This week!

Though I owe you an entry about our weekend in Darling and the week that followed, I must say a few words about the week that is almost done. Last Saturday we went to the South African Airways Cape Town Flower Show. It was held on the grounds of the Lourensford Wine Estate outside of Somerset West, which is 40 km to the east of Cape Town. What an estate! Not only was it large enough for the flower displays, there was a field large enough for polo matches, which were part of the festivities.

The high point of the show, and worth the price of admission all by itself, was the Kirstenbosch-South Africa Chelsea exhibit. This is a recreation of the gold medal winning exhibit at this year's Chelsea Flower Show. It was truly stunning! I have never seen so many blooming proteas in one place at the same time. And not just the common ones, but many different ones. And loads of other native plants. We walked around it multiple times, in awe each time. Only problem was that the other exhibits paled in comparison, though many were very good. It was a most enjoyable show. And it made it necessary to visit the plant shop at Kirstenbosch garden to purchase a bouquet of flowers for the cottage.


Upon our arrival at the cottage we found that we had no Internet service. Oh well, we had been doing so well for so long it had to go out at some time. That is the state of Internet service in SA, not very reliable, expensive, and slow. We are lucky to have the service we have in the cottage. It is better than what we have at work. Seems there has been no competition until very recently and so there was nothing driving the market for any changes. We have it so good at home!

On Sunday we went to craft markets. We returned to this month's edition of the Kirstenbosch market and then headed to Hout Bay where there is one every Sunday. Found lots of neat things at both places and had to bring some home with us. Who knows how all of these items will fit in our luggage. Can't worry about that just yet. Then went across the street to a very nice arts and craft store. Some very nice items there as well. It does appear we will be returning to Hout Bay on some Sunday soon.

Found a nice cafe at which we had lunch, and a Woolies for some bakery items, and then we headed home. We did so by way of the route around the west side of Table Mountain through the communities of Camps Bay, Clifton, Sea Point, and Green Point. This route leads back to Cape Town and is another great ride with the ocean on one side and mountains on the other side. Very slow but very nice ride as it was a beautiful day and many folks were out enjoying the weather, the beach, and the exotic foods festival. Once at home still no Internet. I worked on blog entries offline so that upon the return of the Internet I could try to get back on track. Well Sunday became Monday and Monday became Tuesday and still no Internet. So it was quite a relief to find upon my awakening on Wednesday morning that the Internet was open for travel. Then I tried to take a shower, but to no avail. There was no water.

Shortly after I learned of our water situation Jenny knocked on the front door to tell me the whole neighborhood was without water. So we made breakfast the best we could and then headed to work. But remember that work is just up the hill from the cottage. And that's right, there was no water there either. Work went on as usual with just a bit of juggling needed to keep everybody in tea and coffee. And the seminar by Dr. Andi Wolfe from Ohio State went ahead as scheduled. Who would have imagined I would be attending a seminar such as this by a US colleague in Cape Town. And to make it even more interesting, she did a postdoc with Claude DePamphilis at Vanderbilt Univ and this started her work on the SA hyobanches, a group of parasitic plants. Claude, Marcia, and I were in grad school at UGA together! Small world! Or as I like to say, cosmic!!

We learned that a water line burst just two streets over from the cottage. Work continued through the day, and late in the afternoon the work was completed. Water was again flowing when we returned home after eating dinner out, just in case.

Through most of this week we have had wind and rain and low temps. Seems to be reverting to winter again. And today there was even a thunderstorm, something not common here in the Cape. But another surprise was waiting for us when we awoke this morning. The water was flowing but there was no electricity. We had electricity around 3 AM when I was up watching the rain come down in torrents. But we had none at 6 AM. We had a makeshift breakfast and got ready to go to work as the rain continued to fall. When there was a break in the rain I loaded Marcia in the car and began the routine of securing the cottage. There are two locks on the wooden front door and then one lock on the iron-barred security door. Once those are all locked I activate the alarm system. Strange thing was the alarm was powered though the cottage was not. Something strange here! I looked next door and saw that the main house had power.

I chatted with Belle, one of Jenny's daughters, who said she would let her mom know. Figuring that was all I could do we went to work. Upon our return home the cottage was still without power. Seems mom never got the word. Not to worry, in Jenny ran and saw the circuit breaker had blown and needed to be reset. And that was all it took. But we have no idea what caused the outage in the first place. It doesn't matter. We have run the list of services that can go out at the cottage and so should be in good shape until we depart. At least that is how I am going to proceed.

Next up I will tell you about our return visit to Darling and my trip to Shaw's Pass. But that will have to wait for another day.

Edward

P.S. Marcia and I did meet Ingrid Nanni. I have seen her a number of times before and she was part of the Botanical Latin workshop. It was very nice meeting her and getting a chance to chat. I will try to get by her office again for another visit.