Pizza #522

Daily painting #522 6"x8" oil on primed canvas panel

It was take-away pizza for supper tonight! I walked in the door at 6.45pm having trawled through the day on about 2 hours sleep! The last thing I still had energy for was cooking supper! My kids still had mountains of homework to complete, I had work to do and we were all exhausted! The opportunist who broke into our outside room on the weekend decided to take his chances once again only this time he tried to come into my house! At about midnight we were woken by our dogs whose barking was more growl and a 'I am going to eat you' kind of bark rather than a 'hello to the dogs up the road' kind of bark! We were already up and checking when our garden beams and veranda alarm were activated. Our veranda is enclosed so he had already managed to get into the veranda! As our private security company arrived I watched him casually walk off of our veranda and saunter across the garden...that is until my dogs who had rushed off to meet the security men came bolting across the garden at high speed and on full attack! My one rescue pup has a lot of wolf/German shepherd in him and quite frankly this man can count his lucky stars that he managed to get his backside over the neighbours wall just as my dogs lunged for the fence! He might have been missing a limb or two had they got to him! It is quite something to see your normally meek and mild furry babies in such a rage! Then again I can't describe the rage I felt at the cheek of it! It makes me furious that we are subjected to such crime and I was angry at myself for thinking "well thank goodness it was just one man and other than a crowbar (he was obviously using it to open doors) he was unarmed!" Well it looked like he was unarmed but you never know! At least we know that all our security is not paid for in vain and that it kept us from being woken in the night with someone inside our house. But the biggest heroes are my furry babies who immediately put their life on the line to protect and alert. I hate to think, if they had managed to attack him what he might have done with the crowbar in his hand. A blow from that could have been fatal for one of my pups! But hopefully he will leave us well alone now....between alarms and dogs he hopefully got the message that he is not welcome here! On the flip side I can't imagine the desperation of having to resort to theft and crime to feed your family ....life can be hard! Tonight I am grateful for my safe home, my warm welcoming bed, my work which I am passionate about .....and pizza so I don't have to cook! It's been a long and emotional day!

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Strawberries without the yoghurt #521

Daily painting #521 5"x7" oil on primed canvas panel

Thick Greek yoghurt and fresh strawberries....it's like dessert for breakfast!

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Naartjie segment #520

Daily painting #520 4"x6" oil on primed canvas panel

A naartjie is a South African name for a citrus fruit similar to a satsuma. It is like an easy peel clementine, juicy, sweet and so much easier to eat in a hurry than an orange! I saved just one little segment from my breakfast to paint on this little 4inch by 6inch ....

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Crimson #519

Daily painting #519 6"x6" oil on primed canvas panel

It has been so good to spend more time at home this weekend. Sadly though one of our outside rooms was broken into this weekend which put a dampener on the weekend and sent me into a frenzy as we have been home most of the weekend. This means that someone came into our property while we were here, possibly while we were asleep. The entire door frame was knocked out of the wall from the plaster (exposing the brickwork) and was just pushed aside. They didn't even try to break the lock! Nothing much was stolen thank goodness so they must have been disturbed or our dogs realized someone was there and scared them off. It is the one little section of our outdoors which is not covered by alarmed beams at night! Our private security company was here within seconds of us calling them but the police who we called first only arrived 2 hours later! So this is how our relaxing weekend at home ended ....such is life in South Africa at the moment. One really has to live with rose tinted glasses on sometimes to try remain positive! It makes me so very sad as we have such a beautiful country with so much to offer but so many challenges to overcome too! 

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Purple weed #518

Daily painting #518 5"x7" oil on primed canvas panel 

Well the rain eventually did come (briefly) only long enough for the cricket game to be cancelled. Which means we got to spend a day at home. I have so many chores around the house that need attention that the list seems overwhelming enough to scare one into an absolute state of procrastination! Lately our weekends have been consumed with school sport and catching up on work, so it is a treat to have a day off at home....I think I will leave those chores for another day. We all need a day off!

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Weekend rain...maybe? #517

Daily painting #517 4"x6" oil on primed canvas panel

Up early to paint today as I have had a full day of teaching, a busy afternoon and the possibility of load shedding tonight. But as I write we still have power and it has not gone off as scheduled. Schedule...what schedule? I suppose I should be grateful that we still have power but rather I am irritated that we plan our lives around a power schedule and then nothing goes as planned! But on the up side those clouds this morning were definitely rain clouds and rain is forecast for the weekend! My son would be mad with my honesty but quite frankly I am hoping his Saturday cricket match (which lasts the whole day) will be cancelled due to rain. That sounds mean but I could really do with a day at home after a busy week! Sorry Ross....but this mamma is tired!

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No lights #516

Daily painting #516 6"x6" oil on primed canvas panel 

I think this little candle has served well and it's days are almost done! Our electricity crisis continues in South Africa with daily load shedding, sometimes twice daily when the demand is high! Load shedding is when entire suburbs are taken off the grid completely (all electricity cut off) for periods of up to 2 hours in an attempt to lessen the demand on our inadequate and antiquated power stations. Hardly an ideal situation and disastrous for businesses but life carries on as we have no choice! So our houses are lit up with rechargeable lights, gas lights, candles and some have invested in generators to keep things going. It is daily and scheduled (well supposed to be) and so you try to plan your life accordingly and get things done before your power cuts. This must be sounding like doom and gloom to foreigners but it is what it is and we make do!

Last night our load shedding was scheduled for 8pm -10pm, an awful time of night as my husband and I are usually catching up on work, kids are finishing off homework and you are perhaps watching a bit of TV or reading a book when darkness suddenly engulfs you. Last night my son and I were standing on the upstairs veranda which overlooks our suburb and out to sea when the electricity suddenly cut. We were expecting it and so had gone outside to watch as the suburb was plunged into darkness. I was reminded of our last trip to the bush (maybe you remember me telling the story) when on a night drive the game ranger suddenly cut the lights of our vehicle and the pitch darkness of the African bush (which if one is not familiar with it can seem claustrophobic)  sent an American tourist into a fit of panic that broke the silence of the night like a gunshot! She was so terrified of predators that the poor ranger rather than allowing us to listen to the bush which is one way you would track animals at night, quickly put the vehicle lights back on, much to her delight.  I have to admit that I probably feel safer in the darkness of the bush than the darkness of the suburb! It felt awful to watch houses and streets for as far as we could see plunge into darkness and the silence that followed was eerie. Slowly a few houses lit up again as generators kicked into action. I guess this will become a way of life soon and what seems rather ridiculous now will soon be elevated to normal and like the rest of Africa most houses will end up with generators or such like, but for now I am cursing the millions that voted for our current re-elected government responsible for this entropy. 

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