Open letter to the Public Protector about fraud in the B&B business
DEAR Public Protector – You are quite right to be deeply concerned about ‘false billing’ – making the state pay for goods and services that were never supplied. And you’re right that the system of away-from-home accommodation for state employees needs a total...
Desperate Free State dorpies beg Lesotho for water help
SA dorpies appeal to Lesotho for help in getting drinkable water! Latest evidence of SA’s municipal woes from the current edition of the Free State Business Bulletin. So our poverty-stricken neighbours in Lesotho are now the last hope of people living in the Free...
Brand new tractors, abandoned in Bloemfontein, seek loving new home
The latest edition of the Free State Business Bulletin, an online weekly, is full of astonishing stories. Apart from its piece about desperate Free State dorpies asking Lesotho for help in getting drinkable water, the Bulletin also carries a story that made me pay...
Magnificent bird on R701 outside Smithfield – a long way from home!
We were driving along the R701 dirt road from Smithfield to Wepener when I had to stop sharply and turn the car round to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. An African white-backed vulture, here? I tried to persuade myself that it was a Northern Black...
Three reasons why we wish it was Christmas holidays in Smithfield already …
Three pictures of our roses show what we’d like to share with our friends. Imagine what the late afternoon scent is like – wish you were here! Back verandah, overlooking the mountain Great stoep for sundowners, smelling the roses and watching the kestrels come...
Lilies – where they really belong
Our Orange River lilies are blooming at the moment. A great sight. And they are growing in my garden, virtually along the Orange River, where they belong. Actually only a slight exaggeration: Smithfield is 40 minutes from Aliwal North where the N6 crosses the Orange...
Blue cranes – a whole host of them!
Just back from the Bedford garden festival. And a fantastic time we had – not just in and around this gorgeous Eastern Cape dorpie, but also on the way. Here’s what we saw between Venterstad and Steynsburg: a flock of at least 46 Blue Cranes in some fields at the side...
Why we love the R701 between Wepener and Smithfield …
It’s a dirt road – which means we have fewer trucks and stupid drivers – and it offers some of the best scenery and skyscapes you can imagine. It’s also the most direct route for people coming to Smithfield from KZN or the wonderful Eastern Highlands route, via...
Sad sight along R701 near Smithfield … this is NOT a jakkals
IT’S always a sad thing to see ignorance and prejudice at work, especially when it involves cruelty – and where the perpetrators are proud of themselves. We often see dead jackal hanging over fences along farm roads, apparently to ‘warn’ other jackal that the farm is...
The disappearing mountain
YOU could say that the definition of a really happy person is a Smithfielder when there’s rain. So we have all been delighted with the rain that’s fallen over the last week, little though the total amount might be to people from Gauteng. But it was really odd to wake...