Local Lawnmowers

Although we live in a city, it often feels more like a town - or even farmland!
Especially on a day like today when I just happened to pass a flock of sheep, right in our neighbourhood!

My husband was the first to spot them in the area while he was running errands. The flock is the local lawnmowers from a nearby town, who visits our city three times per year to maintain the overgrown public areas. A temporary fence is setup where they then freely roam around to snack on the long grass, until they are moved to the next area.

This is one of many unexpected and clever innovations which we have observed in random places over the past months. 

More to follow soon...

Bags and Flags

This past week, we had noticed several school bags and flags, some decorated with the words "geslaagd", being displayed outside the houses of our neighbourhood.

This is a Dutch tradition to indicate that children have passed their "middelbare" school exams - similar to the passing of Matric at the end of high school in South Africa.

Normally the flags would appear once the final examinations have been completed and the individual results have been announced, but this year the exams had been cancelled due to the closure of schools. 

For children of all ages, this school year must have ended on an anticlimactic note, but especially for "middelbare" school children, since the end of the year is often accompanied by school concerts, dances and school trips to other European countries. (The image of hopping across to Paris for a weekend of "pain au chocolat" with your school friends, somehow seems very far removed from the Plett Rage a.k.a. the 'Margate Matric holiday' prior to 2005.)

It is nice though, to see that throughout all the changes and disruptions of 2020, some traditions and excitement still remain.

Cherry Blossoms

It is 9 pm at night and I'm gazing out of our apartment window to the clear blue sky, dotted with light clouds. It has been another amazing spring (summers!) day. And a holiday. AND the Horeca industry (hotels, restaurants, cafés) reopened after a 3-month closure due to Covid-19. Therefore truly a magical day with people lining the parks, streets and "terrassen" to soak up the sun... albeit in small groups, keeping the "anderhalve meter" distance.

And this day will continue for at least another hour before the sun will slowly start setting.

The only downside to a day like this is convincing a toddler that it really is bedtime, when the sun is still shining with all it's might.

Due to the amazing weather over the past months, we have spent many a day cycling. We have bought another bicycle soon after the first one, when we realised that:
 1) You can cycle everywhere on dedicated cycling routes,
 2) If the routes are not dedicated, cyclists mostly have right of way, and
 3) Chances of getting a parking/driving/speeding/licensing/<add random reason here> fine is smaller.

During March and April, we encountered the most beautiful pink and white cherry blossom trees around every corner - inside the city and throughout the countryside. Whenever we went cycling during those months, I would constantly shout to my husband and toddler, who were cycling up ahead, to "look at those amazing cherry blossom trees! Look, a white one! And a pink one! There! On your left."

Toddler: Looking in the opposite direction, right on cue.
Husband: Staring straight ahead, not hearing (or pretending not to hear) my shouting.

At least I had managed to take a few pictures along the way (accompanied by moans and groans of having to stop for yet another cherry blossom tree - and this after they had missed the other twenty we passed on route!)