Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals

[I would recommend you print this and read it with a pot of tea]

(Sometime early June)

Well hello, will you look at that? I have 15 minutes to drop in and say hello!

It’s a Wednesday, and today the girls finish school at 11:30 and can come straight home- no more ice-skating classes for the school year (or possibly forever if you’re Alex), so I had a really free morning. No need to make lunch in advance and pack a picnic comme d’habitude. Hubby took them to school, and I had the luxury of 75 blissful minutes with my nose buried in my current book.  (Such a light and fluffy read, thanks to my girl sib for the recommendation.  It’s called Class Mom in case you’re wondering.)

Also, shout out to the Hubby for giving me the morning off.  I did actually finish the book and managed to tidy up a little, vacuum and mop the kitchen in case you’re wondering, as well as chat to Kaitlyn, have a few cups of coffee and take a photograph of my new strawberries.

Why is this newsworthy you ask? Because I planted them.  2 years ago. In our first summer out here in the burbs.  Three little roots were a gift from my friend CA.  I planted them in my kitchen window boxes and then last summer Anton made me some ‘planters’, and I moved the strawberry plants.  Later CA showed me that you need to embed the runners that the plant sends out at the end of the season, and low and behold, all of a sudden, I have 10 plants! Maybe even 20!!!  And this year instead of 3 lonesome strawberries, I have many many more.  It’s really so exciting for me.  Strangely, randomly so. Let me be honest though, there are not enough to garnish a pavlova that I have in mind for my cricket lunch tomorrow, so I did have to buy more.

There’s something about growing my own strawberries that makes me think of Mom and the vegetable garden at Netherby. We had a monster-sized vegetable garden fenced off on the northern side of our house. Sweet peas would climb up the fence, always growing in time for the Richmond School flower show in September. Another souvenir connection I have: sweet peas arranged in a jam tin. Us Bostonites were at a distinct disadvantage against the local Richmond kids in those bloody flower arranging competitions. Even more so in the floods of 1987 😱😂.

Back to the vegetable garden, is it common for all gardens to have that lonely looking tap growing up in the most unlikely space? I seem to remember so many taps sticking out of the Netherby soil, and mostly surrounded by beautiful arum lilies. The vegetable garden was no different.

Beyond that tap stretched rows and rows of seasonal vegetables. Beetroot may have been my favourite and the gem squash too. I remember picking and shelling actual peas, it goes without saying that the carrots thrived, the mfino growing wild at the bottom which Annah and Ivy would pick for their own meal times. (In shameful hindsight, isn’t it so awful that that was all we allowed them?)

But the strawberries will remain the most significant memory of that garden. In my mind it feels like we had 2 ‘patches’ of 20 meters by 10 meters. They were permantly covered by shade cloth. When the time came to harvest them, we would have to stoop over but the benefits of this outweighed the alternate- sharing the strawberries with the birds. Of course, the season for them would be October. This of course meant my birthday cakes at school would always be Moms famous sponge cake topped with garden strawberries, a tradition I tried to maintain for years as an adult. Naturally, strawberries don’t exist as an October fruit here so I have had to change my traditions.

Aside from my own little strawberry patch at home now, I reaped apricots from the tree in our garden. Since I have no experience pruning fruit trees, the apricots I took off were not great, and had been feasted on by stink bugs so the only thing for them was jam. But home-made apricot jam right?!

It’s now end of July.

I’m sorry, I got distracted and lethargic. There’s two things that I will remember this summer for. The first is my discovery of a new French word: la canicules is a heatwave. They’ve been pretty darn intense and uncomfortable, only fit for closing all the shutters and lying in the coolness of a darkened room. We peaked at 42 degrees one Sunday afternoon- the heat was oppressive and nothing was moving, except for us kippies in the restaurant industry. It’s no wonder I have been out of sorts and completely disinclined to do anything that I’m getting paid for 😜. Also, if you know me, you know how I despise shutting out the sun, and boarding up my home goes against the grain, but that blistering, listless, airless sun gave me no choice.

The second thing this summer will be remembered for is me embracing my body form and discarding the notion of having to cover up unsightly (read not skinny) knee caps, calf muscles, kankles, and swaying upper arms…. Tired of pulling on denim shorts that did not slide up gracefully, I ended up having to go shopping for some summer clothes. Do you think I could find any mid-calf length suitable shorts? Nope. So I threw my thumb up at the idea of hiding away our less pretty body parts and bought short shorts. They cover the absolute necessary parts. For the rest, my legs are bare and I don’t care that my knees resemble that of a pregnant cow, my legs oak trees, or my ankles that of an overdue pregnant woman in the summer.

Currently we’re soaking up canicules numéro deux, and we have water restrictions in place which means no watering our garden. Wandering around town recently I couldn’t help but notice how brown everything is. It’s a stark difference to South Africa which is mostly green in summer and brown in winter. What’s your take on this? Do you have think summer backdrops should be lush and green, or brown and parched?

Happily I have one last shift of this current heatwave that I need to endure at work. I so excited that I can take an actually holiday during school holidays and do a little travelling! I know we were home for 3 weeks last October, and it was totally a real holiday, but I cannot express how much I’m looking forward to chilling at home at my own pace, take drinks on our terrace (if there isn’t another heatwave) and also our first French road trip!

Yip! While we quietly celebrated our 6 year anniversary of living here in Strasbourg recently, it will be the very first time we are really holidaying in France.

We’re joining the masses obviously and heading to the south of France for 4 days- a very kind friend has let us crash at his pad close to the harbour in the almost southern most city in France. Naturally I envision eating prawns and drinking cold Chablis to make the occasion, with a few hours spent reading on the beach.

Following that we are heading west to the Pyrenees mountains to catch up with old new friends. It’s close to the Spain borders and I’m not sure how much hubby is aware how keen I am to pop in to Pamplona…

Even later still…

It’s now Saturday morning and we’re on the road. The Vosges Mountains are covered in mist and grey low hanging clouds (what bliss) and reaching out to me on the highway are the agricultural fields of the Bas Rhin- strips of green tasseled maize and recently baled wheat fields – nothing like a bit of green and gold to remind me of the Boks playing rugby as I sit here. Wish I could show you my view of a typical French countryside but any photos I take from this moving vehicle will likely be shite.

(How much has my writing methods changed? Gone are the days of sitting at my desk handwriting missives over a 3 month period. Now I spend my time tapping away in a mobile phone while on the bus or a car, and while the scenery resembles my train-travelling days, one thing that hasn’t changed, is that I still continue to write missives over 3 months 🤣 with added emojis)

As is customary, and somewhat belated, I’m just going to take a few more paragraphs to wrap up Year 6. Per usual, we’ve said goodbye to more friends. This time it’s the Boivin’s who have very sneakily relocated in France taking away one of the most amazing woman/mother/friend from our extended circle. Dearest V, I’m not sure I will ever be able to pay you back for the many favours we took from you and we will miss you immensely. Best wishes to you and L, and your kids as you start up something new.

This year has seen the end of ice skating lessons, the end of Alex at primary school, and Anton and I have made commitments to the local cricket club. He’s been appointed Club Chairman and I’ve been voted on to the committee. There was much excitement when this transpired back in May, but the shear exhaustion of juggling motherhood, work and family life has seen the excitement wane. How do other people do this sort of thing all the time? All that said, however, we have enjoyed a few weekends of travelling for cricket, and always a favourite fixture is the Luxembourg trip. Cricket aside, it’s such a lovely city to visit, their architecture a mix of really, really old and spectacularly new. I do so love their ancient fortress walls that you can wander around and appreciate how far we have come in life.

Alex starts at College (Middle school/Grade 6/Standard 4 ) in September. She was accepted into the International Section (after the very fearful English test she had to sit, but was really quite pointless- they had enough spaces but are forced to have these tests to ensure a level field I guess). Most of her peers who’ve sat through 6 years of primary schooling sat the English tests, but interestingly only a small group have elected to take the positions they were given. This means that Alex’s small clique are splintering and going separate ways. Even for me, this was a heartsore occasion. They’re a wonderful group to watch, so beautifully close and it’s remarkable knowing these friendships have been made at a young age.

Naturally, us parents will have to make an effort to retain the friendships, and since we won’t be seeing each other at the school gates any longer, we’ll be starting a Real Book Club. This means a monthly get together to drink wine and eat vegan food.

Vegan food… also something that has happened in Year 6. Nope, not me or our family. Please- could you really see me give up a rare steak or piece of cheese? But we have friends who are. I’ve spent almost every Wednesday of the last year with AK who has become a fierce Eco Warrior and her influence has happily rubbed off on me a little. While there is so much more that we could do as a family to reduce our waste, being aware of it is a step in the right direction. It’s so much more than just recycling properly these days. The poor Cow Industry is taking a lot of flack these days. Naturally I have my own thoughts about if we were to ban eating meat and enjoy the by-products of my almost favourite animal- can you imagine the extent of planting almond trees and cashew plants to feed the masses instead of traditional protein? I’ve heard about commercially produced fake fish and steak, as real substitutes but what will the impact of that be on our world?

However, Anton and I are slowly embracing this new way of life and while it’s going to be a challenge, it’s certainly one I’m looking forward to.

But I am way off topic and you may be as bored as my kids sitting in the back seat. On that note, I shall bid you adieu! We’re 3 hours into our road trip and the countryside is picturesque as anything with heavy rain clouds everywhere. I do love moody clouds in case you hadn’t realised this yet.

Stay close by my Insta and FB for photo updates if you’re up to me bragging about my amazing life (erm, very tongue in cheek there in case you think I’m full of myself).

Hopefully I can write again before Christmas comes. It goes without say that I miss you all, and wish you well. TM, you remain firmly in my thoughts, though I don’t imagine you’ll be reading this very soon. Just take time to be good to yourself as well.

Summer love from us all,

Xxx