Veldfire!

Camera : Canon EOS 550D
Taken on our smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa)

Yesterday afternoon half our plot’s grazing was destroyed by a veldfire, driven by a strong, icy cold wind, as it raged across our smallholding. The flames were only 1 or 2 feet high, but seemed to have a life of their own, jumping and billowing to over a meter high at intervals. All the staff were out in force, trying to keep it away from the house and other buildings. Sometimes it’s not the size of the fire that is scary, but the speed at which it can gallop.

Where these start is always a mystery…

 

 

 

 

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The benefits of free range eggs (for the chicken) Sensitive information

My girls supply me with 4 or 5 beautiful free range eggs every day and they are quite happy supplying these. They get to roam the garden, grazing, hunting insects and having lovely sand baths in stead of spending their lives in a 8″ × 12″ wire cage (the size of an A4 sheet of paper). They get to choose when to go to bed and when to lay their eggs, following Mother Nature’s natural daylight cycle in stead of their “daylight” being on a timer and being woken up 2 o’clock in the morning and being forced to lay another egg, giving 1½ eggs a day instead of the normal 1 egg every two days. They lie in the sun, spreading their wings and soaking up the sun’s Vit. D in stead of having Vit. D pumped into them via additions to their food. They exercise regularly by chasing insects (and one another!) in stead of being cramped up in those 8″ × 12″ wire cages with not even room above their heads to stretch their legs. They get to socialise and experience family bonds, something which a battery chicken will never know. My girls are not culled when they get to the end of their egg-laying cycle, but in stead get to live a happy, healthy and fulfilled life.

It is sad what we do to our animals in order that we may eat and survive…

“I am battery hen. I live in a cage so small I cannot stretch my wings. I am forced to stand night and day on a sloping wire mesh floor that painfully cuts into my feet. The cage walls tear my feathers, forming blood blisters that never heal. The air is so full of ammonia that my lungs hurt and my eyes burn and I think I am going blind. As soon as I was born, a man grabbed me and sheared off part of my beak with a hot iron, and my little brothers were thrown into trash bags as useless, alive.

My mind is alert and my body is sensitive and I should have been richly feathered. In nature or even a farmyard I would have had sociable, cleansing dust baths with my flock mates, a need so strong that I perform ‘vacuum’ dust bathing on the wire floor of my cage. Free, I would have ranged my ancestral jungles and fields with my mates, devouring plants, earthworms, and insects from sunrise to dusk. I would have exercised my body and expressed my nature, and I would have given, and received, pleasure as a whole being. I am only a year old, but I am already a ‘spent hen.’

Humans, I wish I were dead, and soon I will be dead. Look for pieces of my wounded flesh wherever chicken pies and soups are sold."
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Read more about The Life of one Battery Hen. (Sensitive information - I cried when I read it...)

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Farm talk - the heart of a home

I've had a couple of requests to 'share' a bit more about where I live on my little piece of African soil, so I decided to do a short series of my home in Tarlton, South Africa, situated on an 8.5ha smallholding. This is purely for fun! I would just like to mention that, when building and decorating my home about 7 years ago, I have taken inspiration from Africa, and nature in particular, surrounding myself with natural (and sometimes living!) objects and colour. I am not ostentatious by nature and prefer the simple and natural things in life. Hope you enjoy and find this interesting! I know I just LOVE to see other people's living spaces, be it small or large, simple or ornate, in suburbia or the country, in a basement or a sky-scraper, inland or at the coast.

"Best way to get rid of kitchen odors: Eat out!"
Phyllis Diller

Most of the space in my (rather big for someone who rarely cooks!) kitchen is taken up by a huge old Rhodesian Teak table (2.4m x 1.4m) which I 'rescued' from hubby's workshop - they used it to work on huge engines placed on top of it. Oil had soaked right through all the wood, in a way preserving and feeding it right deep inside! It took me a couple of weeks of washing off and stripping oil from the surface and everywhere else, trying to restore it to its original condition, but eventually ended up having to give it a couple of coats of enamel paint, as some of the oil kept on returning to the surface. I just love using found treasures through-out my home, much preferring that to buying new stuff.

A broad 'shelf' under the table offers storage for baskets containing table cloths, napkins, candles, placemats and excess cutlery. More often than not it will also be filled with boxes containing my paintings still looking for a home!

Against the far wall two carved wooden African figures serve as a dish towel rail. The basket in between them contains some of my animal skull collections.

The kitchen has built-in concrete tops, stained and sealed with EarthCote pigment, and the cabinets are made of stained Pine with hand-cut Bamboo sticks as panels. The stainless steel door handles were a find from a salvage yard. The tiles on the walls are from Mazista Slate's "Autumn" range.

Refrigerator and broom cupboard - the broom cupboard's handle is a pewter Gecko with screw holes in the feet for mounting.

 Close-up of Gecko door handle - I was lucky enough to find a shop at Kya Sands Office park that sells the most exquisite, earthy and nature-themed home fittings

This is the area where most of the action happens - tea, coffee, Cappuccino, Hot Chocolate and Milo - the worn area on the concrete top is proof of my husband's industriousness! Here he chops, pours, smears and concocts the most wonderful snacks!

A corner in the kitchen for a quick snack or using the laptop. The table is a 1920's Partridge Wood gate-leg, a lucky second-hand shop find.

My breadbin - this is actually a vintage seedling hot-house, used to protect seedlings from the cold of winter if staying outside. Next to that is Hubby's (sacred) Tupperware cookie jar. An off-cut from some of the wooden decking serves as a bread board. Do you think there's any truth to this quote...?

"Men become passionately attached to women who know how to cosset them with delicate tidbits." 
- Honoré de Balzac (1799-1859)

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Setting your intention for a simple day

A leisurely breakfast of boiled eggs, which I get daily from my chooks, tea and toast and I'm ready for the day. Taking time in preparing a meal, no matter how simple, is one of the great pleasures I enjoy every morning.

I normally rise at around 4am and, with a steaming cup of coffee in hand, check my e-mail, connect with all my blogs I read and spend some time on FaceBook, catching up with family and friends. Around 6am it's time to open for my chooks and let them into the garden, fill all the bird feeders and do a quick survey of the garden to see if there's anything special that needs being done. These times are for summer, in winter it happens a bit later! At about 7am, a hot bath and getting ready for the day. Breakfast follows at around 9am, after which I'm ready to tackle all the necessary tasks that fills one's day.

Spending quality time with yourself goes a long way to increasing peace and harmony. There are many ways one can achieve this. Sketching and painting is an important part of spending time with myself, as is gardening, tending to my animals and spending some time in nature. We have enough everyday pressures of tending to a business, shopping, picking up kids from school and looking after a family, so it's important to look after yourself first in order that you can give your best to the rest of the world. Set your intention early in the day and life will be much simpler.

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When did they change the view?

Sipping my coffee, waiting for the colour to take on my hair, I surveyed my surrounds. Just a couple of months ago, there were three huge trees in the spot where I was now sitting under an 'afdak', a sort of extension to the verandah of the coffee shop. My hairdresser had decided to renovate one of her properties into a hairdresser, beauty salon and coffee shop. I don't have to drive all the way to the shopping mall to have my hair done. Instead, it's a short drive into the suburbs, away from all the hustle and bustle of the busy mall.

I didn't know about it, until I phoned for an appointment and was told about the new address. "How exciting, an excellent idea!" I thought!

I sat looking around and it struck me that I hadn't seen or heard a bird for over half an hour that I'd been sitting there. The rest of the property was also devoid of any trees. All I could hear was the sound of traffic rushing past the front of the property and I felt a pang of sadness that this is what progress meant. The area was neat, walled and fully paved with only a few low-maintenance pot plants here and there. Very chic. Very modern in it's simplicity. But there was no life. Not even a spot for some bugs to hide, no flowers to lure bees and definitely no place for any birds to nest.

There must have been plenty birds living there before. Rearing their families amongst the branches of the three huge trees, providing them with shelter against the rain and shade in summer. And with no regard as to whether there were nestlings or not, the trees were summarily cut down to make place for our comfort, our pleasure.

There and then I lost my enjoyment of the coffee and as soon as my hair was finished, I left. I'm never going back again.

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