Thanksgiving week

Our bird mite situation improved when we and our neighbor hired someone to remove nests and seal our common roof with wire. Cool thing I learned: our roof tiles are probably over 100 years old, and affixed with copper nails to avoid any rusting/etc. Less cool thing: 2 tiles were removed in search of bird nests, and stuck back on with cement (?!). Even less cool thing: the guys were unable to get to a nest so baby birds were actually sealed into our roof. Wow. Having a two story house with burglar guards on the windows makes us dependent on people with long ladders and a lot of courage.

For Thanksgiving, I did grocery shopping and we got bonus muffins. We took the muffins to eat at Glencairn beach. It was so windy that we couldn't hear ourselves at all, we had to focus on survival. What's with the cannon in Simonstown going off every 5 minutes?  We ate our sandy muffins and huddled between two rocks. Eli ate sand, which he later pooped out.  Our Thanksgiving was seconds long but profoundly beautiful. It helped that I couldn't talk over the wind and the cannon.

Then, on Friday, someone came and chopped our tree down. There was a giant tree in our tiny space, and it was starting to break down the wall and only growing larger and larger. It is not without sorrow that one sees this large and incredible thing killed. I'll add photos of the before and after soon. Our back area is bright now and I suddenly have double the space for growing stuff. I feel very content because practically speaking, I don't think I could grow a larger area of food yet! The main challenge is that, apart from where the tree stump sits, I'm limited to pots. I'm hoping that an initial investment in potting soil will be followed by many free or almost free gardening years.

At the intersection of lower main and albert road, they're making a stop for the new MyCity route. I'm really excited to start trying it. I find it obnoxious that we have to pay every time we top up the bus cards, because ABSA is involved. For anyone with limited means, this is the difference between sticking with minibus taxis and trying out the bus. So there are issues of power and wealth and race, as always. There's some debate over bikes traveling on buses and trains. If we're able to take our bikes on buses and trains, even if only on off-peak hours, it will make a really big difference to how we travel. So I'll definitely keep telling that to whoever will listen. Here is a potential map of bike routes in Cape Town. I still find it fairly scary to bike in Cape Town, mainly because of minibus taxis, but I think I can largely avoid their routes. I'm on the lookout for a second-hand front facing bike seat, so that I can transport both boys.

Cape Town gets really filled with tourists in the next few weeks. I'm not sure how it'll affect us, as we've gotten used to enjoying these incredible beaches and gardens almost alone, but we probably won't just sit at home either.

Happy Thanksgiving!