KwaZulu-Natal, April to July 2015 - Richmond

We've spent quite a lot of time this year in Richmond as we've had more work done at our house. We're regulars at The Coach House, the local pub, which is only a couple of hundred metres from our house and we've made some good friends there.

Birthdays at The Coach House are celebrated by a cake.

We were persuaded to take part in the Potjie competition at The Coach House. Our team consisted of me, Kevin, Jason and Mark and we cooked an ostrich potjie and 2 types of beer bread. Jason and Mark - as minors - had to wear protective clothing which was supplied by Henry!! They took this in good part and wore their pinnies all day!!

Ian, Amelia, Peter and Deanne were the winners of the Potjie competition with a prawn risotto.

We won the bread/pudding section of the competition with a loaf of plain beer bread an another loaf with olives, peppers and cheese.

We've had work done inside and outside our house. Inside our en-suite is nearly finished and we removed a cupboard in the hall and turned the space into a small office and library area. Outside Geoff and Sean have made covered areas for our bakkie and 'van and,most recently a stoep(veranda) at the front of the house. We've also had to had more large trees and their roots removed, two of them were causing parts of the garden wall to lean over.

The new stoep at the front of the house which gives us a lovely large shaded area.

The weekend after the stoep roof was completed we invited some friends round for a braai. Next we need to get the 'floor' sorted.

Our bakkie and caravan are now under cover.

Last year Geoff and Sean managed to take down a large tree that was just outside our kitchen. Our gardener, Earnest, then did an good job of digging around the stump which we eventually removed by using the winch on the bakkie. The wall behind Earnest is leaning away from our house.

Sadly we had to have our palm tree removed as it was too close to the wall and was beginning to push the wall over.

After much thought and consulting with Graham, Geoff worked out a plan to pull the section of wall back into place rather than having to take the whole section down and rebuild it.

They successfully managed to pull back 3 sections of wall - this was the first one that they did.

The last tree to be removed was a large fir tree. Once again Geoff and Sean did an excellent job.

1. Splashy Fen Music Festival. 4 days of music in the Drakensberg foothills

2. Chelmsford Dam. 3 trips to the dam taking the twins fishing.

3. Cars in the Park. Cars of all ages, bikes and more.

4. Clansthal, KZN South Coast. A long weekend by the sea.

5. Art in the Park. A 5 day display of South African artists.

6. Comrades Marathon. The oldest ultra-marathon in the world.

7. Creighton Aloe Festival. A trip on a steam train through beautiful countryside.

8. Richmond. Local events and improvements to our house.

Just a few of the birds that visit our garden daily - cape turtle dove, laughing dove, masked weavers and bronze manikins.

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