The ancient vlei flows on, out to the sea; burgeoning with tiny fish which are eaten by pied kingfishers, reed beds humming and burbling with egrets, herons and ibises, the sky overhead full of avian traffic; cormorants, spur winged geese and hunting raptors, the shrubs filled with Cape weavers and bulbuls.
The nesting boxes under the eaves at the back of the house hold nests for 2 pairs of Cape sparrows which have early morning arguments on the pergola.
A pair of Karoo scrub robins built their nest in a painter’s tray on the highest rack in Nick’s workshop. He had to delay a major joinery project while the mother robin sat on her eggs up above and protested at any noise for several weeks. 20th November 2 very tiny Karoo scrub robins ventured out into the painter’s tray for 2 weeks of fledging, according to Robert’s. They moved to the floor where they took shelter under one of Nick’s work benches for 13 days and ate insects brought by their devoted parents.
One evening whilst sitting near the water in the last rays of the Sun, I saw a pair of Egyptian Geese make their way along the edge of the reeds, 5 goslings in tow.
Spur winged geese and egrets flew past and a pair of purple herons, then a rock kestrel hovered just above the reeds and out sprang a fish eagle, flying upwards so that his white socks could be clearly seen.
We spend most early mornings tending to the garden; watering, mulching and planting. Nick’s incredible irrigation systems runs in circuits to all the trees, the entire garden and the vegetable garden. The Night mice nibble holes in the flexible tubing so water patrols have to be done. Porcupines uproot tomato plants and snails eat baby broccoli, artichokes and green beans. Large bright green grasshoppers trim the spinach leaves neatly from the top down.
Despite the depredations our garden provides tomatoes, spinach, coriander, celery, lettuce, thyme and rosemary. The oak barrels have proven to be the best way to grow tomatoes, celery and mixed lettuces and herbs like sweet basil and parsley. The loveliest tomatoes are the self set ones which redeem those taken out by the porcupine.
As the sun brings heat to the day we have breakfast and talk about how our time might be spent. Quite often the verandah has to be cleared of Pixel’s collection of knotted ropes, bones, bird wings, bird heads, bird legs, sheep skulls, desiccated fish skins, fish heads and tails and the back ends of unfortunate mice left by Tiger-Lily; still hunting at nearly 14.
All the windows might even be cleaned in the hope of attracting rain, or on an especially lovely day, we could load the water proof sail bags, a picnic and Pixel into Vlei Rat and sail off up the vlei in search of a large shady Rock Fig with a comfortable rock and a view.
After the Scrub Robin occupation of the workshop Nick’s major joinery project finally produced a beautiful pair of matching tables for Pia. He sliced up two damaged old Oregon pine doors and found yellow wood and meranti in his timber collection to make them.
Christmas 2008 turned out to be a 13 day celebration, which took the rest of January to recover from!
On Christmas Day Oom Theunis and Lena arrived all smiles, followed by Tom and Tess with humus, goat’s milk cheese, avocado dip, biscuits, excellent red wine, chocolate, Turkish delight and Bottie from Bot River; a frightening mixture of Staffordshire terrier and at least 17 other kinds of terrier. But he adores Pixel so their day was set to be good.
Brian came from over the vlei with his son Bruce and his gorgeous Korean girl friend from Hawaii and champagne, white wine, Christmas pudding and brandy butter.
And a Crayfish for each of us caught by Bruce on his way up, which served as a perfect first course with home made mayonnaise.
The diligent Dover stove baked a ham in mielie meal overnight and was relit on Christmas morning to pot roast a chicken in orange juice and thyme while the ham was glazed with cloves and honey and lemon juice under the gas gorilla.
Nick made his famous roast potatoes and I made creamed home grown spinach and Mc Cain’s green peas! At some point the Christmas pudding was anointed with 3 year old pot still brandy and set on fire.
This quite decadent feast of excellent food, the champagne, white wine, red wine and for the sturdy amongst us, 5 year old Namaqua pot still brandy along with coffee continued until 7.30 on Christmas night.
Consequently Boxing Day went by in truly lazy mode and then Pia and Russel came up to escape Cape Town’s expected 2 million visitors. In true form they reminded us how to relax even more by relaxing themselves.
We have lived next to the vlei for just over 3 years and the house is disappearing in amongst the wild peach trees, the sweet thorns, karees, rhus crenata, sand olives, wild olives, camphor bushes, plumbagos and the African honeysuckles where the Sun birds sip nectar. Small birds rest in the trees and shrubs over night and sing us awake in the mornings.
Fifty or so Waxbills sometimes burble their way around the back garden, flying in a whirling cluster from one tree to another and stripping seeds off the grasses.
The other morning a female Cape sparrow pranced happily along the top of an open sash window, but then she slipped down between the parallel window frames and proceeded to panic. I panicked too until I adjusted the windows without squashing her! And managed to extricate her by carefully using 4 fingers to reach her out and set her free. With an exuberant sparrow cry she flew into the air minus a small feather which she left on the window sill. Her zest for life made my day.
We still consider ourselves blessed to live just on the perimeter of the world and on the edge of the vlei.
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