Time out .......................

The packing and sorting is going reasonably well. Yesterday we decided that we needed 'time out' and took a trip out to Stellenbosch for the weekly farmer's market. We then decided to return home using a circular route and stop for tea at the butterfly farm. It was an extremely hot day and not really very pleasant to be out but as we will soon be leaving these shores it was nice to visit some of the places we really enjoy. The butterfly farm has a very nice little restaurant with large windows facing into the area next to the butterflies which contains a marmoset clan as well as two blue duikers. Seeing these tiny creatures brought back memories of my central African childhood. We moved to what was then Northern Rhodesia in the fifties. As I always tell my South African friends this was a very different Africa to what they know. Roads were dirt or just two strips of tarmac. My parents carved a small farm out of the African bush and I had a different rather isolated childhood very close to nature. On one occasion we took a marathon trip to visit the Victoria Falls. The roads were really quite dreadful and on our return journey we acquired two punctures which necessitated staying at a roadside garage with little facilities until replacement tyres could be brought from the nearest town quite a distance away. We spent almost an entire day at this garage which fortunately had a small restaurant attached. One of the animal residents was a baby duiker and I remember it crawling into my lap and going to sleep. It had the tiniest matchstick legs I have ever seen. Here is a pic of one of these special little creatures, unfortunately not the clearest as it was taken through the glass window.

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year." Ralph Waldo Emerson