Spring is here!!

A special announcement: it is Spring!!

It might not look like it judging by the drizzle outside, but Spring has arrived! As usual Nature doesn't keep to anybody else's time-schedule. Some would say right on time, it depends on your perspective. When I walked through the garden yesterday morning there was already a pleasant warmth in the air and a small gang of caterpillars starting to raid the Naturtiums: so I ran back inside to fetch a pair of surgical gloves so I could squash them as I saw the little buggers! I had learned my lesson about using gloves: I accidentally put my dirty fingers in my mouth after squashing a few of the aphids and inevitable ants :P NOT cool!

A very wet Jenn the weekend after a splash in the river on my grandparents' farm and peach trees in bloom

Another give-away is the poor little battered wisteria that's shooting new leaves. The Bushwillow and Birches have been forming new leaves for a little while already, but the MOST exciting part is the artichoke, which is making its very first blooms! I am genuinely SO ecstatic - I can't wait to eat our very own artichokes and asparagus from the garden (the asparagus will have to wait another 2 years unfortunately, but 2 years zooms past). We will also be munching our very first sugar snap Peas from the garden tonight for dinner.

To pea or not to pea

I do declare - my life is running away from under me. I think I have just too many interests and things I am trying to get done before I hit 30... happening next year :o


I don't know why I suddenly feel compelled to try everything I've always wanted to do in one shot? Possibly because I now sort of have the means to... or do I?


All I do know is that Jenni is growing up so quickly and keeping me VERY busy. At times I am convinced that she is even more taxing than raising a child - but I suspect I stand to be corrected and that one day I will return to my philosophy that it would be easier raising 5 dogs than one child. I suppose I make her more effort than she has to be: I insist on cooking her puppy stew to supplement her already balanced meal of Royal Canin pellets, but it makes me happy. It always takes be back to my "Oumagrootjie's" (great grandmother's) kitchen when she cooked stew for her dogs (in the days before Epol). But anyway, while Jenni is chewing up more of my plants I have been dreaming up another plan to try and satisfy my desire to have my own farm... :)

After realising that a proper, big farm that is 2 hours away form home would not fit into our current lifestyle and would most likely jeopardise our relationship a lot I devised a new solution: leasing farm land close to town and setting up a small farm business with an organic vegetable patch, horses, chickens, peas etc. Besides the financial strain and demands on our time from a proper farm there is a lot of uncertainty about land ownership and demanding labour laws in our country, so a long-term lease will most likely be the best solution and would decrease our financial commitment substantially. Or so I hope! At least a smaller enterprise closer to the city would be a less risky trial of my determination and capabilities to run my own small farm. I am also not ignorant of my weaknesses and I realise that the biggest risk is perhaps my fluctuating interest in things I start doing, so this business would at least hold better prospects for resale should I later realise that I am not farm-girl material.