Garden whatnot's

Wishful thinking

Display at Safari Nursery, Lynnwood

It's not quite the end of July but gardeners, myself included, are pruning roses, buying compost and poking around impatiently in their flower beds. August, an unpredictable month, still lies ahead. August is nippy, windy and dusty.  

Clivias flower in August  - but I am not sure how well mine will do. My clivia plants, which  faithfully provided a magnificent display of orange blooms for twenty years, have been decimated by lily borer.  

South Africans living on the High Veld traditionally celebrate Spring Day on the 1 September. School children go to school in new summer outfits. Churches hold Spring Bazaars. Families plan picnics. This is overly optimistic. It has been known to snow lightly in Johannesburg on the 1 September. The spring equinox falls on the  22 September in the Southern Hemisphere, a far more realistic date for spring celebrations. But who doesn't want to reach the end of winter, even the mildest of winters as  experienced this year in Gauteng?     

Cats in Israel (2001)

I would not care 

To be a feral cat of Joppa’s ancient harbour

Thin, starving, one-eyed

They dart away 

Expecting the stone, curse,  boot

Did Peter kick the unclean cats of Joppa?

Did he recoil from Joppa cats swarming, diseased

In the visioned canvas of forbidden foods 

On a rooftop 

Overlooking the sea?

The long-haired tabbies on the porch of St John the Baptist, Bethany

Lie un-timid in the sun

Plump, they don’t budge 

For the tourist, worshipper, monk

Their fur sleek, their eyes glint

They have chosen well – a Franciscan shrine -

Where cats are worthy creatures

Among the massive, knotted roots of

Gethsemane’s olive trees

Where Jesus prayed 

And friends slept 

Kittens frisk 

Gambol among the rosebushes

Tumble among flowers

Hide (and seek)

Oblivious of 

Past agony

Faith quilt

Six months of 2017 have passed in a flash. What have you achieved? 

My dear friend and sister (in  St Paul's/Minneapolis, Minnesota) -  Barb -  has given an evocative and equisitively beautiful piano concert (from memory) as part-fulfillment  of her Master's in Music and produced a dissertation on the merits of teaching/learning piano (equally applicable to other instruments) for retirees. An enormous accomplishment for a 60-something with formidable family commitments! My daughter, Ruth, a medical doctor with a hectic multi-disciplinary practice, will be running the Knysna Marathon  (42 km) this weekend. That  has entailed six months of rigorous early morning practice. Catherine, my younger daughter, has combined a lecturing post and mothering two small children  with two academic articles and a conference paper. And me? I have made a faith quilt of more than 1 000 two and half inch squares - with the help of the sweet, patient  Sandria, the encouragement of my fellow quilters, Noleen and Petra, and many homebaked muffins and cups of coffee.

  

Why a faith quilt?

 Catherine and Ryan took the plunge to sell their small townhouse and buy a lovely, free standing home with pool and large garden in the same area close to the schools. I shall not go into detail about the  nerve-racking 'house' saga - an offer to purchase accepted and declined within 24 hours, a nervous purchaser who disappeared and reappeared, show houses and the inevitable tidying up, the house search, bond applications and why-did-we-ever-do-this-to-ourselves moments. During the roller-coaster ride, I pinned and stitched and pinned and stitched the quilt for the new house in faith.

But I got it done. And the 1 000 pieces came close to the 1 000 prayers made during this time to the One who knows all our needs and aspirations.  At the best of times, Catherine is a hard one to please - an interior architect with minimalist tastes. The quilt may be consigned to the spare bed in the study in the long run - but it will find its place in the New House.  

Nala

On April 7 Nala joined our household.

 In January this year Kaela left us for happier hunting grounds - her back legs had all but given in and she suffered from a distressing breathing problem. Dr van Schouwenberg, a veteran vet who has cared for our dogs for years, and her assistant kindly came to Thatchwick Cottage to put Kaela to sleep on her favourite spot on the verandah. She slipped away, eyeing the birds flutter around  the bird feeder. 

Kaela and Flash, Dec 2016

I decided to wait until after a short trip to Bloemfontein and full recovery from my broken ankle before I adopted another dog as a companion to Flash. Last year, Kim, my music teacher, had offered me her dog.

"Nala needs a good home. I am out teaching all day, the yard at our new house is just too small and my grown up children are all too busy with their own lives to give her any attention. When Kaela goes, please don't approach Lab Rescue. Take Nala instead."

At last I was ready.  I approached Kim and we arranged the date. The introduction with Flash went off smoothly. The farewell was a bit harder on Kim. For more than a week,  anxious Whatsapp messages flew between us:  anxiety on her part and reassurance on mine, bolstered by lots of happyp photos. 

Sleeping in on Saturday

"Nala's fine. She loves being allowed to come inside. She's on a strict diet, is looking slimmer and she enjoys her walk every day."

Kim still visits Nala once a week when she comes for my music lesson. And Nala is always pleased to see her. But after the garage door closes, Nala follows me contentedly. She  is not pure Labrador Retriever as all our previous dogs have been to date.  Her ears are too perky and her tail has a curl. But she has the gentle nature of the Labrador.  Grace, my nearly three year old granddaughter, loves her best. Nala is Swahili for lioness.  

Hypoestes Aristata: Ribbon Bush

As cold weather sets in, ribbon bush proliferates all over the garden, climbing walls and fences, camouflaging the compost heap, covering ugly, open spaces, filling in dreary gaps, cheering up the foliage in autumn and winter. No care needed, scant watering and the only job necessary is to prune hard when the flowers are finished flowering. The ribbon bush flowers for at least three months, April to July.  Ribbon bush attracts bees and butterflies and is a source of food for thrushes and robins. The petals which curl like a florist's ribbon are the source of the name.

I purchased a single indigenous ribbon bush from the R 3 and R5 nursery on Lynnwood Road, years ago. (You can see that first plant on my blog pic.) I despised its homely appearance and dark green leaves - definitely a garden orphan. But as it has made its mysterious way throughout the whole garden and supplied colour when things are drab, I have changed my mind. My book on indigenous South African plants says the leaves can be eaten like spinach and the crushed leaves are used in a traditional poultice for sore eyes.

Professors at tea

Learned men carnival

At teatime

Like dervishes

Wise men whirl

Giddy, dizzy, stoned

Drinking Dajeerling with

Well-bred sips

Fingers crooked 

With delicacy

Grave men

Party

Blasting vuvuzelas 

Standing on table tops

Like frenzied fans

Masks slip, fall

Among teaspoons and

Caramel treats

While a wide-eyed waitress

Gawks

Notes: Plastic trumpet blown at soccer games in South Africa

Our Passover meal

Many years ago out dear friend, Genet, introduced our family to the celebration of the Passover on MaundyThursday evening as part of our Easter weekend. We have kept up the tradition more or less faithfully over the years. I now include my life group in the ritual.  It is a joint effort in which we share the preparation of some delicious dishes based on recipes supplied by Shana, who grew up in a Jewish home. She is also responsible for the Seder plate. Our liturgy follows. 

We begin our Seder with the lighting of the candles.  It is fitting that a woman should light the candles since Jesus, the Son of God,  was born of a woman.  (Shana lights the candles and says the blessing in Hebrew and English.) 

WELCOME TO THE SEDER!  (Eleanor)

QUESTION (Jethro):  How does this night differ from all other nights?

INTRODUCTION (Eleanor):   This is the central question of the Passover and we are going to answer that question this evening in many ways through the special things we say and through the special food we eat.  The Jewish people celebrate the Passover to remember how Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land.  As Christians we remember how Jesus ate this Passover meal with his disciples on the night that he was betrayed. We also remember that Jesus, our Messiah, has led us from the slavery of sin into the wonderful liberty of the children of God. 

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE: Shana

READING: Exodus 12: 21-28 (Bokkie)

Prayer of blessing  (Hebrew and English):  Shana

FIRST COURSE OF THE MEAL   

WASHING  OF THE HANDS:  It is likely at this point Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. We will not wash feet but we indicate with this simple ceremony that we are called to be servants one of the other. (Jung Fei will assist). Each person pours a little water over the hands of the person next to him/her and passes on the jug. 

BREAKING  OF THE BREAD (Rein will say the prayers over the bread and wine. Eleanor will serve around the table.  Please eat and drink as soon as you receive the elements. Mark will assist passing them around.).  

MAIN  COURSE: THE MAIN COURSE IS SERVED AS A BUFFET IN THE DINING ROOM. Please help yourself and return to the table. Enjoy!

HALLEL – PRAISE: WORTHY IS THE LAMB! Let us join hands and say together: “Worthy is 

the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!” (Rev 5:12)

We celebrate now with sweet dessert to remind us that after death and suffering came the sweetness of the Resurrection of Jesus and one day, our resurrection from the dead and the great Wedding Feast of the Lamb. 

DESSERT: Served in the dining room. Please proceed and help yourselves. You are welcome to enjoy the dessert sitting anywhere!

 Thank you for sharing this evening with us.  Blessed Easter! 

Eating in 

Dining, lunching or breakfasting with friends at home is increasingly uncommon these days.  We travel a block from our lovely homes to drink a cuppa with friends at a coffee shop. We spend rands and rands on restaurant cuisine instead of making use of our own kitchens. We sit in crowded malls or under umbrellas on the pavements instead of in our own gardens.

In these heady days of early retirement I have made a point of asking friends home and setting a table somewhere on the verandah or the lawn. March days are mild and pleasant in Pretoria and after the summer rains, our gardens are lush and green.  This Friday I took out an antique tablecloth that I had forgotten I possessed, the silver and pink dinner set and my aunt's ivory handled, engraved silver knives and forks. The meal was simple: French tuna quiche (a recipe for dummies - the secret is in using whole cream to beat with the eggs), a panini  from my favorite deli, a tossed salad with lots of  avocado, finished with a dessert of organic Greek yoghurt in elegant champagne glasses topped with nuts and raw honey. The friends  - Noleen and Petro (Salome missed the picture)  - and I have shared decades teaching together at the university.  The conversation never waned from  noon till 4pm. There was no waiter to hurry us, no loud music to talk over, no menu item  that disappointed and best of all, no bill to pay.

Eating out is a fun luxury but eating in is better. What do you think?

THE IRENE GARDEN CLUB

The third Saturday of the month is the Irene Garden Club. Irene is an old established suburb in Pretoria and the garden club has been going for many years. Some silver-haired members remember the days when they took  their babies in prams to club meetings.

I discovered the club on Facebook in October 2015.  It was with some trepidation that I phoned to enquire whether the club would consider members 'outside the area'.

"Oh course", said Lucia, the vivacious, dynamic Chairlady. "I live in Faerie Glen."

Since then I have been an enthusiastic member of the club and recruited four other keen gardeners: Chris, Isobel, Ermilinda and Janis.  Last year we viewed several gorgeous gardens, listened to talks on  bulbs, vegetables and container plants, among others. A hot topic of conversation was how to garden in the drought. Pretoria had water restrictions for more than a year and the spring rains were late, sending us all into a panic.

"Should I replace my roses with succulents?" asked one anxious member.

"Just wait," I cautioned. "The rains will come."

In January 2015,  I had two rainwater tanks installed to harvest the rain that falls on the corrugated iron garage roof and the kitchen roof, two of the three sections of the house without thatch.  By October 2015 my tanks were completely dry. Happily although the summer rains were late, they came in abundance and the largest dam in Gauteng, the Vaal, rose from 63 % to 103% in just over a week in February. My tanks constantly overflowed and my water bill has been greatly reduced since their installation. When I have an overflow, I use rain water for domestic use inside the house - just not for drinking. A pale blue pottery jug in my bathroom contains the day's ration for hand washing.

On Saturday we had a talk on different kinds of gardeners right on the lawn of Lucia's Faerie Glen garden, a pretty, relaxed garden setting.

Decorating with quilts

"Not another quilt! What are you going to do with it?" a friend asks.

Quilts hang on the ladder in the study

"I have no idea," I answer, "I'll decide later."

 Why do painters paint?  To produce another painting to be stacked in the studio or for the love of creating?

The William Morris quilt in the guest room 

That's the same reason that quilters quilt - for the joy of  discovering a new pattern,  of experimenting with new colors, to pull out the jewels in the stash, purchased on the spur of the moment out of a love affair with fabrics.

Appliqued garden quilt on my bed

When I had  my injured ankle encased in a moonboot and sleeping was uncomfortable, I found comfort in napping  under a handsewn beautiful quilt covered in roses, petunias, irises, pansies, daffodils  and a basket of daisies.

This one needs is earmarked for Ruth

The tally

Far beyond the distant peaks of the Blesberg, solitary warriors jostle for space where the desiccated winter grass has shot sweet, succulent shoots in the wake of early rains. Pores exude secretions which arouse a silent rallying cry. Pale-green carapaces turn yellow streaked with black.  Band upon band of insatiable brigands assemble until they are a horde as terrible than Mzilikaze’s marauders. The corporate mind follows instinct. A heaving, rippling mass ascends into the cloudless sky and turns west towards the Thaba Nchu District. Behind remains a khaki-coloured dust bowl in place of greening savanna. 

When the locusts reach us, they blot out the midday sun.  

Amos, our gardener, looks up at the flickering eclipse, the peculiar dimming of noonday light.  He yells. Big Sarah, pegging linens on the washline, screams. At the kitchen window Ma’s face pales.  

“Locusts”, Dad bellows.

 He dashes out of the front door of Wolverton & Ferguson's Trading Ltd, which neighbours our house.  Odd-job-Bill and Mr Ferguson and Meneer Potgieter and the workers who have stopped loading Meneer’s truck follow him. 

“Locusts,” I whimper. 

Our weaponry is at hand. This is not the first time the curse has struck. My sister, Helen, and Boy grab the empty oil cans stored alongside the garage.  Amos and the workers seize buckets, crowbars and scrap iron.  Big Sarah and the Wednesday ironing girl run for saucepans and ladles.  Ma shoves two lids into my hands, a makeshift cymbal. She snatches up the brass dinner gong.  Dad tosses hessian feedbags piled on the store’s porch to Bill, Mr Ferguson and Meneer. They snap their gas lighters and set the corners aflame. 

A mad rag-tag army, we run towards the billowing cloud, helter-skelter, pell-mell, galvanising the dogs to a barking frenzy, astonishing Ma’s hens and frightening the doves which rise from the dovecote. Boy charges ahead. My brother is a drummer boy leading the khakis against the burghers in the open veld. He is a Barolong warrior taunting the Matabele. He is David challenging a Goliath made of a billion quivering parts.  Behind Boy, we bang and beat, bash and hammer, slam and pound. The smoking sacking poisons the air. But still the plague advances, secure in its armour, brazen in numbers, voracious in appetite. 

Locusts drop into our hair. They alight on our bare arms and spring onto our legs. They stick to aprons and overalls like burrs. On the wash-line Ma’s white sheets and best tablecloths sag under thousands of clutching insects. A locust squeezes past the collar of a dress or a shirt to rasp and squirm against the skin.  They smash against the windows of our house and of Dad’s store. Their exploding abdomens ooze yellow pus, detached wings stick to splotched glass, broken antennae twitch, serrated legs saw up and down like newly amputated limbs. 

I abandon my useless weapon into the hydrangeas that bush on either side of the wooden steps which lead to the veranda.  I surrender. I scream and shudder and dance up and down on the spot, a single, shameful, shell-shocked coward unnoticed amidst a crowd of battling heroes. 

Why has God unleashed His wrath on Thaba Nchu?  

Every Sunday we worship at the Church of England on the corner of Hoofstraat. We bow low and kneel and rise and sit and kneel again on the flagstones. We take the precious Bread with outstretched palms, criss-crossed, without a crumb falling from the silver plate. We pass the shining chalice to one another and sip the precious Wine without a drop spilling onto our fingers.  Every Sunday our Boer neighbours sit in obedient rows in the pews of the big Dutch church, whose steeple pokes the sky like the Dominee’s warning finger. On weekdays at dinner we shut our eyes tight and punctuate Dad’s grace with a firm Amen.  Most times I do what Ma asks without arguing. Helen swallows the bitter medicines Doctor Green dispenses to strengthen her heart, without even pulling a face. Boy sneaks away to play mancala with the herdboys just now and then.  Ma seldom complains about the dust and heat and the maids. Dad only drinks too much Friday nights. Surely that's enough for the Almighty? 

The locusts strip Ma’s sweet peas, the yellow and white daisy bushes, the three tea roses, the climbing vine. They turn the lawn brown. They shred row upon row of cabbage, spinach and carrot tufts. They leave bare tendrils where only minutes ago, leafy tomatoes plants trailed the tripods in the kitchen garden. I can see that the tall maize stalks around Big Sarah’s hut on the far side of the fence have already buckled and drooped. And this is but the work of the vanguard. 

The black cloud hesitates then moves on. Is it the tumult or the smoking sacks or our anguished prayers that has driven it away?  But the respite is temporary. Near Tweespruit the locusts will plunder the districts’ crops and the bereft farmers will not be able to repay Dad and Mr Ferguson the debts owed on ploughs and reapers and threshers and seed and tools. 

When everyone has gone home except for Sarah, Dad sits on the painted kitchen chair leaning his elbows on his knees and his hands cupping his chin. A stray locust crawls across his shoulders and feelers poke from the turn-ups of his trousers.  Ma stokes the Aga; her tight bun has unravelled and soot smears her cheek. I sit cross-legged on the floor in front of Helen’s stool. She picks bits of locust out of my hair and drops them onto a newspaper.  Helen is unafraid of twitching limbs, bulging compound eyes, sticky, transparent wings. Helen once stared down a cobra in Ma’s chicken run; when it turned, she broke its back with a spade. Helen scrubs burnt, blackened pots until they shine and she throws out the night’s slops without gagging, long before Big Sarah arrives for work. Rheumatic fever may have left Helen with a faltering heart but she refuses to fear any created thing on God’s earth. It does not matter how much it stinks, slithers or sticks.  

We can hear Boy whooping outside with Big Sarah’s grandchildren. Boy is  Chief Moroka leading the Barolong on a murderous rampage of vengeance.  He shouts in Tswana like a piccannin. Through the kitchen door I see him stomping on anything that moves with his boots; Big Sarah’s grandchildren stomp on anything that moves with their calloused, bare feet. 

When I take the gas lamp and go to bed. I pass Big Sarah in the hall. She is still at work. She has swept up all the locusts that slipped into the house through cracks and gaps. She holds a dustpan of corpses with a stiff arm in front of her. 

“Tsies, Miss Eve, they will chew your mother’s tables and chairs. They will eat her doilies. When I was a girl, I saw tsies eat out the jelly of a baby’s eyes. The mama had her abba when they went to the fields to drive the locusts away. When she came home, the child’s eyes - gone!” 

“Heish,” I shudder.  

Mother appears. She has fixed her bun and wiped her face. She has also recognised the ring of the covert exchange. 

“Sarah, hurry, woman, hurry!” 

Mother has forbidden the locals to speak Tswana in the house. But she cannot stop Dad. Dad’s quiet voice becomes loud and strident when he speaks the lingo and no-one can tell if it is Amos or Dad shouting orders at the workers. But Ma does not trust a conversation she cannot understand. After my last clandestine chat with Sarah, I suffered nightmares for nights on end. The whole family was woken by my midnight screeches until I begged Ma to put my bed on bricks so that the tokoloshe could not hide underneath it at night. 

In the bedroom I share with Helen, I open the sash window and breathe in the cool air. The evening sky is clear and innocent of any plague.  I pull back the calico coverlet embroidered with twisted French knots in the shape of rosebuds.  On the starched white under-sheet, deep inside the bed, a locust stands transfixed.  My shrieks echo. The locust is worse than a tokoloshe, worse than a baby without eyeballs, worse than a cobra in the henhouse.  

Boy appears in the doorway. His boots grate on the floorboards. A thick, sticky jam of squashed bodies encrusts the soles. He steps forward and grasps the leathery thorax between his forefinger and thumb. Delighted he waves his trophy in front of my face.

“Three thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight,” he says.    

Lessons from Pollyanna

A friend once described this blog as 'too Pollyanna-ish' for his taste.     Blame it all on Mother Imelda, superior  of the convent school of my childhood,  who presented me with a copy of Pollyanna for First Place in Standard 3 after a hard won academic battle against my arch-rival, Gail Someone-or-other. That copy is still on my shelf, dog-eared and shabby after many a reading-aloud, chapter by chapter,  to my children, my grandchildren and several English pupils who required listening practice. The board cover is a soft, granulated blue and the paper cover, a bright sunshine yellow befitting its namesake. It sports a color photo  of Hayley Mills as Pollyanna in her sailor outfit and straw boater purchased by Aunt  Polly, not yet out of love but out of a sense of duty. The love came later.

I have never forgotten Pollyanna's recount to Nancy of the origins of the 'Glad game'.  A missionary barrel had arrived at her father's parsonage filled with hand-me-downs for the pastor and his little family. The things, Pollyanna explained to Nancy, were the charity jumble that not even the converts in Africa and other far flung places would want. Pollyanna hoped in vain for a doll; instead her father pulled out a crutch.

 "Oh," the good man said, "Here's a splendid opportunity for gratitude! You can be glad that you don't need a crutch." 

Hence the Game began. 

Imagine writing a book for children today with that harsh lesson in life's realities. Surely such a disappointment would psychologically damaging and the pious pastor an example of a stoic Christianity, quite abhorrent today? Yet the story of brave, little Pollyanna and her  Glad Game has captivated children for over a century (the first edition was published in 1913). 

This Saturday morning I ventured into my garden for a little garden work for the first time since my accident. I took my crutch just in case. I planted a tray of crimson petunias in the large round pot near the gate, inspected the lavender which are drowning under the pumpkins leaves, gave the the iceberg roses a light pruning and planted a new rosemary in a pot. I propped my crutch against the bay tree while I worked, so thankful that I need it less and less. 

When I gingerly stepped into the organic deli at Waterkloof Corner later this morning,  the blonde, pony-tailed  teenager who operates the the till, cheered me on. 

"Well done, I see you're walking without your crutch!" 

  
Pollyanna-ish? Maybe, but I am so glad and grateful.

Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne (goddess of memory and mother of the Muses)  

Memory is 
The mother of the Muse 

She beckons 

Submerged experiences 

Hidden deep in

Our cells, so they say

She nurtures them through 

The umbilical cord

Which ties to the Self

Events long forgotten 

Till they grow strong enough to 

Twitch
Wriggle

Kick

Our consciousness

Then she coaxes them from 

Comfortable obscurity

Down the birth canal 

Into the light 

Red-faced and screaming

They live again

In words                                                                                       

Monday

This Monday morning my garden beckons me with the promise of new beginnings. On the weekend I was able to walk with care over the uneven lawn, fill the bird feeders, impale two halves of a banana on the fruit tray and toss a few balls for Flash while I held onto a crutch for extra balance.  Precious small beginnings after seven weeks of immobility. 

Kaela, who was such a part of my life in previous blogs, is no longer with us. A few days after I returned home from the hospital, I acknowledged what I had been trying hard to ignore for the past six months. Kaela walked with great difficulty. Her breathing was labored due to tracheal collapse. Control over her bowels had diminished and in the early morning she looked at me shamefaced about accidents on the kitchen tiles.  I made the call to the vet who has cared for our dogs for over twenty years. She arrived, a veteran of  nearly eighty, with her sympathetic young nurse. We sat on the verandah and talked about broken bones and old age and I made the fateful decision to let Kaela go. She slipped away lying on her favorite spot above the verandah step, gazing at the red barons, the yellow weavers and the bronzed mannikins darting around the bird feeder. She had long abandoned chasing the doves. My own injury did not allow me to hold her but I managed to lean forward and scratch her ears and tell her what a special girl she was. Klaas, the gardener, assisted the nurse transport Kaela's blanketed body to the vet's little van. 

His eyes widened when he first saw Kaela.

"My friend, my friend!" he said. 

Kaela keeping guard over the oven on baking day.

Dreams deferred, dreams regained

Retirement at age 65 years is a mandatory condition of employment in South African universities.  December 31, 2016 marked the end of my career in education: three years as a high school English teacher and thirty-three years in higher education. The last thirty years of my career were spent at the University of South Africa, a large comprehensive distance learning institution, situated in Pretoria, where I served in various capacities over the decades.

Here I am in 2015 with a doctoral student from Kenya whose thesis explored home-school-community partnerships in Kenya. 

He flew to South Africa specially for the joyous occasion of his graduation and we met face to face for the very first time. Three years of effective doctoral supervision had been carried out exclusively by email. 

During 2016 I approached the date of retirement with mixed feelings. To end a busy career after so many years was a formidable prospect. At the same time I had a giddy feeling of delight.  I would be able to linger in my vegetable garden in the early morning, inspecting the development of my one cherished artichoke plant.
   

I would be able to fetch grandchildren from school without juggling a hundred pressing deadlines. I would be able to accept invitations to outings with friends without refusing, with my usual mantra, " Maybe another time? I simply have too much work to finish."

November was a round of farewells and retirement parties. December promised celebrations, family time and a holiday at the edge of the Maluti mountains. The happy dreams shattered when I had an untimely fall in my house - slipping down a flight of stairs to a loft. I fractured my ankle and underwent two operations by Pretoria's best orthopaedic surgeon, who just 'happened' to be in attendance at Casualty at the nearest hospital followed by a week in a surgical ward.  The post op recovery was estimated a minimum of six weeks, probably far longer given my age and the nature of the injury. 

I had little choice but to bow to circumstances surrounded by friends and family. I resolved not to  count days. I reached for the life lessons to be learned. I read, meditated, watched the birds feeding in my garden, listening to uplifting sermons and talks, to classical music and worship songs. I received each kind visitor with great gratitude. My tough independence had been suddenly  replaced by helpless dependence. I ate slices of 'humble pie' as I accepted assistance with basic tasks.  Joan Didion comments, 'Life as we know it changes in seconds.'  

But that is only the first half of the story. Yesterday I went for my six-week post-op X ray and consultation. I sat on the bed in the consulting room, left foot out of the moon boot, naked and looking scrawny and sad stretched out in view of  the wound sister and the young physiotherapist.  The doctor studied the images on the screen of his computer. I recognized the four black pins which held my bones in place.

"Looking great," he said, " Bone growth fantastic! No need to even fear osteoporosis-arthiritis. Now stand up!"

"Stand, but can I?" 

"Of course you can and you can walk. C'mon. I'll hold your hands. Walk towards me."

So I am back wearing my takkies (Afrikaans for running shoes), which give a good stable grip. The moonboot, the walker and one crutch have been buried deep out of sight in my walk-in cupboard. I am walking again pain-free using only one crutch for some balance. The physiotherapist, family and friends, several in the medical profession, are amazed at such rapid progress. I am overcome with gratitude. My sincere thanks to the doctors  and nurses, to the whole canon of Western medicine. But all the glory to God who has accelerated the healing of my 65 year old bones and put me back on my feet.  I still have some way to go before I jog on the field again in the early morning with Flash but this morning, I could get in to a bath and scrub the toes of  my left foot! Next stop a pedicure!


    
  I was wheeled into the consulting rooms yesterday in a wheel chair and I left walking. Obed, the doorman, looked amazed as I  approached him in the foyer of the medical centre. 

"Mam, I was waiting for them to call me to fetch you in the wheelchair."

"Obed, I am walking!"

"Oh, mam, God is great and Dr Duwayne is a very good doctor."

That about sums it up.