Life is slowly settling into a routine but we are mindful of routines as neither Michael and I are strictly routine people! However, we do try and start our day with our early morning coffee at around 06h00 and then figure out our plans for the rest of the day. The mornings are gorgeous .......

with swallows gracing us with their presence (so hard to capture) and our resident Fish eagles calling.....

We spend time trying to identify bird calls ....... we have so many and are now becoming more familiar with them and are becoming better at identifying them (but are still pretty hopeless!)

The Black Stork and the European Bee Eater have become our firm favourites at the moment. They are both magnificiently beautiful birds. Very different but spectacular.

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The European Bee Eater

When we first arrived Otto and Christine (who are farmers living closeby) gave us our first gift - a beautiful planter box of herbs. We were thrilled and so Michael and I created a space on our top verandah ( my very favourite space!) where we thought the herbs may be a bit protected from both the heat and the wind. Hopefully,they will be as happy in this space as I am!

On the same day we had to get rid of all our boxes so we decided to burn them upstairs! It proved to be more challenging than we originally thought and I had to get the hose and spray the walls above the mantle piece so that it wouldn't burn.

We walk a lot - mostly at the end of the day when it's a bit cooler and have found so many interesting creatures. This little tortoise has become a firm favourite and seems to enjoy the garden space up near the road.

On one of our walks we came across this spider which was digging for ants - really fascinating .....

On Sunday we left early with Reena (another friend who lives on the farm) for a beautiful walk up the mountain. It was here where we encountered these little red beetles which according to Reena only come out when the Wild Plum bears fruit as this is what they eat! However, I havent been able to verify this so I'll leave it up to you to decide!

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The Wild Plum

Notice how dry the river bed is😢

Scorpions are also becoming our latest friends! I was vacuuming our bedroom the other day and lo and behold out popped a tiny scorpion! Michael quickly made a trap and we caught it and put it back into the bush. However,this morning we had another one - much bigger though!

Michael's trap: Jug and chopping board!

Got him!

Playing with UV touch and seeing it's skeleton

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We also have many resident spiders but one which we have become particularly fond of is, as far as I know, known as the 'Yellow and Black Garden' orb spider! Although it's name is hardly exciting he is a spectacular creature whose web we watch with enthusiasm each day!

For those of you who have been following the saga of the wheel - IT'S UP ! A new strategy and when the plumber was here on Saturday (trying to sort out our plumbing issues) he was roped in! And now it hangs proudly ....

I popped into PE for a couple of days to spend time with my mum ( so good to be only 4 1/2 hours away) and I came back loaded with my favourite things -