All rolled up

A rolled up bamboo blind on my mom's verandah.

Wordless Wednesday - Gimme all your lovin'

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Fairy plates

Bradley was fascinated with spraying water onto the nasturtium leaves at my mom's house this afternoon. And then once we told him they were fairy plates, he was hooked.
I wonder... does anyone else know nasturtium leaves as fairy plates, or it this a family thing?

Stamen of a white lily

I got home late today, so took more photos of the flowers my parents gave us for our anniversary last week.

Wild garlic

While I was taking photos of the wild garlic...

... Connor was eating it. LOL!

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Sky glorious sky

We're really enjoying the blue skies after having so much rain.

This was the gorgeous sunset last night.

And the sun rays this afternoon.

Swimming party

A is Bradley's other girlfriend. She goes to school with him and they're inseperable at the moment. She had a dolphin party today, and thankfully the weather cleared up so the water party could happen as planned.

A in action on the inflatable water slide.

Bradley waiting for his turn

The birthday season has started so the next few months are going to be packed with kids parties on weekends.

Mushroom after the rains

We had a bit of a break from all the rain today, and the mushrooms are already popping up in the lawn!

The traffic in Sandton today

I took the photo looking at my sidemirror in the traffic today... you can see the cars snaking up the hill.. at a complete standstill.

This is the result of load-shedding! Eskom (SA's electricity provider) doesn't have enough capacity to provide power to everyone anymore, so every day they turn off power to different suburbs on a timetable (or so they say because they rarely stick to it).
Today, Sandton was without power from 6-8:30am and then from 10am-4:30pm! It's causing chaos in this country... and the level of productivity in all industries is just dropping sharply as a result. It's only when you don't have the power, that you realise how much you rely on it.

Wordless Wednesday - I'm grateful I own a car

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Waiting for the rain

Connor is getting a bit frustrated at not being able to play outside. It's been raining and mizz for days now.

Judges graffiti

Took this on Judges avenue in Windsor East today. Apologies for the skew photo, but the graffiti is painted on a wall on a very busy road, and there's a crash barrier in front of it so I couldn't stand further away. In fact one of the reasons I like this so much is because of it's location. It's on a garden wall on a busy corner and it just brightens up the whole drab suburb.

This is only part of it, I'll post more another day. The words in the red bubble on the left say "Cum get some", in case you were wondering.
If anyone has seen nice graffiti around Jo'burg please let me know ;).

My garden today

I've had a lot of comments from people wondering what my garden actually looks like, so I've decided to post some pics of it. This is looking out from the balcony where the study is, looking from right to left. The pictures actually do follow and overlap a bit.
It's a bit of a "before" scene, as a lot is going to change in the next few months. Madi's husband gave me a lot of ideas when they came for a braai (barbeque) a few weeks ago), and I'm dying to start.

The white bit in the photo below is a garden umbrella.

The pool area. On the left of the photo, behind the wall, there's another little garden filled with tropical looking plants. Excuse the mess, LOL, with the pool net etc.

The sandy bit at the top of the photo is where we're planting new trees to hide the neighbours house. There is another flower bed further to the right with my roses, and then the garden goes around the house to a kitchen garden where I've got a small herb flower bed.

It's big hey!

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Rain Spider's nest

Look what I found in my garden this afternoon!! It's the size of a ostrich egg and is suspended between leaves of a wild iris. I say "is" because the nest is still there, but we've sprayed all the hundreds of spiderlings that were living in it.

Thankfully we also found the mother Rain Spider close by. She was massive! And I was too scared to go closer to take a photo of her (and I was trying to keep Bradley and Connor away from them).

I know I've posted about loving animals being important on my other blog today, so killing them seems a bit two-faced, but you have to remember that I have 2 kids running around the garden and their safety is much more important that these spiders.

Puddles

It rained for most of the day, so I went outside to try and take some photos of the raindrops in the puddles.

When I turned to look at Connor... he was having some fun exploring in the rain :)
and then trying to crawl away from me to see what other mischief he could get up to!

Bradley's girlfriend

This is Skylar. She's such a pretty little girl. Bradley and Skylar have been friends since they were tiny babies, and they reckon they're going to marry each other. LOL! Her mom is one of my mom's friends. Skylar was missing Bradley, so she invited him for a playdate this afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday - Yummy dirt on my fingers

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Rose called Sylvia

I bought this rose because my grandmother's name is Sylvia. And of course because it's so pretty! I finally have a nice rose from the bush to take a photo of... I've been struggling to control the bugs on this bush and have finally got rid of them (my other roses seem more resistant to bugs).

Bring it on, I'm ready

It was Bradley's first day at BIG school today. He's in grade 00 this year.

He was not going to let me take boring photos today, he insisted on striking some poses.

Beetle

This beetle was on the leaves of the irises all day today. It wasn't too impressed when I tried to take a photo of it, and reared up to try and touch the camera.

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Ostrich

We went to Lemon Rose Farm today for a playdate with friends. I had to follow this silly ostrich for quite some time with Connor on my hip to finally one-handedly get a good shot. So... here's 2 photos just because of all the effort it took!

Round and round the garden...

... like a teddy bear,

one step, two step,

tickly under there!

We went to visit the Children's Home again today. This is Leanne playing with Steven.

He's looking fantastic compared to the last time we were there. It was a good day actually, because all the children looked healthy.

Bradley's photography

This is me and Connor. Bradley's getting quite good at taking photos. Yes, using my camera ;). Not bad considering he's 4 years old.

I promise I have taken a photo for today, it's here.

Wordless Wednesday - Duck!! It's Big Foot!!

My first Rubber Duck Explorer shot :)

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Compass

My dad went to China on business recently, and he got this old Chinese Feng Shui compass as a gift. It's in the most beautiful leather box with 2 dragons on it. And the inside of the box is full of chinese writing.

Graffiti on Monkor

This is on Monkor Ave in Kelland. I stopped on the way home from work today to get the shot. This is much more artistic than the last graffiti photo that I took.

I'm going to be on the hunt for more. I've seen some lovely examples, I just have to stop in dodgy places to get those shots.

Raindrops

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I really enjoy taking photos of raindrops around the garden. So, I couldn't resist going out while it was still raining to get some shots.

Symmetrical raindrops
Raindrops on the thatch lapa

Stable mates nuzzling

The ground was too wet for Bradley to ride today, so they learnt about grooming horses ears today. While the kids were busy, I took Connor for a walk to see the horses.

These horses were next to each other in the paddocks, waiting for their turns to get groomed. I was very lucky to see El Gitano (right) lean over the railing to give Malawi (left) a nuzzle.

They're both still quite new at the stables. Malawi is a SPCA rescue. He's been at the stables for just over 2 months, and is looking fantastic now.
El Gitano is a thoroughbred who was living in very bad conditions. He'd been without water for ages and was barely fed. He's nearly 20 years old, and Melody doesn't expect him to fully recover for another 2 years (he's been at the stables for about 6 months). He was extremely under-nourished (which you can still see in the next photo), and had bad colic. He's also allergic to maize, so he's on a special diet.

Being the big brother

... means helping baby brother learn how to walk.

Brushing the dog

Bradley decided to give Robbie (my parents' laborador) a brush. He loves doing it, and Robbie really enjoys the attention.

Giving Robbie a good brush


Robbie's really enjoying it now.

Bradley laughing at Robbie rolling on the grass after he'd finished.

Wordless Wednesday - Echeveria

Action in the pool

We had a lovely day at my mom's house today with friends and family. It was a scorcher again, so Elaine (my sister), her boyfriend and his cousin ended up in the pool playing with the Wazooka. The kids were swimming too, but I thought these pics would be nice for a change :) (even though Elaine is going to kill me for posting the last one).

Brian and Richard fighting for the Wazooka...

OK, who's next?
Not me, not me!!