We have been having fun here at Jubilee Farm, Plettenberg Bay. The weather has mainly been sunny with the odd cooler day with a spit and a spot of much-needed rain. Friends have dropped in, the kids have bonded and the adults have enjoyed each other’s company.  And of course, there has been a great deal of cooking and eating of delicious Christmas food!

On Christmas Eve we went to the beach early in the morning, Lisa and Lauren went horse riding later in the day and we braaied in the evening.

Outlook Beach, Plettenberg Bay

In front of the farmhouse

Shan singing and playing the guitar

Lisa and Lauren riding

The Earl and The Jayster bonding at the braai

Lollz, Lauren, The Earl and Me

On Christmas day it was just the nine of us.  We missed Joshua of course but he was having a proper European Christmas while we soaked up the summer sun!

I cooked roast lamb the Greek way.  It was served with tzatziki, Lauren’s roast potatoes, vegetables and an enormous Greek Salad with a South African influence.  Lauren also did some roast pork.   We lit the Christmas Pudding and served it with ice cream.

Lolz about to open her Secret Santa gift

Jay chose just the right gift for Shan

Simon played Santa

Lisa loves the gift for the cats

Jay is a convert to Vietnamese food so was thrilled to receive the appropriate cookbook!

Yay – Melktertjie Liqueur

The Earl chose this all by himself!

Guess who is going to be cooking lots of curries!

The Table All Set and Ready for Christmas Dinner

Wow – Thanks Gran And Aunty Lauren

A delicious Christmas spread

Lauren and Allan lighting the Christmas Pud

On The Day of Goodwill (Boxing Day) Lauren and Allan’s friends also ex-Kokstad and now living in George came to spend the day.   They had their kids within weeks of each other so they have grown up very closely together.

Braai Master Allan

We eat again

Kids in the pool

Best of Friends

Come on it – There’s room for everyone

Nicoline’s mom was spending some time with them and it was lovely to see her again. We are just so lucky to have such an awesome family and fabulous friends.  Having everybody together is so relaxed and we just have fun together.  There is no better way to spend a South African Christmas!

Here is my contribution to this week’s black and white challenge from Cee

Photos this week must have two ems.

Mommy and Baby Elephant

Mammoth Mammal

Swimming Crocodile

Endangered Mammal

This week’s challenge calls for basically one colour in each photograph.

This lioness is the same colour as the sand and similar to the background

Leguavaan blending into the bark of the tree

View across the valley from our daughter’s house on a farm in Plettenberg Bay

22 December 2019

It is my rural son-in-law’s birthday today.  He wants to keep it low key!   But just because it is so close to Christmas does not mean we can’t celebrate.

Allan loves reading so getting him a gift is easy – A good book goes down well and he was thrilled to open more than one parcel containing a good novel this morning.

Our daughter’s best friend from high school is spending the holidays in Knysna so she and her family came to spend the day to help celebrate.   Wendy and Brynn have kept up with Lauren and Allan over the years in spite of living in different provinces.   Wendy was a big part of our lives when we were raising the girls so it was lovely for Earl and me to see her and her family again.

Wendy’s children are 20, 16 and 14.  Our grandchildren are 22, 17 and 15 and they all got on extremely well.

Before lunch, we took a walk and a great deal of fun was had when Brynn and the boys swam in one of the farm dams.   We joked about the potential danger of eels coming up to bite them – or perhaps a hippo or a crocodile?

Brynn, Allan, Wendy, Ceilidh, Darien, Lisa, Ciaran, Lauren, Simon, Jay

Lucy needed no second invitation to take a dip

Brynn was the first one in

Come on in – It’s glorious

What are you waiting for?

The boys join their dad

Watch out for the eels!

Ciaran

Simon going in to join his cousin, Jay

The Earl cooked a few chickens in the Weber for lunch and Lauren, Wendy and I made the salads.

Lunch Time

After lunch, the boys got active playing ball and swimming in the pool.

What a gorgeous place to have fun in the sun!

At any age – Boys will play ball!

Splashing about in the pool

Please don’t slip!

Bomb dropping from each end of the pool!

It was “Call Back the Past’ when Lauren brought out the photograph albums!

Do you remember this one!

Lauren and Wendy at Wendy’s 21st Birthday Party

Lauren, Wendy and Lisa

Lauren and Wendy

Brynn and Ceilidh

Yes – a lot of water under the bridge – but how awesome that this friendship has lasted over the years and when they meet it’s straight back to where they left off.

I just love this amazing family of ours.   We watched “Everybody’s Fine” on TV this evening.   It was about a father trying to get his kids together for Christmas.   How lucky we are that we don’t have that problem.   Our youngest daughter arrives tomorrow but there will still be one of our number missing. We miss Josh so much but are so happy that his dad is giving him a wonderful opportunity to study at an international university in Hungary.   We had a video call with him this evening and that, in a small way,  made up for him not being here.

After spending a wonderful week with the Kokstad Clan we made our way to Plettenberg Bay on Thursday.   The plan was to overnight somewhere as it is a very long drive.  But the Earl was doing well.  We dodged potholes and avoided cows and donkeys and gingerly overtook huge trucks all the way through Transkei but things improved once we were got to Kingwilliamstown where we stopped for brunch.  Our next stop was Colchester where we stretched our legs and got ice cream.  It was here that we decided that we could make it all the way.  After stopping a Storms River for fuel and a loo break we pushed on and made it to Jubilee Farm at 17:45.

Although it was a very long day we are glad that we didn’t stay over anywhere because it was so good to be with our kids and grandkids again.   Our eldest daughter, Lisa and grandson Jay (22) had been there a few days already.   Lollz our youngest will come on Monday.   Jay cooked us a delicious Chinese stir fry for dinner.

Jay, Allan, Lauren, Lisa, Shannon, Earl – Simon was hiding and I was taking the photo!

20 December 2019 – Christmas Shopping

Christmas shopping can be so stressful.  It’s not the amount of money you end up spending but rather trying to think of what you should get for the now-grown children!  This year we have decided to do Secret Santa for the parents, aunts and grandparents and keep the three kids’ (aged 15, 17 and 22) gifts to under R200.   Instead of spending too much money on gifts that might be unappreciated we decided to concentrate on experiences.  We will do stuff together, go out for the odd meal and visit interesting places.

Earlier this morning a message from Lollz appeared on the Family Whatsapp.   “My eardrum burst.  I’m on a drip in Constantiaberg. ”  This was posted while we were all asleep.  She had flown from Johannesburg to Cape Town on Thursday and this is when the pain started.  At 01:00 she was in agony and drove herself to the emergency room.

When I finally got through to her she was back home but not feeling good.  But she had to get to the pharmacy to get more meds.  Her latest message reports that she is feeling a bit better and has done her Christmas shopping.

Simon, Shan, Grandpa and Gran went into town to do our Christmas shopping.    We ordered Sushi for our dinner which we collected when we were done and had a delicious breakfast at Frendz! Shan took a photo of Simon and me.

We then split up with the kids and met up once all the shopping was done.

In the afternoon we chilled at the farm and swam in the pool.

View from the patio

Our sushi supper was awesome!  I forgot to take photos!

Saturday 21 December 2019

This morning. Lauren, Earl and I drove to town to do a big food shop.  Tomorrow is Allan’s birthday and we will be entertaining.   We also shopped for Christmas dinner and hope we don’t have to go back to town till after that.

Once again we had breakfast at Frendz.

The weather took a turn to chill this afternoon and we spent most of the day chilling and watching television!   Lauren and I sorted out the fridge, cleaned the kitchen and scullery and I also made a Banting Ice Cream. Verdict on that in a later post!

We have been staying on a farm in rural KwaZulu Natal where cell phone and internet connection is limited. It is possible to get the odd Whatsapp message coming through. It is a waste of time bothering with Facebook, Duolingo or WordPress!

Today, however, we have come to Port Edward to stay with our niece for a couple of days.   Here, the internet connection is good so I can catch up with our travel report.

11 December 2019

This morning it was still raining in Howick.   I have a friend in a frail care facility here so before leaving our campsite, the Earl and I went to have breakfast and then to visit her.  As it was before 09:00 it was difficult to find an open restaurant but with the help of Trip Advisor, we discovered Yellowood Café.  We were a little surprised that it was situated on a farm called Fairfell, and was, in fact, a heritage site. The house which is now the restaurant was built of quarried stone from the edge of the cliff by Sir George Sutton in 1870.  Most of the wood used came from the indigenous Yellowwood forest of Karkloof.  To get there we had to negotiate a narrow, tree-lined, gravel road.  It looked deserted but when I went in to check I was assured that we were welcome.

It was really cosy – awesome food and fire too!

A wonderful view of Howick Falls 

Stunning even though it was misty

After a lovely visit with my friend who I haven’t seen for three years, we returned to camp, hitched up the caravan and made our way to Kokstad.   It was indeed a relief when the rain finally stopped halfway to our destination.

Barbara and Andrew, our hosts, had a delicious lunch waiting for us when we arrived at their farm, now in the hands of their son, Murray who lives in the main farmhouse while they have a lovely cottage a short distance away.

The farm is full of wonderful memories as we visited almost annually when our kids were growing up – they had five and we had three – all of similar ages.  Theirs are all married with kids of their own now and so there is a whole new generation of rural kids growing up around them and they are awesome!

We have been having a wonderful time catching up with them all.

12 December 2019 to 15 December 2019

On our first morning, there was a gentle knock on our bedroom door.  It was 13-year-old Seth all ready to go fishing with his great-uncle!  So off they went to try their luck at the dam before breakfast.  Sadly conditions weren’t quite right so nothing was caught!  Seth keeps chickens and supplies his grandmother with eggs with the brightest yellow yolks I have ever seen.  So breakfasts on the farm have been amazing.

We have seen a lot of our niece Joan who has three small children.  Caleb is four and the premature twins, Joshua and Jesse are now 16 months old and after a traumatic start to their little lives, they are thriving.   They were so tiny when we saw them in January.  Big brother Caleb is their hero and although I thought he was a bit rough with them in the paddling pool, they screeched with laughter and only cried when he got out of the pool!

Caleb and baby sister, Jesse

Granny Barbara and Joshua

Caleb splashing the twins which elicited excited peels of laughter from both of them

The twins thoroughly enjoying their swim

Ann also has three adorable children, Caitlyn is 9, James is 7 and Sarah 3.  Even though James is so young he can drive!

This is the John Deere Gator parked outside his parents’ home on the next farm

All on his own, this young boy, drives this vehicle to visit his grandparents.  Yes, on farm roads, but he is incredibly skilful and very responsible.

James arriving to collect Uncle Earl to go fishing at his father’s dam

The dogs, Sam and Poppy, make themselves comfortable

And they’re off at great speed down the bumpy road.  Great-uncle Earl holds on for dear life!

Caitlyn complains that now that James is driving, she no longer gets a chance!  However, she doesn’t seem to mind too much.   She’s been driving since she was seven too.

Not only does James drive, but he also keeps his own chickens and braais his own meat!

The Earl turning chops for the family

James has his own little grill

And knows exactly how to use it

Grandpa Andrew, Jesse and Caitlyn waiting for dinner

Caleb and Sarah eating the chicken that James cooked

A lovely spread to feed the family

More on our adventures to follow.