Nature's Weird Happenings (Part 2)!!!

Plagues of Locusts and Attack of the Birds. Some very strange goings on... The weather has been acting very funny and now so is the wild life.

** Last week mum and I were sitting outside on one of the rare days we had a fairly clear sky and suddenly all the birds around started chirping wildly and 'swarming' around the neighbours garden. It started first with the smaller birds - garden sparrows, swallows and weavers, then in came the big boys, the larger birds you can see in the photo are Kites. Now usually we see the odd Kite attacking a smaller bird, but this time they were all flying in between each other not attacking each other but definitely having a feeding frenzy on something! Mum said it reminded of the Hitchcock movie 'The Birds' it was quite scary actually, cos there were no birds anywhere else. When we asked the neighbours if they knew what had happened they said they hadn't even seen it they'd been out !!!

** Then this weekend Aunt J who is an avid gardener, who was 'borrowing' a plant from my garden!!! Which actually had been hers originally (long story, bit complicated) called me over and said bring your camera and here we have a 'swarm' of locusts munching their way across my land. Good thing I'm not worried about the garden just yet!!! I have never seen anything quite like this either, when you approach the 'swarm' they all clump together on top of each other almost as if they're trying to make themselves look bigger. It's probably a defense mechanism. We went back round on Sunday and there was not a blade of green grass left in their path, you could actually see where they had moved and they seem to have disappeared!!!Luckily for J. they were heading away from her garden... But where they came from and where they went???

** Nature is a very funny thing and we're seeing some very weird things while we're here, guess it's cos I have nothing else to get excited about at the moment. My brother reckons we have to find out what plague is next, what with tornado's, attack of the birds and now locusts, maybe we need to get the local witch doctor in !!!!

** Still no answers on the 'new found' problem on the land, we're now waiting for structural engineers but they are busy trying to sort out the flooding problems and the damage the tornado did around town so O.I.A and HUAW...

** KB was in his first swimming gala on Friday and I was very proud of him, considering he's never swam competitively before! Their team came last but they won first prize for Team Spirit. He seemed to enjoy it. I'm glad that at least the sun shone on Friday as all the pools are outside and they way the weather has been !!!

** Crafting ... well still not doing any... no further forward their either. But I do have some news for all of you in Bolsover, Glenis and Sharon are still 'hosting' their respective Clubs on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

They've both given me their dates for 2009 - Tuesday Club hosted by Glenis is on 20th January/17th February/ 17th March.

Saturday Club hosted by Sharon is on 10th January/14th February/14th March/18th April/9th May/ 13th June

. If you want any information about any of these clubs don't hesitate to drop me an e-mail and I'll pass your details onto either Glenis or Sharon.

** Well that's it again for this week. Keep posting me those comments, gr8 to hear from you all. Take care till next time.

Quote for this week: Handle every stressful situation like a dog. Piss on it and walk away !!!!

Nature's Funny Happenings (part 1) !!!

Mid Day, Middle of November!
All that's missing is the Headless Horseman! Please send Johnny Depp to rescue me ASAP....

Never seen weather quite like this before - and we're supposed to be at the start of summer.

Talk about hole in the ozone...

Mini Tornado!

Yup you read it right we have had a Tornado sweep through the valley at the base of the hill where we live. This all happened on Friday 14th November, I collect KB from school about 12.20pm on a Friday and we went for our usual end of week treat 'wraps' and ice cream. When we came out of the restaurant the sky was a very 'weird' colour black and it seemed to be 'moving' towards us. With the freakish weather we've been having we thought nothing of it but said we'd better get home before the rain came otherwise we'd be soaked, plus Indi is petrified of thunder and lightning. We got in about 1.50pm and rushed around closing windows etc. as the wind seemed to have built up a bit. It had been very hot in the morning... 10 mins later the heavens opened we had a clap of thunder and a huge down pour, we thought nothing of it, of course as usual the electricity went off, it always does during thunder storms!!! Another 10 mins passed and the sun came out and 'dried up all the rain' it was over the usual Thunder type storm they are very frequent here so nothing more was said.

I had to take KB out to his extra classes on Friday 3.30pm and everywhere looked windswept, we had to drive down into Krantzkloof Gorge and I was shocked, there were trees uprooted as you will see in the 1 photo with Aunty I. standing next to the tree. These photos were taken on Saturday morning, it was chaos everywhere. The news has reported 8 people killed and thousand of Rands worth of damage, apparently it took 7 minutes from start to finish to sweep through the valley, the sights are horrific.

Roof tiles were ripped off, some houses even lost all their roof. Windows broken and the most frightening was how the trees were just ripped out of the ground like match sticks. As you look down itno the valley you can see the path of the tornado as there are just stumps left where there once were trees... some having stood there for years.

All of this happened 1/4 mile from our house. They are even declaring part of the area as a natural disater zone. Never been heard of before in this area...

I tell you the earths weather patterns are seriously changing, on Friday night the fog was so thick we could not even see to the bottom of the driveway... But as you can see by Saturdays photos sunshine everywhere, today fog, rain and mist again.

So you still want to visit SA?

JJ I was pleased to hear from 'cuddle bunny' that you are keeping up to date with our goings on, feel free to leave any comments if you want.

Other than our serioulsy freekish weather we've not been up to much, only 3 weekends before Paul arrives... Looking forward to his visit, so if any of you want to save on postage get down to our place before the 12th!

Tuesday craft group enjoy your day this Tuesday coming, wish I could join you for a fun morning of crafts, GR make sure you let me know if you book any more dates for 2009, cos I'd like to keep up to date with what you're doing.

Your Quote for today: Look at everything in life as if you were seeing it either for the first or the last time in life! And enjoy every moment.

Sunshine at last, but for how long?

Finally after 7 consecutive days of rain, mist and cold weather today we woke to some blue skies and sunshine. One of those typical 3 outfit days... Where you choose the first outfit when you first get up, change by 11.30am coz it's finally too hot for the 3 layers and you get down to 2 and by 4pm you're looking around for your winter woolies again...

I'm so sick of moaning about the bloody weather(and I guess you're sick of hearing it too) but I feel like I'll never be hot again. After all I promised you all I would be bragging about just how hot I was... serves me right eh?

Well the nasties we discovered are apparently harmless- typical of tropical climates they are Nephilengys Cruentata in the spider family Nephilidae - common name hermit spider. The specimen in the photo is a female with her partner only a fraction of the size of her and very insignificant black. So guys yet another example of male insignifance ....

Something positive has actually happened (other than the internet cure) my car is now legally registered in SA. As you can see from the photo and I did'nt get to choose the number this was the one they gave me!!! At least now I should'nt get stopped as often by the traffic police.

Another good thing (I think) we don't have Bob the Builder, we have Bruce the Builder. Things are slowly starting to move on the building side now too, well I think they are, we have drawn up the action plan for the next couple of weeks, and the diggers are moving in again on Wednesday.

With the new plans etc. we gotta do a few 'tweeks' here and there and then hopefully we can get back on track. Of course the building trade here also closes 15th Dec. to 15th Jan. so they'll just get started again and have to have another month off... HUAW! O.I.A.

Still not touched the craft stuff, have taken out a few boxes and will start to 'sort out' a few bits now that a lot of the running around has finished. (I hope)

Thought for the day: The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes

Just one of the local nasties!

Well those of you who know me will understand the horror of finding this chappy nestling in the tree just outside the main house!!! I actually discovered it! by walking straight into 'its' nest... after the huge thunderstorm we had the other night. We were having a walk around to inspect Aunty J's property: make sure no tiles had been dislodged etc. on the roof as it sounded like the storm was on top of the house.

No you know why one should'nt wander around after dark....

Thought for today: Blessed are the 'cracked' for they let in the light!!

I'm Cured

Well that's it I have been cured of 'Internetlessness'. Yes that's right I actually have the internet now... It's brilliant I have spent the whole day downloading my e-mails, reading all my junk mails and 'scrolling' the net. So with a bit of luck now more additions to the blog...

Ok so the pictures: overlooking the Valley of a Thousand Hills with a 'helluva' thunderstorm coming, and boy it was fun. We felt a bit like storm chasers rushing to get home before it arrived.

Saturday night we got in the house just in time, the clouds were so low on the house and with the sheet lightning it actually felt like it was on top of us. We all ran around the house pulling out plugs, disconnecting computer etc. Of course I grabbed the ADSL box I haven't waited 41 days for nothing....

Indi was petrified, she doesn't like fireworks and loud bangs at the best of times but with the cracks of lightning and thunder roaring all around us she did'nt know what to do with herself.

The rain lashed down and we wondered at one stage if we weren't gonna be like the Ark and go floating off with it.

Well at least something good came out of it other than the fantastic photos and colourful sky, we were able to watch the course of the water and see exactly where the storm waters ran so I know we must'nt build in that area, well unless we do plan on having an ark. Aunty J. was worried all her lovely garden was going to end up on my land and I'd have a pre-lanscaped propety... I was hoping (nasty, nasty)

Next morning Sunday we woke to the most gorgeous blue sky and the heat was rising fast... but alas it did not last and tonight we are back with the heating on and 4 layers of clothes . They tell me one of these days .... I will be grateful for this cooler climate (I wish!!!)

Seems the thunderstorm brought out some other nasties too... watch the next addition to my blog, we're trying to find out if it's poisonous or not ....

Otherwise I'm still HUAW with most things, no car, no job, no life oh you do feel sorry for me don't you?

Todays quote: If you want your dreams to come true, you must'nt oversleep....