Green and Wild

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

Green and wild, with pretty ponds for ducks to play.

Full Dams Poor Roads

There has been lots of rain during the past week, not just gentle rain but sudden downpours, so much water that our earthen dams are full to the brim much to the delight of the water birds. We are ever so grateful for the rain but our poor dirt roads, well just let say that they have taken a beating.

Okay that was the good part, now for the worse. Yes with all the rain comes long grass which means someone needs to cut it and it seems that our landlord has forgotten about our side of the property. So Matthew and I had to make a start on beating down the jungle which was not an easy job I must say.

Teenage Matt

Help Matthew is becoming a teenager. Black clothes, hoodies and sunglasses. What have I created?

Babies Growing Fast

Our babies are starting to grow quite fast and more pregnant mommies are expectant soon. Our eco-park at Mogale is expanding nicely.

The Ice Chick has tripled in size since she arrived 3 weeks ago. Mommy and daddy Blue Crane are very protective over their single baby. But poor Mr and Mrs Black swans, they lost one of their cygnets, and are down to two since they were born two weeks ago.

Last week a duiker gave birth but now it looks like poor baby duiker has been left on its own to fend for itself while mommy goes foraging. The little thing is so inquisitive and comes out of hiding to check us out. Every time the sound of the camera triggers, a shiver runs up the back of the duiker which is about a metre away from us. All the best little ones.

First Day Digital

I am not sure why we still call it New Media and Multimedia as websites, social, video, photography, and animation are not so new anymore. Maybe we should call ourselves Digital from now onwards. This morning was the big move across to the new building for the new Digital Department of eKayaMedia.

Okay it wasn’t such a big move as it was just into the building next door. There is now plenty of space for more growth but no personality yet so we need to make it our own. We still in need of a senior developer, a SEM specialist, a cameraman or woman, a script writer, and two more copy writers.

Pabs and Norma, here to the new beginning.

Day before the Big Move

eKayaMedia is growing in leaps and bounds and there is no more space left in the one and a half buildings that we occupied. eKayaMedia now occupies another whole building plus the rest of the half a building which means we are spread over three buildings.

All this growth means we, our New Media department has to move into bigger offices tomorrow. Yes and that will be my new office in the corner of the top photo, the one in the fish bowl.

Bad Hair Day

Morning yáll, well it aren’t Monday anymore but some of us are still having a bad hair day. Johnny our resident Crown Crane just kept standing outside our offices crying out for my attention. So I had to go out and calm him down. Here, have a cookie. I promise when you finish eating it you'll be feeling right as rain.

Happy Smurf

Somehow we seem to have got another addition to our team, although unplanned for, this smurf managed to sneak in and found residence on Nicole’s desk. So a blue welcome this happy smurf. I wonder why he is looking so happy and why he wants to give everyone a free hug. Do you think perhaps he is on or onto something?

Parvo Outbreak

Please get your dogs vaccinated as this is a terrible way for your dogs to die. My neighbour had three puppies die just over a month ago and I suspect it may either be the Parvo Virus or Biliary Fever, so please be careful out there.

I have known about the Parvo Virus in and around the Randburg area for a while now but now I see this warning outside a local Randburg Vet.

"THERE IS AN OUTBREAK OF PARVO VIRUS in dogs in the Kya Sands Informal Settlement / Bloubosrand area. PLEASE bring your dogs for vaccination. This WEEK ONLY we will vaccinate at cost price of vaccine. R60 for camp dogs (Normal cost of vaccination R240. Cost of treatment with 50/50 chance of survival +- R2500.) This clinic can NOT treat any more Parvo Virus cases for no money!"

Well there you have it, from the horse’s mouth.

In Memory of Tony Botha

Today was a sad day but a happy day too. A day were we said goodbye to Peter Anthony Botha or better known to his family and friends as just Tony. Sad that we had to say goodbye to Uncle Tony, but happy to know that he is now spending time with Jesus in heaven playing chess, strumming a few tunes on a heavenly guitar, asking Jesus those difficult questions that we couldn't answer adequately, and just spending time at Jesus' feet listening.

I can't say much about this sad happy day, but I will let Tony himself speak. His last journal entry the day after his 73rd birthday was shared with us and I would like to share it with you. Please let these words just sink in...

"Tonight’s Bible Study at the Methodist Church with 40 other members, Dr B gave us the difficult question of what happens when we die. He touched on biblical, traditional and church interpretations concerning this subject. 

The message left me believing that God’s love and mercy takes centre stage and that death is but a step from finite life into a limitless life everlasting. I believe that during our limited time alive we are constantly faced with choices of conduct, belief, behaviour, faith and habits that determine our way of life, our outlook and perception of what is good and wholesome and what is bad and unacceptable. 

I hope that when I die there will be a judgement seat and a most merciful God with Jesus as my advocate pleading my case for admittance into God’s Kingdom. 

I hope that there will be my family members who died long before me as well as friends to relate to and discuss heavenly things. 

I realize that Bible Study is to strengthen and not detract from one’s faith in God and His church, but I am also concerned that too much study can become problematic and leave more questions than answers. 

For me a life of simplicity and contentment of just sufficient knowledge to live by, faith and love for Jesus is all I require."

Choco Break

Yip it is that time of the week, Friday afternoon team meeting and as usual yummy snacks to go along with the seriousness that is part of these meetings.

Here is Velile discovering the magic of Choco Break biscuits among the biltong, Oreos, Iced Zoos, Jolly Jammers, and Sweet Chilli coated peanuts.

What a biscuit, so now let the weekend begin.

Adam to Zachariah

Okay no Zachariah yet but Adam joined our eKayaMedia family today as a senior graphic designer. From A to Z, soon we will have about everyone we need to move mountains as we take our internal design house into the world of through the line agencies as the new kid on the block tradigital agency.

So welcome Adam to our family.

Draadloos

Remember the old days back when wireless was a radio wave transmitter and receiver then sometime in the early 1900s radio receivers became vogue. At first they were big and bulky cathode tube devices fitted into wooden décor art cabinets that found its way into people’s homes. With battery technology getting better as the decades progressed the wireless portable radio came into fashion.

I have always loved descriptive words, and in Afrikaans they have a few gems such as tontledoos tinderbox, draadloos radio, or my all too favourite the bleetradio television. So today’s photo is of the retro radio sitting on the cabinet behind my desk.

Ohhh we mustn’t forget the boombox era, boom boom boom!

Did I wake you?

It has been a long day and as my head hit that pillow, I was slammed with the realisation that I hadn’t done my daily photo. Oh my word what now! I lay in the dark thinking franticly of what I could take a photo of now at this time of night, forget about why I forgot, just think.

I jumped out of bed, armed with my cellphone, I stalked down the passage looking for a victim to shoot and nearly stepped on Princess lying slap in the middle of the passage.

"Well excuse me young miss, did I perhaps wake you up?" One has to be careful where one steps during any nightly strolls as one might inadvertently walk through a cat minefield.

Nicole and Jeanine

I told you to watch this space, as our eKayaMedia family is growing and going places. So welcome on board to our latest two senior graphic designers Nicole and Jeanine. Exciting times ahead as we prepare for our new phase in eKayaMedia.

Single Awareness Day

Happiness of Single Awareness Day aka Valentine’s Day didn’t last very long for me this morning. Let me start from the beginning, for the last couple of days now, my cellphone has been having SIM card errors intermittingly and late yesterday afternoon it went into a loop of death of continuous rebooting. So I took out the battery and SIM card for the evening to turn it back on this morning only to hear the tragic news.

Those who know me, will know that I am not big on family, but my aunt Rene and uncle Tony have been, I suppose the closest of my relatives. From the ages of 20 and 19 years old, Rene and Tony, have been married and then yesterday afternoon, after 54 years of ups and downs, Tony got suddenly called back to heaven.

Now although Rene is surrounded by family, being alone, left behind has become an all new meaning for her with the passing of her soul mate. One of Rene's first words to me was "why didn't I go first. I don't want to be alone". Last night was a long night for my aunt and now all I wanted to do is to sit shiva with Rene, just to sit beside her and spend time in her company. While Lynda and I, sat in Rene’s company and had a quiet remembrance of times spent with Tony, Rene nodded in and out of sleep only to continue her conversation as if she never nodded off.

The chair is now empty, the reams of chess notes never to be published not sit on a side table, and the guitar is quietly still. Who is going to now keep watch over the birds who fly in for food that Tony used to leave for them? The top photo was taken this afternoon for my blog but I felt that I need to add the next two from previous blog posts of Tony. The  second photo can be found on my post from December 2013 called Tony and the last one was taken in September last year called Dropping In

Home on the Range

Home, home on the range, where the jackals and guineafowl play. I often put up photos of my view out of my bedroom window of the sunrise to which I rise out of bed to but today is Saturday and I slept late.

So this morning I woke to the sun already high in the sky and the cattle out in the meadow near the river. As I took this photo of my alternate morning view, a small bird of prey flew across the lens. Not sure what sure type of raptor it is and let see if you can see it in this photo.

Sunrise Friday

5:12am

Living just outside the metropolis has its perks; quietness, animals, and beauty yet close enough to earn a living from the smoggy polluted city.

5:23am

One of the best parts living out in the country are the sunrises and settings which the artist God takes a huge paint brush and makes beauty out of the canvas sky especially if there the sky is interspersed with fluffy clouds.

5:41am

And here I am, on a Friday morning waking up to this gorgeous sight peering through the bedroom window. Good morning world and yay it is Friday.

6:08am

Each time I looked out at this beautiful sunrise, it had changed as if God was consistently rearranging the clouds to make the perfect African sunrise just for me.

Mlungisi

Big changes are afoot but I can’t say much about it until it becomes public knowledge and in the meanwhile we are continuing to grow, with Mlungisi joining our family here at eKayaMedia as a Brand Co-Ordinator which is another word for Account Manager. Welcome Mlu, here is to a successful season at eKayaMedia.

Mr and Mrs Black

With South Africa colour has once again become a big issue with “F#<& White People” not being racist but the colour purple is. I am starting to feel down, no depressed about what the future holds.

Anyway my thoughts are transgressing, back to real black swans, the Cygnus Atratus. Over shadowed by the baby blue crane that was born last week, Mr and Mrs Black Swan had triplets. Now we have three little grey cygnets waddling around.

Comfort Leanne

Well the heading is a little miss leading as Leanne doesn’t need any comfort but both Comfort and Leanne have started this week working for us at eKayaMedia in the Signage Department. As I said before watch this space as we are growing and going places, ne Rob.

Comfort starts with us as a Technician and Leanne as the Process Controller. Well all the best to both of you in this awesome eKayaMedia family.

Red lipped Herald Snake

Yes I know it is a sad day to come home and find the dogs yet alone the cats have caught and killed a harmless snake.

Today started unlike any other with my wallet along with the drivers licence was left in the car which went off to Rivonia this morning and I only found out when it is nearly halfway there and I had to ride out to fetch it without getting stopped by the traffic police before setting off to work.

As I was leaving our neighbour Abi stopped me and asked for help to cut his grass on his plot as he had a close encounter with a large cobra over the weekend in his garden. He described the cobra similar to an Egyptian Cobra but we don’t have those down here in South Africa, surely not. I asked him if it wasn’t a Rinkhas as we have many in the area but he said no, he knows what a Rinkhas looks like and this one had what looked like a Chinese symbol on the back of the hood. Uhmmm after some research the closest snake which could be in the area near the river, is a sub species of the Egyptian Cobra, the Snouted Cobra, or it could have been a Mozambican Spitting Cobra. Not having seen the snake and thrown by that is described as a Chinese symbol, well your guess is as good as mine.

And now coming home, I went over to my other neighbour, Gerhardis to speak to him about the cobra issue only to be told that the dogs had killed a baby Black Mamba. Regretfully it turned out to be a Red Lipped Herald that was killed. I remember having one as a pet way back in high school. Tragic day indeed as this is one dead snake that doesn't need to be dead.

Sign of the Times

Every once and a while we decide to go out to the roadhouse for some good affordable lunch. Normally on a Sunday the Burger Box Roadhouse is very packed and we have to wait for a decent lunch but today pulling into our neighbourhood drive in roadhouse we were surprised to find it just about void of cars.

Is Burger Box Roadhouse closing down, has the quality gone down that the clientele are staying away, or is it the sign of the times where the cost of everything is going up but salaries are staying the same? We are feeling the pinch but surely it can’t be salticrax time of the month already?

Takeover

And so the takeover begins. No more does this couch belong to me but to a fluffy fat furball of a kitten named deceivingly as Princess. And now my spot to stretch out on and wind down has being discovered as the best spot by this cat, sigh. Minky has the bed covered and now Princess has laid claim to the couch. I am running out of space with all these takeovers.

In Memory of Ella Paulson

It has been a very emotional day, and I am just about cried out. This afternoon friends and family of little Ella Paulson gathered at BBC in memory of this young girl who was called back to heaven just shy of her 10th birthday due to a tragic horse riding accident last Saturday. To Gwen and Francis, when we heard the news we were in shock and had no words other than tears and prayers for your loss, which is also our loss.

Now today, we all wore yellow ribbons as our eyes teared up in memory of Ella. Yellow ribbons to represent uplifting and illuminating, offering hope, happiness, cheerfulness and fun, these are all the characteristics of Ella, sunshine to all around her. Now she is at the feet of God, a sunbeam in heaven, making God laugh with her infectious smile and giggles.

All is well. Nothing is past; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before only better, infinitely happier and forever we will all be one together with Christ.

Until we all see you again in heaven.

Fly on the Whirligig

Yes it is a minor irritation when a fly decides to spoil my photograph a type of daisy that I never seen before. Such beautiful petals spoilt by a tiny fly, such annoyance.

So with a swot of my hand, the fly in the ointment was sent packing from this whirligig of a daisy. After some digging around on the interwebs, I discovered that this flower is called a Trailing African Daisy or Asteracaeae Osteopermum fruiticosum or commonly called the Whirligig, minus the fly of course.

Ice Chick

The Ice Chick has been born, uhmm sounds a little close to the Ice Truck Killer, oh well I better explain where the name Ice Chick comes from.

At Mogale Business Park there is a collection of beautiful wild animals roaming around, and every now and then little ones are born. It has been nearly 4 years since the Blue Cranes procreated, and we were all waiting in anticipation when a pair of Blue Cranes started sitting on a nest at the beginning of the year. With a gestation period of over 30 days, the weather did not cooperate, we had the harshest heat waves followed by huge hail storms which wreaked havoc throughout the area. Fearing the worst, the pair of Blue Cranes stuck it out.

After work I did a detour around to where the Blue Crane nest was as it was about due for the two eggs to hatch. I was horrified to see the nest abandoned and went closer to investigate. With the same anxiety as an expectant father I discovered only one abandoned egg which should mean that maybe one chick hatched. Alarmed, I called the groundsman Richard, only to discover that he was out of town, so I went in search for the Blue Crane couple, and thankfully discovered them with their little waddling chick.

I was very relieved to find the happy family, and took some photos with my cellphone and sent them off to Richard, Lynda, and posted on social. Lynda replied with the name Ice Chick, due to this little baby survived hail stones as large as golf balls which destroyed the roof of a loyal mall, the Key West, and not to forget the falling branches from the tree under which the nest was built as it was hit by the hail. Ice Chick, well that did have a nice ring to it. Mommy Blue crane is staying very close and not letting Ice Chick stray too far, whereas daddy is running interference to the other animals who wonder a little too close for comfort.

Here's Johnny

“Eyes been waiting for you. Do you think you can sneak off without say goodbye?” Johnny Bravo our friendly Grey Crowned Crane, is nearly always the first one to greet me when I arrive in the morning and most times is found waiting by my Scarlet Vespa in the afternoons for his goodbye.

Interesting, when I stroke his crop, Johnny starts making this sound which is very similar to purring as if he enjoys my undivided attention. In the mornings after saying hello, Johnny Bravo follows me down to my office, making sure that he runs interference when anyone comes close, that is if they dare. When I enter my office, Johnny Bravo gets upset and circles the building making very loud shrieking cries as if he wants me to come out and play. And dare forbid someone leaves a door open. A couple of times, while working away in my office, I hear these raptor claws walking down the passage, quite a scary sound after watching the movie Jurassic Park. Next thing Johnny Bravo’s head pops into my office, “Here’s Johnny!”

Masterful Cyril

Cyril whose name means lordly or masterful, started with us at eKayaMedia today as the new videographer. With Cyril joining us, it has set in motion our new phase in eKayaMedia of rejuvenation and growth. We wish Cyril all the best and keep the cameras rolling.