The Guy in Pink

3 km into our run in Hanglip forest this morning with Marsie and Toffee we came across a spoor trail along the track we were running. This photo is only 1,5km from our house and 500m from the nearest houses in town. We have rather large Kittens in our forest.

Our Marsie has nylon knee tendons and back problems so keeping her weight down is important . I decided that since a real food LCHF diet has been so good for me our two need to go the same way. So they get two eggs a day, meat and a bone, with only a cup of processed food. Both are slender with cold noses always. Marsie manages our 10km run/walks in the forest without any problem now.18 months ago she was distressed after a 5km Park run where we both did duty as the tail walker.

I have been observing this new swarm. They are inactive when the temperature drops below about 13deg and do not venture out. During a cold snap over the last weekend they did not forage at all for two days. Above 20 deg they are really active.

The Correx box (plastic cardboard) has a rough wooden frame inside with a piece of old honeycomb. There are two small gaps in box to allow bees to enter and leave. The bees are attracted by the smell of the honeycomb and if they like the space move in when an old hive becomes overcrowded and they split up with a new queen, and begin building honeycomb and breeding. When the box is getting full our beekeeper relocates them at night into a proper hive with a queen separator. As the larger queen cannot leave this hive the other bees stay as well and work in the new location, Pollinating crops and producing honey.

In one of our Acacia Trees we have had for over 10 years a bee box which is provided by a local bee keeper. When we judge the box to be full to overflowing with bees we give him a call and he removes the box and replaces it with a fresh box during the night - this usually happens once or twice a year. A week ago he removed the old box and just seven days later a massive new swarm arrived and moved in. It looks like he will have to come again to exchange boxes very soon. Our bee keeper makes most of his income not from the Honey, but from pollination services by providing hives on farms as the season and crop demands.

For much of this year we have hosted a family of about 10 ververt monkeys who visit us about 3-4 times a weak to eat from our trees. Their favourite trees are the 3 of our Acacia Trees which have seed pods at present , but at various times they go for other fruit and nut trees around us. They are fortunately very skittish so are difficult to photograph, This one was from inside our gym upstairs. The tree behind the solar panels was their target.

Marsie and Toffee cooling down after a game of Fetch in the garden. They each have their own balls, and never catch the wrong one even when I throw both together.

My second aviation memory is from an eight year old me, and is from 25th November 1955 when I was at school in Umbogintwini ; being almost last day of school for the year we were outside in the playground most of the day while our teachers handled admin etc. The bush in front of the school had recently been cleared for playing fields, and we had a clear view from the front of the school of the Louis Botha airport outside Durban about 10km to the North of the school. The Louis Botha Airport was officially opened that afternoon. During the Morning a flight of some 6 twin tailed Vampire Jets (Training aircraft) practised for a display they were to give at the official opening in the afternoon. We had a grandstand view of the display and they flew low and loud over us a few times.. As we were watching one of the Jets flew into the airfield in front of the airport buildings and we saw the massive mushroom cloud of smoke erupt into the air as it hit.

My earliest aviation memory is from 1952 when aged five my family travelled by air from London to Johannesburg, in a Skymaster I think. The trip route was London, Rome, Kharthoum, Nairobi, livingston, Johannesburg, and took about 3 days. I can remember pieces of it; my mother pointing our the River Tiber above Rome; her being frightened at the site of am armed policeman - maybe also in Rome as we drove in a taxi in the city (British police were still required then to read the riot act aloud before being armed).; a toy springbok with real springbok skin give to me by the air hostess; and the Vic falls from the air.

Working a paddy after the harvest.

Planting seed in a paddy.

When I worked and lived in the little town of Niewe Nickerie, in Suriname (South America) we had the sound of these crop sprayer biplanes in the air all day every day. The town was surrounded by many thousand hectares of rice fields some 5km long x 500m wide , and all the work of planting the seed, fertilising and spraying insecticide was done by a fleet of about 20 of these biplanes. This fella saw me with my camera out on the road to site taking pictures of him working a paddy and decided to give me a show.

63 Joined 12 Sept 2004

The red clay in the forests around us means that when we walk the mutts in the forests they end up with mud up to their chests , especially when there are mud patches like there are now. They have to be washed after every forest walk it they are to be allowed inside. So when we upgraded our bathroom a few years back I installed a pet friendly shower with an extra set of taps and a hand shower especially for them The large shower does not have a door so they can just walk in on their own when called.

She is beautiful and with a lovely nature. However she has leg and back problems. She has nylon tendons in both knees and walks awkwardly, in the photo above you can see how awkwardly she sits. We limit her to 5km walks at the most, but she gets to play catch with her ball 3 times a day and jumps for it quiet well.

We had our first (legal) walk since lock-down in Hanglip Forest today with Toffee and Marsie. The early morning sun made Hanglip above us shine almost white.

The screenshot below is my heart rate on a typical sweet spot HIIT spinning session for me. Being 72.8 years old I an aware that i may be at added risk. However I am a low carb eater and with OMAD I believe that my immune system is being boosted every day. The HIIT adds to that boost See this for more pointers on resisting the infection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lJPjsuftmQ

So the high intensity interval training (Indoor) that I do every day is a no-no?

If we are allowed to cycle its going to open up routes one again for me that were off limits due to traffic and safety. My wife and I will again be be able to use the N1 going south straight from home without needing to take the car and park to use a quieter road.

Toffee often does a 15 minute turn on his own on the treadmill, all without any collar or lead. In normal times he runs the Saturday morning 5km Park-runs, with several of them sub 30 minutes and has done a few 10 km runs in the forest with my wife.

My wife and her training partner Toffee have been getting in their training , even during the lock-down.

I got a blocked artery behind my knee in my right leg and needed emergency surgery in November to put in a new pipe to supply my lower leg with blood. I was a asked repeatedly, by the surgeon, radiologists, aneathlogists , nurses and everyone else in the hospital the following questions: Do you smoke? Me:No. Them: When did you stop smoking? Me. Before I reached the age of 10. (60+ years ago) They just assume if I had a blocked artery I must have been a smoker.

Gary Fettke has a good take on the originals of the Vegan fad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3FWxOsgwTg

Geomark, In this photo of the Twangiza Tailings dam your exploration camp was at the extreme bottom left of the photo, not quite shown

Here is a picture i took in Feb last year of Twangiza with my GoPro mounted under the chopper on the mirror arm using a handlebar mount. Your exploration camp was just to the North of the middle of tailings dam. The dam wall is currently about 130m above the valley floor and your camp was just above the level of the current road on the north bank What will strike you is the number of dwellings, when I got there any dewelling had a grass roof, today they are all metal.