An electrifying week

The day after the Big Rains, we left Cape Town for Suiderstrand. The electrician had been booked for Monday, and we were off to supervise the electrifying of Daisy. The roads were rather wet and there was evidence of flooding all around. We stopped at our favourite wine shop, Vindigo, in a soggy Napier to stock up on some local beer and wine,

and we sampled the local water ...

Uh oh. Lucky we are in the Land Rover. The road from Bredasdorp to Struisbaai was rather flooded.

We arrived at Daisy to find a deep trench had been dug from the road, BANG in the middle of the plot, up to the front door. The FL and Alf were rather cross as they had hoped to be there when the trench for the electricity cables was dug to prevent just this scenario.

The Alf putting up the new sign for Daisy.

Ta daah!

And the Imbecile got himself covered in burrs in about 3 seconds flat.

Here he is making a nuisance of himself with the workers who came to install the electricity cable and box on Monday.

Bugggg offfff!

And stay away from me.

Disgusting! Eating some dried Pajama Shark. He will eat anything.

I have the leads, so lets go.

Cooling our tums.

Eating the Food Lady's special flip flops from Vinny from Brazil.

Chasing birds. Really! I ask you. No respectable Scottie is interested in birds. We are terriers and should only be interested in things that come out of the ground like moles and mice. Squirrels just make it into our repertoire of things that need to be hunted out and destroyed.

Walking home into the storm clouds.

Daisy daisies. Some pretty pink Syncarpha-like everlastings growing on the edge of the beach.

One day we went for a walk up into the limestone hills. It was lovely and cool and misty and rainy - perfect for Scotties.

Then we came down to the beach at the Fish Traps at Rasperpunt and had tea while the Imbecile Blanc found disgusting things to eat and tried to get stuck under the newly constructed boardwalk.

We drove into Agulhas to stock up on various things, and watched some painters dangling from the newly renovated lighthouse. It is looking super smart!

Much excitement. A bull dog with a yellow bandana in the road at Suiderstrand! Hubba hubba hubba.

Ambush!

Scram! Outamyway whippersnapper.

Gerrofff my hole.

Helping the Food Lady put on her walking shoes.

And LOOK what I found! Tortoises here too. What heaven.

Pretty Skaapbostee or Blou Duine Ertjie (Otholobium fruticans) flowering in the dunes. This is my best place I think.

White nemesias in the sand,

and red Dune Currant (Searsia laevigata var. laevigata forma laevigata) berries ... Christmas is definitely in the air.

And the Food Lady had a little freak-out when I smelled-out this molesnake skin. VERY interesting smell indeed. Not sure why there was a bit of a fuss as the snake had probably long since left the scene!

Morning tea on the beach. A bit warmer today.

This is a sand-binding, dune pea, Psoralea repens, which is interesting in that there is a huge gap in their distribution from about Agulhas to Port Elizabeth. According to Charles Stirton on iSpot, probably the populations got cut in half when the sea came up much higher in the past. It is Redlisted as "Near Threatened" because of coastal housing development.

Beach clean up.

Shooting the breeze on the Pest-proofed balcony of Daisy

while the Food Lady and Alf indulged in some local beers

hopefully taking note of the bottle labels. Sometimes I wonder ...

No! No! You are doing it ALL WRONG!

Watch me.

That's better. Nose right deep in. But his tail is still not pointing straight up. Silly pup.

Home for supper. One weary, happy, burry, tick-ridden pup.

Just cleaning the braai grid for them in anticipation ...

And on the way home again we were happy to see that they had installed some extra windmills so that we can now enjoy our newly installed electricity at Daisy.

Back to the Cederberg

Last weekend we went back to the Cederberg, the pest (or maybe I will start calling him the imbecile blanc- after that depressive feline Henri's sister) and me and our humans. Seems he regards me as a pillow.

But sometimes he can be quite clever, like when he grabbed his lead and ran down the road so that the Food Lady had to take us on a walk

over the rocks and down to the river.

They had come to put the fridge back after it had been fixed - and have a romantic dinner by the light of the newly repaired and re-wicked lamps.

The Alph loves a good fire.

The next morning Laddie did his trick with the lead again, and we set off in the early morning. These are starry seeds from the early spring Ursinia daisies

and the grass is full of pollen. We have never seen so much grass on Riversong.

Laddie loves to chase insects, like dragonflies and butterflies.

And he likes to explore in caves and hunt for ants and other scuttling crawling things, 

but every time I do anything, he is right behind me, pushing his nose into my business.

How about some breakfast oh Food Lady?

The Sugarbirds were really noisy this weekend. 

but we gave them a run for their money when I found a tortoise. We Scots regard tortoises as deliciously fragrant, moving chew toys! Oh joy.

But WHO soon pushed his way in and tried to claim the tortoise as his own. Mmm - the imbecile blanc!

After the Food Lady chased us off the tortoise, we all went down to the river for a cooling swim

including the Alph.

The Food Lady found some creamy little Disa harveyiana subsp. longicalcarata plants in flower,

while I hunted for otters near the pool and Laddie ate Hadeda poop.

Soon it was time to go home.

We passed some colourful vygies, 

and some pelargoniums - maybe P. coronopifolium - flowering on the roadside,

then lunch, a relax and home to Cape Town.