Picnics and walks on the beach

In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.

20 December 2014.

Alhamdulillah, I love this weather – it’s balmy, kind of hot and overcast but pleasant. Grey clouds loom overhead and the kind of weather that makes our kitties frisky. First I consider a day for a picnic, but alas there is building so will have to wait till this evening for a beach walk. Very early morning and I take Wolverine outside where he runs the gauntlet at breakneck speed, darting in and out of the strawberry plants, chewing grass, investigating what could be interesting under the pallets and in between stones.

Leo where are you?

I stand like a sentry on watch, just in case another cat is lurking. Last night we could hear the cat fights all around us so I guess cats are in season.  Wolverine calls out for Leo, but no reply. A rumbling truck passes by and the thunderous sound makes him dart for the doorway like The Flash. Today inshaAllah we go and visit Leo at animal care, hoping the break was not too severe and fixed up, they will also sterilize him, poor baby.

I can’t believe they arrived when they were 3 weeks old and now they are 3 months. The hospital said in two days we could call. Yesterday we called but a woman who does not understand that I have R12 on my phone drones on about pressing 1 for an emergency, 2 to find out about kennels blah blah blah and then I am patched in to the switchboard and she starts droning again.

I visit the rows and rows of strawberry plants that are still bearing fruit albeit not as much and not as big, they are delectably sweet. I pull off the growth scorched by the sun and pat up mounds around the plants. I check up on the plants in grow bags because this weather dries them out quickly. A solitary snail glides up onto the wild garlic; birds are swoop down low in the cool morning breeze collecting worms in the grass and the strawberries I tossed out of the beds.


delphinium blues

I look up and make duah for rain, the garden can do with a good drenching. I am so chaffed because the delphiniums are in various shades of blue. There is a cascade of fuchsias on the stoep. This is their season. When I trimmed the bushes last week, I stuck cuttings in soil which have all sprouted new growth and the young plants are all starting to bud Alhamdulilah. I am relieved that the bougainvillea have taken and are starting to crawl up the walls. The cosmos daisies are going to bloom soon. Cosmos is such a hardy plant and quick to grow too for a splash of colour against a wall.

sweetpea, flax and coriander seeds

I work quickly because today there is so much to do - I want to replant garlic and asparagus. I want to shake seeds off the coriander and flax bushes and catch lettuce seeds too so I can redo the beds with lettuce and rocket and basil for summer salads and savouries.  And I would like to remove the iris bulbs from the soil - I always forget where I planted them thus, hurt them with the spade.

 

In this weather we can work in the garden all day – no scorching sun! I glance over at the white fig and notice the branches are filled with figs.

 

white figs



cosmos

I also want to do some baking to store for beach days, visitors and snoeping. I have cashews and honey for baklava and made some botter beskuit. My kids want to bring back an old favourite - coconut nests of way back. “Only on condition that you help roll the small balls and dip in egg whites and coconut!” So ja, I guess they have fallen out of love with Oreos. Home baked cakes and biscuits are the best. It’s also more cost effective.

I have to say goodbye to my wicker picnic basket because it has been appropriated by the cats. In fact it was the perfect vehicle to take Leo to hospital in and now Wolverine has made it his nest. Later.

Plant food and make delectable things for the holidays.

Yasmine