A rare cultivar, our Skhumbuzo

Our walled vegetable garden at the beginning of Spring. Photo by Matilda Angus

To take a spade, or spading fork on a crisp fall day and without undue haste or backbreaking effort to turn over slice after slice of sweet-smelling earth can bring rich rewards to the gardener who fully understands just what he is accomplishing.

- T.H Everett (American landscaper)

Being in the Southern hemisphere, Spring has just sprung. Our young Zulu gardener, Skhumbuzo, has turned over the beds and worked in some well-rotted compost and cows manure. We've sown carrots, radishes, four types of beans, pumpkins, courgettes, coriander, basil and ox heart tomatoes.


Skhumbuzo, the proud gardener.

The last of the winter onions and carrots are ready to harvest and will make way for seedlings of aubergine, spinach, beetroot, peppers and a new batch of onions.

This year we plan to start laying out the orchard which will be adjacent to the vegetable garden. Half a dozen small lemon trees are waiting to be planted out and Skhumbuzo will not rest before the potted fig also finds a home in the rich soil of Barrowfield.

As we work and plan together, Skhumbuzo and I, I am inspired by his joyous enthusiasm and his ability to do the work necessary to reap the full benefits from the garden. If not for him, we would not have such abundance.

Growing up far from town and city, he is uncontaminated by consumer mentality. He knows that the earth will deliver if we treat her right. He knows what he is accomplishing. But he doesn't know how rare a breed he is.

Matilda

Comments

Vanuit Die Restory - Gesprekke Tussen Reisgenote (110)

Die Week Na 'n Dood Sebastien op sy gelukkigste - by water, besig om vis te vang Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek Musiek Sebastien het altyd gesê, "I like old music.' Hy het. Billy Joel se Piano Man was vir baie lank die ringtone op sy foon. Dat ons só gelukkig kan wees, dankie Sebas. George & Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory / From The Restory (135)

Onlangse Oorsig / Recent Summary Foto's Van Onlangse Gebeure / Pictures Of Recent Events 'n Huis opgeknap en geverf met 'n nuwe badkamer, die koms van lente en reën, retreats, die CMR se breimarathon, aanbied en afsluiting van die Verfrissingskursus in geestelike begeleiding, bywoon van ons kleindogter Ariana se gradeplegtigheid ("Nee Oupa, dis 'n gradige plegtigheid!") voordat sy volgende jaar grootskool toe gaan. A house renovated and painted with a new bathroom, the arrival of spring and rain, retreats, the CMR's knitting marathon, presenting and finishing the Refresher course in spiritual guidance, attending our granddaughter Ariana's graduation before she goes to big school next year. Klank / Sound Die klank van sagte reën na die storm is op baie vlakke nou gepas. The sound of gentle rain after the storm is now appropriate on many levels. Met ons liefde, soos altyd. With our love, as always. George & Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory - Gesprekke Tussen Reisgenote (120)

Skuld as Motivering Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek ~ ❖ ~ "I am convinced that guilt and shame are never from God. They are merely the defenses of the False Self as it is shocked at its own poverty — the defenses of a little man who wants to be a big man. God leads by compassion toward the soul, never by condemnation. If God would relate to us by severity and punitiveness, God would only be giving us permission to do the same (which is tragically, due to our mistaken images of God, exactly what has happened!)." Richard Rohr ~ ❖ ~ "It is about as hard to absolve yourself of your own guilt as it is to sit in your own lap. Wrongdoing sparks guilt sparks wrongdoing ad nauseam, and we all try to disguise the grim process from both ourselves and everybody else. In order to break the circuit we need friends before whom we can put aside the disguise, trusting that when they see us for what we fully are, they won't run away screaming w...

The Restory Retreat Centre

Search This Blog