Spring

I had forgotten how beautiful this place is in spring - absolutely beautiful.  Maybe its because everything is smaller - the streets, the shops, the houses, the colour seems more concentrated there are literally flowers everywhere you look.  The daffs have died off now but have been replaced with tulips, and all sorts of other flowers which I unfortunately dont know the names of and of course the trees are covered in blossoms.  I have also discovered that my snotty nose could be hay fever after all.

The teens have been off this week so I have been able to take Erin to riding and I got to go along on the rides using a bicycle that belongs to my crazy friend and in case you are wondering the little rat in the basket is her dog Pookie.    Having had 3 kids hanging off the front and sides of my shopping trolleys over the years definitely came in handy trying to balance this little load in the front.  I have never been much of a cyclist but I think I may be hooked, it was fantastic cycling through the forest.  I then went back to the stables with them and hauled muck for an hour on both occasions and seriously I could hardly walk when I got in last night, I went to bed at 8.30pm.

And tonight we are off to celebrate the start of spring at a friend and yes you guessed it we are having a braai or BBQ Brit style,  DH is head chef so maybe he can show them a thing or two.   And then next week it's the wedding and we are all getting spruced up for that, cant wait!

Update

I haven't updated my blog for 2 weeks and I have no idea why?  I have lots going on, nothing life threatening or anything but important all the same.

 I am feeling very disconnected to a lot of my blogging buddies :(  left out somehow and it's feels unfair as I am able to chat with them just as easily as I could in SA.  Please add me to your whats app if you have it, I have a iphone so bbm doesn't work for me and then we can CHAT.

I am still constantly amazed by technology, yesterday I was reading in bed with my laptop open on the bed too with Devin chatting to us on skype whilst he was connected to Erin's computer downloading some software for her via teamviewer.  It was as if he was in the room with us, I in fact carried on reading whilst he worked listening to him tinkling in the background.   :)

I am taking no photos :( I have my little camera but my biggie is not working and I am not feeling flush enough to send it in besides the fact that I would love to upgrade it anyway, the price to fix it is about half of the cost of a upgraded new one.  Of course this is not the only reason I am not taking pics, my teens are as usual full of the proverbial and landscape pics require my biggie.  Steph - whats your secret you seem to be able to photograph yours teens?

Both Erin and Scott have their heads permanently in their school books, huge exams coming up for Scott and he is putting a lot of effort in.  Erin is working without any nudges - amazing to see, considering that she was completely written off by the South African schools she attended and a couple of others after she wrote their entrance exams.  The school she is at here has a complete remedial centre and I was expecting to hear from them - not once, she is not considered to need any assistance.

Monday

Quite a day today, I wrote 2 exams this morning - PowerPoint and Publisher, I spent a good few hours on them over the weekend so I flew through PP with no mistakes and 2 mistakes in Publisher so I was happy and so was my examiner.  I had planned to write Excel too but thats for another day along with one or two of the others. Judging by my notes Access could take me awhile :(

My little baby birds have hatched, too sweet and too ugly at the same time, featherless little bundles.  The mom and dad are backwards and forwards with worms, all very exciting.  I havent managed to get a pic I tried yesterday but mom was watching me from the fence so I backed off.

Spring has truly sprung around here and I am sooo feeling it.....I am like a real Brit now, if the sun is out so am I :)

It was mothers day here yesterday Erin gave me a box of Thorntons chocs, purple tulips from DH and an iphone speakers set from Scott.  Not bad not bad, for my bunch. 

Life

I woke up this morning thinking about the beautiful house we used to live in in Constantia Cape Town, perfectly situated on a very tree lined street, the trees literally touched each other from across the street and the squirrels would run from tree to tree.   There was a beautiful old church around the corner that we called the Parish church when if fact it was called St. Michael's but it was on Parish Road and just further on the Constantia village shopping centre.  The shopping centre was less than a km from the house. 

Why am I writing this - because with all that lovely sunshine, those beautiful tree lined streets, a shopping centre less than a km away I would get into my petrol guzzling 4 x 4 and DRIVE to the centre, leaving my dogs at home.  Oh how much more balanced a way of life I now live.  Why did I drive, because that is what everyone does there (I am not generalising either), except of course the maids.  The walk would have been perfectly safe during the day, but I wouldn't have been able to tie my dogs up outside the centre though, and had I walked I would certainly have been considered 'different' to say the least. 

I did recycle back then just as I do today but I don't think that would have been enough to offset my 4 x 4's carbon footprint?