18. Gentler Times
With the completion of building projects in 2018, Johan and I were able to slow our pace a little. We still oversaw general farm maintenance, vineyard, winery and bottling work, cooked breakfasts for workshops, travelled to Paarl and Stellenbosch to buy machinery parts, corks, bottles and the like. Johan continued to do at least one wine tasting a week which he enjoyed greatly, often getting himself and his wine tasters thoroughly tiddled. Each year we made our lemon products in winter, and bottled oil and olives in autumn. Being such a consummate and enthusiastic chef Johan also experimented with his usual array of Mediterranean, Indian and Thai dishes, mostly for our own eating pleasure. Since I became a vegetarian during this period, he had to become especially creative in his cooking skills.
As usual, during this period the farm continued to throw curve balls at us. In the fire of 2023, we had to evacuate a farm full of guests, as well as our own family gathered from all over the world, for a reunion. That last night, sleeping in Cape Town with our son and family, we were pretty sure we would find no farm left the next day. But rather magically, the wind had dropped during the evening, and with the fire line, just a hundred metres from Sonkop cottage, the blaze fizzled out leaving everything intact. We needn’t have moved, but who was to know.
Another curved ball came in 2024. The winter rains were especially wild, so much so, that our road from the farmyard to Sonkop cottage completely washed away, leaving giant sink holes the size of our seven year old grandson Liam. They also washed away bridges and bends in the road up the mountain, interfering with Wi-Fi tower maintenance and frustrating everyone. That year, we spent all our profits from hospitality on extensive roadworks, hiring dozers and laying concrete, and cursing the fates.
But in general over the years between 2018 and 2025, the season’s passed with us more able now to enjoy them: the dry bake and white light of summer, the yellow and orange of our many aloes, and the coppery leaves of autumn. With winter came the glistening frost on the lawns in front of the farmhouse and kitchen, many days and nights of howling wind, and ongoing bucketing rain. Our wardrobes and the farm scenery changed, but everyone showed up for work and occasionally play.
And suddenly I had some time to myself. In 2023 I began painting and took weekly art lessons in Malmesbury . I use in oils and often paint favourite farm scenes. Here is a series of six I painted in 2024
