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I do not live in a castle, but have found much happiness and peace in a place called PIONEER LODGE, which is situated on Durban's beach front. It is a semi-retirement lodge where folk who still work but the children have flown the nest live. We moved to Pioneer Lodge shortly after my husband had his stroke almost 2 years ago.

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In the photo below there is a man standing at the entrance. The front is safely floor to roof burglar guarded. My flat is on the second floor towards the end of the building. For people who know Durban, that is Point Road at the bottom.

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The reason the street is so clean is because I managed to catch it just after the police had got all the drug addicts and muggers off the street (joke). Actually, when I look at the rest of the world, South Africa rates pretty high as a good place to live, but hasn't always been awarded that reputation.

Below is the veranda which is a favourite gathering place and the only place to be during this our hottest and most humid time of the year. The doorlady has a pink top on and she controls the "board" or "squawk box" so no one can just come in off the street into the building, they fill their names in a book and the resident is then buzzed before the visitor is allowed up.
Another picture of the veranda, we have quite a collection of plants at the far end.
Walking into the building we cross a foyer and the light at the end is a lounge for residents if they wish to use it.
Below is where meeting are held by the Directors, Bible studies are also carried out here.
Another shot of the lounge....
and another......
here's another corner....

In the outer courtyard, I am now surrounded by the building. On the left is the side you have just seen, this is the middle section facing towards the sea...
and the far side I call it, South facing. It takes up an entire block.
This the surrounding flora in the court yard which is very pretty with all the blossoms always in bloom, ours is a tropical climate and does not get very cold, even in winter. I am standing on the ramp which is used for wheelchairs.
Now I am in the inner courtyard. Looking up. The pillars must have at one time been part of a fountain feature as the white tops which are visible, are lions heads and there are holes in their mouths where I can imagine water gushing from at one time. My flat is two floor up from where I am standing
Coming back into the outer courtyard you see the ramp I was standing on with steps next to it, this door leads into the lounges we were in earlier.
Some more flora...
and still more.....
different view....
Now I am in my flat and that is Widget on his stand. He is now easy to see in this picture, he is on the plate next to his food dish.
My children will recognise some of their children on this wall!! This is only one side of the wall, on the other side of many pictures of them as babies and small children, my mom, dad, sisters and friends, and they are all with me everyday.
The pictures above and below are of the bedroom area.
And here is Widget on his stand, eating an apple. There is a story behind this picture. We tried to get him to do his many aerobics tricks and swing around by one leg as he does so often, he is very funny and I wanted to share some of it with you and all he did was stare with suspicion at the camera and do nothing.
It was like trying to make a baby do what you want it to do for the camera, cajoling, encouraging, making fools of ourselves, bribing him with apple etc and although we have the clip it would not successfully upload.
So, from all of us at Pioneer Lodge, we hope that you too will find your place in the sun when the time comes!!

HOLIDAYS = TENTS, BUGS, AND DO IT YOURSELF

AND CHILDREN WHO DREAMED OF A LE FOUR SEASONS HOTELS! "CAMPING" - we're going CAMPING???" EEEUW" Are the horrified replies to the news of

another family holiday.

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"There are, bugs, spiders, snakes AND, I add to this woefull exchange, YOU WILL HAVE TO WASH THE DISHES AND MAKE UP YOUR OWN STRETCHERS, plus sweep out the dirt floor and keep it tidy as there is not much room for us all!"

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"You also get to go to the beach and to your aunts farm which you love, in exchange for which, you all wash the dishes etc. etc........"

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The idea grows on them and they even start looking forward to the tenting holiday, that is until one day reality strikes.

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"Oh girls, I need your help out here" calls their father. They peer out of the windows and ....... it's getting worse, dad has the WHOLE tent out on the lawn in pieces. and it is no small tent. it has three 3 rooms after all.
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Soooooo..... while dad instructs, they are under the tent trying to fit poles together and attach the right rooms to the right poles - they got 11 out of 10 from me, that was for sure! It was at this time that their dad earned himself the name Major Dad, and he remained so for many years after that.
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It all had to come down of course as that was the trial run. It was folded up, and packed in the trailer, to be carted off to some part of the South African East Coast.


Shirley never married her four seasons husband, he is a hotel manager sure, but their best times are camping and going on nature walks. How our values change as we grow older and once the children arrive the emphasis of our lives becomes one of family and all that families should be to one another.

I remember this day. Brian was 2, tired, too much sun, hot, hungry, you know the story. So big sister Lisa took him back to the tent and it looks as though they are both enjoying playing with Brian's toy cars.

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Notice the little fridge in the background, and in the trailer we kept all our provisions.

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In the evenings we would sit in the "lounge" and play board games, what fun it was to do things we do did not normally do.

Off to the beach with their nets. The beach is just past the trees down the track, it has lovely rock pools with all sorts of interesting things swimming around in them. HHHmmmmmm, they don't seem worried now about spiders and snakes.

The tent is packed up and now we are on the farm. It is an Angora sheep farm owned by their Uncle and Aunt. They learned to inject, dip and round up sheep. Even did a bit of sheering!

This picture is not part of the holiday but it fitted into the outdoor way of life that my children enjoyed most of their growing up years. Here they are walking among baby elephants at feeding time. It was taken at a place called Tambuti Lodge, a few miles outside Triangle, Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

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Sooooo..... when I look back it is fair to say that they had more fun than they admitted to?

20 YEARS WITH CRUNCHIE

This magnificent tortoise is 90 years old and is said to be in his prime. He is a bachelor at present and the zoo is trying to hook him up with a girl. Such a good looking fellow, its surprising he hasn't got a girlfriend already! He has a life span of approximately 150 years.

20 years ago, when my son Brian was 5 years old (now 25) he begged me to buy this little chap from the son of a friend of mine, a friendship going back to early school days. Brian grew up and is a father himself now, everyone has left home except Crunchie. I am still taking care of the pets, so why am I now surprised ........ there were cats, dogs, mice, hamsters, the list goes on and on, and on .......

However, as most people know tortoises live to grand old ages and I doubt Crunchie is going to be any exception. He is a small rock tortoise and when he came to us 20 years ago he was old then......I won't even try and guess his age! He is so a part of my life that I would miss him terribly should some fate befall him.

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Despite his age he is very lively. During the winter months, which fall in the middle of the year in South Africa peaking in June and July, he hibernates. In May he will search for a suitable place, a shoe, dark corner or quiet cupboard. He takes up residence there for about 6 months and in October he crawls out looking for food and water.
The next 6 months are summer, we put the board across the front door to prevent him escaping from the flat. He eats constantly the entire summer and constantly expects a substantial diet of fruit and veggies. Dare a forget and a sharp nip to my toes or heel from his v shaped beak reminds me of his ongoing quest for nourishment. If I am slow with the water (he only drinks about 3 times a week) he makes for the bathroom where he must instinctively associate with water. So he makes himself very well understood.

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These pictures were taken over a period of 20 minutes. He's a real rock 'n roller isn't he? Slow to think, slow to move and act. Maybe that accounts for his long life, no stress or rush!
In the Picture below I am holding him to give you an idea of his size. It is January now so he is on top of his game. Widget the parrot drops bits of apple and seed shells and Crunchie is not above trying out anything he finds on the floor.
In the well known childrens' story "The Tortoise and the Hare" - the hare really underestimated the tortoise when he took him on in a race.

We can learn from this though, strong and steady wins the race. Unlike the hare who slept and took short cuts, the tortoise plodded on and yes, we all know the end of the story!

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Imagine if goliath at the top lived with us, one thing would be certain, we not have to worry about him crawling through the safety gate door and escaping!

WHEN THE WORLD WENT MAD

This pic was taken in 1974 when the war in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was just getting started. My husband at the time was in the police force, and we had use of the police cottage, which was a wonderful retreat. The picture below is in black and white because we were unable to buy colour spools at that time. I also found myself in the ridiculous situation of having been thrown into the pool by my husband, all of 7 months pregnant. And check out those cloth nappies ladies, no pampers in those days. Also no washing machine at the police cottage!

A few months later we visited the cottage again, the baby is 6 months old now. It was on this trip that, for the first time, one of my babies fell off the bed. I was devastated. What strange things we remember when looking at old photos.
Below is the cottage in the background. Quite quaint. Lots of atmosphere and it was like being alone in the world. In was at this time that terrorists were infiltrating this area so we were constantly looking over our shoulder and listening to all the bumps in the night. It was about 10 o'clock one night when we heard a bump, bump, bump against the wall. We had gone with friends and both men were armed with weapons. In those days weapons were our new best friends and came with us most places.

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My husband and his friend picked up their weapons while his wife, myself and my baby huddled in one bed hardly daring to breath. The men had devised a plan of action. They would both leave by the back door and go in opposite directions, meeting at the front door.

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Silence. More silence. Then we heard them roaring with laughter. Our terrorist was a large beetle attracted to the light, and it was bumping against the wall!
We used to take the little boat provided out onto the dam, the men tried to fish and kids loved it. Kyle dam provided most of the country with its water and was vast. These pictures were taken 4 days before the dam overflowed for the first time.
Beautiful countryside, happy memories, the end of wonderful retreats, but I have these pictures and memories forever.
They closed this cottage not long after this trip and there became fewer and fewer places we could go. But it was just the other day I was speaking to the couple who came with us on that trip and in retrospect, even when times were becoming harder, we can still laugh!

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I AM glad it was only a beetle.

CELEBRATING WITH THE NEXT GENERATION!!

Last year I scanned photos of my children all decorating the christmas tree, and remembered the excitement of decorating the tree, the excitement of going to bed the night before Christmas day, and the excitement that belongs only to children when celebrating the birth of Christ.
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Above we see Kerry's children, JP, Tessni and baby Shanni decorating the tree in their home in Middleburg, and under that Shanni with some shiney balls for the tree.


We travel half across Africa to Cape Town where we find Natalia, Lisa's daughter, (above) who is decorating the tree with her cousins. They have always celebrated Christmas together and the cousins have decorated the tree.

Above is Dad Trevor, Shirley,and Jessie with cousin Natalia, and below are Vicky {right} and Jessie {left}

This is a bitter sweet christmas for this little group of cousins and sisters as it will be the last time that they decorate the tree and celebrate the day together. Trevor and Shirley are leaving Africa for England in January.

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I will be in Middleburg with my daughter Kerry, Johan her husband and children Tessnie, JP, and Shanni featured at the top of this page, for Christmas. I will also meet my son Brian's son, Nathan for the first time. He is already 6 months old!

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Thank you girls for posting these pics on your blogs for me to steal for my blog!

WHAT BIG EARS THEY HAVE!!!!

"PHONES RINGING!" Ever noticed that the moment the telephone rings, no matter where the children are, they will appear from no where, whether they have been playing indoors or out, near or far, they stop dead in their tracks and make a bee line for the phone! Have you also noticed that when you speak they study you in silence without interrupting, almost as though they do not want to miss a word!

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"Stop counting teeth while I am on the phone" I hiss to them, as my mom in her turn hissed to me all those years ago, and I remember clearly doing the exact same thing to her! It is a universal phenomena and proves if nothing else, that gossip is irresistable and most humans are drawn to listen to that which is forbidden!

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Above is Natalia when she lived with her mom and dad in London. She is living with her mom in Cape Town now and she is 7 years old. Seen here is a telephone she received for her first birthday and she is speaking to "me"!

There are those who can conquer the world, they are invincible, or think they are, they have no fear, they are DRAWN to danger. They are the ones who give mothers grey hairs and ulcers, they are terrifying to live with at times. Here is Brian at 6, he climbed a tree which had branches the size of twigs, and when he reached the top, he lost his balance and slid down the tree, snapping all the twigs on his journey to planet earth! Hence the plaster of paris on his left arm!

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"For my birthday I want SUPERMAN clothes!" aaaaahhhhh no........here we go again. With a very bad feeling we buy him the superman clothes, they were designed by a man who had no children of that I am sure as I found my son on the roof with complete faith in his cape to enable him to fly off and not drop like a rock.

Children are playing, out of my way, perfect time to get out the vacuum cleaner and give the lounge a good clean. Well, you can see how well that turned out. As soon as the vacuum cleaner was turned on, my three daughters all bound into the lounge and, of course, the only place to tackle one another was on the carpet. Oh well, at least the thought was there, I DID get the vacuum cleaner out with good intentions, I'll just get the cord out of the way so this bundle of humanity can carry on. yes..... there ARE 3 children in there!


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''DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT BRIAN!"

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Despite all the exasperating moments that were mine during the years I raised my children, they were far outweighed by joy and happiness, of loving and being loved.
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I now watch my daughters and son raise their children and see them experience the same exasperation and joy that I did, and so it will go on and on.......

ALEX

This is ALEX. isn't he super gorgeous. He belongs to Shirley my eldest daughter and her family and I became very fond of him during my visits to Cape Town.

He has an enormous capacity to love and bound!

As Shirley, Trevor, Vicky and Jessie leave South African shores soon, they have to find homes for their pets, and dear Alex needs a home too. My daughter is heartsore to be leaving him behind but there is a possibility of a home for him.

They will be lucky to have him, he truly is mans best friend!

Thanks for the picture Shirley love, I have wanted one for the longest time - he is SUCH a comical character!