem. The Dentist took X-rays so I think I should have been referred to the Maxillo guy first as now he wont touch it for 6 weeks. All extra money in someone else`s pocket 🙂

This was no laughing matter but all the fynbos is growing very well now. At least most people have got rid of the large pines but it`s making the place look very strange and empty.

Read Full Post »

Our Little Town. Part Two.

The first part showed the Whales, seals, Bats and a few beaches. This part is mainly the historical bits of town.

This is the Old Rectory when there was a lot of camping due to it being very close to the sea. It is privately owned now and in bad repair, most has been taken over by vagrants.

Across the road is the wood shed which is also in bad repair. Most of the wood used for window frames have been used for firewood.

In the foreground is the Wood shed and the Rectory is in the trees now.

This was an Anchor from one of the first boats to bring in wood.

When I first came here there used to be a Wagon complete. The problem was that the municipality did not consider this area as Historic so it has been used for firewood and scrap by vagrants.

The town is usually quiet unless we have a Biker funeral or the Plett Rage

We do get a few surprises when getting up in the morning but that just life.  🙂

Main Beach is on the far left, the Beacon Isle hotel is on the left of the beach.

This is one of the landing spots on the Main Beach the hotel is then on the right.

If you like Mushrooms, DON`T pick these.

These seem OK, BUT always check before cooking.

Ill finish off with a visitor to the flower garden, this frog is so small it doesnt even bend the flower stem. End of Part Two……………..

 

 

Read Full Post »

Our little Town. Part One

 

Plettenberg Bay is not what I would call a bustling seaside resort and the beaches are not very interesting. But, we do have plenty of sand and sun though. We have a Whale watching company here on the Main Beach.

I was lucky getting free trips on this boat and be able to take such photos close up. I have taken several hundred of these and it was exhilarating to be so close when the Whales breached. Most of the year you can see the Dolphins and Cape Fur Seals in a colony near Robberg.

Sunset at  Robberg

This was also taken from the boat when approaching Robberg Peninsular.

We have had a few fires around that area lately.

Both these Bats were photographed in the garden with flash.

We bow out to part one and a Sunrise over the Bay………………..

Read Full Post »

That`s Life around here.

Tonight was a little more eventful than just watching DSTV. My wife as not feeling like very much to eat and fancied a boiled egg sandwich, so I offered to make it. I put the egg on to boil but put the stove onto 6 so as to get the water to boil, I then usually bring it down to 2 and let it simmer. As usual I got involved on my computer and was examining some finds from metal detecting with the digital microscope. This went on for a while and I was absorbed with focusing and taking snap shots. There was then an enormous explosion in the direction of the kitchen which sounded like a 12 bore shot gun. The first though from my wife was that I had been experimenting with something and got it wrong. I went into the kitchen and was horrified by the devastation. I had forgotten the egg boiling on full heat and it had exploded. The egg and it`s shell covered half of the kitchen and was stuck on all the cupboards, ceiling, toaster, microwave and everything else on the working surfaces. My wife said that maybe the chicken laid an egg with a bullet in it. The whole kitchen and dining room smelled like a chicken full of eggs had exploded in a ball of flames. Has anyone else had this problem, except if you try to microwave them 🙂

I`m still waiting to find another frog sitting in my dahlias.

At least my veggy garden is still producing, I feel sorry for anyone buying at our local supermarket when it`s so easy to grow fresh.

This seems a bit drastic, my wife only asked me to try to stop smoking 🙂

 

At least the Sunrise is different every morning and changes as it unfolds.

I was amazed to find out that not only was the Cat catching mice but the frogs also like them. This is a bull frog from the dam and they well outnumber the cats.

Even the Mantis are eating up the gecko`s.

Also when in the local fast food center be very careful where you stand because most cell phones have cameras 🙂

 

 

Read Full Post »

A Selection of Old and New.

Well after trying to get some of these Sea Beans to sprout I have taken a drastic method. On the large one that I soaked for a couple of weeks and then planted, but didn`t sprout, I filed it on the join until I found what looks like a joining of the two halves.

Have you ever used Firefox by Mozilla, I found it much better than the IE that comes with Windows. I do however have a problem with Windows Explorer shutting down now and then.

I`m up early again as it`s mushroom time, these mushrooms are Pine Rings and are very flavorsome. I like them as a snack, lightly cooked in a bit of butter and served on a piece of toast.

Unlike this little frog the only ones that I have seen in the flowers have been pure white. The reason I was unable to photograph it was that I had the wrong glasses on and thinking it was a bug I shook it off.

Read Full Post »

Looking Local 506.

I haven`t written a blog for some time so this is a bit long.

At least the sunrises are still the same and are reliable. I do wonder about the old Sheepherders rhyme of `Red in the morning shepherds warning` as most mornings they appear red at some stage as do the sunsets 🙂

Sunrise 26/04/2016

 

Due to the bad state of the veggies in the supermarkets, plus their prices, have made me enlarge the veggy garden. I decided that if you can`t eat it don`t waste time watering it. fresh veg from even a small garden like mine supplies us with most of our needs. With the amount of sunshine we get some veggies even grow in the winter. I found some purple climbing beans which so far have been grown in pots on bamboo frames and seem to grow all year round. While they are cooking they change from purple to green, so they look like bush beans. I usually grow Bush beans as they are very prolific with their yield. Along with Swiss Chard,Carrots, Leeks, Turnips and Sweet Potatoes, all of which grow very well in my garden we just have to get potatoes or pasta. We have all the herbs growing together so there is no shortage of fresh herbs. Basil and many of the leafy herbs grow nicely in small pots in the kitchen window box, so they are easy to get when cooking.

I have a bread maker and found that home made bread is much tastier than shop bought. For us I just make a small loaf but sometimes it goes in a day. Everyone seems to prefer the French bread because it uses less sugar. After the second rise I take the paddles out so when it`s baked there are just two 6mmholes in the bottom. If the paddle are left in they either ruin the loaf when you try to remove it or they stay in the loaf and have to be taken out when you cut it. An experiment to make Rye bread that was lighter, I mixed Rye flour with white bread flower.

 

We still have frogs on the dahlias and veggies, maybe it`s because we don`t use any pesticides. It`s not that we tried to grow everything organic but all our compost we get from my daughters farm, even the pine needles for mulch.

At the farm I noticed that even the frogs were competing against the cats for fresh food. the noise from the Dams is very loud at night, at first I thought it was Wild Ducks 🙂

 

Read Full Post »

The Same Again.

See previous blog for pictures. This is text only.

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-3860″ src=”https://promethios.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/cannon-top-2.jpg&#8221; alt=”cannon top (2)” width=”500″ height=”375″ />

This week I managed to try out my working cannons at the farm. This turned out to be very disappointing.I tried with the smallest one first but did not bring the lead balls to fit in the barrel. I primed the barrel with gunpowder after fitting the fuse, these I got from a firework. I then forced a piece of paper in after it to seal the explosion.Thinking this would be a good test I lit the fuse and stood back waiting for the bang.It was the most disappointing sound ever, it sounded like a damp squib.It was more of a whistle than a bang.It just goes to prove that I should have taken all my equipment as it was not sealed properly.The video that I took was very long but the firing was very short, maybe 3 seconds so I will have to edit it when i find the program.

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-3861″ src=”https://promethios.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/cannon-top-1.jpg&#8221; alt=”cannon top (1)” width=”375″ height=”496″ />

On coming home I found that we had, had a visiting rat that likes Bananas.We have had a few field mice before but this was a quite large grey Rat so we have had to put some rat bait under the fridges and washing machine.I think maybe I scared itout of the open door last night as there was no sign of it this morning.

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-3862″ src=”https://promethios.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/rat-banana.jpg&#8221; alt=”rat banana” width=”500″ height=”591″ />

I think I will finish with a usual sunrise.

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-3685″ src=”https://promethios.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/dscf0818.jpg&#8221; alt=”DSCF0818″ width=”500″ height=”375″ />

And a view of the Bay….

<img class=”alignnone size-full wp-image-3686″ src=”https://promethios.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/bay-tele-rain.jpg&#8221; alt=”bay tele rain” width=”550″ height=”413″ />

&nbsp;

Read Full Post »

A time with Alice.

I found this picture of `Alice` when she was quite small.  She had delivered her fist litter by now and become a pet.

I had to build many different houses for her in the next few years. When she was first pregnant we thought that it was because she was a Potbellied Pig and was just developing. as she was so small and didn`t look old enough to have young. The problem is that she came from the Wolf Sanctuary and there are a lot of boars of all sizes walking free.

When I built a house next to my stoop she used to come every morning about 6 o`clock for breakfast. She would rattle the gate until I came outside. After breakfast it was a complete bushing all over her body, it certainly made the fir shine and it calmed her down when she was in Estrus. She would then walk with me round the small holding boundry like a dog, except I never tried a lead. She grew to be a huge pig but was always active. As you can see in number 4 she grew a long mane during the winter, which she didn`t mind me holding her back with when we had problems.If strangers came onto the property she would chase them barking like a dog, but would always come back when I whistled.Going from the gate to the house which was over 250 meters she could keep up with my car doing at least 30 km/h.

It was Alice`s morning ritual that got me into photographing the sunrise every day.

I`ve heard of a Dog in the manger but this looks like a goat.

Read Full Post »

Baviaanskloof for the Day.

Here is a map and some of the trails for 4X4 drivers and if you want to stay in a cave, there is accommodation. There is something rather appealing, living in a cave, maybe it`s like going back in time to the Stone Age 🙂

The 4X4 trail from the top of the Kloof.

For accommodation there are caves that have been converted to B&B`s.

The metal detecting got mostly military bullets from pre 1994, a couple of more recent ones were found so maybe the military still use this place for training although I never saw any.

The only bullet head that was found was only the size on the nail of my little finger and was a ricochet.

These are the rest of the military finds. The next sites will have to be from the Boer war if we can detect there. I find that now I am doing more geocaching because my youngest Daughter is more into that than metal detecting. the two actually go well together but i put my finds into a cache for those who don`t detect.

Read Full Post »

It`s just a 2 minute walk! :-)

i will start off with last nights sunset which was not as colorful as most of them, but it`s that time of the year.

We have had a lot of Paragliders around just lately so I took a walk up a little road nearby and found the reason, it`s the launching site.

I also found a place to take a uninterrupted view of the next sunset.

Also behind the trees there is a nice rock formation that will be great for Geocaching.

Read Full Post »