Day 2 - Venus and Moon

 

No deliveries today. It was a hectic week past, and when we finally got to lockdown it was such a relief that we could just collapse. Yesterday was a stressful wondering what to do along with the fact that we were now in an unknown space, today was much better that we spent most of the day in bed just recovering. Although outside was loud with birds.

This evening we were blessed with the moon and Venus, low in an unpolluted sky.

Goodbye Isabella

Some days, I cash in all the bad things, some days, I call it a draw, but today I just took a walk down into the veld, sat down in the dirt and watched a full moon rise over my darkness.

On Saturday evening, I must have lost a tooth filling during supper because from then onwards, I have had a dull toothache which has gotten progressively worse. I tried to get to see my dentist but the closest I can get to see her is Wednesday. And now I heard the bad news that Isabella, my favourite Crowned Crane had to be put down after being knocked over. She was battling with her injured leg which just wasn’t coming right.

So now I sit, overdosed on pain killers, watching the moon shed light. Where’s the tooth fairy when I need her in my darkest month. Goodbye you beautiful bird.

Sho’t Left

Forget going places with sho’t left, the taxi industry derived saying to tell the driver to stop at the next corner. Now here I find myself on leave watching the huge full moon with a sad face rise over the valley over my left shoulder. Beautiful just sitting here enjoying the view that the full moon brings while the bats swoop chasing their supper and somewhere down by the river jackals are howling. Sho’t left driver, the next stop is my home.

!Gariep

Let the Great Baviaanskloof Adventure begin.

I drove my Vespa Anastasiya over to Martin and Magda's home where we loaded the bikes onto the back of a double cab pickup and set out to meet Tinus and Marlene just before the Grasmere Toll Plaza.

The first leg is the boring one with a whole day of travelling in convoy down to the small town of !Gariep. Why the exclamation mark, well it is a San word for Great Water and was the original name for the Orange River on which the Gariep Dam is built on.

It was a relief to finally reach the great waters of the !Gariep. After unpacking we headed for the dam wall where we had sun downers and then went up the hill to the DeStijl Gariep Hotel overlooking the Gariep Dam, for supper. On the way there a full moon started to rise over the dam which was so awesome to watch. We ended up eating supper while this full moon shimmed over the great waters of the !Gariep. A perfect ending to a long day.

Moonset

Tonight is the last night that I will be spending at Treesbank because tomorrow is the big move towards the west. This morning as I was leaving for work, the setting moon was casting an eerie light over the landscape. The moonset was just begging for a photo to be taken, well how could I not? I am going to miss the awesome views that I get from the patio and the walks to the bottom of the garden.

Bad Moon Rising

Hoooooowl, the full moon sure brings out the madness in me. Tonight Matthew and I went up Northcliff Ridge to view the perigee moon rise or as it is now known as the supermoon rise. I don’t have the right lenses to photograph the moon but took a few photographs with what I had and you can see from tonight's photograph that there is a bad moon rising over Johannesburg's polluted air. As it rises higher the moon will close to about 400km from the earth plus there is promise of meteors from the dust of Halley's Comet. With the city lights and the perigee moon, I am not sure that we see many shooting stars tonight.

As per the Disney song, somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight, someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight even if I'm hairy on the inside. So tonight under the same full moon remember the Wolfman's quote that even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.