It is not the same any more

Q: What is the worst thing about a lazy day out in nature?

A: The journey back home.

As children we loved visiting our favorite picnic spots in Paarl. It was a carefree day of fun under tall trees next to a little river.
We had a picnic, explored the environment, had a swim, and ate ourselves dik then we started all over again, while the old people had to sleep it off on the camp chairs or a blanket on the grass.

I no longer consider such an outing fun. Just the thought of having to dodge the traffic, on the way back to Tableview, undoes all the relaxation of the day. My my nerves are as knotted as it has been before the trip when I get back home.

Then there the idiots and smart Alex’es who know just how to bring your blood to boiling point, when they squeeze into your lane, while you queue at the bottle neck in the road into Tableview.
You also have to figure out which is the best lane to queue in. I seem to mark one car in the other lane and see who moves the quickest. One can never see the cause of the holdup until you passed it.

When you get home you have all the picnic things to clean away and the family will be looking at you with big eyes for their next tummy fillers or just coffee to get the old nerves back to its normal stress levels.

If you live in and around Tableview, it is silly to go all the way to Paarl just to sit under the trees.
We may not have many shady trees in our nature areas left, but we still have a lovely dam and beaches where we can enjoy a relaxing day out.

People, who live in Tableview, do not appreciate or utilize the resources right on their doorsteps.

We have some of the best shops, nature walks, parks, water sport areas and beaches right here, on our doorsteps, and much of it is free. The only thing we do not have a lot of in our nature areas are shady trees to sit under, so perhaps a tranquil visit to deeper in the country now and again may still be warranted.

My garden is like a rain-forest. If I want to sit under a shady tree near water, I just have to put the sprinkler on and fold the beach chair open. I possibly have more birds concentrated on one spot than anywhere in Rietvlei.

Five big trees have been cut down in our area recently. It is the height of breeding season so we have birds breeding at eye level.

It is difficult to know when it is the best time to trim trees now that conservation removed all the alien trees, which is just about all the trees in the nature area. The birds seem to compensate by breeding all the year around.


Of wat praat ek alles