Vegetable And Herb Garden

There is nothing more exciting than going to our vegetable to fetch some herbs or vegetables when we are cooking, or when I see flowers growing on the plants or the seedlings are popping out of the sand. Most days when I water the plants I look earnestly at the plants hoping to see new buds and growth and when I do.. David has to come and look and share in the excitement of something new happening in the vegetable garden.

Our strawberries are busy "strawberrying" at the moment and I can not wait until they are ripe and ready to pick. Out beans have started flowering and our watermelon seeds are growing - SO much excitement!!!

Apart from all the excitement, I also get deeply distressed when I go outside and a caterpillar has decided to eat ALL of our lettuce and there is something eating our cauliflower.... whatever it is needs to be stopped.

 

While we were in Hermanus in the beginning of October I bought a garden gnome to protect the plants from bugs that eat them... but alas he is failing at his task. I think he's been too busy at night trying to plan his escape plan, which is why we need to chain him up. Garden gnomes are tricky and must be chained and blocked off.. this is a story for another blog post. 

I'm super excited to try some other vegetables like green peppers, carrots, potato's and sweet potatoes next!

xKx

Our Swing

On the 27th of April 2013 David and I decided to make a tyre swing and hang it up somewhere in Hout Bay. We got a tyre, some rope and found a pretty epic place with really nice trees to tie the swing in it.

 

 

After we had finished hanging the swing we wondered how long it would last, if it would break or if someone would steal it. Yesterday we took a drive past where we hung swing and it was still hanging there. Someone had even fixed the rope where it had broken.

 

So... we did what anyone else would do and swung on the swing...

 

 

We've decided to make a second swing and tie it up in a tree next to the one we used so that two people can swing at the same time.

 

I think this is a really cool random act of kindness that brings joy to the children in our community.

 

xKx

 

 



When The Lesson Is Wait

I kind of feel like I'm in a season of wait at the moment... I read this today and thought I would share it. "When the lesson is wait by Tammy Strait" http://www.graceuncommon.com/lesson-wait/

xKx

Love your neighbour as yourself...

If I were to choose one bible verse as the one to live your life by it would be Mark 12:30 - 31 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The is this" "love your neighbour as yourself." There is no greater commandment than this."  (so it's two.. but who's counting)

I think that these two verses are pretty fundamental in how you treat people, especially the second one. We live in a world where people base their relationships on things they "like" about someone. As soon as this person does something that they don't like they often go cold towards the person.

I've often heard people say, "argggh! I don't like so and so, they annoy me", or "when so and so speaks to me I get so irritated and they ruin my whole day, I don't like them"  This got me thinking about how God calls us to love everyone, even our enemy. This leaves me with the question of how do we show love, real love, the kind of love that God calls us to give when we say this about people who irritate us?

A few years ago there was someone who really rubbed me the wrong way, I would get really frustrated whenever they opened their mouth and would always try to leave the room as soon as they entered. Then I started praying about this and the person and God was like, "Go and spend time with them" I was like - "What?!". Randomly they invited themselves to something I was going to and we ended up spending the afternoon together. This then became a weekly thing and now we're pretty good friends.

My point... to learn how to love someone you don't really like, like Jesus loves them you need to spend time with them and get to know them. You need to look past the "aarg! you are so annoying " and see the real person behind whatever it is that annoys you about that person.

I also think it's also important to realise that we can also be pretty annoying and Jesus looks past that and sees the real you and loves us. I think this should challenge us to love like that as well...

xKx

David's Birthday Celebrations

On Wednesday it was David's birthday. We celebrated with a braai with all our friends, his family and cake on the Wednesday night.  It was a really nice evening with a lot of laughter, loud talking and good food.

On Thursday evening we went to The Clay Café in Hout Bay for supper and to get creative. They normally close at 5pm, but on a Thursday evening they have a pizza and wine evening. They say they close at 9pm, but they don't really shoo you  out if you are still painting. They pretty much let you finish what you're creating before closing.

 

The way it works is that you arrive and then you choose what you want to paint.

 

 I chose a cow milk jug - when you pour the milk out it's nose, and Dave chose a normal jug.

 

 

 

And then the fun began as we painted our masterpieces, ate some yummy pizza's and drank some wine.

 

 

 Once you're finished painting you get given a number to out under your masterpiece  and you leave it there.  Once they have fired it in the over, they'll contact you and you can go and collect it. It should take about three weeks until we get to go and fetch our creations.

 

It was  a really fun evening - I want to go "all the time" after last night, but that could be a bit pricey.

 

xKx 

Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm and Babylonstoren

Last week Monday I went to Babylonstoren with Mel and a few other people from Church - IT WAS AMAZING! I told Dave that we had to go there when we went to the crocodile place two days later, which he obviously agreed to after I told him about the garden tour and everything I saw and learnt.

On Wednesday, Dave and I headed of to Le Bonheur Crocodile Farm  to visit the crocodiles and have a cheese picnic. The crocodile part was pretty epic. Our guide was funny and made children and adults feel comfortable and included. A top 10 moment was getting to hold a crocodile.

We learnt some interesting facts about crocodiles, such as they have yellow mouths, no tongue, only eat when it's hot, store all their food in their tails and they never stop growing.

We also saw an alligator - they have red moths and tongues and their teeth are inside their mouth, unlike crocodiles.

...And then there was the poor lumpy who was born without a tail. A crocodile can't swim without their tail, so they gave her a small pen to herself with a very shallow pool.

After visiting the crocodiles and our picnic we headed to Babylonstoren for tea and to walk around in the garden. We stopped for a while and rolled around in the chamomile grass... the perfect place for an afternoon nap.

xKx

Wine Tasting At Hout Bay Vineyards

On Saturday Hout Bay Vineyards  was open to the public for wine tasting and sales. They generally only open the last weekend of May and November, but this year they decided to do an additional tasting because it was the seafood festival this past weekend in Hout Bay. Dave and I decided to try them out. I've often seen them advertising on the side of the road and thought, I would like to try them out. This weekend was the weekend to try it out.

They had five wines available for tasting for R30. We only had time to taste three wines, their Bubbly, Rosé and Merlot which where really good, so good in fact that we bought a bottle of their Rosé and Merlot. The vineyard is family owned by a really awesome family. Peter, Kathy and their son were super friendly, answered all our questions and bent the rules and let us only buy a bottle of the two wines we wanted. They generally sell them by the case, but  they let a few people buy just a bottle or two. What added to an even more awesome experience on Saturday was their two puppies who were uber playful and friends and the relaxed setting high up in the valley.

I just read on their website, http://houtbayvineyards.co.za/index.html that people can picnic there... I think when they're open in November, David and I must gather some friends, pack a picnic and enjoy a lunch time picnic up there while we do some wine tasting.

xKx