Ruwandera

35 Greengrove Drive

This is the driveway I knew for many years, although it has changed slightly , it is definitely something I will never forget. Oh yea – and don’t forget those “Dennis Candy’s” or those tractor tires that cost “26″ cents. 

Raja being tickled during feeding time

When I was visiting Zootastic this weekend as a volunteer , I discovered the zoo had purchased yet another new member. It was even on the local news … A new white tiger cub, a mix between a siberian and a bengal. Here is a photo of her whilst she was taking a break from suckling on the bottle, having a bit of rough and tumble. (Sorry picture is a bit blury, took a picture on my cellphone, Maybe Dad can take a better one next weekend.)

Shumba and Phil

Phil off to his rugby match spending time with Shumba, Sebastian’s new puppy which we have the pleasure of ‘looking after’!!!!!

Standard 5 class at Greengrove School - 1977

Over the past couple of days, I stumbled across a facebook group named “Greengrove Schoolmates”. I have never been one much for remissing about the past, but I decided to visit this group, and Wow! did it bring back a flood of memories. It is quite amazing how your mind manages to put the past away from your current life, and how simple a picture or a comment can instantaneously bring them all back. It does sadden me to a certain extent to see how my life has changed so much, but much more to see the youth I had as a child and knowing that my children never had that experience,and  I can see it in the way they look at life these days. There are obviously great things that our kids have done and discovered, but just knowing what they and many more do not experience due to technology and the fast pace of life in the western civilations gives a greater understanding of the need for diversity in this world.  Thanks Mum and Dad.

Wild Thing !

We could have taken them all but we don’t have the place. Unfortinatly Jacob must be put down because his kidneys failed. The vet said that he was never the less in a very good condition. We chose the one on the right( click on the picture and you can see that he is not hiding arround the corner) He is 8 weeks old and is 600 g. He is a “Norwegen wild cat” and can grow up to 10 Kilooooooooooos(wow!!!!!!) we pick him up 1n 10 days time when he has reached 800 g. He is wormed and has had his first inoculation already and must have the next in 3 weeks time. We will certanly looking forward to the new german foot from Norway, Oh by the way he is already house trained-thank goodness….

Ava the Bear Cub

Yup thats right bear!   Zootstic got a new addition a couple weeks ago and I just got around to put her picture up, sorry. so here is a picture of ave the baby syrian bear. (p.s. You may notice the recently attacked limb that Ava is keeping safe)

Just wanted to say hi to everyone out there!

Happy mothers day. 

Whilst visiting the re-store we came across this rather wierd looking box on stilts. Initially thought it was just a bit of trash that someone had left there, but after looking at it for a bit worked out it was a “Rabit Hutch”. Well strangely enough we have 4 rabits and they sit in cages all day long , we continually move them from the verandah to the grass every day, clean, empty and refill their bedding. Watching the rabits all cooped up in the small cages we occassionally took one out and let it run around the grass for a bit, and then took twice as long to catch it and return it back to the cage. Now we are in possesion of this Hutch, Took a bit of work to get it back to a usable state, but now the rabits have a much larger area to run around. Of course you can guess what the boy rabits did as soon as they found this extra freedom…..

This weekend we decided to at least start to make a dent into glearing out a lot of the junk we have collected over the past few years. First thing was as the boys had moved into the cottage with their own rooms (oh yea they are loving that) that we removed some of the old beaten up tables/ desks that had huge gouges/scratches in them. I had to remove many of my old computer parts from the cupboard, many components hit the trash bin too (It was a hard thing to do, but I must). Several technical books that I had kept were really outdated and obsolete, so they made the recycle bins. Linda graceously decided to pass on the clean up and volunteered at the Zootastic zoo again and had a fantastic, but tiring time there. Unfortunately she has managed to catch a bug, which is playing havoc on her sinuses at the moment, but hopefully a bit of rest will knock that on the head. Declan keeps asking if we want him to go to the shops and buy something, or to take linda somewhere – I guess the novelty of driving is just starting to get a grip on him

For the last several months the 2 boys have been looking forward to this week – They have been allowed to move into the cottage and now will have their own bedrooms – “Freedom from the nest” well partial . Of course this means that Dad has to move all his office stuff back to the main house as the noise/activity level in the cottage will increase substancially. Moving out of their bedrooms was a matter of – Oh I want this, and that , and well will leave all the rest for my parents to sort out! . Maybe I can return the favor and leave half my junk in the cottage     will see how that goes down.

This week Linda has landed herself a great job as  an assistant director for camp tours at the Zootastic Zoo , that she and Skye have been volunteering at. I believe that this also extends to the summer holidays where they will be having a load of camps for the entire period (summer break – normally 3 months +-) . So far Linda has called me every day from there and obviously walks around with her hands, arms, legs in front of all the animals as she has been bitten several times now by varying exhibits, and even kicked by a horse. We had better check her tetanus is up to date. Linda obviously loves it as she is rearing to go there the next day – ” Bring on the Pain” 

Another house from Charelston. I wouldnt like to live in this house though, if you look closely you can see the number on the door 13!  There are alot of ghost stories in Charelston and I bet there are quite a few that belong to this house. Although I would never live here i do like the hanging lantern out front.