Catching Up and Moving Forward

Please excuse the craziness of the photos - I put too many for this post. The first group are of Emma on the journey beginning in Frankfurt. She is there being turned over to PetAir the very expensive freight cargo service. They took her to the "Animal Lounge". Her passage cost more than one of ours round trip! Ah but she seems pretty happy now.

There is a mixture of photos including the sweet little Cape Batis bird that sat on our patio door the other day. The delicate pink flower is a native gladiolus that grows wild on the hillside of our friend Jeni's home on Eagle's Nest.

The bouganvillea grows on a wall in our courtyard garden and there's a picture of Emma walking on Eagle's Nest with a view of Table Mountain in the background.

One of the first things I have learned about living here is that to become an official recognized person you must show proof of residence and proof of your credit worthiness. It is a real pain when you are the non-South African but we are slowly taking the steps necessary to get my name on some contract or other paying items so that I become "real" as I like to say. The other aspect that one observes quickly as an American is the much slower pace with which things are done. Initially, this is frustrating but I'm sure I shall get used to it and it does help one to stay in the present.

One nice thing we have been experiencing lately as Americans, is the ability to hold one's head high for our history making election. I show off my Obama purse regularly as I shop in the stores.

As we start our second week here all the suitcases are unpacked so we are almost ready to get the 5 boxes of things we left with a friend this past January. I am eager to get everything put away so it feels more like a home than a way station. We are also planning to have our own Thanksgiving celebration with friends here but will have to make a slight modification to hold it on a weekend since, obviously, no one here gets the Thursday as a vacation day!

The English guests who were staying with us and visiting South Africa for the first time left on Sunday. It was really a wonderful distraction from having to focus entirely on our chores. It allowed us to show off some of our favorite things - like walking on Muizenberg Beach and going to the Olympia Deli in Kalk (pronounced like caulk) Bay. We also benefitted from their excursions to learn about a lively local bar/restaurant at one of the beautiful Constantia wineries where we went for dinner last Friday night. We took along one of my niece Sophia''s friend's who has been studying here in Cape Town at UCT. Even with all we need to do, they were such easy guests that we were sorry to see them leave.

The best stories thus far are about our experiences with friends, nature, and the dog's reaction to the creatures here. We have been very warmly welcomed by our good friend Jeni who is like a sister to Michael and our friend Tim who returned from a long visit to England just recently. They both live here in Constantia and are great about giving us ideas for where to get things, have invited us over for a meal and such. We have walked at Silvermine Nature Reserve and gone to a local farmer's market. We even went to a Saturday night movie and have plans fora chamber concert this weekend. Our friends here are very social and go out together more frequently. We shall have to figure that into the budget! It is a much easier transition to already have so many contacts here.

On to the creatures: the first day we came to the house I was excited to see a lizard popping its head out of a yucca tree stump in a garden bed on the patio. His tree stump home is surrounded by the lavender we planted just before leaving that thrived since its planting. We were fortunate that the plants had a very wet winter so got well established during our absence. Everything we planted has grown and it has been good to see improvements in the garden overall. The gardener has been slowly but surely clearing out some seriously invasive plants that had grown up over the past 7 years. There are various flowers in bloom including a very showy bougainvillea pictured below.

the second morning here I came into the living room and saw a huge brown bug which was hoping about like a cricket - I still have no idea what it was but it was funny to watch Emma chasing it around the living room. Fortunately she has no killer instinct so we simply hopped it out the big sliding door.

Will sign off now as this is more news than even I could absorb! Please continue to send me your comments.