This morning, I took my time getting out of bed. My mind was full of thoughts about the future we’d yet to book. We’ve felt somewhat on hold until we receive notification that my visa has been extended to June 8, the day we plan to leave South Africa. As mentioned earlier by Tom traveling to the US a few weeks ago, he received a new 90-day visa. The process of applying for an extension for him becomes a moot point.

At that point, we’ll begin a year away from the bush with plenty of plans in the works. We’re going to return in June or July 2024 when a short time later, daughter Tammy and family will travel here to spend time with us. They are quite the adventurers and will spend many days on a wide variety of activities. They’ll love everything South Africa has to offer.

Most likely, we’ll return to this same house. It has two guest houses on the property that will serve our visitors well, providing privacy and convenience. Plus, it will be fun to return and see our favorite animals return to see us. Hopefully, a year later, they will remember us, our generous offerings, and my annoying high-pitched voice.

Today, I am making two stir-fry dishes; beef tenderloin, mushroom, and broccoli for Tom; and prawns with bell peppers, zucchini, onions, and broccoli for me, all topped with a handful of peanuts. Tom will have his dinner on a bed of white rice while mine will top cooked shredded cabbage. We won’t have a salad with these intense vegetable meals.

As always, I am making enough to last for two or three dinners, so I didn’t mind taking the time to wash and prepare all the fresh vegetables, placing them in big ziplock bags until it is time to cook the dishes. The leftovers will keep well in the refrigerator, which is easy to reheat quickly on the stovetop or in the microwave, as preferred, neither of which is impacted by load shedding.

They still tasted as good as they did the first night. It’s excellent cooking this way, always making enough to last for at least two nights, sometimes three. I like that for the next few nights; I don’t have to cook at all, other than reheat our leftovers. Then, on the other days, I can busy myself with other tasks on the agenda with our never-ending stream of research and paperwork.

On another hot day, I am sitting at the dining room table with two fans blowing on me, the overhead fan and the portable fan only a few feet from me. The fans seem to help to keep the mozzies from landing on me. Right now, I have lots of itchy bites after all the rain we’ve had. I have to keep reapplying repellent when it seems to come off when my arms touch the table while I am typing.

We had another good night at Jabula last night when the bar filled up with tourists and locals. As usual, our dinners were terrific, as shown in the photos above and below. The meals are simple, but they taste better than you can imagine.

The three-week holiday begins at the end of this week and ends after Easter on April 9. It will be busy here in the bush, and we don’t expect to see many animals during this period. But we will see plenty of cars on Olifant Road, the main paved road in MP, many exceeding the 50 km (31 miles) speed limit. It’s always heartbreaking to hear about animals killed on the road due to speeding and careless driving.

Tom is busy at the table on the veranda, as he often is, doing his usual online activities, totally at peace and content. It’s such a joy for me to look outside and see him there. His ten days away are quickly becoming a distant memory as we’ve easily settled back into a harmonious, pleasant, and playful life in the bush. We never forget for a day how fortunate we are to have each other and this amazing life we live.

Be well.

 Photo from one year ago today, March 19, 2022:

Since I haven’t been feeling my best the past few weeks since the headache returned, I’ve gotten behind on a few tasks including laundry, cooking for the next three nights, and record keeping. As my head improves a little each day after three nights on the medication, I awoke knowing today I needed to tackle some things.

Once I was up, l showered and dressed and made my breakfast of toasted homemade keto bread, topped with mashed avocado and one egg. I sat down outdoors to eat with my cup of decaf coffee. I have this same breakfast every morning, while Tom eats a portion of egg casserole that I make every few weeks and freeze in individual portions. This makes mornings a little easier.

Of course, this morning, he ate a good-sized portion of the apple crisp (minus the ice cream) I made yesterday for Leon, making two smaller pans for Tom. We froze one and he’ll be eating the other over the next several days. He’d hoped to have some last night when we returned from dinner, but he was full and didn’t want to eat anything so close to going to bed.

A moment ago, four zebras visited the garden. Tom suggested we give them the leftover apple peels from the 36 apples yesterday. We gave half of them to Norman this morning and now the zebras are enjoying the second half. We all know horses love apples, and zebras are not a lot different in their taste preferences. Then again, Norman loved them as well.

Today, I am making enough spicy chicken peanut stir fry to last for three nights. I’ve cut up all of the chicken and it’s marinating in the fridge. I spent a few hours chopping the chicken and vegetables including the laborious task of cleaning sugar snap peas and pea pods, removing all those pesky strings that can get caught in one’s throat if they aren’t removed.

To keep the dish fresh each night, I will cook all the chicken today but cook each night’s vegetables and seasonings separately so they don’t get overcooked. I’ll add the cooked chicken at the last minute to reheat it in the pan with stir-fried vegetables. We still have plenty of fried rice, stored in individual containers in the freezer, left from when we had Dawn and Leon come for dinner, and stayed overnight in the little cottage.

The bottom line is…I don’t like to have to be in the kitchen for hours each day. Prepping meals for three dinners works well for us since we love the dishes we make and thoroughly enjoy having them three nights in a row. We never get tired of what we had the previous night. Then, all I have to do is make a salad.

I know salad doesn’t necessarily go with stir-fry but since I gave up having an after dinner snack three nights ago, I find if I eat a big salad with dinner, I don’t get hungry after dinner. I have never been one to eat when I’m not hungry but when I was eating less at dinner to save “room” for the ritual of the snack, it was impossible not to be hungry an hour later.

Now, I make sure I’ve had enough to hold me over to the next meal, 14 or 15 hours later. This way, I am doing “intermittent fasting,” a method that works best for me. With the hearty breakfast, I don’t even think about food all day long until it’s dinnertime. But come around 5:00 pm, 1700 hrs., I get hungry. Tom prefers to eat later so we compromise and have dinner around 5:30, 1730 hrs. That works for both of us. If we were to eat lunch, which we never do, obviously, we could eat dinner much later.

Yep, it’s still really humid today. Right now, at noon, the dew point is 75, the highest we’ve seen since last summer. With the three loads of laundry I’m doing today, going back and forth to the outdoor laundry area, the chopping, dicing and cooking I am doing today, I found myself soaking wet in sweat, a rarity for me. At one point, I went into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed with the fan cooling me off.

Oops, it’s time for me to get the next load of laundry from the washer and hang it up to dry. The clothes won’t dry today due to the high humidity. Tonight, Tom will haul the laundry rack indoors, hoping for a sunny day tomorrow. We’ve seen the drying take almost three days to dry when the humidity is this high. This time won’t be an exception.

Once I upload today’s post, I’ll get to work on the record keeping I’ve failed to do in the past several weeks. There sure is plenty to do each day which I am sure is the case for all of you.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, November 13, 2021: