In & Around Morwa

In & around our Morwa house there are a zillion things to do…

Building is and will always be ‘almost finished’. But apart from the details that probably still will have to be done in 2020 there are some things we wanna have now now, like drawers in the kitchen and bookshelves. Then there are the fun new projects we keep dreaming up, like Bram’s hot tub. And last but not least: Project ‘prevent soil erosion, create a greenish oasis on top of the rooisand’.

Bram’s breakfast: Morvite. Maud thinks it tastes like ground cardboard and has the consistency of wallpaper glue, but he and the dogs absolutely love it. And Bram gets extremely grumpy when it is not available, or, slightly less unsettling, when the ‘original taste’ is out of stock and he has to make do with the vanilla-, strawberry- or honey-flavoured substitute.

Taking you mighty long dude, to eat your share and give us what is ours.

Yeah, the doors are in! Since living in the semi-desert is like living close to the beach this makes a big difference in the amount of sand blowing into our stuff. By now Maud is almost over the shock she got when she opened the can of paint Bram bought – baby diaper instead of the colour we theoretically agreed upon, reddish sand. (Click on picture to see .gif effect:-)

Schoolboys in Gaborone. Some days a trip to town is necessary; foraging, meetings with clients and printers, hanging out with friends, and so on.

Botswana is both way bigger and way smaller then the Netherlands. It is roughly the same size as France, but wherever you go, you will always meet someone you know. Bram’s mom neighbour Mme Binkie on the road in Morwa.

Visiting across the road to welcome Neo’s first kid, our second granddaughter, Amogelang Elisa, into this world.

Traditionally Neo and her baby should stay in the rondavel for three months. Men are not allowed anywhere near her hut, and woman can only visit if they are close family. But Neo isn’t that traditional so Bram can just walk in and out as he likes. Note Maud’s super cute boyfriend in his cool pyjamas on the left!

Visiting at the other side of Gaborone, to celebrate Calum’s 7th birthday. Note the Dutch World Championship 2010 soccer cap – we must have had at least half a suitcase packed with soccer crap.

Go Calum, go, no goals for Bram! A genuine Dutch-Scottish Boy, practising for his soccer birthday party.

Cuttings & seedlings – this picture was taken just before a dog-break-in breakin’ & diggin’ party.

A cutting Maud took from the bush last March, armed with only a small knife. By now both cars are equipped with sufficient ‘Hey, stop, I see a nice plant at the roadside’ tools. The small dark green discs are new growth.

The big baby is a cutting from Greetje’s yard. The white arrow is pointing to a ‘clever’ cutting from the cutting thanks to the dogs. They use the cactus garden as a cut-through to race upon the hill when they hear monkeys or squirrels, breaking quite a lot of plants on their way. Maud tries to be less frustrated about this by converting break-offs into cuttings.

And now for something completely different: what used to be the steps to the highest point of our plot are now The Steps to The Playboy Pool. Note the vague greyish structure behind the tree (top right). We’ll unveil our Sky Spa next week…

Dig this horrible diggers; no secret entrances left (we hope)!

Thanks a lot Nadia, Moira, Lisa, Louis and Lionel! The two white arrows are pointing at more break-offs, sorry, clever cuttings.

Miena’s Oleander – actually everything around it is also born by Miena’s garden. Or should we say Tears’ garden, cause she created it. Botswana is small; our friends Tears & Andre build and lived in the Khale View house that our friends Miena & Bernard now own.

Kalahari Desert Race 2010

 

Our first weekend out: the Kalahari Desert Race, featuring Nr 86 Mr Mpho Bowie. And Nr 75 Mr Hamish Bowie tagging along with the other old geezers. To make it to the start in time, we camped in the bush the evening before at bike refuelling point number 1, together with some early South African crew. Hamish organized us a crew pass so we could drive past the huge police force on duty the next morning and park at the pits.

 

Whether you like racing or not, if you have never seen it before, the pits and the start sure are fascinating! Especially since the officials were very easy-going so we could get really close to our boys at heart and at the start.

 

Next to the bikes there is a race for factory cars and dessert warriors. After seeing first the cars and then the bikes with Mpho & Hamish start, we went into the bush for The Race part two. Together with Greetje & Arend (who used to race himself) and 5 ‘Terrible Teenagers’ (who actually were very polite & well-behaved) we did our own desert race to find a nice spot somewhere in the bush along the route, to have a braai and see the cars speed by.

Trying to find a good spot along the route proved not to be easy. We got lost, drove around the BDF lands (Botswana Defence Forces), reached a hilltop with a fabulous view and a BDF communications tower, met some army guys who also didn’t know where we should go (luckily they tend to be very relaxed about people driving over their lands despite all the ‘no go area’ signs), and ended up on a dump site. At some point Maud knew where we were: the BDF shooting range in the bush. Not that that was very helpful, cause she had no idea how to get from there to where we wanted be.  In the end we did find a nice spot with a shady braai area and a good view of the track.

Sure, we really are interested in the race, really really. It is not about spending a nice day in the bush, having a braai, chatting, reading a book at all.

 

 

But come on, the real attraction is the cuties in their cool racing gear, and how much of that do we get to see along the track?

Maud’s Sugah daddy Hamish, ready to race.

Back in Botswana

Finally here they are: the first (and by now 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and etcetera) back home in Morwa pictures. Except for the fact that the Iberia koffiemoffie in Schiphol refused to label our luggage through to Gaborone, so we had to pick everything in Johannesburg, go through customs and immigrations, and check in again, we had a smooth trip till OR Tambo. While we killed time with ‘shop till you drop’ Bram met Madiba.

After almost 24 hours of being ‘on the way’ all you want is to get back home, so when our last plane, Joburg to Gabs, turned around halfway due to a ‘small technical problem’ we were not amused. Actually Maud was dying of fear cause small technical problem my ass, they don’t let a plane turn around halfway for something minor, and besides, during take-off she already noticed there was something fishy with an engine she was sitting close to. Touching ground at last at OR Tambo wasn’t exactly reassuring. Bram was over the moon with all the fire-brigade trucks, ambulances and general disaster vehicles that had been waiting for us and were racing alongside of us, flashing alarm lights and sirens full on.

Finally out of the plane!

Availability of so many disaster services might have been the reason that we turned around instead of flying on – we were halfway after all, but Gabarone’s Sir Seretse Khama International Airport probably has less to offer in that area. The problem by the way was a big bird that had flown into one of the engines and completely buggered it.

As always, Bashi had taken immaculate care of the dogs, the house and the yard. Wish we would keep everything that clean and neat! (Note for Paul & Jacinta: look, the batik you gave us fits perfectly!)

While we were away, Bashi paved underneath the veranda in front of the house. This gives us a posh parking spot for the small bakkie and, more important, it will prevent soil erosion. The paving looks like it has always been there, it really blends in.

Amazing, the Orange trumpet creepers already hit the roof – those were about a meter high only when planted, less then a year ago. We have been so lucky. It was a quite cold winter, across the road a whole row of these creepers were totally frozen, while ours look great.

The Weeping boerbean we planted for Maud’s dad in front and all the other tiny new trees look great thanks to Bashi’s good care.

This fireplace is a lifesaver. We had a fire every evening for the first six weeks because as soon as the sun is gone, wintertime is really cold. While we were gone, Bashi and the dogs had an outside fire every evening to get comfortably warm before going to sleep.

Our granddaughter Lala and Yvonne came over for pancakes. Can’t believe how big Lala is already!

Little Princess ready to charm everyone into playing with her.

The View. Bram is savouring this as it may change.

Klipdassies love a lair with a view – you will find colonies on all rocky hills in and around the village. Early morning they come out to sun bathe, looking ever so cute. They are even kind of forgiven for coming into the yard and eating hard-earned aloes when there is not enough food in the bush…

Bram during his ‘lets take some more pictures’ walk.

Maud and her boyfriend Zach waiting for the braai.

The first of many ‘lunches’. This one was for Jeff’s parents from the States, Joan & John, who came to visit Morwa in August.

Yes, this is quiche and it is edible, even though it’s not a big chunk of bloody meat.

This year will be the year of fighting soil erosion by planting stuff all over the yard. Which introduces the ‘dogs versus flora’ war – they sure like to dig! Maud suspects the new dog Lionel is teaching the old ones because when he wasn’t living with us yet it wasn’t as bad as it is now. In the picture: a succulent plant (forgot its name) in the evening sun. This one makes new plants at the tips of its leaves, which makes propagation quite easy.

A nice surprise: so many of our aloes and other succulents are blooming at the end of winter. That really brightens the a bit desolate looking after-winter garden.

Fighting soil erosion part 1: collect empty milk and juice cartons, fill them with soil, and put cuttings or seeds.

Fighting soil erosion part 2: put all cuttings and seeds in the greenhouse, water faithfully, and Lock The Bloody Door! By now the greenhouse is a fortress – we block an illegal entrance, the dogs find another way to get in and ruin stuff, we block again and so on.

Lunch again (and quiches again, Maud’s new thing to do for guests, though she wants to move on to Mexican food by now). Bert & Sophia and their beauties – we were in the Netherlands simultaneously in July, but only managed to get together for a nice mellow afternoon when back in Botswana. European life is just too hectic:-)

Even though the rains fail to come, some trees decide it is spring so they will flower.

At neighbour Mma Winny’s plot the kids are still in their winter clothes, while the trees slowly change to their summery green outfits.

The first of many smaller and bigger building jobs: protect the stair steps from rain and, mainly, way too much scorching sun by lacquering them with a ‘Marine coating’. Yeas, Marine coating in the desert.

A quite successful propagation project from last year.

Maud’s mother gave us this one when she visited last March – the first two cuttings are in the green house by now.

Can’t wait till all the soil is covered with plants…