Dove Update

Greetings from Cape Town


It’s time for a dove update. Remember these eggs were laid the day we arrived in Cape Town. The squabs are moving around on their own, feeling their oats, ducking away from me when I approach the nest. Hopefully they are not ready to try out their wings. It’s a long way down from the 11th floor.




Just in case you thought we had forgotten about writing to all of you, not so. It’s just taking a bit longer than expected to organize the next series of notes. We have a set of Drakensberg messages and one on the local Methodist church. It’s a historic place and I hope you will enjoy reading about it no matter your religion or lack thereof.


I wish all of you could be here. The weather is very interesting. It was hot and sunny on Monday, around 90F. Towards evening a breeze blew in and the cooling began – an extremely pleasant sleeping night, around 63F. The morning dog walk was quite brisk and the old dog (and I) enjoyed the cool temps. Tuesday has been mostly cloudy and cool, unusual for Cape Town. The high today was around 73F. Wednesday should also be cool but you never can be certain. I’m planning some yard work at B&K’s place. We’re rebuilding some terraces and moving stones and dirt – cool weather will be appreciated.

That’s all for now. Blessings to all.

Floyd

Bulungula IV

Greetings from Cape Town,

Let me start with a dove update. We returned to our flat on 12/22 from an overnight with the kids, checked on our dove, and we have babies, or baby, I don’t know yet. All we can see is a lot of yellow fluff and one small head. Mom is keeping the details a secret.

“lots of things to do before breakfast is ready at 8:30” was the phrase that kicked off the last segment of our Bulungula adventure. Those include beachwalking, reading, staring idly into space, talking with the other guests, and drinking coffee. Did I mention this was a pretty laid back place?


We started out by taking this walkway over the dunes to the beach. Needless to say, we were tempted by the swing. Those are rocks in the distance; hence “Wild Coast.” We soon learned about a shorter, more direct path to the beach.











Once you get to the beach (in low tide) you get to cross the mouth of the small river. In high tide the current can be difficult and the water is a bit high. At low tide the river mouth is safe for small children as you can see below.






Shelling was a fun and time-consuming activity and I picked up a lot with the intent of incorporating them into some kind of beadwork.











Another beach activity is horseback riding. We did not participate but our new friends did and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.












One activity that we did pursue was fishing. I took the camera and Betsy took the pole. The lodge organized a guide whose first job was to locate some bait. He waded out into some tidal pools to spear this octopus for us to use as bait. I have some graphic pictures of him disentangling and disemboweling the calamari if you need them.













Then he led us on a treacherous (to us) walk out to the furthest, slipperiest, most difficult rocks, surrounded by ocean with the tide coming in, that he could find to begin fishing. Betsy enjoyed the adventure, lost baits a couple of times, and we called it a day.
































All was not in vain. One of our group eventually came up with fish which he donated to one of the village boys. We had been hoping for a 30 kilo tuna to feed the entire lodge, but no, it was a rather ugly relative of a flounder.
















Carlo celebrated his success with another 750ml beer.











That night I had an absolutely amazing experience. After dinner and sunset we gathered around the fire and brought out the drums. The sounds and the rhythms (and the beers) get into your blood and I mentioned that I had been a drummer in my youth. The next thing knew Carlo was placing a drum in my lap and daring me to join the drum circle. It took a few minutes but I caught the fever and played for quite some time. One of the guys was a professional musician and that helped a lot.

The music the previous night was better, but I’ll always remember my night in the circle, sharing with my new friends, black, white, and brown.

Cheers, Floyd

Safe Arrival

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa!

Here we are on Wednesday after leaving Chicago around 11:30 Sunday morning. Our plane was due to leave at 11am but hadn’t appeared at the gate by that time so we
were becoming concerned. Asking at the counter, we were advised to change gates on the run, and did so. We left O’Hare at 11:20 (on a flight which had been delayed from its 9am scheduled departure), arriving at Dulles (Washington, DC) in plenty of time to make the connecting flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that our luggage didn’t make the same flight as we did. We found out about that after waiting to collect the suitcases for customs inspection in Joburg. The good news is that we skated through customs and boarded the flight to Cape Town with an absolute minimum of fuss and arrived around 8:30pm on Monday. We knew the best case for our luggage would be Wednesday so we bought a few essentials and settled in Becky & Kurt’s spare bedroom.

Those of you who have been with for previous year’s journals will recall that their home is on the slopes of Table Mountain, overlooking Table Bay. A lovely place, best appreciated after some recovery from the 25 hour ordeal of travel. But enough complaining. The weather is a brisk 18 degrees (translates to 66 F) and is expected to warm up later in the week. Meantime we’re staying in jeans and long sleeves.

Becky greeted us with news of our flat, which they have been furnishing and decorating since we bought it unfinished last December. It seems that a Rock Pigeon (we would call it a dove) has set up housekeeping in a plant container on our patio – she laid an egg on the day we arrived. Welcome to Cape Town! For those of you who have not heard my dove story, just ask. We will monitor the new family and report progress.


Tuesday found us almost awake and ready to visit the flat and admire the kids’ handiwork. It is located in the City Bowl, about 3km from the Ackermann home, about 3km from the Waterfront, and about ½ block from the primary craft market. Lots of restaurants and night life, a short walk for fruit vendors and groceries. A terrific location. Our parking space is on the 9th floor with the flat on the 11th. Elevators, ramps, or stairs, take your pick.






We could tell that Becky was a little apprehensive and concerned that we might not like all the work they had done. A ribbon on the front door signaled the way they felt about our first visit.
















It was beautifully, thoughtfully, lovingly done.

















































One of the highlight pieces was given to us as a housewarming present by Luke Dollimore. It is in the kitchen - you can see it in the photograph above - and is a set of photos taken by Luke in 1994 of Nelson Mandela as he voted for the first time. Wow!









We have a large outdoor area for lounging, braiis (cooking out), and doves.








Our luggage arrived today, Wednesday, and we stowed it away, out of sight. Our big challenge will be keeping clutter under control. Where to put medications, toothpaste, paper towels, all those things that are needed daily but add to the clutter. Tomorrow we go shopping for food. The wine rack is stocked but the fridge is empty. Hmmm. Locating the nearby grocery stores will be the initial challenge – we’ll likely walk in expanding circles, exploring our new neighborhood.

Love to all.

Floyd