Trips and visits and an important birthday

I spent five lovely, chilly, days in Johannesburg, visiting my sister at the end of April. Funny, the weather was what I'd expect in the Cape, long, soaking rains. It was an excellent break from Cape Town routine, a chance to read, go to the movies with Gill (to watch (mostly in horror) A Prophet) and be treated by Gill and Michael to a superb dinner/night out at CasaLinga restaurant. Over the weekend we had visits from my nieces, Gill's Polly, and her boyfriend, Chris, as well as Michael's Bernadette, and boyfriend, Alan, and their children. Wonderful to catch up.

Back to Cape Town to enjoy another daughter's visit - this time Tim's Erin, all the way from California. She spent a week with us - a gorgeous sunny week, ratcheting up several kilometers hiking on the Cape's mountain trails. Twice above Kalk Bay, once in Newlands Forest, and the last, all the way from our house in Newlands to Kirstenbosch, up Skeleton Gorge and down Nursery Ravine to end up with weak and wobbly knees for lunch at the Kirstenbosch tea room. After huge, healthy salads, we walked home feeling very weary.

Here's our self timed photo on top of Skeleton Gorge - I'm already collapsed and we still had to get down the slippery, steep mountain.

On Friday we nipped off to the winelands, to visit the goats of Fairview Wine Estate's "Goats Do Roam" fame, and taste their fine wines and cheese. We had lunch in Groote Drakenstein, at Solms-Delta in a beautiful setting at a table with a sweeping view of the Simonsberg mountain - here's the photo.

Sunday morning was a special day for Nan's Nathaniel. He turned 5 and had a picnic party in the forest at Silvermine. 22 children and their parents engaged in a lot of merriment. Tim, Erin and I managed a quick walk along the river after the party, the last bit of exercise for Erin before she boarded the plane that afternoon, back to California.

This week winter arrived with a vengeance - it's been cold and very wet. I guess we can't complain about a few wintery storms after 5 months of summer. Our house is dark and cold, the fuzzy jackets and heaters are out, and we're working our way through some good books. My latest have been two thrillers, one by Scottish author Val McDermid, and a South African writer, Deon Meyer which was fun to read. It is so South African it was written in Afrikaans and translated into English. I rather enjoyed the familiar place names and a real mystery set in this country. Fun! I'm nearly finished another SA book, Trekking to Teema by Pieter Dirk Uys, the satirist who performs in his theatre, Evita se Perron, in the small town of Darling, about 90kilometers from Cape Town. Another homely read for me.

We'll be taking the students to Darling to see Pieter Dirk Uys's latest show, Koeksisters for Zuma at the end of May. A koeksister is a very sticky sort of South African doughnut and the show is a send up of our colourful politician's food fancies.Lots to look forward to this month. Four more student dinners, one each week, next weekend is the field trip to Clanwilliam, wine tasting the following week and we end the month with koeksisters in Darling.