Frosty morning
It’s been a pretty uneventful week here in freezing Ashburton. Yes, actually freezing, with frost most mornings. This definitely wasn’t in the brochure! I’m just glad that I bought slippers and a robe a few weeks ago when stores marginally opened!
Most houses aren’t equipped for this type of weather, and heating systems are minimal as are air conditioners for the summer heat. But having a fire at night is very comforting, along with the hot rum toddy I have been concocting. Warms the body...and the soul, as we wait out this lockdown.
Last night, the President announced we will be going on to Advanced Level 3! What that means is that among other points, restaurants will be able to open for sit down meals and hairdressers can open - all with very strict rules on social distancing, masks etc. No timeline when this will actually happen, though.
That’s going to bring a lot of relief to the millions of out-of-work people whose jobs have been on hold now for 83 days. The government appears to be trying now to balance the health of the nation with the economy of the nation, which was already in dire straits before the pandemic. Now we can only wait and see what happens, but with a bit more flexibility around our activities.
Piet releasing a brown house snake
Besides working on the underwear site, I’m helping out with the virtual aloe festival that we hope will go online at the end of the month. I went bundu bashing a couple of weeks ago, and last week met with a couple of snake catchers! Snakes are probably my least favorite animals, so it was a challenge being around the ones Piet and Sheryl brought over to Gael’s house, a couple of minutes from here.
The snakes they brought were ones they had captured and removed from various homes and were ready to be released away from civilization. One, a puff adder, had been captured in Gael’s kitchen a couple of days prior. And yes, there are a LOT of snakes around but so far, other than these ones, I haven’t run across any. But definitely keep my eyes open and step carefully!
I kept well back as each snake was released into a leafy, open area. Piet stood close by with the capture stick as I took photos and videos. Looking at them closely, they are actually beautiful; the puff adder’s gold and brown markings made it almost impossible to see in the leaves! Sheryl had the brilliant green bush snakes wrapped around her arms, giving me the creeps, but they too, are beautiful (and not poisonous) so was able to get a bit closer. There was also a red-lipped herald (poisonous) and a brown house snake (non-poisonous) so a bit of variety.
Now I need to put them into some sort of presentation. I created a little video of the bundu walk with the game guard. It was fun to do, but as seems to always be the case, when I opened up iMovie, it had been majorly updated since I last used it, so had to spend a while re-learning! I certainly don’t claim to be a videographer or movie maker, and although the video I created is fun, it’s still very amateurish! Hopefully, my next one will be a bit slicker.
Today, not only is it very cold, but pouring as well! Not usual for this time of year, but everyone is always very grateful for rain in the middle of winter here.
