FARM - PARYS- FREE STATE. SOUTH AFRICA.

The river frontage of our farm.

The house, so peaceful, looking down to the river, The Vaal River.  This is a winter veld looking down at the river,  we love it here.
The river is down by the trees.

GOOD MORNING MY FOLLOWERS

Hi my friends,  so glad to have had a few more lovelies join me this week,  it really makes me happy, as I am sure it does when we come and follow you.  You all do such wonderful work and over the last year I have learnt a lot form you all,  as I mentions I am going to try and do an Art Journal, but you know when you start anything new it is the first step that it the hardest.  I must say I have been putting a lot of thought into it, so I suppose that is a start.
The weather is warm here in Johannesburg, had a few dull day and a bit of rain,  we always happy to have a bit of rain.  It gets dry and dustry here end of Jan and Feb sometimes and very hot.  I hate being hot, I think my thermometor is not set correctlhy I am always hotter than everyone else,  quite embarassing, best to sit HERE in air conditioning.  As a matter of interest there are some children in this country that have never seen rain, never mind about snow,  if interested I will look into it and let you know more about these places.
I am away to the farm until Thursday,  hope I get a connection there,  otherwise I am at a real lose end and not tooooooooo  happy at all.   Maybe then I can organise and clean up this Laptop!!!
This is a picture when we had a fire last summer.  My brother lives in this house.  The Vaal river is behind the house in the dip, and we are between river and brothers house.

Go well all of you and have a creative and safe week.  

THE WEEK.

Hi All, another week has gone by, a little bit of trouble here in South Africa, sorry for the miners that were shot and injured.  The family who are left without the bread winner is a bad thing and the sadness and unnessary acts all in all are not good.   I sometimes think one lot stirs the others on, Politics is  a terrible thing they are all out for their own gain, power is a terrible thing.  I hope that it can all be settled now with no more bloodshed.  May the Blessing of the Lord be with all.

Next week I am going to get down to a bit of work,  I have had a bit of a cold and you know how you feel, like a washed out old rag, just feel like being on the bed.

Welcome to all my new followers, love to see that, and also the visitors and blogwalkers coming by, you are all welcomed and loved,  hope I can find something of interest this week to post,  all cards and things these last few weeks.

We went to the farm this past week and went out and bought 3 duck, a traumatic affair for the ducks, not nice for them they were in a box for about 15 mins and then let out into a strange pond.  Now we hear that one of them is missing, maybe it is a snake, we do not know,  if he was not injured or eaten he should come home again before it gets dark. 

One of the bottom ones are missing, I do so hope he comes home.

Another bit of news for the week coming is that Lee is playing in the Cricket Trials for Gauteng next Sat. 23 Aug.  so we are holding thumbs for him.  Good little player he is only 9, so here is holding thumbs.  

Night my friends.  xx

WINTER AT THE FARM

We have had the farm for 20 years, and this is the first time we have seen snow there, unluckily we are not there Gordon sent us these photos.  For those of you who do not know the farm is near Parys, (Free State) and on the Vaal River.  We spend quite a bit of time here, and I can tell you it is usually very, very hot here.  Have just spoken to my daughter and she says that it is snowing in Vereeniging

VIEW FROM OUR FARM VERANDA

The Vaal River is down there flowing through the trees before the little hill.

VAAL RIVER NEAR PARYS.

This is the Vaal River, in front of our farm, Our house is build 700 Mts away from the river, cause I was frightened that someone would blow up the Vaal Dam wall and we would get washed away, funny what people think.!!!! A few years ago they caught a few people who were planning it!! can you believe it.

We have had so much rain up here, that the Vaal Dam in overflowing and they are opening the sluice gates. More Photos to follow

.

This of course this photos is the usual one, the quite Vaal.

THE FARM

The evening sky, we all love a wonderful sunset gives us hope for tomorrow, that life still goes on and the beauty that the Lord gave us is always appreciated.

GIRLS PLAYING AT THE FARM

Micayla and Jessie, the Lab, and our little Cassidy. They came visiting at the farm, Micayla is my Brothers one and only Granddaughter, and no other grandchildren as yet. Cassidy is our Granddaughter also one and only she is our daughter Tracy's daugher.

FRIENDS FOR LUNCH

We had some very dear and friends of many years, out to the farm for lunch, we had a ball and ate too much !!! I gave them this Lamb dish it really is delicious and easy. That suits me.

LAMB AND DATE TAGINE
Nigella Lawson

Ingredients
3-4 tbsp goose fat or olive oil
2 onions, peeled and chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground allspice
1kg/2lb 3oz boneless leg of lamb, chopped into cubes
250g/9oz soft dried dates, stones removed, or Medjool dates, stones removed
250ml/9fl oz pomegranate juice
250ml/9fl oz water
2 tsp Maldon sea salt, or 1 tsp table salt

Method
1. Warm the goose fat (or oil) in a wide heavy-based pan with a lid. Add the onions and cook gently over a low heat for ten minutes, or until softened.
2. Add the ground cinnamon, turmeric, ginger, cumin and allspice and mix well.
3. Turn up the heat and add the lamb, stirring often, until browned all over.
4. Add the dates, pomegranate juice, water and salt and bring to the boil. Cover with the lid and turn down the heat to very low to cook for two hours. (You can cook in the oven if you prefer, for two hours at 150C/300F/Gas 2.)
5. Serve in bowls.

MICAYLA FIRST BIRTHDAY

MANY, MANY MORE HAPPY AND

BLESSED BIRTHDAYS.

--oOo--

PATCH WORK

This picture taken at the Farm.

As you can see from the date.

This was me in the days before

Digi Scrap !!!

That is a lot of what I did then,

a lot of other Arts and Crafts

Always loved paper crafts.

But now all I do is Digi Scrap and that Damn Face Book

Which takes up a lot of my time.

Love it though.

VAAL RIVER

This is our bit of river we see from the banks. The house is not very near to the river, I was a bit nervous of floods.
It is one of the big rivers in South Africa.
Up stream from us is the Vaal Dam and down river is the town Parys.

THE FARM

This is our house at the farm and the little one next door is for visitors.
Remember it is winter now, will be much greener in the summer.
It is not very big 9 hectares, 1 km, long by 100 mt. wide, you will have to do the conversions,
we love it here it is so quite. We very often see a little buck, bunny and lots of birds.
The distance from Johannesburg is 1 hour, near a little town called Parys, believe it or not named after Paris, many, many years ago. It is on the Vaal River.

OUR GOLFER LEE

Credits: RDickson_COAlpha_blue_L

BEibel_overlays_P

Komashyaru_MarussisDesigns_paperGrunge.

FARM

I do not think I have mentioned that the Farm is called "The Frogery" helped by the fact that we have thousands of frogs here, it must be in the mating season that they go mad with chiors of frogs, can hardly sleep. Then of course the poor little tadpols get eaten by the fish in the pond

and birds and what have u. I suppose just as well the place would be really jumping, otherwise.

The name was created by a late friend, Paddy, we all tried to think of a name, and she came up with Frogery.

We have been busy in the last two weeks as you can read below. On the 10 June we are going to the Kruger National Park, our fav. place in the world, hope to have some lovely photo, for my blog.

MICAYLA

Little Micayla, is not so little anymore. She is a big baby and very strong, was holding her head firmly from a very early age, also her teething seemed to be early. But the most amazing thing she is crawling already 2 weeks ago, and she was born 15 September 2009. I think this is amazing. Such a special little thing, always happy and clapping her hands in glee. She is also a thumb sucker.

Oh, the thumb suckers, THUMB

may look wrinkled, wet and withered

and as white as snow

but the taste of a thumb

is the sweetest tast yet

(as only we thumb suckers know)

I used Kit Blindsight Designs_annandandy

The thumb sucker was taken from a book I have Expressions by Adrienne Lubbe and Bonny Phillips.

THE FARM

Tony and I are at the farm until Monday, one week here and two weeks at home. We love it here quite and peaceful, no traffic or the noise, that come from living in a big city. The dogs think they are in heaven of course, they can run and play, chase a bird if they feel like it, the good thing about that is they will never catch a bird, they don't know that, we are not telling!

Not much work for them to do here, as at home they run up and down to the gate all day, just about, barking at all that wanders by.

While I sit here at my sloooooooow lap top, I have a bird feeder hanging outside the windown not more than 3 ft away from me and their are two birds that will never go hungry, they are here all the time. Not very spectacular birds but sweet none the less. They are called, we looked in the book, Lesser Honey Guide.

VISITORS AT THE FARM

We had people for lunch on Sunday for lunch. Fred, Maureen, Tania, Rudi, Macyla, and the Cantello there were 4 of them, Tylar and Chelsy came with them, it is good to have children around keeps you on your toes. I know I always say it Macyla is a big baby, had two teeth and is not 6 months old yet. She was born 15 Sept. 2009. 5 months old, at the rate she is going I am sure she will miss school and go straight to University !!!!!! The weather was not too bad, we have had a lot of rain this year, as every where in the world seems to be have a lot of something.
We ate heartily, Roast whole rump, potato salad, butter bean salad, I made a lovely, even though I say so myself, Tomato, onion, celery and chuncks of cream cheese. Home made bread (don't you believe the bread story, I buy the dough from the bakery, naughty girl).

VAAL DAM

Our Farm is about 3/4 hr. drive away from the dam. Tony and I came to have lunch and spend some time with our friends. All the photographs were taken by Tony or me. The informations at the bottom of the photos has been taken from http://www.vaaldam.co.za/

The Vaal Dam is bigger than Luxembourg. It consists of a separate water system that is completely clean. The water has comes from two sources, the Vaal River and now the Wilge River. It is the Wilge River that receives fresh mountain water form the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. This water is mountain pure and is the water that is supplied to the municipalities of Johannesburg.
The Vaal Dam has over 800kms of coast line and covers an area in excess of three hundred square kilometres. It is South Africa's biggest dam by area and the third largest by volume.The Lesotho Highlands Water Project feeds fresh clean water into the system in order to supply drinking water to Gauteng and environs. The first phase is in operation and this now provides a stable and reliable water level. When the next phase is introduced it will supply drinking water to Johannesburg for the next 25 years or so.
The dam has its own island (almost 5kms long) that was used for secret meetings during the old government days. The sleepy town of Deneyesville was used as a stop over point by the old Britannia Airways flying boats. The place is full of history and fun.
Many world class events take place here including the annual "Round The Island" yacht race - a race that has been in the Guinness Book of Records for being the "Largest Inland Yacht Race in the World". Several large events take place here including Keelboat Week and the Bayshore 200km jetski race, and now the Bayshore Marina Vaal Dam Treasure Hunt.
The dam is unique in that three provinces make up the coastline. The Free State is the largest by area, Mpumalanga has a beautiful but rural coastline and the most active by far is the Gauteng coastline. This is where you should be.
Property and leisure activities have exploded on the Gauteng side and prices are climbing rapidly. The Dam has been discovered and the smart money is moving in early. Already certain properties have seen a huge increase in prices in the last few years.

THE FARM NEAR PARYS

As I have said before our Farm is not a real farm, it is about 10 kms from Parys, a little and very old town in the Free State, it was known as the Orange Free State before the new South Africa.
We are at the farm at present come here every two weeks for a week, love it here every now and again will see a Scrub hare, or something else, yesterday a Hare came jumping up and thought it would have a quite nibble on the lawn, you could see it stop, in disgust, when it saw the dogs and us sitting on the veranda, as though to say Oh! damn, and started and hop off in the other direction, of course the dogs all ran after him, but no one can out run a hare, as the tortoise knows.

We have some swallows, nesting somewhere, been coming here years, them or their off spring. They used to build their nest on the veranda, which was lovely, then all of a sudden if we sat outside they would dive bomb us, cheeky little buggers. The following years we did not allow them to build their nest on the veranda, but they are somewhere nearby, cause we see them all the time, they sit on the window frame, spying out the menu. If only they could talk and tell us where they have been for the winter and where they are going. I have heard, it is not the climate that sends them around the world, but the insects that dictate that they must move on. It never is that cold here, even though we think it is!!!!