I escaped the cleaning, the boxes, and the furniture arranging and ventured out for a few hours:) The 4-year drought continues, and it is obvious all around me. The village itself has a lei water system, using water channeled from the mountains along a series of canals to private homes and public spaces. So, some of the village has lush green manicured lawns and gardens and the others, like mine, have none! I will in due course become a water harvester. Today I have water tank being installed and later I will learn how to harvest water from the road above my property so that when it does rain, I will conserve and preserve as much of the runoff as possible. (more about this idea later🫣)
I traveled along a dusty farm road and came upon two completely empty dams – pans – that have clearly in times past, been full and sustained their own microenvironment. Things used to flourish and or survive, but now all there is is death and decay! So incredibly sad. Hopefully, this year the drought will break!
A last-minute change of schedule by the moving company forced me to leave the city a night ahead of schedule. I arrived at my new home at 8pm in the dark! What that did, was disallow me 24 hours in which to stay in my empty apartment and mull and contemplate leaving the city and my home of the last 18 years. I was gone before I knew it! It was a good thing.
I made my way into the empty house, found the mains switch unpacked my few belongings, ‘camped’ in the spare room – and surprisingly, slept very well. These weeks running up to my departure date have been a bit hectic!
With nothing to do in the morning, I left before sunrise up to the walking trail behind my home to watch the new day dawn on my new town and my new life:) It was beautiful!
There is one early morning coffee shop in the village, and I was greeted there with an excellent coffee and a roaring fire in the hearth on a very chilly morning:) It is winter here. I chatted to the waitress and later another customer who comes from 80 kms away so her young daughter can go to playschool twice a week! I walked home and shortly after arriving, the entire contents of my life arrived in a large moving truck and trailer…. And so, the fun began! In the last month or two, I have done not much else besides pack boxes and boxes and more boxes! And now I am doing not much else besides unpacking boxes and boxes and boxes. So much cardboard and plastic…. But all going to recycling on Friday:)
David, my ‘inherited’ gardener has been, the honeysucker has been (sucks out the sewerage from a septic tank!) The gas man has connected my new gas stove and I have been to the one supermarket to buy some supplies. No traffic, free parking right outside the places I need to go. Friendly smiling faces. Children walking home from school, and a general feeling of calm and happiness:)
I have not cleaned so much ever before….
I am settling in well, going slowly and enjoying every minute. Each morning I am out at dawn and greet the sunrise – walking or cycling in a quiet, still, barren, beautiful landscape feeling happy and safe:) I am going to love it here:)
In between closing and packing up my business and packing up my city home and moving to my new home and life, after 18 years – I was invited to attend a land art residency programme in the Tankwa Karoo, on Stonehenge Farm. A remote, harsh, dry, barren, stark area, with boundless beauty and never-ending vistas and skylines! I was concerned about the timing, but, in the spirit of change and embracing my new life, I went! And what a great decision it turned out to be…..
Sky Labyrinth Stonehenge Farm
Besides the physical journey mostly on dirt roads in wide-open space, it was quite an emotional and spiritual journey….I met amazingly creative people from diverse backgrounds who were very welcoming and non-judgemental…. Learning to connect with people is part of this new journey and it was easier than I expected! I find I connect more easily when I am away from my ‘boxes’….. Hopefully, this will translate well when I move… I will not be defined by my career, my past, my insecurities…..I also hope to connect more with myself!

I had time to meditate and think and listen. Each evening there was a time with the group of fifteen to partake in Reflections… Sharing the day’s events, I was able quite easily to do this….it was sharing an experience, it was not a reflection of me! It was good and I mean to continue with this practice on my new life:)
I don’t like any of the definitions of retirement… And these days there seem to be many. Being in my mid-sixties it feels like I can use the word, but the definition is my own…….my retirement will be defined by – not being constrained to earning an income in a formal setting – no rent to pay, limited overheads, no defined hours, no one else’s expectations to conform, no need to be politically correct or to follow the dictates of the industry. Not to be constrained by the bureaucracy, tax and time-consuming practices of owning and managing a small (micro) business – I look forward to learning, creating and hopefully selling my own artwork from a new studio that I have always longed for.
I want to learn, work, and play with a balance between the physical, the mental, the thoughtful and the impulsive, full days and contemplating days, trusted ways, and new discoveries. Doing what I feel compelled to do on my terms:)
I started this journey today, by picking up one of my many unfinished art pieces – I am incredibly happy with what I achieved today.
It is a panoramic landscape, representative of what is soon to be my unique environment, a monochromatic barren, but spectacular place! A dirt road running through it – which represents leaving one life and traveling to a new one. The light bright on mountain peaks, that I am most pleased with, could be a sun setting or rising, representative of ‘from and to’ or ‘to and from’ :) New direction. New place. New Life
Chapter Six 
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