Heatwave!

We’ve had a serious heatwave over the past week and a half. Terrible wind has added to the discomfort blowing dust into the house from all corners of the farm. Yesterday was the absolute worst with gusts up to 50km/hr the whole day long!

We had a little bit of rain before Myles was born, but there’s been nothing since and everything has totally dried up. I managed to take some photos of the garden early one morning just before things got really parched and windswept. The garden has come into bloom about a month earlier than usual, probably because we had some rain in September and because the temperatures have been so hot for spring. We also had a relatively mild winter so things didn’t frost down as much as usual. I just love the riot of colour and the fragrance of honeysuckle, lavender and rose drifting through the air. A real treat when the wind isn’t blowing and it’s pleasant enough to venture outside!

Baby Myles Thabang

Our precious bundle of joy, Myles Thabang, was born two weeks ago today. We are completely overjoyed and thankful that he is healthy, happy and perfect in every way. His little sister, Livia Lerato, is fascinated by her brother and has shown him nothing but love and affection so far (long may that last!) She is extremely concerned whenever he cries and tries to help mommy wherever she can. It is just too precious for words!

A lot of people have asked us why we have chosen to give our children seSotho second names. The tradition started with Quentin’s first daughter Ashley who is called Naledi, meaning “star”. Livia’s second name is Lerato, which means “love”, and Thabang means “to be happy” or “to bring happiness”. They have been given these names to honour the fact that we live amongst seSotho people on the farm and we want our children to respect their culture and grow up learning the language. Quentin is fluent in seSotho, but I am not, which puts me at a serious disadvantage in our day to day living in South Africa. Quentin and his father have always been proud of the seSotho names they were given by the community, but these names have never been formally recorded anywhere. Quentin is Bereng, which means “king” and his father is Masupa, which was a name of one of the chiefs. On the farm, these names are used far more often than the names on their birth certificates so we felt it would be a mark of respect to make the seSotho names official.

I wouldn’t have survived that last two weeks without serious support and help from our wonderful family. Quentin’s parents and my mother and my sister all played a role in looking after Livia when I wasn’t able to and then looked after all of us when we came home and I couldn’t focus on anything but feeding a hungry newborn! It is truly wonderful when families come together to celebrate new life and support each other through new and daunting experiences. My mom left yesterday leaving a freezer full of delicious healthy meals for us to eat in the next while. Thank you, thank you, thank you!