Tim, Barbara, Lee and Mary and snow and freezing cold.

Before clearing the pathway at Tim and Barbara's

Cleared the pathway, now for the driveway

 The second snowfall was a lot more than the first one a few days ago. White and powdery and beautiful, but I guess the minus 25 Celcius offset that beauty a bit with the brutal cold. It looks magnificent, specially when the sun is out, but you can only feel a little warmth on your ear if you allow it out of your Beanie. Best not to. My nose did not exactly enjoy being exposed either, but I kept breathing heavily to keep it warm-ish! I did not want to disturb the serene beauty, but practical needs must, so I wielded the BIG snow shovel and got to work to clear the pathway

My car at Tim's after the 2nd snowfall

The woods behind Tim's house on his property

A couple of hours of snow shoveling in lieu of gym!

Pathway done and looking safe. No ice to slip on luckily and so now the sun can do its little bit of magic and melt the rest of the snow as I really do not feel like getting out the snow broom to clear it all. Still got the driveway to do before Barbara gets back from her book club meeting otherwise she will not get up the driveway. It is long (52m) and steep, so no traction after the first 10-12m at all. Tim and I took a couple of runs from the road to reach the curve and flatter part of the driveway when we got back from church.

My car the next morning at Lee and Mary

Lee and Mary's home in Chappaqua, NY

Tracks in the snow

 My car shows the result of the previous night's snow. Only about 5cm otherwise we would have been able to use the snow blower to clear the driveway, but being so shallow, shoveling needed to be done. I used the shovel to clear the snow off my car as apart from anything, it is illegal to drive with snow on the car in Connecticut as it can fly off onto the following car, so it makes sense. The sun could do the rest. The battery did not exactly enjoy being frozen overnight, so starting was slow and laboured.

Lee and Mary's sunroom

Took this shot from inside the family room to show the beauty of the snow over the woods and the depth of it on the deck that Tim built. The two spruce trees on the left, is home to a tribe of Junco's and one of the feeders can be seen in front of the trees. There are about 8 more to the left out of shot. The Junco's are ground feeders, so pretty much rely on all the other birds, specially the Blue Jays to broadcast the seed down onto the ground for them to feed happily. They do come up onto the feeders if the ground is bare. Counted 15 species this morning. Quite incredible when the temperature is so incredibly low.

A view from the porch of the top of the driveway up to where my car is standing off shot left. Took over an hour to clear from the bottom up to this point just before the garage turnaround. Luckily the snow is still fluffy at this point except for the tracks which were left by Tim's car. The snow was compacted and had become iced in some places. Had to scrape it off the driveway
I left some places where the tracks of the Coyote or rather Coywolf where still visible. It had tracked around following the trail of a rabbit and a squirrel hoping, no doubt, for a quick meal. He was a very healthy looking specimen.

Arrived at Lee and Mary's on Tuesday and had a light snow overnight. The sun melted it off the car so I did not have to scrape it off at all. Yay! Once again, beautiful sunlight, but nary a trace of warmth unless I had stayed out to feel it on my ears. I would not, because at minus 20C, my ears would have been frozen before I really felt any warmth. I sure hope there will be no more snow and specially for Friday as I drive across into New Jersey. I am going to visit Mark Browne and his family there for a couple of nights.



Lee and Mary's home from the driveway side. Lee and his sons, Gilbert and Doug with some help from me each time I have been in the USA, rebuild this very old Cider Mill into a very beautiful and comfortable home. Lee is an excellent carpenter and woodworker. He was high up in IBM and he learnt his carpentry from his dad who is one of the top designers of the 20th century in the USA with works in the New York Cultural Museum as well as having one of his clock designs on an American Postage Stamp



Tracks in the virgin snow out front of the house from the sunroom. Mostly deer, squirrel and the neighbourhood cat. There was one set of tracks that we were unable to decipher. Looked like a Coyote, but may also have been the neighbour's dog, even though he should not have been able to get out at night. Normally this is a magnificent lawn leading down to the road which heads to the sports club where there is tennis, board tennis and a magnificent swimming pool. Lee is the maintenance guy at 82 years of age! He also plays outdoor and indoor tennis twice a week apart from 'gyming.'

This is the interior of the sunroom with a wonderful small caste iron stove in the corner which burns a couple of logs at a time and keeps the house nice and warm together with the furnace. Lee's design, including the table on the right.

Finally, I went to the Forum for International studies again this morning where a professor of political studies from CNYU addressed us on the present Palestine-Israeli 'peace talks'. Very enlightening as well as much on the Iran-USA talks on the nuclear issue. He had been in Cape Town in November or so, but I had been unable at the time to attend his lecture. Magic to listen, I could ask a question and then get to meet him.

One thing I am doing, is reading a lot of articles on all aspects of the USA as well as a couple of historical books on the indigenous North Americans (Red Indians - Comanche). Also watching the frightening slide of the Rand and wondering how much this will impact my intended trip. What I do know, is that my Caribbean Cruise and trip to Mexico are signed and sealed and I will be travelling all around the USA and Canada up till July 31!

Special time with Tim and Barbara

One load of wood for the heater

Christine's car which I am using for 6 months.

 It is cold, very cold and to keep the house heated, we need to keep the furnace going. Luckily Tim has more than enough wood for the winter. I carter 6 of these loads into the basement and the furnace needs about 4 or so logs every two hours. In the photograph is the woodshed behind Christine's car which I am using till mid-June thanks to Doug and Christine buying a TESLA and letting me use the surplus car. Amazing friends. In the shed is wood on the left hand side for the remainder of this winter. Lots more in the middle one and timber for woodwork projects in the left hand section. Tim is lucky to have his own forest with Ash, Apple, Cherry, Maple, Birch and a couple of other individual trees many of which
flattened by Hurricane Sandy and are now either
firewood or timber for more projects to build.

After I got the Camry, I put new front tyres on it, had it raod tested by the State of NY Authorities and now I have wheels till I get back from my around the USA and Canada trip with a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean and a trip to Cancun in Mexico. So I am doing a clockwise trip from New England down south, accross to San Diego and then up to Vancouver. From there via Calgary to Toronto then back into the USA at Buffalo and work my way back to Tim and Barbara in Bethany Connecticut.

The Christmas tree before being cut for firewood.

Vegetable garden hibernating in -4C!

This is Tim and Barbara's ex-Christmas tree, a beautiful Spruce and it was 'wiiiiiide'! Filled the family room side to side. Their tradition is to give each member of the family a new Christmas trinket for the tree, so it is covered with the mast amazing array of angels, animals, father Christmas's/St. Nicholas, sleds, and any other trinket one can or cannot think of. Christmas is a far bigger tradition and more traditional than at home in South Africa. The food is too much though. We had Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas breakfast and Christmas night dinner. A long walk happened in cold weather on Boxing day after going shopping to get rid of some calories at least.

Timber cut from Tim's trees for furniture construction

Luckily I will be back with Tim and Barbara in June and will be able to see the new vegetable garden in full bloom. It is surrounded by netting to keep mainly the deer out, but also Raccoons and Possums. This is the kind of vegetable garden I want at home. That is when I get there of course! There is a massive movement to grow heritage vegetables in the USA now as well as to grow your own, almost a move against GM food. Tomatoes and pumpkins in particular are a big deal and the Atlantic Giant pumpkin has the record of over 1000 pounds in weight as the biggest ever and there are many close to that every Fall at the Agricultural shows across the USA.

This is the pile of timber from the trees on Tim's property knocked down by Sandy. A local guy with a portable timber mill pitched up and split the trees into timber and Tim stacked it after sealing the ends in order to have a sh*tload for furniture construction of which he does a lot. He has about 1200 board feet of lumber here. So lucky to have a little forest of his own some of which is in the background of the picture, but the majority is behind me.

  

The remains of trees destroyed by the Hurricane, Now firewood

 This is the remaining timber for the furnace and firewood from Tim's trees as well as two enormous oaks from Nancy, his sister's home which were damaged by Sandy. They will need to be split in the summer. I guess I will help Tim with this and do some of them. Good exercise splitting and then stacking in the shed. Actually, I am not getting enough exercise. Only been to gym three times, been on two long walks and a hike in the woods with Doug. Trying to eat sparingly, but the food in Doug and Christine, Lee and Mary and Tim and Barbara's homes is amazing. All whole food and beautifully prepared and really very healthy, but, too much. I will cut down a lot when on the road and gym every day on the Caribbean cruise and in Cancun at the hotel of course.

Another Polar Vortex on the way tonight and temperature down to around -12 or so and not above 0 for a few days either. Too many clothes, just too many clothes have to be worn to stay warm. I cannot wait for the Caribbean and Mexico and summer.

Take care everyone. I miss my family, my friends and I miss my boys a lot. Keep up the Face Book messages and all the photographs please. See ya later.

Mr. O's tour.

Finally the photo's

Sunrise at Lee and Mary in Chappaqua

Mary preparing the Malva pudding

Snow falling again

 So here are some of the photo's that I took while with Lee and Mary Rohde in Chappaqua, New York. They have a magic home which Lee has converted from what appears to have been an old Apple Cider Barn to a really amazing home. He is a master carpenter and woodworker as well as a wood turner. He used to be a top guy at IBM.      
Mary is a magic chef. She makes amazing dishes for every meal. Some just straightforward meals, but all from good whole food and not in huge portions, just satisfactory amounts. So good.Here is her first attempt at a Malva pudding and was it tasty. Just like home,

The cold snap caused by the Polar Vortex came and drilled us and then left, so now the temperature hovers around freezing at night and goes up a bit during the day to around 10 - 15C mostly. Layering clothes is the warm way, but boy do I dislike wearing so many clothes. I like as few as possible hung around me.
On my way from Chappaqua to Bethany to be back with Tim and Barbara Haag, it rained solidly all the way. I used the same roads - I95, Route 8 and the Merritt Parkway to get to Bethany as I did in 1997 when I was working in White Plains. Bit of deja vu as I was tooling along at 100 kph. That's the speed limit. On the Merritt Parkway, no trucks, just cars and SUV's and vans and RV's and 'bakkies/utes/pickups'

The finished Malva pudding. Yum!

I will be moving around while in this region. Next to Danbury to visit Maureen Shanley who I taught with and met through Tim. Then to NYC to see Richard Boliter from SACS days and Victor Corona from my teaching here in the USA. Hope to see Chris Duncan, SACS too while in NYC. Then off to New Jersey to visit with Mark Browne SACS and then up to South Hero Island to visit with Dave and Barb Carter, my Godson Alan's
(SACS) parents-in-law.

On around 21st, off to Ski weekend in Northern NY
and then on 23 February the long trip begins first to
DC to Alan and Erin.

Meanwhile I continue to struggle to download photo's from my camera to blog or Face Book.
The latter have not succeeded in doing yet.  I will have to ask Richard when in NYC.

So much happened and I cannot post photo's

Being the techno pygmy that I am, I am not having any joy being able to post photographs. I do not know what I am doing wrong, no matter which method I try. So until I find someone to assist in my ineptness, I will write with no photo's and I have lots to post!

These last few days have been full of surprises and challenges.

On Sunday I went to the Westchester Mall in White Plains, NY with Lee and Mary Rohde, with whom I was staying. The Mall is a place I frequented when I was working at Archbishop stepinac High School for Boys in 1997. It is very much an upmarket mall with Neiman Markus, Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie and Fitch, Apple, Sony, Crate and Barrel and many other very, very expensive stores. However, one of the things I went for mostly, was the fresh Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies they made. They came off a conveyor onto a grid and you could buy them hot and amazing. So when we went on Sunday 12th, Guess what? I went and bought two and devoured them instantly apart from a Chinese lunch which was very tasty.

In the afternoon, we went to the Chappaqua Library to a performence of the West Point Military Academy Jazz Combo playing Jazz from the 1920's and '30's. It was great to be there, but of course it made me homesick for the SACS Jazz Band which could have stood their ground in this company with ease.

On Monday morning I dropped off the Toyota Camry that Doug Rohde, Lee and Mary's youngest son, and his wife Christine, gave me for my trip around the USA and Canada. How generous is that! The Camry needed to have its annual State inspection and I had put new front tyres on it on Saturday. Lee and I then went to a lecture through the International Affairs Group on modern China and where to in 2014. It was given by a Chinese Political Science Professor and I certainly learned a whole lot about where they are going, or appear to be going. Scary too!

We then went home for lunch and then Lee, Mary and I went to Club Fit, a gym like Virgin Active and picked up the Camry on the way. after a fairly strenuous session - never gym too soon after a meal - Mary and I went home, leaving Lee to have a session in the hot tub and do his neck exercises. No sooner home than the police called to let Mary know that Lee had fallen and the ambulance was taking him to hospital. I rushed Mary to the hospital as soon as she had organized for her grand daughter to be fetched from Ballet, and we arrived before the ambulance which had lost its way, but Lee had come around by this time and directed them to the hospital as only Lee would.

The facilities at this hospital were most certainly 21st century as was the health care. A doctor, two 'medical assistants, a scribe and a medical student as well as a 'transporter', that is a guy who pushed the trolly around after the initial and thorough examination and hook-up to a huge machine and blood taken, he was 'trolley'd' to MRI and X-Ray and then back to be hooked up. A decision was then made to keep him overnight for monitoring. He was 'transported' from the Emergency wing through to the hospital proper into a single room. Here a second doctor arrived and started the whole thorough process again with a nurse, a scribe and a sister or the equivalent.

Mary and I went back home to collect his regimen of drugs and by the time we returned, the new doctor was still examining him and making decisions. We left at 9,15 having arrived at the hospital at 3.50pm! Then off to supper at Applebees on the way home. Mary contacted the three boys; Lars, Gilbert and Doug and reorganized for someone to take Lee's place for his Tennis the following day. Yes, he is 82 and plays tennis a number of times a week and gyms three times and is in the Men's International Studies group and is a master carpenter and woodworker as well as a wood turner and splits wood for the little wood stove which keeps their massive house warm.

Come Tuesday morning, I was due to leave at around 10.00, Mary received a call to collect Lee. Well, it did not work out. Lee had a vision problem which ended with more MRI and X-Ray of his head, the optometrist and a Neurologist and a doctor. Needless to say, he stayed till 5pm by which time I had left their home to go back to Tim and Barbara in Connecticut. I called and Lee is fine and with all the extensive and exhaustive tests, it appears that he is absolutely fine. The vision things appears to have been a kind of migraine.

So, here I am after the trip from Chappaqua in NY to Bethany in Ct in the Camry - deja vu - as I went on the same road I used to commute in 1997! It rained solidly the whole way.

This morning I Face Booked and after a breakfast of Berry Squares Cereal and a Blueberry Muffin as well as a glass of water (of course) and a cup of English Breakfast Tea, I did some research and printing for the final section of Topic 6 of the new Grade 12 Answer Series Text Book which I then finished composing and writing and then sent it on its merry way to my publisher in Cape Town. The Response to Globalization. Not exactly exciting, but certainly potentially earth shattering!

Then I carted 4 loads of split wood from the wood shed to the basement where the burner is and followed that with carrying and dumping the now unused Christmas tree near the vegetable garden, now dormant of course with the temperatures certainly below freezing at -4C or so.

And here I am typing.

Last Thursday I was at the Google HQ where Doug Rohde is one of the chief engineers, planners. team leaders and management executives. I was so privileged to even get in. Lee, Mary and I met Doug at reception. He arrived on a scooter because the building is longer than the Empire State is high (104 floors high!). The whole loooong building is decorated to resemble Manhattan, so there are street names, buildings replicated, restaurants, districts in NYC, etc, They must have had such fun. Food islands where one can help oneself to nuts, chocolate, berries, cookies, tea, coffee, juices, etc, are interspersed. There is also a moderate sized restaurant on the 4th floor, but the major one is on the 10th floor. It is huge and self-service with salad makings, soup and crackers and croutons, pasta's, pizza's, fish, chicken dishes, seafood platters, pork, beef, sushi, roasted vegetables, desert, fruit, tea, coffee, hot chocolate, a bank of healthy drinks. All free!

Every now and again we came across Lego Centres where there were a myriad tubs of coloured Lego and large tables where people constructed stuff and anyone could add on as they felt the motivation to. here and there were stations to take your laptop if it malfunctioned through the day. Various sized conference, meeting and chill rooms each independently decorated with unique furniture. Games rooms with pool tables, table tennis, Basket ball hoops, ergometers, stationary bicycles, chess tables, fussball, video games and so much more. A library along one wall of the corridor and people can just take out, read and return. Also stationary islands where pens, pencils, post-it notes, lined paper, printing paper, etc. is available as required.

Amazing murals, posters, screens, paintings, decor. The actual working areas, which are very extensive, have 'compartments' surrounded by frosted glass with about 5 people in each. They personalize them to a certain extent, but for me, Doug's desk was the best. He used to have a back problem and could not constantly get up and down, so the engineers made a hydraulically powered table/desk that carried his two massive computer screens as well as all the other bits and pieces, and could be raised and lowered as he wanted. He stands and does most of his work.

So Doug's Team of 25 is part of a cohort of 2000 Google people all around 25 to 35 years old, making me feel decidedly elderly. all either very animated or completely immersed in their work with either a laptop in the crook of their arms as they walked around or glued to their screens in their cubicles or at an eating station or Lego station or in one of the conference nooks or rooms. One room is decorated as a Bachelor apartment and the two couches are made of Victorian Baths with a cutout and lined with comfy cushions as well as a glass topped bath as the working surface and an imitation fridge against the wall with a steel panel so that magnetic goodies could be attached. Whimsical.

Wish I could create a school like the Google office. Just amazing and inspiring.

Here endeth the blog!

The Grade 12 results and my friends the Rohde's

From about 7000 miles away I sit thinking about and writing about the day my last Grade 12 class of 2013 arrived at the front door at SACS to recieve the results that would pave the way to university or whatever else awaits each of my last boys. I was happy with the 100% pass rate, almost expected, but for one or two who we thought may falter at the final hurdle, but really thinking they would not. Happy with over 96% university acceptance and I trust the remaining guys have their futures mapped out without university ahead. All this happiness spoiled by the fact that two of my History boys who are 88-92% candidates end up with 76% and 70% in spite of around 90% for their year marks and I calculate that they must have burned and sunk in the examinations in spite of both being very happy on completing each paper. I don't believe that is possible!
I expected 5 A's, wanted 7 and hoped for 9! We got 5, and that was disappointing when one takes my 2nd and 3rd best candidates out with inexplicable marks, and then add one at 79% who is a mid-80% candidate and another on 76% who can get an A on remark and then again I look at a mid 70% candidate with 62% and wonder what happened to his year mark and how he must have crashed and burned in his exam and he was not unhappy coming out of the Hofmeyr Memorial Hall!
So what happened. They knew their work thoroughly. They could answer any question. They were very capable of tackling any source based question. I am dumbfounded and feel devastated that I am so far away, and apart from themselves, who is there to go in to bat for them apart from a re-mark!
That has sullied my stay here. Thank goodness for Facebook and being able to at least talk to them on the airwaves and give some solace. If I was there, I would investigate. I trust it will be done!

The temperature is 7.7 degrees F (about -14 degrees C according to the dual thermometer). Thank goodness for the little wood stove in Lee and Mary Rohdes sun room where I sit typing at 06.40 this morning. Of course I still awaken at around 04.15 as I also do at home. And next to me a steaming cup of Twinings Earl Grey in a large mug with Doug and Christine Rohdes twin boys Nahtanial and Sebastian imprinted on the side.

So who are these amazing families? In 1986 at my first Summer Camp for the Westchester Putnam Council of the Boy Scouts of America right up in the far North of the state of New York, lies the Curtis S. Read Scout reservation straddling around 6.3 million acres of the Adirondacks. I was appointed Field Sports Director for the 6 weeks of that Summer by Bob Towne and worked under Terry Bennett from Portsmouth in England. As the Shooting Instructor, amongst other things, I had passed my NRA Instructors licence in Plattsburg, NY and was out on the Range with Howard Rakov, a Scoutmaster, when my first group of would-be shottists arrived. One of the 11-year-old boys, small of stature with long hair and round spectacles and a huge and engaging smile, was first to greet me and be ready to learn. Douglas Rohde. what an amazing young man. Always smiling, a really good shottist as it turned out and also hugely intelligent and enquiring. He is also totally unusual in the way he sees things that we take for granted.

We got on well and he invited me to come and stay with his family after Summer Camp ended and cemented that by introducing me to his mom, Mary, when she arrived to collect him at the end of his two weeks at Camp Waubeeka. The rest, as is said in the classics, was history. The Rohdes and I became very good friends and each time I went back - 1987/88/93/96/2004/2010, I stayed with them. In 2010 and now I have stayed with Doug and Christine as well. and when I went over for their wedding, I stayed with Doug's elder brother Gilbert.

I saw Doug through school and he worked in IBM during Summer vacation. Then took him back to Princeton one Fall for the new year at university. He then went on to Carnegie Mellon and MIT where he obtained his Doctorate in Computer Science and then was snapped up by Google who he had done work with while studying. Now he is in the New York Head Office as one of the senior developers and an executive. Amongst other things, he plays the piano and trumpet and was a top player in the university team.

Doug is a big honcho at Google in development as well as being high up in the executive stakes and Christine is a pioneering doctor in corrective surgery who has appeared on national television speaking on her pioneering works. They have three children, daughter Madeline and identical twin boys Nathanial and Sebastian. The only way I know the difference is that their voices are different. They live in a magnificent home in Briarcliff Manor North of NYC. The house is solar powered to keep costs down, but also to charge up the TESLA which is Doug's pride and joy as well as to sell power back to the grid when they have excess. That means, no storage batteries, simply generate the electricity and sell excess. 42 panels provide the power. In the huge yard is an 1800's Red Barn, equipped with a half sized Basket Ball Court as well as a pub and storage for sleds, bicycles, Hobie, a number of other innovations of Dougs and a place to chill or the children to have parties with many Doug invented games.

Outside a 100m zipline (Foofie slide) and a swing from a platform that gives a good 20m radius arc out over the slope down which the zipline stretches. Next door is the State forest which has a great historical significance, but is a place for hiking and Crossbow hunting too.

While out hiking on Thursday, just before the arrival of the Polar Vortex cold snap, Doug turned to me and said; "Don't you want to take the Camry on your trip around the States?". Well, knock me over with a slouch hat! I was dumbfounded and said that I really could not do that. Needless to say, Doug and Christine have given me their Camry (see photo in my previous blog) and my whole trip changes as I can now move about with no waiting for buses and trains and not reliant on all the friends I am staying with across the USA and Canada for transport. Just so generous and kind. I am still totally overwhelmed by their generosity. They are simply amazing friends.

Lee and Mary Rohde live in Chappaqua, NY, quite near to the Clintons! Nice bit of name dropping. They live in a magnificent converted Apple Cider Barn. Lee has done amazing work on the reconstruction. He is an incredible carpenter and amazing wood turner as his dad is recognized as one of the top industrial designers in the USA with works in major galleries and in the Smithsonian as well as having one of his works emblazoned on an american postage stamp. Lee has inherited his dad's design capability as well as having added to it with his own inventiveness. He turns the most beautiful bowls out of a variety of hardwoods. Lee worked for IBM for decades. This is what sparked Doug's interest in computer science.

Mary, Doug's mom, is a researcher at the local library and even at her advanced age, still works 4/5 days a week and sometimes on Sundays at the town Library which is a sparkling example of what a library should be. Tens of thousands of books, thousands of DVD's, CD's, Video's including educational examples for every single school and teaching subject one can think of, a bank of PC's for research. an enormous collection of periodicals (magazines to us) on every single topic one van imagine, as well as connections to libraries across the County to access even more of everything.

Both Lee and Mary are the most generous people one could meet and our conversations are always filled with an amazing array of topics and subjects which is hugely stimulating. They are also, and so is Doug, amazingly inventive chefs. Their food is always well thought out and made exclusively with healthy, Fresh vegetables, herbs, spices and fresh fruit as well as good meat and fish. Every meal is amazing. Only problem is to curtail the inevitable "You want some cookies?" from Lee after every meal. He has to be one of the fittest (he plays tennis winter and summer) most alert and intelligent 80+ year-old's I know. He also heads a Men's Forum Discussion Group on anything from politics to religion, social issues, consumerism and economics. He researches every single appliance, automobile, machine, shoes, car part or piece of timber that he needs to purchase through the consumer watchdog to be sure that he has the right thing, so he knows what he is talking about. As I have said so often, "find your own truth. Research, question, find out about what it is until you can be satisfied with what it is you ed and want to know." He does that as does Doug and also Gilbert.

I also need to tell about Tim, Ben and Barbara Haag. That is for another blog.

It is 07.30 and the news is on the radio. Blue skies, pretty darned cold and goodbye for now. Love you all. BIG hugs. Remember, you need 4 a day to be content. Hug, just hug. :)

Amazing time with Doug and Christine and family

Snow shoeing

 So after the snow storm we had a balmy, but very cold day with the sun shining brightly from a clear blue sky. Doug and I donned snow shoes and heavy duty 'snow-proof' leggings and headed out to the gold course owned by Donald Trump, who is not my favourite person!

So here is me in 'snow gear' and 'walking sticks' taken by Doug.

Snow drifts as a result of the wind

Sledding in Doug's yard

The crew with sledding tyres

Out on the golf course snow shoeing

 Some bug has just scrambled the photo's and I don't want to fiddle anymore, so I will write about each photo by caption.

The photo of the snow drifts was taken by Doug as it created awesome patterns with the shadows cast making it easy to see these unique patterns.

The snow varied in depth, so sometimes it was easy going and others tougher, but every now and again we were able to slide sideways into bunkers. Some guys had cleared the ice and created a small ice rink and the ice was pretty thick, so it was fun for them.





This shot is in Doug and Christine's yard. Just a short slope, but we had great fun sliding down. Doug made a jump eventually and the kids tried trick slides by putting a small tube on the big one and trying to jump off the big one on the jumps. Pretty successful, but some massive spills. Christine video'd my jump. Great fun.






Here the kids are with Sebastian behind the big tube ready to jump and Madeline and her friend Cece in pink. Spent a good hour and a bit for more good exercise.










Back to me on the golf course. We did some great bird spotting and the prettiest a Cardinal and the most were two skeins of Canada Geese that each came in separately to a clear patch of grass on a slope. Saw three deer and a myriad of tracks from squirrels, mice and what looked like a galloping Coyote track and a rabbit track.

The Camry

Here is Christine's Camry. Their 4th car. Doug has given this car to me for the duration of my stay in the
USA. Now that is true friendship. I was astounded
when they said I should take it and bring it back in
June!

This will make my trip so much easier. I can now move whenever I wish to and leave the Camry with friends when I am in Mexico and the Caribbean. I will drive across Canada now instead of by train. I am still astounded by this amazing offer. Paul Gilliomee is going to be so jealous as he is a Camry fan of note,

Front of the TESLA

This is the front end of Doug's TESLA. What an awesome car it is. I watched an article on TV about
 it in Norway where they have bought it by the
thousands. They have amazing powering stations to
Power them up for the approximately 300 kilometer
range.

Nice to know it is a creation of Elon Musk from Pretoria Boys High School in South Africa. Yay SAFFA!

Moving to Doug's folks tonight. Cheers till next time.

The snow has stormed.

TESLA

Doug and his ride-on snowblower

 So I got to Doug and Christine's home at 10.30 just ahead of the storm and immediately drove Doug's TESLA. What an amazing and awesome car and to drive was incredible. It is very powerful and unbelievably smooth and handles like a sports car due to the low centre of gravity.

After a slide down the zipline (Foofie slide in SA) which is 100 foot long down the hill next to the house, we loosened the cable due to the storm.
We also had a swing on his 30m swing. Very cool in the freezing snow.

The snow came down in drifts through the night and by morning we had 8 inches deep.

Doug then took out the snowblower and cleared the pathway and cleaned the snow off the cars which he had taken up the hill the previous night.

Amidst much blowing, he cleared the drive and Christine could go off to do some work at the hospital.




This is their home the following morning, Friday 3
January. We are about to go sledding at Roosevelt
 Park with his twin boys, Sebastian and Nathanial
and daughter Madelaine.

Should be good in minus temperatures.

Doug's Barn

Doug and Christine's home

New Yaers morn 2014

Early morning in Tim's woods

Wood pile that needs to be split. Job for later!

 Early morning at Tim and Barbara's in Bethany Connecticut on New Years Day 2014. Mid-winter so the trees are bare and it is about 1 degree Centigrade with a clear blue sky. Tomorrow is the coming of a big snow storm and I will be on the road at around 5.45. Off to Briarcliffe Manor to Doug and Christine Rohde for a long weekend and then to his parents in Chapaqua for a week.

Magic brunch of French toast, bacon (of course) and breakfast sausage with OJ and Earl Grey tea.

Watched the birds feeding frantically on Tim's feeders as they stock up for tomorrow and Friday's snow storm. Red bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Cardinals, Junko's, Gold Finches, Titmouse, Chikadee, Mourning Doves, Blue Jays, Nuthatches and  three Grey Squirrels who feed off the offerings dropped by the birds.

By train from New Canaan early tomorrow for another part of my journey and visit to friends.

Wishing you all a happy, love filled and magical 2014. Plant trees, have relationships and enjoy what you are doing and who you are with and tell everyone how much you love and appreciate them. May the world be a substantially better place this year.
Take care all my family, friends and my SACS men. :)