. . from the looting and the plundering last month?
Well, I for one. Maybe I did? In the thick of the looting a bakkie arrived at my gate and a guy came running in carrying furniture. He dumped it on my stoep and ran off.
I managed to get a picture of the perpetrator. Bit blurry, but we’ll know him by his bling shoes. And no-one wears corduroys like that anymore:
What a comfortable rocking chair! Check it gleaming golden in the setting sun. On closer inspection, it must be said . . he must have looted a second hand shop . . or was he clearing up his stoep?
Tea on the patio was a pantomime with five vervet youngsters playing tag and hide-and-seek in my meadow using branches, the birdbath and the semi-engulfed garden bench as their staging posts.
Then as they left, two banded mongooses arrived:
and the White Pear showed up nicely. Apodytes dimidiata Trish got from Geoff Caruth’s Geoff’s Jungle
Egg, bacon, tomato, black coffee and binoculars. Thanks, Cecelia!
The flying ants were trying to pair up and scurry off and mate after shrugging off their wings, but the ants were nabbing them. The ants, in turn were being robbed by the birds and a skink. They’d grab the juicy termite, flick hard, separating the ant, then peck up and gobble down the termite. Termites taste like butter, ants taste like acid.
westville wildlife
Indoors there was also some wildlife to be seen:
westville wildlife indoors
Made me late for work!
More this week:
The raucous Westville KookaburraDragonfly with a point-n-shoot camera The dreaded Westville Pteradactyl
When you’re trying with little success to rid your place of stuff and when the stuff fills a double garage and at least one room, with other rooms a bit crowded, you should not accumulate any more stuff, but I can explain.
There was a damsel in distress. I was on my horse. She asked ‘would you?’ What was a gallant knight errant to say? Or to do? There’s only one thing a knight can do in such circumstances:
– hie kom ek! –– knight in the background knows this is mistaken logic –
Actually quite chuffed: Check those armrests as drinks platforms: These are practical, serviceable, lekker chairs. And comfy.
– the plastic furniture can go now . . –
I do suppose Louis knew Petrea was divesting them of assets while he was far away in Gurugram . . .
~~~oo0oo~~~
This acquisition is made worse as just the day before I was rolling my eyes at my Dad (96) who in one breath was stating his absolute determination – ‘this time’ – to get rid of stuff; and in the next breath was mulling over buying two new armchairs for the room he wants to add on to his house ‘for her (that’s Mom Mary) to sit in the sun as the room will have big windows.’
Right. Alone in a three bedroom house with Mom now in a home, he thinks what he needs is an extra room and two new chairs.
~~~oo0oo~~~
knight errant – a medieval knight who traveled around doing brave things and helping people who were in trouble – Cambridge
knight – a man given a rank of honour by a British king or queen because of his special achievements, and who has the right to be called “Sir”
medieval – related to the Middle Ages (the period in European history from about 600 CE to 1500 CE)
special achievements – usually helping said king or queen keep their ill-gotten gains
I ask Tom not to wee over the edge of the patio, but rather to go into the garden, find a shrub and wee discreetly behind it. More than once I ask him. Yes Dad, he says, shaking off the last drops.
Early one morning as the sun rises I watch the feathered parade in the old dead avocado tree. I’m going to miss that tree when it finally platzes. Already I’ve sawn off the big branch overhanging the driveway as it was full of bracket fungus and ready to dent someone’s car. I have planted a Natal Mahogany underneath to succeed it one day.
The white-eared barbets fluff themselves up in the early rays and two black-collared barbets land and go through a spirited two-puddly (or “Scottburgh”) duet. A group of purple-crested touracos bound across the branches, an olive thrush peeps and lands, as does a female violet-backed starling, a brownhooded kingfisher, a forktailed drongo and a speckled mousebird, all using the tall bare branches as a waypost or a sunning spot.
I’m busting for a leak but I don’t want to miss anything. I don’t want to go inside and I don’t want to disturb the birds by going off the patio, so I discreetly have a leak over the edge of the patio outside Tom’s bedroom window. It’s early. I’m sure he’s still sleeping.
But he spots me and I know I’ve blown my credibility.
I feel I need to explain, so at breakfast I tell him about the wonderful dawn display and not wanting to disturb the birds. He nods.
Not too long after that morning there’s Tom, weeing over the edge of the patio in full view. I bite my tongue. I know what’s coming. Dad, he says mock-solemnly, I didn’t want to disturb the birds.
Bewilderbeast Droppings 