The Restory Retreat Centre

  Inside and Outside History of Tafelkop The advantages of being on the heal from the flu: One moves slower.  It’s been a week since that first scratchy feeling that signaled something’s up. Since, we’ve both had bad days and better days and then bad days again. Today is one of the better ones. It seems the flu viruses these days are not easily conquered. What seems even stranger is that a symptom seems to be a feeling of hopelessness, downright bone deep depression. So, this morning I decided to counter that by taking a slow walk to the old farmstead that we are starting to renovate. Skhumbozo and Zakhele are currently stripping walls of their numerous previous coats of paint. Everything is so beautiful right now. We’ve had some Spring rain and the new life budding from trees are almost too much for my watery eyes! The crabapple has shed the last of her blossom petals and has become a lush abundance of green with the most deliciously cool shade underneath. “It needs...

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 doze...

Happy hands. Photo by George Angus It’s not that I don’t want to write. I had a resolution at the start of the year to write every day, even if just for 15 minutes. Because I love it and I know that it has to be practised if it is to deliver the goods. Like my sporadic Pilates exercises, it does me good, making me feel focused and balanced, but sadly, both of these I neglect, to my own detriment.  I wake up every day planning to do my bit and write a blog post about the many subjects floating around in my head. After my hour of meditation, journal writing and Pilates (if at all), I get dressed and prepare our breakfast fruit bowl. Then make the bed, maybe start on the laundry if it’s laundry day, or start the yogurt if it's a milk day. We have a cup of coffee and discuss the day ahead.  “I’m going to try and write some”, I often venture. But first I must go down to the vegetable garden and see if the carrots are up/the beds need watering/the tomatoes or beans need...

A lush portion of our vegetable garden Our first winter in this valley is fast approaching. I watch with hawk eyes for signs of frost. My young Zulu helpers and I had gotten carried away when we started the vegetable patch and once the first little seedlings raised their heads late January, there were no end to what we tried to crowd into the beds. Never before in my life have I had such perfect conditions to realize a dream: to have a kitchen garden. Winter seemed far off. I now know that most of what grows so abundantly at the moment, had been planted or sown too late in the growing season. We will not see the pumpkins maturing and even the strawberries have trouble blushing up their fruit. I'm not even sure that they ought to be fruiting at the moment! The gooseberry and tomato trellises are covered in frost cloth. I am hoping to at the very least get most of the beautiful bunches of cocktail tomatoes to ripen on the vine before the frost claims my beloved annuals. I han...

All during Dad's nap Yesterday we had what can be called a "good day". Dad slept well through the night and was as close to normal as paneer is to labne. He took a rare late morning nap. I have been desperate to do something creative. Anything that doesn't involve adult nappies, cleaning up, washing or watching a dvd of Celtic women for the hundredth time. For me to be denied any creative outlet is like wearing a straight jacket. I go insane rather rapidly.      So, I jumped at the chance, tried my hand at making some fresh cheese (using a recipe for labne) and started a new batch of jogurt with the lovely fresh milk we have an abundance of. Sounds impressive? But it's ridiculously easy and utterly satisfying.      I then got into my gumboots and joined the gardener in the vegetable patch to try and remedy some of the damage caused by the recent heavy rains.We sowed new crops of lettuce and dwarf nasturtiums in large flower boxes, planted out basil, c...

A view of the "Rocks", the "Ruins" and the Vegetable and Herb garden.  Ever since we arrived here, I knew I would regret not journaling more diligently about our settling-in days. But most evenings found us dead beat. So much had to be done, so much happened! I am sorry I didn’t journal each and every day. But here we are on the evening of Day 77 at Barrowfield. Better late than never. On Day 75 our landlady, whom we had met only briefly once before, paid us a surprise visit. She arrived just as we discovered that our water tank had at last filled to overflowing. (See the post  Finally! ) I was trying to take a picture of this momentous occasion and George suggested that he stand under the overflow with an umbrella to demonstrate the marvel. So there we were, standing in the veld, he, clad in his blue worker’s overalls and holding a large umbrella, and I, sporting gumboots and camera. I’m not sure what she thought of this spectacle, but we cut short the ph...