YouTube - Battle at Kruger

YouTube - Battle at Kruger

This is amazing for those of you who haven't seen it!

I just wish I'd been one of the lucky ones to see this happen live!

Braeden's favourite

This is Braeden's favourite thing to do on the tyre swing: ...

First, he grabs the rope on one side, and leans to one side with all his weight, to swing it around and twist it up ...

Once he feels it is twisted up tight enough, he has to keep it like that, and try and get in without it untwisting ...

often easier said than done ...

particularly when you are less than 1,2 m tall

Then the critical moment when both feet leave the ground and you no longer have any way of stopping the untwisting ...

he doesn't always manage to get a good/comfortable position before the momentum takes him ...

but by then, nothing can be done anyway other than to enjoy the ride

he can pick up quite a speed - even Dad gets a bit concerned!

but he's got it all under control

because he does it every day

and the best part is the delicious dizziness at the end of it!

And now you know why I can't get the grass to grow in my garden!!

when we moved into this house ...

... I looked at the beautiful big Albizia tree (flat crown) in our front garden, and decided that the first thing we would do, would be to put up one of those lovely big tire swings for our two boys (and the one on the way)

I could just imagine our boys having endless fun on this swing, because I remembered how much I used to love it as a child.

And it has been one of my greatest delights to watch all of our boys playing for hours and hours on this swing

they have invented all sorts of games which they play on it - and they never seem to tire of it - even though it is nearly 8 years since we first put it up

and I am referring to ALL of the boys :o)

... and neither have I forgotten how much I used to love flying through the air

inventive

well, it's good for the garden so they say

we've had more rain than usual this month ...

but this storm was particularly strong

the afternoon had been calm and pleasant - then we looked to the south west and saw this massive black cloud approaching at a frightening rate

we grabbed the camera and hastily took these few photos while the wind began to blow furiously around us

in less than a couple of minutes, the storm was on top of us

the clouds looked very different from any storm clouds I had seen before

and then they changed to a greenish colour


and we dashed inside as the storm unleashed itself on us
we tried to capture the intensity of it with this short video clip

milestones

Braeden lost his front tooth during a tennis tournament yesterday ...

we are all so proud of Jamie

He completed filming his 26th episode of the Creature Club TV series on Thursday!

He has worked so hard through the year, on his first role as a TV presenter

We decided to organise a surprise dinner to congratulate him

now for a bit of 'mood'

He got such a surprise when Patrick brought him home!

We had his favourite song playing, and his brothers had made lovely cards for him

I had prepared his favourite meal (Fillet Steak and potatoes - what a South African!)

Well done Jamie!!

birdman

another interesting man we met on our cycle ride ...

see Braeden in the background, running up to have a look at the birds - he is passionate about animals of any kind

and was so delighted when this man allowed one of his birds to sit on his shoulder

check all the droppings on his shirt!
Patrick says he should have a shirt specially printed with bird droppings on it - so that you can't tell the real thing from the printed thing!

jamie

jamie is usually so busy, that we don't often get the opportunity to take too many photographs of him.

most of the time he is cycling/walking/running/eating much faster than any of us, and because he is usually moving so quickly, it is difficult to get an 'in-focus' photo :o)
but this day, he slowed just enough for us to get these photos of him

fearless, intrepid, bold, courageous, tenacious, life-filled boy (not to mention gorgeous!)

we met a fascinating man on our cycle today ...

for 8 years he has been coming into this fenced off area next to the beach, and feeding the cats.

After the first two years, he discovered that it was not only the cats who were coming for the food ....

There were two river mongoose as well!

After many years, they have become quite tame (only towards him), and they now have two babies!

This cat is in such good condition. Its name is Smidgen - and it loves Neil so much.

He also feeds a rooster which was rescued from being slaughtered on the beach early one morning in a religious ritual - and we managed to spot him too - looking very shiny and proud of himself

Neil says he has tried to introduce some hens for his rooster, but the mongoose ate them!