Plans

I am about to be in hot water. I can't wait.  But right now things are looking pretty calm.  I am listening to birds cooing, I can see large splats of rain and the grey sky has a tinge of light blue.  We are away for a long weekend.  We arrived in Jacobsbaai along the west coast of the Cape sea-line yesterday, and have settled into a quaint cottage.  I have already lost at Scrabble - outplayed by family and low value letters in my tray(!) -, explored the rocky coast,  and I am just back from a good walk to the one and only mini mark in the area, because I forgot to pack coffee.  Unbelievably. Every nook and cranny of the car was stuffed with necessities - chocolate, crisps, bread, cooked meals, games, clothes, swimming gear.  And books. (but I forgot the Nescafe.)  

Jacobsbaai, Western  Cape

As per my little tradition, I bought myself a new book to read, and despite its pages calling to me over the past two weeks, I kept my promise to myself and didn't start reading it before the weekend away.  It was worth the wait. I am diving into it and living the lives of the characters with an uncluttered mind and time to spare.

This pause is much appreciated.  Sometimes in the whirlwind of life activities, it is easy to function without engaging, to mechanically problem solve without taking moments to breathe creativity.  It is a bit of a reset.  This year has been full of battles that have needed to be waged - mostly against the Cape Town City Council. We are lucky enough to have open space behind our house - a village green of sorts- and it was one of the two selling points when we decided to buy the ramshackle house here 26 years ago. (The other was the pantry, in case you are wondering...) So when we heard that City council was ready to grant a lease to a hockey club who would astroturf the surface, we were more than a little upset.  Meetings and requests for information followed, but the results have been - to date- less than satisfactory.  The other prong of our dealings with the City Council concerned a very small pool we want to put in our back garden.  It would not affect, or even be seen, by anyone other than us. (I am big on privacy.)  But our plans came back unpassed because our home is in a Heritage Overlay Area.  The same Heritage Overlay Area that the field is in, that very same field the council thinks fit to cover in synthetic plastic fibres. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people will be adversely affected by this astroturf installation, as it will change the ambience, tone and function of the area.  Currently, cricket, soccer, frisbee, local community and dog walkers all happily coexist. The duplicity  of the city council planning department was blatant and rank. 

We were given two options to achieve the passing of the pool plans:  Either have a four month public participation period for residents to lodge objections, or get the permission from our Ward Councillor and the Residents Ratepayers Association.  The latter proved to be the easier option, and I know you will be very happy to hear that the pool process - begun at the end of last year - should be moving ahead in the next week or so.

The field issue, however, is still looming. A bunch of us neighbours and concerned citizens meet on a regular basis to discuss how to go about making sure  the natural greenness is preserved for future generations.  And that, to be honest, has been the upside of this whole mess - I have got to know and admire the people in my community who are as passionate about our environment as I am.  They are a remarkable crew, some of whom I might never  have met, had it not been for adversity.  And the gift of friendship is something I never take for granted.

We are in Jacobsbaai for another night, and then the road trip takes us further inland to Citrusdal.  And that is where I will be in hot water, as we are staying at a resort with hot springs.  You know me and water   - I can't wait to wrinkle my skin by spending hours just floating away my thoughts gazing up at the Cederberg sky.  

Spending time in hot water is my way of keeping out of the proverbial hot water.  After this lovely weekend away I will be re energised to tackle Authorities and Niggling Worries, with a calm head and clear focus.

 

 

If you would like to read more about the battle for the Pinelands Oval, comprehensive information can be found at https://friendsoftheoval.org.za 

 

A meeting to find out what Cape Town City Council wanted to do with this land

Also to note:  Should you wish to get new blogs in your inbox, the top Subscribe button now works. (Top right hand side.)  (The one underneath supplied by blogspot is still non functioning, alas.) 

Journey into the interior

Freedom was calling.  The convergence of a long weekend and a Home Exchange request from three Italians visiting Cape Town en route to AfrikaBurn, meant one thing:  Road Trip!

Andrew hauled out the unwieldy huge paper map which has all the roads we have travelled marked in red kokhi, and looked for a gap in the squiggles.  Our fingers landed on the tiny dot of Heidelberg, a small country village most famous for its petrol station.  And the attached Wimpy restaurant, of course.  We had whizzed past it umpteen times on our way to Sedgefield, but we have never  ventured off the National Road.  Why would we?  Our expectations were not high.

But it is a lovely little gem at the start of the Garden Route.  What we found was a beautiful, green country village, brimming with quirkiness, history and friendly people. We stayed in a unusual, hand built (by the owner) French styled chalet.  It was set in a garden of peacefulness.

  Perfect.  When we weren't eating or playing board games (no Scrabble or Crosswords this time!!) we sat in the garden and read our books.  We did stir our stumps to wander through the village, turning left at the railway line on day 1, and right on day 2.  Heidelberg is proud of its history - many of the buildings have information boards up and we could piece together parts of the Anglo Boer War conflicts that happened in the area. It was a complicated time in South African history, and one which casts long, dark shadows on British colonialism.  

One building in particular intrigued me.  It was a corner shop with Christmas decorations still in the window, despite Easter having just come and gone. (Perhaps its a place where time stands still.) It was not one of the most attractive buildings in the area, being drab and non descript.  I would have walked straight past it if it had not been for the information board. 

In 1901, the British opened fire on the Afrikaner Commando with casualties on both sides.  The British didn't want to admit that there had been losses on their side and so buried the bodies of three soldiers under the floorboards of this building.  Their skeletons were discovered when renovations took place, and the good people of Heidelberg held a Town meeting. They decided to leave the bones there and concrete over them, so I assume, they are still there.

The thing is, when South Africa became a Union in1910, Britain agreed to hand over all property and grounds to the new South African government with the exception of grounds where British soldiers were buried.  That means that this corner shop is technically on British soil.    How weird is that!

 We all have skeletons we have buried (don't we?) .  Often when renovating our lives we decide to leave them there and concrete over them.  That's ok, I think, as long as we remember they belong to foreign powers. I wonder though if the families of those three British soldiers would have been comforted to know what really happened to their sons, brothers and fathers.  Covering up old wounds is not always helpful for the survivors.  Sometimes admitting our losses rather than trying to pretend they didn't happen is the more helpful route.

Our road trip took us over little used mountain passes, through landscapes that morphed from verdant pastures to rocky outcrops.
It reminded me that adventures are easy to find close to home and that sometimes deviating from the main roads can take us on an enlightening journey of discovery.