Ironically, the temperature was also outrageously high a year ago on this date. I was making two pies to bring to Kathy and Don’s house in the bush; one pumpkin and another cherry, specifically for Don as his favorite. But any baker knows rolling dough for pies on a hot and humid day will end up being a fiasco, and it certainly was, as shown in our year-ago photo below.
I wrote in that year-ago post here:
“Kathy and Don are hosting an early Thanksgiving dinner for their American friends, Rita and Gerhard, and the two of us. Kathy managed to find a small turkey in Nelspruit. Turkey isn’t often consumed in South Africa and is usually purchased only for visitors from the USA.
The last time we all had Thanksgiving dinner together was in 2018, when we lived in the Orange house. The day before the event, I made eight pumpkin pies, which I described in this post. It was a hot day, with temperatures running at 102F, 40C, and pie crust dough. See that post here.”
We’ve had such memorable times with our friends in Marloth Park. There’s one occasion after another that we celebrated, for whatever reason, with great food, drinks, and lively animated conversation. Rita and Gerhard are now staying in Bali at the same fantastic oceanfront property we stayed at in 2016. See the photo below and our link to one of our first days there.
Kathy and Don are still in Hawaii at their beautiful oceanfront property. Hopefully, sometime they will be able to return to Marloth Park when Don fully recovers from an illness. We miss them too. Tonight, we are calling them at 9:00 pm, 2100 hrs., since there is a 12-hour time difference between here and Hawaii. It will be wonderful to hear their voices once again.
It’s serendipitous how all of our lives are intertwined after living in Marloth Park for a while. We are so grateful for all of our friends. Last night, once again, we were reminded of that fact when we went to Jabula for the second night in a row. We are always so grateful for the close relationship we’ve built with owners Dawn and Leon over the past nine years. We can’t seem to get enough of that place and the two of them.
On days like this, when it is so hot and uncomfortable that I may spend part of the day in the bedroom with the curtains drawn and the fan on. I don’t use the aircon during the day if I can help it, to do our part in the overuse of electricity in Marloth Park. If everyone uses their bedroom aircon all day and night, surely, there will be an outage. Then, we’ll have no power when trying to sleep, which is considerably less tolerable than during the day.
With the fan on, which uses much less power, it is tolerable now with the temperature outside at 101F. 39C. The temp will rise to 108F, 42C, in the afternoon. I can’t imagine sitting outside for sundowners starting at 4:00 pm, 1600 hrs., but I imagine we will. Tom is outdoors right now and is fine with the heat.
Our JoJo tank still provides sufficient water, while Marloth Park is still without water, but today, I had to do some laundry. I’d hope to wait until the water is restored from the dam and the pipes fill up once again, but we have so few clothes doing laundry was a must.
As I was hanging the clothes on the portable outdoor rack, they were practically drying in my hands. There are very few wildlife visitors today since they usually stay undercover on hot days like this. Today is the last day of the school holidays, and with lower temps expected tomorrow, we should see many of our animal friends in the morning.
Be well.
Photo from one year ago today, October 9, 2021:
