Witchweed

 

I got reports of pilgrims camping in the veld near my home, so I got dress and was about to set out to see them off, when the heavens opened up and poured cats and dogs. An hour later the downpour was over so off I set, through the wet veld and just before reaching the reported location of the camp, a flash of purple caught my eye.

Among the damp grass was this beautiful looking plant, only to find out later that it is a grass parasitic plant called Witchweed. This plant attaches itself to the grass' roots and steals soil nutrients and moisture from the grass. Beautiful but deadly.

Rain Sets In

 

Ahhh, this reminds me of my school days in Natal, as the weekend comes round, the rain sets in. Oh well it looks like I am going to enjoy a lovely quiet weekend at home. Noice!

The Fallen

 

Eish, what is this, a fallen sign or unless it is for the little people, so they too can know where the toilets are. Hello Maintenance! What about us normal peoples?

Minky and I

 

It is a beautiful cool evening here at home, the endangered Mountain Reedbuck are grazing just outside our yard, we've just finished eating a lovely curry, the telly is on, and Minky wants to cuddle. 

Morning Mist

 

Wow this weather has changed again, yesterday was freezing cold, and today it is slightly warming with our home shrouded in a thick mist. Ahhh I want to just sit here on my deck, sip coffee, and enjoy this beautiful morning, but sadly I have to drag myself away and get me self to work.  

Just one more sip of coffee, then I'll go...

Flu Season is Coming

 

I have 3 pairs of gloves under the seat of my Vespa, normal thin woolen for mild cool mornings, thick heat holders for those very cold mornings, and some real padded biker gloves for those cold wet days. The weather changed dramatically overnight and we woke up to a rather chilly morning, so cold that I had to put on my Heat Holders.

I am keeping an weary eye on what is happening in the northern hemisphere with the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. We are about to enter our flu season in a few months and if this Chinese bug would hit our shores I am not too confident that our medical institutions would be able to cope. Yes we are in a much better situation than our northern neighbours such as Zimbabwe. Okay enough of this fear mongering, lets all get our immune systems ready. Live long and prosper!

Attack of the Scrunchy

Watching Minky play with a scrunchy is so entertaining. She is one naughty cat. She has learnt to open the drawer where Lynda's hair scrunchies are kept, takes most of them out and plays like in the video with them.

Here she is attacking a scrunchy, with a wag of her butt, she pounces on the unsuspecting scrunchy.

Axil Dragon

 

Home alone, well not quite, although everyone is away and I am surrounded by all the pets. Today is going to be a day for recovery from a not so good week. At least Friday was better, and today is just being put aside to recover.

Axil, the bearded dragon agrees. Just give him some crickets and he will agree to anything.

Bosasa Butt

 

This morning I found these pants in my cupboard would I haven't worn for sometime. It was only after I put them on did I realize that the pants were branded  Bosasa. Wow, I thought that I had gotten rid of all the incriminating evidence, until today. 

Oh well the pants material felt nice and soft, although it needed a lint brush to rid it of a few cat hairs. I wonder if anyone noticed me wearing Bosasa on my butt, or was my sub-conscious playing tricks on me.

What Next

 

What next can happen to me, after yesterday? Well this morning as I left for work, I felt that my rare tyre was flat, so I limped to the nearest service station and found that a small piece of metal had caused a slow leak.

I am starting to wonder if the Baroness, the name I call my Vespa is trying to tell me something because since that day I told her that I am thinking of selling her, she started getting all uppity with me. And now this!

I won't let this little piece of metal get me down. I don't want an repeat of yesterday. Today is going to be a better day.

Princess Life

 

I normally feel jolly but today, well today has been one of those rare days where life just gets me down. And by down I really feel that I can't take it anymore. So here I sit, and thinks, and thinks, and thinks. Nothing! I just feel nothing.

Princess, one of our cats just decided to keep me company. She must know how I am feeling, and just wanted to be close to me.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

 

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest spider of them all? You are little jumping spider, you are. No you are not seeing two tiny little spiders, but one spider and its reflection in the mirror. Stay calm, I don't want to harm you, only take your portrait.

Money Tree

 

I don't believe in good luck although I find myself often wishing someone good luck and fortune. In our office is what my boss calls a money tree which is growing very well in the florescent lighting. From what I understand the money tree is also called the good luck tree and is an age-old token of good luck and an invitation to good fortune. Really? It is rumored to bring prosperity and wealth to our surroundings. Uhmmm!

Bad Case of the Flu

Okay I am better prepared now than before as Africa reports its first Covid-19 case in Egypt. Yes Egypt is over a million miles away from us but the SARS-CoV 2 virus outbreak is spreading very quickly and I am sure that it will reach these distant shores sooner than later.

I have been following the Chinese Corona Virus outbreak very closely, more on a scientific than a fear level because if it does reach Southern Africa, our hospitals are not capable of treating everyone. So far what we officially know is that out of 100 people that get the highly contagious SARS-CoV-2, about 15 will need serious hospitalization, and out of these 15, only 2 will die. That is if they get to an medical facility that can help.

If it does come down to the worse case, 60% of South Africa's population will catch this strain flu virus. That means 28 million will be infected with 4 million needing to be on a respirator and we don't have that many in South Africa which will mean only the rich will be able to afford to jump the queue and way more than the expected 84,000 will die. We are about to enter our flu season, lets hope they can contain and eradicate this bad case of the flu before it gets here.

Okay enough of the bad news. Good news is that the Covid-19 death rate is only 2.3% with your body's immune system being able to fight off the SARS-CoV-2. So what can you do to limit yourself from getting into that 15% that needs hospilazation.

1. Wash you hands OFTEN
2. Wear a face mask when you need to visit a pharmacy, doctors rooms, or hospitals, as this is where most sick people congregate
3. Boost your Immune System by getting 8-10 hours SLEEP a day
4. Stay away from large crowds
5. Did I mention wash your hands?

Out for the Count

 

I woke up this morning all sore and battered. Eish this is going to be a day of recovery. Looking at the map I must have walked about 10km in rough veld terrain under a hot African sun, no wonder I am all sore.

I took some pain killers and somehow must have fallen asleep again. I woke up to what I thought at first was Sunday with my cat Paddy past out next to me after an all nighter in the veld. At least he feels safe with his daddy home too.

Eleven Orchids

 

Valentines Day or what it actually should be called, Single Awareness Day. Cynical as I am, today it was all about flowers and I was all ready for the Annual Orchid Count... leave taken, cellphone and camera batteries were all charged, water bottles filled, sunblock, cap and a bandana for the neck, all my stuff was packed and ready when the clock hit 8 this morning. Last year it was drizzling and still I got sun burnt but today looked like it is going to be a scorcher before we even set out and it was.

 
I am not sure how many there were but about 20 counters set out into the Protea forested veld to look for the Albertina Sisulu Orchid. All in a row we search with keen eyes hoping to be the first to find this rare critically endangered orchid and it wasn't long before we found them.
 

 

Not often do we see one of the pollinators, a butterfly, not sure what type but a butterfly none the less.

 

Because it was so hot we didn't see as many animals as we did last year, this year I saw a fleeting glimpse of a duiker, a scrub hare, francolins, guinefowls, and quite a few insects. Nice to see the insects as there is a growing concern that insects are dying out by the millions. There was this one that looked like a dragonfly and battled to fly. I left the count line to try and get a good photo of it. After following it for a couple of metres I managed to get this photo (above) of an antlion.

 

Sadly we only managed to find 11 Albertina Silulu Orchids today. Another 2 were counted in the refuge area last week by a group from Wits University. Although we had good rains the previous month we don't know much about these beautiful and rare ground orchids. They only flower for a few weeks of the year, and it seems that they don't flower every year.

Back on the Road Again

It is good to be back in the saddle of the Baroness. Forget loadshedding induced traffic, and glide through the rush hour blues like a hot knife through butter, awesomeness. This is what dreams are all about, and it is a pity that I am thinking of selling her as I need funds for Matthew's final year. Sigh!

Just 9km

 

I was so happy this morning, setting out on my Vespa when just 9km later it just said "how's your father"and cut out, refusing to start again. I called Dale to come pick me up and to drop the Vespa off at  the mechanic once again. At first we suspected that the fixed injector was still causing problems but it turns out that the lead cable to the spark plug had melted on the hot manifold.

Eish when is this going to end?

Hate this Traffic

 

When you see the gap then remember that you're not on the bike. Yes I hate this traffic but thank goodness I still have my pickup to fall back on. My Vespa's injector has been fixed last week but now it needs a new rear tyre, so here I am stuck in traffic once again.

Snowflake's Birthday

 

It is Taleesha's birthday today, just as she reminded us on Friday so we won't forget. Flowers and chocolates arrived for the birthday snowflake and the one that I like the most are these orchids. She has now asked me twice already, how does one look after orchids.

Sticking Out Your Tongue

 

It is Sunday afternoon, I'm half asleep as it is nearly nap time and Paddy is fast asleep next to me, with the tip of his tongue sticking out. It is the first time I've noticed him doing the tongue thing. 

Finding the Problem

 

It looks like the mechanic has found the problem, a lose injector. Well lets hope that this is it, and I can be back on the road. Just a flat rear tyre to be replaced. That storm yesterday sure has washed a lot of junk onto the roads. My rain gauge only goes up to 100mm and was overflowing within an hour of yesterday's storm so who knows how much rain actually fell.

Huge Storm

 

My Vespa is back in the mechanic's shop because it started its nonsense again on my way in to work this morning. I had limped her to the mechanic to get her fixed and then used my pickup to drive to work, late.

It took me a long time to get home due to being in a cage but thankfully I was in my pickup as a huge thunderstorm hit Roodepoort while on my way stuck in traffic. By the time I got to Roodepoort the storm was just about finished but it had caused so much damage with a large number of trees and walls fell over.

The Roodekrans Neighbourhood Watch members were already in action, so I joined them. First I went to the intersection of Wilgeroot and Amaryllis Drive to help Brenden with getting the rush hour traffic safely through. When the electricity was restored, I then joined other patrollers to check up on all the streets in our areas for fallen trees and boundary walls. The RNW members worked late into the night cutting up fallen trees, and removing rubble lying in the roads. As you can see on the volunteer's posture above it was an exhausting job.

The Eldredge Knot

 

Okay I an old age Windsor knot person when I wear a neck tie, that was until Matthew sported an Eldredge knot at the opening ceremony of the Belgium Uni at his start of his 3rd year. He sure made an style statement, with another friend also sporting this stylish knot which apparently Matthew tied for him. Can we bid adieu to the Windsor?

Weather's Changing

 

Loadshedding is getting a pain, with no electricity at home from 4pm till 8:30pm. After an awesome dinner on the patio in the low light of the setting sun, I took the opportunity to see if I could find the fault of why my Vespa continues to miss. I discovered a spark getting thrown near the spark plug cap. When Dael got home, he kindly stripped the cap to find the lead cable loose. Tomorrow I have the long trek up to Pretoria, so I am glad that we found the problem.

Nesting Swallows

 

Every year a pair of swallows come and nest near our patio under the roof overhang. I enjoy sitting on my patio watching the pair swoop low while coming in for a landing. This morning while drinking my morning brew, I saw their little baby join them on flights. Here is the little un with one of the parents resting on the roof.

Loadshedding Traffic

 

Loadshedding during during rush hour makes an normal 2 hour journey into an 4 hour journey BUT not with an Vespa. Normally on my Vespa I take about 35 mins to work or back but with thes government caused rolling backout, the journey has increased only to an hour. Thank goodness for my trusty Vespa, well it has been giving me problems lately.

Corona Virus

 

It was just yesterday that I was reading how Instagram influencers are cashing in on the Corona Virus  but donning on face masks and sharing their photos. And last week a businessman from Hong Kong popped into our office wanting to buy facemasks. I also read that online stores such as Amazon has had a run on facemask orders from China and now they all sold out. To help stem the orders from China, the face mask factories in Taiwan are printing their national Republic of China flag on their face masks as China refuses to recognise Taiwan as a legitimate country. Good for them.

I was invited to a braai this afternoon with friends, and having some time to kill between church and the braai, I decided that I better get a few face masks myself in case we also get a run on them here too in South Africa.Too late both Dischem and Clicks are all sold out. A merchandise packer at the one Dischem I was at told me the Chinese where there last week and bought all their stock up. Eish.

I posted on Facebook about the dire situation and asked for alternatives. My friends came up with some strange ideas, well I decided to try one of them this afternoon after getting home from the braai. So my chinas, how is this face mask? Looking at the how to use a bra as a facemask pages, it is obvious that I am doing something wrong.

Past Out

 

After an morning of month end shopping , I am just over it all and I want to be like out cat Paddy, just past out next to his daddy. Yeah that is where I want to be right now, past out safely at the feet of Jesus. With no worries to bother me, I just want to sleep safe and deeply as my cat Paddy is doing right now at my feet.