Out of Hibernation

Spring is here! And it feels like I’ve been out of action over the (admittedly very short) whole of winter! The last couple of months have been a bit of a blur. A combination of freezing temperatures and things to be fixed.

South African winters are crazy. Super-cold at night – minus 10 at one point, and we were out cycling once at minus 6 – but warmer during the day, as long as you stay in the sun. One step into the shade, and you’re back in the Antarctic though. Everything gets dry and brown, apart from the succulents which people have outside their houses or on the roadsides. They are vibrant reds and yellows and blaze against the dusty tan surroundings. But then, all of a sudden, in August, the early flowers came out and added a couple more colours to the palette.

I ended up missing a month of cycling, initially because I got some kind of flu bug, but after that because I really couldn’t drag myself out of my cozy warm bed at the crack of the freezing dawn.

Most of our time over winter seems to have been spent putting out fires. First the borehole tank burst, and then once that was fixed, the pipes from the borehole to the house started to burst almost in series. One leak would be fixed only for another to appear. The logical solution was to re-do the whole piping between the borehole and the house. It’s probably years since it was done, so was long overdue, but still an unexpected and unwelcome expense, on top of other unexpected and unwelcome expenses. The only good outcome is that we now have a good plumber, Luis.

One thing which is very hard to find here is good workmen. The only way is by word of mouth. Price does not seem to relate to quality, or in fact, competence. It’s terrifying. They say that one’s biggest strengths can be the biggest weaknesses, and vice versa, and that’s evident in South Africa. Everyone has so much ‘get up and go’ and there’s a real entrepreneurial spirit, but it means that people who really have no idea what they are doing will come, full of confidence, to tell you what the guy before did wrong, and then completely stuff their job up (half of which probably didn’t need doing)  and then charge to fix it.

We bought a new hob. The guys recommended by the shop came to install it, set it up crooked on our granite work surface and then told us we’d need to pay another R2000 for them to cut the granite to the correct shape so that they could fit it correctly. This despite the fact that our old hob had sat perfectly well for years. After they left, Kurt simply slid it into the correct position.  

But on a more-positive note, we do seem to have found a good joiner. We needed to add cupboards and a work surface to the kitchen, and Marius and his team did a brilliant job. I now have a dedicated space to bake and potter, and our cupboards are no longer cramped lairs for our tins and spices to hide themselves in so that they can’t be found when we need them. Marius and his guys also converted our garage space to a gym, so I’m back TRXing, which is fabulous. (Am I the only person who actually gets pleasure from the feel of DOMS!).

The cat also appreciated the changes and enjoyed inspecting the work!

Interestingly, both Marius and Luis seem to have really good teams of workers who know their job, and they also spend time ‘on site’ alongside them. Quite unusual here, from what I’ve seen; often the so called ‘boss’ will leave his workers, (who are probably just labourers picked up at the roadside), and collect them at the end of the day. No training, no supervision, lousy work.

But now spring is really here, so let’s end on a nicer note! The birds are coming back and starting to pair, so the garden is loud with their songs. Their return gave us an excuse to fix the patio roof, which was rotting; since the birds tend to nest there, it needed to be done now. Joseph, as always, did a brilliant job and we now have a waterproof but still rustic-looking space for me to work in and the birds to enjoy as well. (I use the space as my office)

Here's the before and after! Hopefully the cat will not be able to get at any nesting birds now; he's already had a walk across the top and seemed pretty unimpressed.

And it seems that we have a return of the guinea fowl. They used to come in big flocks when I was last here, but stopped coming, apparently because one of our ex tenants had dogs. However last week a small group visited, and there were a few more this week. I love them – they’re just so funny to watch. They’ll run up and down the fence trying to get through, but it doesn’t seem to occur to them to fly!

Just as I'm writing, our first weaver bird nest has appeared! Always a joy to see!