Evening of Entertainment - by Rain (13)

The June-July holidays were great!! I arrived back from a friend of mine who lives in PE and was happy to hear that our long time family friends were coming to stay for a couple of days. We had not seen them in a long time, so everyone had changed and grown up, but in another sense it seemed just the other day we were visiting them at their house in Cape Town, which had actually been 2yrs ago.

On the day they were to arrive, we waited in anticipation for their white kombi to come driving down the road to our little farm house. When they arrived, we went out to meet them and help them carry their bits and pieces inside, after a fluster of hugs and greetings. It was that night, in the middle of a delicious supper, that the idea for a show came about, everyone was to participate, including the adults! Everyone thought it was a great idea and immediately began plotting what they were going to do…

The next to two days was just practice, practice… When the night finally came, we first ate supper and then wrote down everyone’s names on a piece of paper and put them in a hat, for as usual, no one wanted to go first. First act was me and my sister doing a dance, which was followed by skits, poems, dances and the much anticipated act that the fathers were to do. No one had ever seen them practicing so it was a mystery as to what they were going to do…. And guess what they sang , “Doe ray me” it had everyone in laughter! When the show was finally over everyone was tired and beds were calling. IT WAS a GOOD night!!!

Spring is a coming

Although arrival of spring is still a month away, we are seeing some tell tale signs in the buds on our fruit trees, that look like they are building up with energy for a colourful explosion. So, with this big hint from our fruit trees and the days getting noticably longer, we are rushing around making bigger beds around our trees to hold "cow poo". We get the manure from a kraal in town that we drive past on our way to the local post office, where we post off all our soap orders. So, to make the trip even more worthwhile, my two daughters who always insist on coming along, don their gumboots and take along a shovel of their choice, so that we can bring back a load of what makes me very excited... "black gold "

I call it this because to build the soil up with manure, is the best thing a person could possiblyo.This sets all the little organisms back in motion that comercial fertilizers have totally destroyed, also, adding this as a mulch each time helps keep the soil cool in summer thus retaining soil moisture and providing a happy enviroment for all the good bugs. Commercial fertilizers (n.p.k) tend to force feed plants via the means of soluble salts, that bypass all organic means of the plant obtaining its nutrients. The plant therefore zooms into growth but with serious weaknesses in its cell walls and nutrient deficiencies that opens up the plant to attacks from fungi and bugs. Then one has to start using pesticides, fungicides, more fertilizers and all this to the detriment of our bodies, our planet and our fellow creatures.

This I've put as simply as I could and I suggest that if you want to grow food, then educate yourself in the following; mulching, manuring, earthworm farms, crop rotation, companion planting and plant by the seasons only, as God knows best what we need to keep us healthy throughout the year, after all it is all His creation and by observing nature, we can learn a lot.

YAY.... A new soap for spring!

At long last.... we've been discussing "a new soap" for some time now and have just launched our new addition to the range! After a long drought in our area, the rains finally came and the smell of the flowering geraniums filled the air. If you have experienced this, you will agree that this is a very heady and uplifting fragrance, that evokes an incredible sense of wellbeing.... and so came the inspiration for our new soap, a Geranium Poppyseed Scrub. This is a great soap to start the day with, or to wind down with in a lovely warm bath or an invigorating shower! We also decided to throw in some poppyseeds to give an extra scrub, perfect to get rid of all that winter dry skin. This is fast becoming the family favourite and Caitlin, our graphic designer, once again did a wonderful job with the label.