He was not very big as spiders go, probably about five centimetres from the tip of one leg to the tip of the one opposite. (I almost wrote from, “wingtip to wingtip.”) He was also very low-slung. His belly seemed to scrape on floor or wall as he scuttled along.
A Matter of Statistics
On one day recently, Oom Wessel (not me) had a spade stolen that he had left outside, Bennie who farms with a modest variety of livestock lost one hundred chickens, a visitor from a civilised place called Johannesburg lost her car in a hi-jacking, a young man from the Pieterse
Unmentionables on the Stoep
We were naturally outraged by someone defecating on our stoep. To be clear about this, we realised from the beginning that the responsible individual could not be much more than a foot tall. The size of the droppings told us so. Nevertheless, we felt this was very impolite. We first
What happened to Frederik?
I had a friend called Frederik. He was not what I would call a close friend, just a man I knew who did motor car repairs and service for Miriam and me when our car needed attention. The amounts he charged for working on our car were modest and the
Trust
I have heard it said that God placed dogs on earth to teach humanity about unconditional love. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of that statement, but if you know dogs it seems quite possible. However, dispensing unconditional love is not the only fine quality they possess. Another was demonstrated
Losing her Innocence
The girl was very little, just five years old. Her grandfather, to whom she turned for information on every possible subject, was very old. Terribly old, she thought. He was probably the oldest man in the world. In fact, he was sixty years old. He had lived twelve times as
Christmas Shopping
Christmas is over. Thank heavens. Now the local shopping should stop, or at least ease off. Is Christmas shopping so bad? Well, yes, in the plotlands it can be very bad. A fever seems to sweep through the criminal community here. They are clearly believers in celebrating Christmas. I have
Weaver Wars
The start of the hostilities can be traced back to an absence of shade on our terrace. Miriam was determined that we should have shade and that it should be of the natural sort, provided by the leaves and branches of a tree. Accordingly, she set about acquiring a leopard
What Will the New Year Bring?
Where I live, on a small holding north of Pretoria, when people think about the new year, they often ponder the levels of crime that have plagued the past one. And our crime levels are absurdly high. Last night, in the adjoining plot lands, we had four break-ins and two
Christmas Confusion
Christmas comes round faster each year. As you grow older you experience that. Professor Ruth Ogden of John Moore University in Liverpool tells us that time drags when you’re bored and speeds up when you’re having fun. She also says it slows down when you are about to have a