Saturday
Today was the day…
We swam! We thought it would rain, but it just missed us. A gentle north wind was blowing, so the Fish Hoek bay was flat and calm. This meant I had to swim and swim and swim to get to 2km. Finally after 50 minutes, I achieved my goal and left the water. Mike had put bread on before we left, so an hour after our return, a fresh loaf was on the table and breakfast was literally breaking bread! A quiet morning followed with a lovely video call with Stacey and Elsie.
There are always water craft in the bay and today we saw a most unusual one. We haven’t seen this before. It was called Tara and is a sailing boat with 2 masts and 4 sails. This was the photo Mike took through the telescope…
I googled it to find out what it is. A gaff-rigged staysail ketch! Amazing what you can find online!
When Mike took the photo, he said, ‘that’s something for your blog’. There often are things to write about. In the afternoon, Julian and I walked to Fish Hoek for a bit of shopping. When we got back, we sat on the balcony and ate ice cream. While there, he showed me some of his photos from his recent trip to Zimbabwe, including my childhood home. Anne, you will recognise this….236 Cheviot Rd.
This is the house we lived in from about 1969 (or earlier) – 1972. I remember learning to ride a bike on this drive way. I also remember falling off the wall of the front stoep and gouging a hole behind my left knee. I still have the scar. On the right of the photo was a large lawn, which, somehow, one Saturday morning while we were at the library, caught fire. When we got home, the fire engine had come and gone and the lawn was burnt to a crisp. I remember being amazed at how soon it began to recover. Another vivid memory of this house is rowdy games of cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians. I was the youngest of 4, so my older brothers and sister often had friends around. You could run or cycle all the way round the house and there would be much racing about charging after each other. I was too young to participate but was always an enthusiastic spectator. I remember one day falling and being ridden over by one of Arnold’s friends (possibly Peter Chadwick) . He was very apologetic. I wasn’t badly hurt.
Across the road was “the bush” – it was a huge tract of land with typical long highveld grass that was criss-crossed by pedestrian paths. The grass was much taller than me so I found the whole place a bit intimidating and never went into the bush on my own. Going with my siblings was fun and exciting. I remember one Sunday afternoon, the 4 of us were going and my Mom told my sister she could take me but to make sure I didn’t get wet (it looked like rain). It began to rain while we were out and I was hurried home. My parents were sleeping, so Anne rushed to get me dry before they woke up. I remember her putting me in her dressing gown so I wouldn’t get cold!
This house was filled with happy memories. We rented the house from a family who lived in Wankie and the husband worked at the coal mine there. Devastatingly, a massive explosion on 6th June 1972 killed 427 workers, including the owner of this house. His wife and family moved back to (then) Salisbury and we moved out. I think of all the homes we lived in, this was the one with the happiest memories.
Time to go and get dinner cooked.
2 Samuel 22:33-34
God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places.
The best is yet to come – we are only passing through.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you.
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂