The Restory Retreat Centre

Maybe I'm exaggerating. But what's left of a good account if you can't stretch it? And somewhere in there is a kernel of truth, and the elements for a solution, if you listen carefully. With all the space we have, it feels as if I’m limited in movement. Here at Tafelkop it rains and rains and rains in summer. And if it's not raining, there's the mist. With the result that anything that can handle that much moisture, and the cold of our winters, thrives. Which is mainly the grass in general and Kikuyu in particular. Like a wave it rises around the orchard and the garden. Our mowed lawn ends against a wall of green. It is a weekly effort to hold back the tide. It is beautiful to behold, but it hampers movement. You feel like you’re going on an expedition just to reach the base of Tafelkop. It’s the same in whatever direction you venture. It’s a challenge for the dogs as well. They totally disappear in the abundant growth. Molly has developed a leaps and bounds style o...

Photograph by Hanna Jacobs We’ve had a wonderful rainy season this year. One of the results is that the grass and everything else are growing at such a rate that Skhumbuzo cannot keep up. To help him get ahead a friend of his, Siyabonga (his name means “Thank you” in Zulu) comes in on Saturday mornings to cut the lawn. During the week he goes to school, grade 11. This morning, on arrival, he walks up to me and says earnestly: “Sir, I need to write a short interview with somebody on bees. I know nothing about bees, except that they are dangerous. Can you help me?” “Yes, I think I can help you. How long must the interview be?” “About a 100 words.” “Goodness gracious,” I think to myself, “the teacher doesn’t know much about bees either!” “Must you sit down and have the interview with me and Matilda, or do you write a piece on bees in the form of an interview?” “No, I only write it in interview form.” “You do know that bees are very important to us as h...

Photograph by Matilda Angus In a recent post on The Restory Retreat Centre’s facebook page Matilda mentioned me cutting the lawn around the house with a tractor and slasher. During a very good rainy season it has to be done weekly. In dry years like the current one it is done once in two or three weeks. Aesthetically it keeps the yard neat, but on a practical level it also serves as a buffer around the house against snakes and other creatures. With grass touching the window sills, the wild will literally be on our doorstep. This cutting exercise is indeed prime thinking time. While busy doing it last week I thought of all things about grass. Despite the validity of the aesthetics and safety factors, there are times when I feel as if I’m betraying some primal element of our lifestyle here at Barrowfield while busy with the tractor and slasher. Gerard Manley Hopkins advised, “Leave the wildness and wet” and here I am actively busy not leaving it. To rub salt in the wounds I recent...

Earth's crammed with heaven,  And every common bush afire with God,  But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.                                                                          Elizabeth Barrett Browning Very early on Friday morning, I went into the meadow behind the house to pick wild flowers for Matilda. The grass was soggy wet with dew. Wearing shorts I put on my gumboots to keep at least my feet dry. Later, back at the house after breakfast, I discovered that the dew on my legs had dried into a sticky film. It had the same feeling as the overspray getting onto my skin when I apply varnish with the spray gun to a work piece. Stuck all over my legs were a multitude of grass seeds, hitching a ride. In an ingenious manner, the gras...

Photograph by Matilda Clifford If we had a keen vision and feeling of all  ordinary human life, it would be like  hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's  heart beat, and we should die of that roar  which lies on the other side of silence.                                   George Eliot