Tea, Toast and Nature, From Our “Stoep”
When we were offered the opportunity to live in a country house on a farm, we were thrilled to be leaving the city and couldn’t wait to pack up to move. The farm was located in the heart of the wheat lands of the Western Cape, South Africa. It was like an earthly paradise. 4 km of gravel road leave the National Highway to our new home. Driving along it we were greeted with the most majestic panoramic expanse of wheat fields, rolling hills, sheep and cows.
The cabin turned out to be the size of a small row house, complete with three bedrooms, open kitchen, and living room. A sliding door leads to a well proportioned porch (roofed verandah). This was ideal for casual dining and to sit quietly, relax and just enjoy the picturesque natural surroundings. Most mornings, both summer and winter, we eat breakfast there. In the winter months, bundled up in warm clothing against the frigid air, we’d sit drinking hot chocolate or tea and marvel at the nearby snow-capped mountain tops.
One of his favorite pastimes was watching the antics of the sheep. His pasture was on a slope where they spent the day scattered nibbling at the grassy slope. Suddenly, a leading sheep decided to trot up the hill. Being sheep, they followed him in a straight line, calling over each other to try to keep a steady pace. This “sheep train” would eventually reach the top of the hill, then turn around and hurriedly run back to the bottom as if they were being chased! Observing these timid episodes did not cease to amuse us.
There were also deer on the farm whose habitat was a nearby scrub. When they produced offspring, we often saw the little “bambi” having fun. They would run around on their spindly legs and play a game of catch and catch, chasing each other across the fields at fantastic speed. When they were tired, they returned to the thicket and collapsed next to the mother doe.
Among the other creatures that were often seen were porcupines, hares, guinea fowl, and of course, on occasion, strange snakes, as well as a variety of spiders. Some of these occupants were welcome harmless beings, some of them poisonous, but still, they were all part of nature.
The many years spent on the estate were very happy times but, like many things in life, all good things come to an end. My other half got pancreatic cancer. When he left life, my days there came to an end, as it was not considered safe for me to continue living there on my own.