18 months

Our little baby girl turned 18 months yesterday!! I cannot believe how the time has flown. It has been the best time ever watching her grow and learn new things and sounds and words. It has made me see life from a child's perspective again and that is always so beautiful. Everything is still brand new and exciting. Why can't we all just live life like that all the time.

This year has flown by too, so many things have taken place since I last wrote (a very long time ago!!! I am embarrassed at the thought!)
We have had 3 sets of Interns with the Foundations for Farming (FfF) organisation. We are just finishing off the last week with our latest intern - a lovely South African girl. They spend a week learning about the farming methods for FfF and then come to us for the rest of the time learning about Agroforestry with Matt and a trip to Chibuwe, south of Zim, in a place that is so desolate and dry and can almost be depressing, yet every day driving down the dusty roads there would always be a smiling someone, a genuine smile that makes you smile. It is so heart breaking and being there just makes me think really what can we possibly do for these people, where would we begin? Matt said to me it is in the small things that we make a difference, a small amount of time that says I care about you can go a long way. Seeing trees that were planted months ago growing and being taken care of is rewarding and a small beginning. 

Daniella was very taken with the donkeys in Chibuwe. She goes to sleep now with a run down of all the animals she knows, elle, hippo, cow and don-kee and many more!

Our tree contact with the tobacco company came to an end and we have been waiting to see what the Lord brings with that. We are totally trusting that He has something far better and worthwhile. Yet it is still nerve racking just waiting.Matt has built a green house to germinate trees in and they are growing so well. We have started growing a few other things to like garlic and Chia seed. May be the start of some other new and exciting ventures!!!

I am sure that there is so much that I have missed. Am kinda trying to start afresh and be more diligent with this blog. Please don't stop checking if i have written something. I just need to get my brain back into it and my fingers!!!!

"The only person you should try to be better than,is the person that you were yesterday."

Catching up and carrying on

I am way behind in days, weeks and months. Here are a few things I had been writing over the time, so much more has happened since then, but I can't collect it all so I will just say Happy New Year and start from where we are at at the moment! Motherhood is obviously busier than I realised ;-) Going back in time...... 

17^th October 2012

Monday 15^th was a very sad day. Grandad John Hardy passed away. The patriarch of the family and the sweetest man is gone from this world and has gone home. We were on our way home from being in Harare for the week when we got the call from Matt’s mom. I knew from the tone of Matt’s voice that something was desperately wrong and I seemed to know what it was! We drove the rest of the way in silence both with tears in our eyes, and coming home seemed different that day, it was our home but more so the home that Grandad built, the land that he enjoyed and the legacy he left behind. I am so grateful for the time we had in June with him, he was well then and his sweet self, coming around every day to visit his Great-Grand daughter. When we were home, I found a picture of him lying on the grass with Daniella on Father’s day in UK and put it on our fridge. The next morning I was by the fridge with Daniella and she smiled and chuckled and reached out her hand and touched the photo and touched his face. I just wept! So small yet she knew him.

That night it rained and I said to Matt that Grand dad’s prayer for us was answered, his continuous prayers for rain at Golden Harvest was being answered.

We decided to have a tree planting memorial service on Saturday in honour of John Hardy. We have invited the people in the community who loved and respected him to join us.

It has been so refreshing having rain – we had just more than an inch yesterday – such a relief from the last time I wrote when we desperately needed the rain with the fire. We rejoiced as it began to fall and stood out on the deck watching it fall around us that fresh smell of rain on the dirt. That day Matt had said to me that he didn’t think there was enough water in the dam to pump water for the trees and it has now risen a metre. The Lord He is good!  

21^st November 2012

I can’t believe Christmas is just over a month away! Ridiculous how time just never stops moving and seems to move faster these days. I guess watching Daniella change sp quickly adds to that. She has a new little act or show for us every day, and we just love her more and more every day.

Since my last post, the dam has gone from rising to almost empty. It has been a serious test of faith watching it go down as the guys try to water the trees, carrying water up a hill in a container, doing it over and over again and having to do it all over again tomorrow! The skies are cloudless and even though the sky clouded up over the past weekend, the rain fell elsewhere. We can say ‘why God?’ and be annoyed or we can say ‘ok God it’s in your hands we trust you!’ I heard an amazing line this morning,

                  When God is in it, there is NO limit!

And that is what we believe. This new contract of trees that we have to grow came from Him and so we know that He would never let us fail. I have been challenged again and again by my daughter, watching her child-like faith, knowing without a doubt that her mommy and daddy love her and would never do her any harm, and that we continue to love her unconditionally. We need that faith every day and I strive to be more child-like!

2^nd February 2013

I feel slightly ashamed that I have again taken so long to write. I have updated a few things end of last year but I don’t think that I even put them on the blog, the remained on my computer.

                                                                                                    A new year!! 2013

We welcome you with open arms, open hearts and wait expectantly for all the exciting things to come. We have had a lot of Daniella’s firsts the last while. Let me backtrack a bit to the end of last year :

                  Christmas         

                  was a fun time of watching Daniella with her cousins, she wasn’t at all interested in the presents, not event he wrapping paper. By real Christmas day, we did it over a few days with different family, she did manage to seem a bit more interested and even ripped a few pieces of paper! She was more fascinated by the family cat that kept jumping in and out of the Christmas tree!! Good times!!

On the 28^th of December we headed down to South Africa to spend some time with Matt’s folks and sister. Rita had never met Dani before so it was a very special occasion and I think that Dani could see her daddy in Rita as she saw her, kind of frowned and then just beamed at her. It was very sweet, and Reets seemed to be the favourite the rest of the holiday! It was a lovely time and so special to spend good quality time with the family again.

It was Dani’s first time in the sea and that was a real laugh. We found a perfect tidal pool just down the road from us. It ran over into another little pool which had a tiny kid size beach. The first day we went down the tide was in and it was pretty rough even the little waves caught D by surprise and she wasn’t sure about it, but we let her put her feet in and kick around and by the end of the holiday she was crawling all over the place, eating handfuls of sea sand (the most salt she has had in her life) and completely not aware that she was crawling through water. A real water baby! It was three weeks of fun in the sun! What a blessing!

We all parted ways again, the folks one way and Reets another, and us home. We were pleasantly greeted by the news that there had been a lot of rain while we were away! On getting back home, to lush green hillsides and knee high grass in the yard, we discovered that it had actually been a record breaking rain fall. We had over 500mms in 2 weeks! The Lord is so good, when we left home Matt was having to go to the stream at the end of our road and pump water to fill the tanks to water the trees. The dam had dried up to practically a puddle in the middle and now it is over flowing. When I saw it I could hardly believe that it was the same dam. We took the kayak out on it a few weeks ago. It really is spectacular.   

20th March 2013

The Shade House from the mountain

Life has been so good! The Lord is so good. The tree project is still going well, last week the last few thousands of trees (about 61 000 out of 100 000 went out) were collected and so we wait for the next season to come around. Until then the next few months hold some new events here at Golden Harvest. The Foundations for Farming Internship program has started and we will be having our first couple coming to stay at the guest house next month. There will be many more from here on out and so anyone interested in it send Matt an email and he can give you all the details. 

We go into Harare on Friday, mainly for a wedding but also we will be celebrating Daniella's first birthday there with family. I can't believe that the sweetest little girl in the world is turning 1. She has started walking in the last week and she is so sweet to watch as she experiences this new skill. 

The guest house is now almost fully functional. We have had all the plumbing sorted out, and a boiler put in, we had a HOT shower up there last week and it was amazing!! We are putting in lights that will run with an inverter... it is nearly a home. A home that will be lived in by our soon to be wed friends,Mark and Kylie, they will be living there for a few months which is going to be fun having neighbours ;-) 

23rd March 2013

From this......

Our little baby girl turned 1 today!! Such a celebration. We had a tea party for her with family, she wasn't too sure about the crowd at first but by the end she was entertaining her fans, sitting on a chair clapping and making everyone clap with her! SO precious. As I put her to sleep that night I wept with joy watching her, thinking that a whole year ago she was born and how much in a year my love has just grown and how much joy she brings us. Everyday is a new day and a special day! We are so grateful to the Lord for giving us a gift so priceless!!

...to this!!! in 1 year!!

She is in full speed walk now. Just decided that as she is 1 she needs to go, so there is no stopping her now, the world is hers to enjoy and explore on 2 legs now! 

I will try to update weekly...I really will try!!! Until then be blessed special people, til next time!

We left here last night to stay with friends because the house was too full of smoke and we figured it wasn't good for any of us especially Daniella. We packed up a few things, in the dark as there was a power cut, and as I packed I wondered how much should I pack, that awful feeling of will it all still be here in the morning! As we drove up the drive way there was and eerie glow in the gum plantation behind the guest house. Not having power enhanced the glow and the smoke above the trees was all lit up making the hillside seem like it was rolling towards us. You could even see it from the tar road like a huge bonfire. We prayed as we drove away from our land, our home, and trusted it all into the Lord's hands, what would be there tomorrow would be what He wanted us to have.
We spent the night with our friends who provided us with some comic relief, it all seemed like a bad dream, and as we fell asleep that night, I could just see flames in the grass.

We returned this morning to assess the damage. The Lord He is good. A lot of land was burnt, the fire started on the next property and went over the hill behind us, probably about 1000 acres of land . About half of our land was burnt, but there are still beautiful Msasa trees with their colourful leaves, making quite a contrast to the black, scorched earth below them. Our houses are safe! Our neighbour's house is safe. They were just hear to pray with us to say thank you to the Lord for His protection. I realised today He may not answer our prayers as we want them answered, He does it His way, and He gets the glory!!

24th September - One of those days

Our little baby girl was 6 months yesterday! It is so amazing to think back to the day she was born. She was so small and helpless, now she is sitting and eating real food. She is such a blessing to us, so joyful and full of character. A real bundle of joy!

I am writing this sitting out on the deck. It is a HOT September day, a slight cool breeze blows every now and then and there are a few wisps of cloud towards the South. Last night I sat out here too just after dark and it was still and heavy. Then a gentle breeze came and the little pitter patter of rain drops began to squeeze their way through the roof above the deck and splat on the wood...and that smell that we all know of rain on the dusty earth rose to my nose. It didn’t last long but it came which means it may come again. We have reached that time of the year where my faith is tested every year, when the water supplies start to dry up and you look at the sky when there is not a cloud in it and think “Well Lord, it’s up to you!” Especially now having a little munchkin, who doesn’t know that making an outfit dirty every day causes a pile of washing to grow daily. I finally have a working washing machine and not that much water to wash with. But our God is greater and bigger than any water problem. In the last few weeks we have actually seen the dam by the shade house rise! Now who can explain that!

There are two stories I have been meaning to write about and I finally have a chance while Daniella is asleep.

A few weeks back there was a lot of wind and behind the back fence there is a rather large Gum tree that has died from being eaten alive by termites. With a strong wind one of the branches snapped off and landed on the fence, squashing it! So my lumber-jack husband decided he needed to take it down. But to do that he would have to take a few others around it down as they would all hold each other up and probably land on the fence anyway. He found one and saw the spot where it needed to land, worked out the placing of cut etc etc and set out to take it down. Now for those of you who know the story of the tree landing on Matt’s leg a few years back and all I said to him was “why weren’t you wearing a hard hat” this time he did put his hard hat on. Daniella and I watched from a distance, I always get a bit nervous of those trees as you can’t really judge how far the top of it is going to land. I had the camera ready and Matt began to cut. It was landing perfectly where Matt wanted it to, HOWEVER.... the top of the tree was spaced out slightly more than Matt realised and its top branches collided with the tree on the side of it and pulled that one down to...and guess where it landed... on the fence! At least he was wearing his hard hat! All I could say was oh dear! It flattened about 10metres of fence and the little pedestrian gate that was there was completely wrapped around the trunk of the tree. Poor Matt just shook his head. Not as he had planned! The fence is all erected with poles now and at least the gate keeps the dogs in. The dead tree is still standing though!

The other story was about my rescuing the “bush baby” one early morning. Matt slept in the single bed in Daniella’s room because he had quite a bad cold and didn’t want to keep Daniella and I up. That night there was a soft rain that fell most of the night and it was all misty and wet the next morning. At about 5.30am I could hear the dogs outside the window making quite a racket and when I checked to see what was going on, they were both standing under the avocado tree, looking up into it and I noticed something in the top most branches, stranded and very wet was what I made out to be a bush baby. Daniella was awake and I rushed through to the other room, handed her over to Matt and said I was off to save the poor little thing who looked like a drowned rat. Matt of course just grunted at me and didn’t make any attempt to help, understandably. I grabbed my gum boots and rain coat and found a box that I thought I could lure the animal into, safe from the snapping jaws of the dogs. I got up under the tree and had a look at my “bush baby” thinking hmm it has a very funny face. As I looked closer my bush baby turned out to be nothing but a drowned rat! It was a huge cane rat!! I of course was very disappointed as there was no ways I was going to be saving a rat! Matt had a good laugh and I won’t describe the end of the rat.  

The time is now 6.10pm and Matt and our guys have been fighting a fire since about 1pm. It started on the next door property – all we could see from the house was the billowing smoke and we could hear the crackle of the fire as it ate its way through the trees and grass. Matt rushed off up the hill with teh guys to fight it from crossing on to our property. There are fire guards but it was a pretty windy day so could jump easily. I stayed at the house and probably prayed continuously for an hour, singing praise songs and believing the fire would go out. The wind blew and seemed to blow it in the opposite direction from the house. After a few hours though it turned and was coming up towards the bottom of our property, it had jumped the guard and was tearing up towards our house at great speed. Matt came in and broke the news that it had jumped the fire guard at the back of the property too and was coming down towards the house too! My faith level went from high to very very low. It is dark now and we can still see the glow of fire in the gum plantation and small snake like glows along the hillside! I ask God why? Why us? Why didn’t my prayers for it to go out work? But I can say thank you Father that we are safe, our home is safe, our staff are safe. It could have been really bad! It rained last night as I said this morning. Tonight not a cloud in the sky! 

5 month old

Baby girl is 5 months old today! She is such a joy and delight to us!

She had cereal for lunch again and enjoyed as before.

Matt is out cutting trees for the deck roof – I am sitting out here right now enjoying the warm weather that August is bringing us at the moment – it seems a bit too soon to be so warm perhaps we will get a last cold spell before summer really hits. I am looking down from the front of the house at the newest vegetable garden that is going in. the one that we have is too far from the house for water to get too easily until it rains and also it is too far from the house to keep an eye on it from baboons and monkeys. Austen has put a fence around it to keep the dogs out and seeds are going in as I write. I am looking forward to being able to just pop down the hill to collect fresh veg soon enough. Plus with having a baby around who needs fresh veg it will be great!  

I return

Boy it has been a few months since I wrote. Our baby girl is 5 months this Thursday, incredible! She is doing so well and just so adorable. In the last few weeks she has discovered her toes (they were even in her mouth today), she has discovered she can shout when she needs something, this hilarious hoarse shout that often ends with her coughing, and she has discovered food, other than milk from mom. She chewed on her first chicken bone last weekend and today she had her first meal of rice cereal. We wanted to keep her going til 6 months just on breast milk but she seems to wake every 3 hours (remember how I told you all to enjoy sleep – well I mean it even more now!) So today I sat her in a Bumbo seat which she enjoyed as she could drum her hands on the little table joined to it, and tested to see how she would react to the cereal. All the books say your baby may not enjoy it at first and will probably spit it out, but this young lady couldn’t seem to get enough of it. I am so grateful to the Lord for that as I imagined it would be quite a task.
Matt has built a deck out the front of the house. It was planned long ago and has finally started taking shape. There is a roof still to come, but already it is a spot we are drawn to at the end of the day to watch the sunset. I can see many a happy moment happening out there. Daniella was out there on her doughnut this afternoon watching the wind in the leaves.

At the time of me writing this Daniella is fast asleep and Matt has just arrived back from a day of church meeting and golf – his newest hobby that he is enjoying very much. The sweet little golf course in Juliasdale offers a round of golf that gets him the practice he needs!

oh i nearly forgot...there are hyenas around here at the moment. We haven't seen or heard them but they have been heard at night from the shade house and they have taken a few livestock in the area. Quite exciting to think we have such wildlife around our home!!!

Jane Austen

Yesterday I introduced my daughter to the classics! For a very long time I have wanted to go to Jane Austen's house and yesterday it happened. We bundled into the car and drove to Chawton where the house is. It was a beautiful picturesque village with sweet thatched houses. Being in her house made me love the books she wrote even more. Having read all of them and to see the little table that she sat at to write them made me feel that much closer to her - as weird as that sounds - to see where a favourite author of yours lived really seems to create emotions you are not aware could come out. Daniella was an angel the whole way round - she loved the garden, a real English country garden and seemed to sense that this was a special occasion for me and she just watched the people walking around us and looked at all the things. We ended the visit with tea at the sweet little tea shop across the road named after Jane's sister, Cassandra. 
It was simply lovely!