Having a ball...

Jake's rugby season has come to an end.  He is very disappointed that he can't keep playing throughout summer, but it'll do him good to try out at something else.  Last Wednesday was their final official match, against his grandpa's old school.

 

Sadly, while our wonderful coaches encourage our children to be good sportsmen; at no time putting pressure on our 8-year olds to go out and win.  This is apparently not taught at all schools.  For us, it's all about doing your best and having fun and regardless of whether Jake's played for 5 minutes or the entire match, win or lose, he's glowing with excitement when he gets in the car after a game.  Not all the kids are future Springboks; some, like Jake, play the game just for fun.  So when you play against a team who's rude parents are shouting at our ref (the coach above) and telling their boys not to shake our kids hands at the end of the game, well, I think it's safe to say we were all upset and annoyed by their poor sportsmanship.  The Edgemead parents are all very good about clapping and cheering for the visiting team, so it was disappointing for all of us and really put a damper on their last match.  At least we ended on a win (and personally, I think the other team were very sore losers).

Jake joined in the game for the second half... 

  Getting ready to tackle...

 There's Jake at the back, ready to pull their guy down...

 We made a quick stop to see the puppies on Saturday afternoon.  Jake is completely smitten with this little guy, so we're hoping he's the one Rosie & Gareth choose to take home with them.  Jake tells me that this puppy comes to him... 

 He used to have a little diamond on his forehead, but it's almost faded completely now...

 My beautiful Prince...

 The puppies have changed so much.  They're starting to look like little boxers now.  Jake's excited with their growing lips - this guy's gonna be a drooler...

 Flap, flap (I did warn you they've been manhandled)... 

 He is beautiful, with a perfect face and soft, wrinkly, fuzzy nose, that I just want to kiss...

We spent most of the weekend working in our garden, which is fast taking shape.  I must try dig out some before photos sometime.  Jacques' parents have been wonderful and helped us all weekend to get our irrigation system bought and fitted (Thank you, thank you, thank you sooooo much!!).  It's not quite complete, but it's working.  And it's going to be computerised, so I won't have to do a thing.  My kinda watering and at least the plants will have some chance of survival once it stops raining so much.  We found this "pretty" spider in an old bowl in the garden on Sunday morning.  He was pretending to be dead.  He had hairy legs and I'm really glad that he's no longer in my garden (Jake and his Granny Karen set it free on the field opposite our house)...

This is our veggie patch.  It's got a long way to go still, but has at least been levelled off and the irrigation's in (the long white pipes for now).  Our gardener finished putting the compost in yesterday and we still need to lay the pavers.  Jake is very excited about his veggie patch...

 The garden's coming on nicely and most of our plants have survived.  The lawns starting to close up nicely (although there's quite a bit of winter grass that will die off now).  I need to pain the walls, but they have to wait for now...

 Most of the time while we were working outside, Jake played Lego.  He found a bag with all his dad's old Lego in it, so it was something special for him to play with...

He's busy building a house and tells me that he feels quite sad playing with his dad's toys that his dad used to play with when he was Jake's age.  I'm pretty sure his dad would be happy to share... 

 Here's another view of the garden.  Hi Duracell.  My stoep is going to be well used this summer, I just need to get a little braai for Jake & I and then we'll be happy.  I've also moved the big wine vat to the other side of the garden for now...

 Pop ups in the "lawn"...

 Sprayers in the garden...

 The pipework is hidden at the back, so you hardly notice it, but you can see it if you look for it, so I won't be chopping through it with a spade anytime soon...

 Another view of the garden...

 From the other side of the veggie patch (the funny tree on the field opposite was burnt down by some kids smoking in it about 2 years ago).  Duracell likes to follow me when I'm taking photos.  He wants some attention...

 This is looking down the side of the house, towards the garage.  The little steps lead into my kitchen and I'm planning on putting an assortment of pots down here with herbs in them eventually... 

 My fancy sprinkler system.  The computer part's not in yet, but it works manually...

 Jake and I put all our seeds into trays last Thursday, so we're waiting for these to establish themselves before we transfer them into our veggie patch, which gives the patch a chance to settle down too...

We've also dug out another bed in the front of our house, the compost will be delivered tomorrow, so hopefully the front of our house will start looking prettier soon too! 

 

Yesterday saw us playing one last friendly match against a neighbouring school.  Jake's such a clown, when I asked him why he plays so hard during practise, but then seems to hang back a bit during matches, he told me that he plays hard at practise so that he can get into the matches.  Logic, I guess...

 He had fun though, I think it was nice for them just to have a run with some other boys, it's what it should be about at their level anyway...

 Ha!  There's Jake going being tackled just short of the try line...  

And that's pretty much it.  My parents are on holiday at the moment; they're actually due to arrive in the Kruger National Park today and will be there for 11 nights.  Jake and I are extremely jealous that we couldn't join them this time.  Funny enough, when I asked Jake recently where he'd like to go on holiday if money wasn't an issue (I listed a whole bunch of places) he replied "well, you know Kruger's my best", so guess we'll be planning a good break up there sometime soon too.  Fortunately, I love the bush too, so I'm looking forward to planning our next trip.  We haven't been anywhere in ages, so it's high time we had some fun.

Other than that, I've had a fair bit my plate just lately, so sorry for my blogging absences.  Hopefully I'll be back at it more regularly again soon.

Love,

Sue XXX