Halfway mark with the renovations - boy, are we sick of the sound of hammering! But it's looking good, and almost all the destructive work has been done - Morgan our local builder-star is hopefullt doing the final breaking out today. That will be four windows and a patio door chopped out, replaced with 3 new wooden-frame windows and a huge set of French doors. What a difference!

Then it's on to screeding the floor tomorrow/Friday (so it has time to set over the weekend with no workers walking on it), and the tiling should start Monday. All systems go.

At the same time, I'm suddenly up to my eyeballs in edits with massive deadlines - oh well, at least that should pay for the repairs to the main house! Have to pull up the carpeting which has been wrecked by tenants, and tile throughout all bedrooms - that's 90sq.m of tiles!

Have had 2 guys working full time of fixing up the main house garden - it hasn't been looked after in the past 5 years of tenants, and with huge dogs running amok, the beautiful flowerbeds and herb garden I had there has been completely destroyed. So we've ripped everything up except the trees, sown grass, and cut off the portion that is fruit orchard so Hatton (my caretaker) can look after those and hopefully we'll get some fruit again. The six months or so we spend here is just never long enough to do all that's needed!!

It's been an interesting few weeks back here in South Africa, even apart from all the bulding etc. We have a bill attempting to be forced through Parliament which takes us back 40 years into apartheid-type censorship and secrecy - horrors to see it happening from an government which was so anti all that sort of thing! But the corruption and nepotism and back-handers that are the order of the day now are growing apace, and the government, instead of stamping it out, wants to cover their tracks so no investigative journalism can effectively expose it!

And our dear noisy boy, Juju (Julius Malema, leader of ANC youth league) has been ostracised and is effectively fading from the scene - suddenly there's no more news of his rants and raves! Is this a good thing? Who knows - if he has the huge grass-roots following he claims to have, it could mean a major shake-up at the next elections - but it costs money to run a politcal party, and that money here comes from big business - and I personally doubt big business will support the one who's claim to fame is to "nationalise the mines, throw the farmers off the land, give it all back to the blacks"! We'll see.

The property is looking glorious at the moment - we've had lots of rain, typical higveld late afternoon downpours when the heavens open and water thunders down for an hour or so, then disappears as quickly as it arrived! So the grass is green, the trees are all out in brilliant blue and purple flowers, the flowers are covered with butterflies of all shapes and sizes, the weavers are stripping my one big tree to build their nests - quite a scene. Always funny watching them - the poor male works his butt off, stripping a selected branch, finding strips of grass, carrying them back, weaving them into a really classy looking abode - only to have wee wifey come along and shred it because she's not happy with something - the style, the workmanship, the size - who knows!! He might build four before she's happy - and they say we women are picky?

We took the grandkids and dogs for a long walk down the back over the weekend - and had to have a serious de-ticking session afterwards! Must have pulled about 30 off Obelix (the big ridgeback), several off Tolla (little Yorkie-type yapper), and half a dozen each off the rest of us! It's tick season here now, and with the grass so long, they are everywhere. I bath the dogs every other week, Frontline them, and they both have tick 'n flea collars - and still collect them! One of the not-so-joyous joys of Africa!

Had a great weekend at a cottage next door, a most welcome offer from our neighbours and a respite from the dust and dirt. They have a pet donkey - and he was a great help with the barbecue! Also have a wonderful jacuzzi - needless to say, the current conversation is where do we put a jacuzzi now!!

Watch this space!