A trip down memory lane...

This week has been BUSY! Although, we had a relatively quiet weekend, which was divine for a change. The weather's been terrible and we've had really heavy rains, along with some icy temperatures over the last few days. Last week Thursday, though, was a perfect day and Jake and I took a drive through to visit our friends at Buitenverwachting. It's still a very difficult outing for me, but we always have tons of fun when we get there. It still feels so much like home and it's all still so familiar, even though there are a few changes every time we visit. To me, it's still the most beautiful place on earth and I'd give anything to be living there again. Jake also loves it there, he loves wondering around the vineyards and I always feel like this is a very special place for him & I to share. It's quite a surreal feeling being there with him and imagining how life should've been. Anyway, I've made my mind up! This summer I'm going to take complete advantage of the picnics they do at Buitenverwachting and Jake & I are going to be regulars on the farm again! It can only get easier the more we visit. Here are some pics from our last trip.

Heaven's Door...

The entrance to the farm... The front of the manor house... Jake getting to know some of the new farm dogs... This is Charlie. He looks surprisingly like our Rhodesian Ridgeback, Amber. Jake took a particular liking to friendly, young Charlie... They were playing on the picnic site, infront of the old manor house... Smile! What a clown. He doesn't get this from me... Still no smile, but it's better then eyes squeezed shut! Throwing sticks for Charlie - see how much he looks like my princess? Jake thought it hysterical that Charlie had his privates on display... The vineyards. Our house was just over this hill and to the right. Pretty, hey? Looking in the opposite direction... Running to the cellar. Jake's latest is that he wants to pick the grapes growing on our old vine at home, put them in his grape squasher and make me some wine. That boy knows the way to his mother's heart... A barrel just in the entrance to the cellar. It was just the message I needed. Quite deep for a bunch of burly men, don't you think... Jake getting up to mischief in the vat cellar... More scenes from the farm...

Saturday past was a friend's birthday and we went out to the most gorgeous nursery on the other side of Durbanville. Jake had an absolute ball and the weather was good again. The nursery also has a bit of a farm-type thing going, so the kids went on a tractor ride, had horse rides, fed the chickens, pigs and sheep and collected farm fresh chicken's eggs. Jake also managed to sneak in to watch them milking their cow, which was quite an education for him.

This is Danielle, the birthday girl... Feeding the horses... Chasing chickens & pigs... Jake looks so big in this photo. I can't believe he's so grown up already... Yes, incase you were wondering, his shoes were a disaster after all the mud and farm muck. He even thought they were gross - check his face. He really got into the swing of things a bit later and by the time we left, he was muddy almost all the way up to his knees... Helping to milk the pregnant cow... The view from the "dairy"... This is Jake's favourite photo of the day...

And lastly, here are a few pictures of the heavy rains we've had between Sunday and today. Our house is built alongside a nature reserve, which was previously a swamp. They've installed drainage, which has caused some changes to the enviroment, but has meant that our gardens don't flood up any more. Anyway, it's rained so much, that our garden is once again flooded like it used to be back in the old days...

I took this picture this morning after 10 minutes worth of rainfall. I wasn't going outside, just took the photo from the stoep at work. The road outside is flooded almost up to the top of the pavement... This was yesterday morning outside our house. That river running infront of our driveway is more then a meter wide. Jake's sitting at the front window, waving goodbye to me...

Other then that, got dinner club tonight with the girls - we're off to Ginga & Shoga. It should be really nice, I've been dying to get there. We've also got most of our group coming tonight, so it really will be a good party. Wendy's joining us too, so it'll be good to have one last catch up before her and Lily go back to the UK. Tomorrow night, I'm out to movies with another friend and then we'll be back on a downward spiral to the next weekend.

Lots of love,

Sue xxx