All work and all play

I thought I'd show y'all what kind of work I do in San Antonio. I do a lot of display, which means climbing all over the furniture and hanging things in weird places. Tomorrow I'm doing a transfer (taking out the sold stuff and bringing in the new). It is always chaos.....
I also have an office that I can completely destroy in about an hour with all my drawings and swatches. Today I designed bedding with the new fabrics we have, then I cut the yardage and sent it to the seamstress.

Here are a few pre-transfer shots of the store.And here is a shot of me and Cristin with our matching mugs and our arms full of junk.I love this work.

The Texas Coast

I know it might be hard for some people to picture Texas as an oasis, but it sure can be. I went with Cathy and her kids to Rockport, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico. How blessed am I that I get to spend 2 days lying on a deck by the sea while recovering from jet-lag? It was quiet there, and Cathy's sister's beach cottage is one of the most peaceful places I've ever been. Its beautiful and artistic in unexpected places. I loved my room. And the deck. And the furniture. And the view. And this Chinese food restaurant.....Thank you Lord for this little dose of South Texas.

I've arrived

I am in Texas. Finally. It was a long, long, long, long flight. Last time, I went through Dakar (a less popular route) and the flights were not very packed. Most of the time I had an entire row to myself and was able to sleep. But this time I went through Amsterdam, which apparently is very popular. I also left at midnight, so I had already been awake for seventeen hours before I even left. (Enkidu didn't want me to go. He cried.) The flight to Amsterdam was 11 hours and I really didn't sleep. I tried watching movies, but I discovered that when I haven't slept, I suffer through movies as if I'm living them myself. I tried watching I Am Legend, and there is a scene where the dog dies, and I thought I was going to be thrown into a deep, dark pit of despair. I automatically thought of The Wump and wanted desperately to kiss his head. (I miss them already....)
Luckily, Andrew and Cristin got a new dog, and my lips have been attached to her head all morning.I had a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam and pulled out some Euros and ate some food. (me at the airport looking like death) When I put my debit card into the ATM machine I had no idea what type of currency to expect. I guess I should have looked it up. I got 20 Euros and had absolutely no idea how much they were worth until I walked by a McDonalds and looked at the menu......
My flight from Amsterdam to Memphis was 9 hours and I sat next to an old Ukrainian woman who chugged alcohol the whole way. By the time we got to Memphis I felt like I was the one who'd been up all night drinking. All I could smell was her wine breath. The landing was really rough and I started getting woozy. I was furiously fanning myself with a barf-bag. Thankfully, I survived with no yakkage.
In Memphis I took of my shoes and laid down on a bench for 3 hours. I felt better. I finally got in to San Antonio last night at about 10 and today I'm chilling out with the dog.
:)

Tiny Farm

I pass this little homestead on my way to the market every week. Its off the main road in a giant field. The house is old, and it looks like a wrecking ball must have gone through the front wall at one time. (you can see the outhouse leaning against the side) But there is usually wash hanging out front and various family members sitting in the rubble of the opening. The land itself isn't great and there is an awful lot of junk and piles of dirt lying around, but you can often see the Africa families who own this land. They have cows and chickens and ducks and I see men working in the area and women tending the gardens. They have a "Beware of the Pasop!" sign tacked to the tree. Does that mean "dog" or "automatic weapon"? Despite the scary sign, every time I pass the farm, I'm nearly overcome by a desire to pull over and go meet these people. I want to ask them where they came from and what they do. I want to see their kitchen and talk to all the little kids running around. They have a great view of the valley between the two mountain ranges and the sunset is always beautiful. It is a magical time of day here, especially returning to our farm.

Wineries

Being in wine country, we are surrounded by wineries. Hundreds of them. All the hills are covered with vineyards and on each farm, sits a large estate house (many of them hundreds of years old). Jim and Julianna had a map, so we decided to visit a couple of them and look around. They're all beautiful, of course. You park at the estate and make your way to the wine tasting area (or the "toilets", whichever) and then they give you a huge list of wines and you get to pick like 5 wines to taste for $1.50. Now, you should know that I hate wine. Kind of like seafood. But they only give you a little in the bottom of your glass. You taste it and pour the rest out so they can give you a new kind. It all tastes the same to me (like puke). But then I found one on the list that said "sweet". I liked it. It was like washing down a heaping spoon of sugar with a swig of apple juice. Yummy. I just have to face that fact that I'll never evolve beyond a taste for Pepsi and Koolaid.
I have no idea what I'm doing in this picture but look at that sweet duck!

Still no pics

Jim and Julianna can't access their blog 100% of the time either because of the weak signals. I guess its not just us.
Today is my little brother's birthday. I THINK he's 21. Right Alex?
Alex was a very serious kid. Very serious. He couldn't say his R's until he was 5. "Hungry" was "Hungwy".
When I was a teenager, I was standing in the kitchen, and four-year-old Alex wandered in there with his hands crammed in his pockets and a grumpy look on his face. My mom handed him a stack of plates and asked him to put them on the table.
His forehead creased into a frown, and with much passion he asked her, "Why do you always ask me to do feins (things) when I'm tyoed (tired) and hungwy?!" Then he storms into the dining room beneath a dark cloud of crankiness and sets the table.
We all started using that phrase because it fits so many of life's annoying situations.

Oh, and I forgot to spray the cattails with varnish. You should see what they did on the porch.
>:)

Darn

We were on a roll there for a few days, but I guess we're back to the basics again. I was all ready to load up some pictures we took yesterday, but blogger says, "no."
Anyway, I have other misc things to say.
I have another opportunity to do some work in the States for a few weeks, so I'm making another crazy trip. I'm flying to San Antonio on Tuesday (via Amsterdam and Memphis) and working there for a couple of weeks (seriously this time!). Then I'll be flying up to Chicago (via Minneapolis???) and working there for 4 days before returning to Cape Town (via Detroit and Amsterdam). Maybe I'll start collecting Airport photos.

On another note, my laptop has been crashing. Hourly. Its really freaking me out. I do everything on this laptop. If our house caught on fire, Randy and I would each grab a dog and a lap-top (even if that meant living in my PJ's for a year). Since I'll be in the States for a few weeks, if anyone has a used lap-top they are looking to sell, let me know!
heatherrg@gmail.com

The Hills Have Signs

Driving around in this country, we've noticed that there are very few street signs. You're lucky if (while driving 100km per hour with a line of irate Afrikaaners on your rear) you have time to look down and to your left to search for the faded name of the street that may or may not be painted on the curb. They don't like to go through the trouble of labeling their streets, but somebody out there is willing to spend enormous amounts of time spelling out the name of each city on the side of a hill with small white stones. Priorities........

Cattails

Holy Cow! The Bloggity-Blog is working and its a Tuesday!!! (it is Tuesday, right?)
The Wump and I just went on a little walk. All the workers in the strawberry fields were out there singing in harmony and it lured me outside. I stood out in the grass with my eyes closed and listened to their harmonizing and clapping and stomping (they were clapping and stomping, not me). I could have stood there for hours. It was phenomenal.
I've been coveting these huge cattails down by the river, so I went out the other night and cut me some! They're so heavy! And huge. Now they're all laying out on the table and I'm staring at them and wondering what on earth I'm going to do with a dozen giant cattails. Randy's wondering the same thing. But he's used to me dragging weird things into the house . When he first met me almost 14 year ago, I had cut down a bunch of bamboo in the backyard and nailed it to the ceiling of my apartment. It smelled like rotten dog food for 3 weeks.......

Babies!

Its hard being over here when all my friends over there are pumping out babies. I miss the baby-showers and watching all my friends get fat!
:)
My friend Teri just had her second baby girl. During her first pregnancy, she let me dress her up in a fairy costume that I made and take pictures of her out in the bushes. She's brave. Here is a copy of the shower invitation. Teri was born in the Philippines and "Buntis" in Filipino means "pregnant lady". We had a good time and the shower was fun. And here is the picture I took after cutting my own hair. I'm only showing you this angle because its a little hilarious from every other angle. When I do finally walk in somewhere to get a professional haircut, I'm going to have some serious 'splaining to do.

This is Africa

The internet juices are not flowing. It might be due to the energy crisis here. Our power goes out in the evenings and coincidentally, so does our internet, which is wireless. The signal is too weak to load a blog on Monday through Friday, but somehow the internet company manages to scrape up enough “whatever” to boost their signal on Saturday and Sunday. I’m not one to throw temper tantrums, but I could definitely do some hard-core pouting over this. But after 3 days of no internet whatsoever, I think we’re back in business and now I’m going to be thankful that we have anything at all.

I’ve done nothing but computer stuff over the past few weeks. I’m still working on Cathy’s website www.meandmyhouse.com, and I’m editing my manuscript for submission. Randy has been buried in the library, working through things that my minuscule brain can’t even fathom.

Pray for us that we would continue to trust that God is in control. It’s so easy to panic over here, you know? I guess fear is an ingredient in adventure. If there isn’t any “unknown” then it might as well just be a vacation at a resort (which is wonderful, but not life-altering). I would like the experience of living here to change us and give us more wisdom and compassion even if the change is hard and sometimes scary. I feel like I blather on about this kind of stuff a lot. Maybe I should change the name of this blog to "Heather's blathering soap-box"

Me and the Wump

Its warm again today. I've heard that it never gets below freezing here in the winter and even then warm days will pop up. So I'm hopeful.....
Randy is at school today. I scrounged up some rands to walk to the country market. I was dying for a coke. I usually don't walk over there by myself because they sell 10Rand bottles of wine, and all the local guys like to sit out in the shade by the road and get sloshed. But things seemed quiet today, so I harnessed the Wump and we walked over there together. There were no guys out, which was nice. Just a bunch of old women sitting around speaking Xhosa. So me and Wumpus got ourselves a coke and sat on the porch of the farm stand with the black ladies. The farm stand is on a big hill facing south and from where we were sitting we could see False bay and all the way down to Chapman's Peak.
I love my dog, but the beauty of Africa is lost on him. He sees bugs and bushes and other animals. Thats it. Oh well, at least I'm not alone, right?

Cold

It seems like yesterday that we were sitting around in our shorts, chasing dragonflies on the porch, stretching out on the cement to keep cool. (Actually, it was yesterday)But today I woke up and realized that its almost winter. It is cold today!
We left Chicago on March 1st 2007 and moved to San Antonio where it was already warmish. We had spring and summer there, and then we moved to S. Africa in September and had spring and summer here. So now, for the first time in over a year, we're about to experience winter.
(I personally believe that anyone who has had to endure more than one Chicago winter deserves a year of no winters)
If things continue the way they've been going, then my photo-posting option will be gone tomorrow morning. (visiting hours Saturday and Sunday 8-5)
I'll try, but if its not there, you'll see us next weekend.

Shock and Awe

I don't know what I expected when we moved to South Africa, but as we drove across the country, I was literally in a constant state of shock and awe. Many of these buildings and homes are over 400 years old. These are some of the pictures that I wasn't able to post of our trip through the French settlements surrounding Stellenbosch. Even though the shanty-towns are what move me the most, I'm still so impressed by the beauty of the towns that the Dutch (and French) settlers built here in the 1600's. They seem so alien in this rugged and wild country.
Didn't I tell you that even the bank was cool?

Strawberry fields .....for now

There is a strawberry farm next door that has been nothing but a big patch of dirt all summer. Over the past few weeks however, lines of old women have been combing the fields and planting seeds. (the small white house is a worker's house and at night, its the only light you can see on the hill. Sometimes I'll stand out there at night and watch the old African woman sweeping her kitchen with all the doors and windows open or taking down the laundry at sunset. There is something peaceful about it) It has been so hot and yet these ladies work out there in their long dresses, bent at the waist all day. Can you imagine doing that when you're 60? I want to drag a table out there with a big, fat umbrella and give them some ice tea and watermelon. Sweet old ladies. All the planting is done now, but in September you can go into the fields with your basket and fill it up for a small price. I can't wait.

Yippee-tye-yie-yo!

See, I'm telling you! I think the picture option is turning into a weekend thing!
Anyway...
I'd like to share a few of our kitchen details with you. Unlike the last place we lived, we have a stove top that:
A. Isn't attached to a propane tank via a tube through the window.
B. Actually has an oven beneath it.
C. Has its very own Oondliggie button.

Our refrigerator is one of those mini-bar-fridge setups. (It was the only thing we could fit in our trunk)
Although we eat a lot of eggs, we don't have room for a lot of eggs. Still, we pack em in.

We all sit around the table and eat.

Afterwards we do some of this.

And some of this.

Sunset

I take my camera with me everywhere. If I go to the store, my camera is in my bag.
Well, last night we went to the store and I decided not to bring my bag. We left the farm, got onto the main road and then passed over the big hill. It was cloudy yesterday (for the first time in over a month) and so the sunset was brilliant. From the hilltop we can see all the way to the coast where Table Mountain and Lion's Head Mountain break up Cape Town and its suburbs.
The sun was low and it was a flaming golden orange. I couldn't stop myself from looking directly at it because it literally looked like a round ball hanging in the sky. The clouds were orange with pink and crimson edges, and even the sky was a brilliant coral color. We've seen many beautiful sunsets here (as have you), but this one was different. The coast and the mountains were a deep hazy purple standing against the brilliance of the orange sky behind it. As we drove west, palm trees sprung up as black silhouettes against a spectacular African sunset.
I told Randy the reality that "I am in Africa" doesn't hit me hard until I look at sights like this and think about where I am on the globe. The novel Tarzan has always been one of my favorites and (because of that book)ever since I was a kid I've wondered about the mysterious west coast of Africa. I never thought I'd actually see a sunset in Africa, but here I am and there it is. How can I ever claim that God doesn't understand me or doesn't remember longings I had when I was 10 years old?
Psalm 139
O LORD, you have searched me
and YOU KNOW ME.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the FAR SIDE OF THE SEA,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How VAST is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

Water

No picture option this week. Maybe it only shows up on weekends....
We're doing good. We haven't had water pressure in nearly a week, which means our shower is useless. It takes about 45 minutes to get a good-sized puddle in the tub. They're out there fixing it right now and I had to stash Wumpy in the bedroom because he's yowling like a big scary walrus and all the workers keep looking in to see what on earth that noise is. Oh wait.......
Ok, now there are four people in here fixing the water pressure and Wumpy is in the bedroom sounding like a Whale giving birth.....
I'll continue this later...