Now that the party is over, it’s back to regular life. It seems to be hotter and more humid now, or perhaps in the flurry of activity for the party; I didn’t notice it as much. Today’s biggest challenge is getting yesterday’s laundry dried, which is still soaking wet in the humidity, but worms keep crawling all over the clothes.
Tom moved the laundry rack to the sun on the wooden deck, but now the black worms are crawling all over our clothes. If we try to kill them when they are on clothing or towels, they leave a permanent stain. The tee shirt Tom wore today and yesterday will have to be thrown away with all the worm stains on it.
I’ve preferred to stay indoors seated at the dining room table with fewer worms, although some climb the little step from the veranda to access the inside of the house. Yuck! Many residents and visitors to Marloth Park are posting photos of their worm invasions. Thank goodness our isn’t as bad as the above photo we posted from Facebook. Yuck.
Then again, what do I always say? TIA. This is Africa, and instead of talking about the worms all day, we’re still enjoying the visiting wildlife. We plan to go into Kruger when it hasn’t rained overnight for a few days to make the roads more accessible.
Both Vusi and Zef are now cleaning. Zef is on the veranda sweeping up worms while Vusi is working on cleaning the store room from when the work was done for the new inverter system, leaving everything covered in dust. Extra dishes, serving pieces, small appliances, linen tableware, and our iced tea supply are kept in that room. It will be nice to have the extra dust out of the house.
I bolted out of bed early this morning to work on tonight’s chicken stir fry dinner. I cooked the defrosted chicken and veggies in garlic and ginger seasoned sesame oil, later adding all the wonderful seasonings and spices. Tom will have his dinner on a bed of white rice, and I’ll have mine on cooked cabbage with a side salad for each of us.
I prefer to get as much done as I can for dinners in the early morning when it’s cooler rather than be stuck in the kitchen just before we eat, standing over the hot stove. Plus, the kitchen has fewer flies when it’s cooler in the morning. When it’s time to eat, I’ll reheat the pot, cook Tom’s rice and toss the salad with homemade dressing, taking only a few minutesi n the kitchen. We can be on the veranda the remainder of the time, enjoying our wildlife visitors.
Even with the worms out there, we still spend our evenings on the veranda, and then, if the insects are really bad, we’ll enter the dining room with a clear view of the garden while we enjoy our dinner without too many insects intruding. When there are few insects in the cooler winter months, we spend more time outdoors in the evenings.
On another note, I’m still thrilled that I didn’t have the tooth pulled. After taking an x-ray, Dr. Singh determined there was nothing wrong with the tooth, but it was irritated from over-flossing. To avoid issues with my gums, I tend to floss too much and too often, using too thick a flossing string. I am still smiling over the fact that my tooth didn’t have to be pulled, leaving me to enjoy this week without the pain and discomfort and then dealing with getting an implant.
My teeth are very close together, and I often feel like I need to floss. Dr. Signh convinced me that flossing once a day was enough, and I will now wait to floss after dinner. He did a full mouth x-ray with this modern equipment and said every tooth in my mouth and my gums are healthy, especially for my age. In the long run, our obsession with flossing and also having our teeth cleaned professionally every three months has paid off. It’s been easy to have the cleanings here with Luzaan, but once we leave in June, it may not be possible to do so when we’re in even more remote locations.
We’re looking forward to heading to Jabula on Friday evening. As it turned out, Dawn and Leon knew everyone at the party, making it fun. It will be great to catch up with them over the weekend.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, March 1, 2022:
