Another working-walking weekend

On the way to Agulhas, the humans got peckish and saw this cute little road-side restaurant offering pies

and famous big black pan eggs so we pulled in

and they got to assuage their hunger which is something I NEVER get to do. We had to sit under the table and drool.

When we arrived at Suiderstrand we saw that Jandre had indeed almost finished painting Daisy.

The bossman installed the new bathroom blinds

while the Food Lady did a spot of bird-watching. These are Cape Bulbuls (right) and a Speckled Mousebird (easy to id with a black and white bill). 

But enough procrastinating! The Lad grabbed the leads and tugged the Food Lady out the door into the road,

and the Alph had to hot foot it after us. There is some rather serious erosion at the end of the path down to the beach.

Aaaah - what a pleasure to roll in the damp and gritty sand.

Hunting for molerats and indeed, anything that moves (except of course, birds - when the Alph and FL are watching).

Even though it was cold, we had a paddle in Papkuil,

and the humans admired the cormorants and the big seas,

and a tiny White-fronted Plover.

On the way back we didn't chase any Oyster-catchers,

and I didn't roll in this enticing looking dead fish,

although I did hang back and hope they wouldn't notice so I could have a quick roll but the Food Lady was on to me.

When we got back, Ronnie was hard at work restoring the wood on the veranda.

After a rather chilly night, we set off the next morning up the sand dune in the bright sunshine - the Alph colour-coordinating with all the Single-flowered Tassle Heaths (Erica coccinea subsp. uniflora) that occur up here.

There are lots of flowers out now - like these intricate Featherheads (Phylica pubescens var. orientalis) - and the Food Lady was a bit slow ...

We followed a different path today, then cut back towards the sea on an old overgrown path through the Blombos,

which was all mossy and slimy underfoot. Some teeny tiny fungi-things - according to iSpot, they are Split Gill (Schizophyllum commune) fungi.

Then we emerged onto a firebreak and just look how excited the mad Lad is! Full alert. What does he expect to see I wonder?

Another new flower for the Food Lady - a Chascanum cernuum - from the verbena family.

There were lots of Lachenalia rubida flowers as we walked along the firebreak, and down the side of the sand dune down to the beach.

Laddie trying to race seagulls along the shore - pulled up by the water.

A rather elegant Little Egret with yellow slippers was fishing in the sea just below the cottage, but we were too tired to chase it,

and I just collapsed once we got home.

Lad, however, helped Ronnie with the woodwork,

and the Alph did some alien tree removal on the empty plot next door as the municipality here is not very good at keeping them under control - although they are good at sending threatening little letters to homeowners to clear their plots even when they are perfectly clear. 

Then eventually, we both succumbed to a Sunday afternoon snooze.