Did someone say wabbit?

Winters in Johannesburg are beautiful with clear blue skies and just a nip in the air. The African sun warms up the Johannesburg day to a tolerable temperature but when the sun goes to sleep the temperatures plummet very fast even to way below freezing because there is no cloud cover to trap the heat in. And you must have heard by now that the houses in Africa are not built for the cold. No cavity walls no double or what is becoming standard in Europe triple glazing windows. All we have is air-conditioning or portable heaters. My cottage is thatched which traps the heat quite nicely and my bedroom is in the loft which is the warmest place to be at night.

But last night my gas for my newly fixed gas heater ran out. Who would have thought that three panels would use up the gas so quickly although in the instruction booklet it did warn that 265 grams of gas per hour will be consumed if I use all three panels. Without the heater, the best place for me was in bed under my goose down duvet. A few times I woke up in the early hours of the morning and saw what I thought were strands of spider cobwebs above my head. I could not understand why after waving the strands aside I did not feel the usual stickiness of the spider fibers. Later on I awoke again this time I saw smoke above me, fearing fire I jump out of bed and rushed to check if everything was okay. No smoke, no gas and no fire, breathe, cough and cough some more. I thought that I was either going crazy, overdosed on my medicine or must have been dreaming until it dawned on me that it was the condensation from my breathing that was making fog above my bed. Silly me, I was nice and snug in a warm bed while the air around was getting colder. I better get the gas bottles refilled pronto.

While I was up in the early hours, I saw a rather large rabbit or hare in the back garden. Now getting back to sleep is a problem as I am starting to wonder if it is someone's pet, when will that large Spotted Eagle-Owl that lives in my garden catch it or when is wabbit hunting season as I am hoping for friends to visit soon? I could do with some lovely warm wabbit stew.

With my appetite coming back, my health I am sure is improving, thanks to my long sleeps as I believe good old fashioned rest is the best cure for a body, along with honey and lemon. My only problems now are that I have to breathe in deep just so I can cough and I'm constantly out of breath. Anyway today was a good sleep in until very late morning after my traumatic early morning with spider webs, smoke and wabbits, and then slipped out to buy more gas for the heater. In the afternoon I worked at home on some work related jobs then I put a mattress outside on the patio in the sun and slept some more in the glorious winter sun. Here next to me in the sun are two of my Italian Greyhounds Maxy and Jade who as you can see also enjoys sunning themselves.