It’s a beautiful, sunny, and cold morning. Lilly, our favorite female bushbuck, jumped the fence, and we couldn’t resist giving her a few vegetable scraps while making tonight’s salad. She’s devouring the cabbage and carrots. On the other hand, warthog Lollie shares pellets outside the fence with duikers Delilah and Derek, who are frequent visitors.
Duikers are at the bottom of the pecking order regarding the antelopes and seldom share in the distributed pellets since the other animals push them out of the way, especially the warthogs. But, Lollie has become used to the two of them being around, and she shares with them. It’s sweet to watch the pleasant interactions.
It was so cold this morning; when ten warthogs arrived in the garden, we laughed to see how they huddled together in the sun, trying to stay warm. We’ve included those photos here today. Loners, like Lollie, sat in the sun alone, attempting to keep warm. They also feel the crisp coolness of winter weather in the bush. We love it. Dressed warmly in sweatshirts, we are comfortable on the veranda.
Our plans for today with Dawn and Leon have been pushed to another time when load shedding isn’t so bad. When it’s like this, they must stay close to the resort and restaurant when guests stay at the lodge and may need attention during the outages.
Plus, they must pay close attention to their generators running to keep their food supply fresh during extended outages. We can only imagine the stress associated with that if a generator has a problem. The few inconveniences we experience are nothing comparatively.
Yesterday, Dawn and I met at the little local spa for our pedicures. I needed the pedicures after months of being sick and not giving a hoot about how my toes looked. The polish was half worn off, and the rest, well, it had been over three months. The pleasant 90 minutes we spent at the little spa, located in a separate building at Patience’s and husband Doc’s home, was filled with pleasantries, laughter, and lively conversation.
Tom picked me up when the polish was dry, and I was ready to go home. The cost for a pedicure with all the routine care and service is ZAR 260, US $16.00. I always leave a generous tip when the service is so good. By the new year, they are building an even more professional separate spa close to Gate 2. Of course, I’ll continue my almost monthly pedicures at the new location.
Last night, we had our dinner in the dark at the dining room table. Our dinner consisted of bacon-wrapped, garlic, well seasoned chicken breasts with garlic roasted brussels sprouts for me, rice for Tom, and salad for both of us. I’ve been eating lots of garlic to reduce the bites from mozzies, chiggers, and midges. I’ll let you know if it works.
The power didn’t come back on until 2130, 9:30 pm. By then, we were sitting on the bed, still fully dressed, under a blanket, streaming a few shows. Later, we got ready for bed and again had another good night’s sleep.
Today is low-key. We’ll cook dinner on the braai at sundown and again dine in the dark as the load shedding continues. But, we are fine, content as we could be. Life is good.
Photo from one year ago today, June 30, 2021:
