There is a new development in our Meraki Mountain. It is called Team SS. Now, to tell you this story, I need to turn time back to 2016, because that is when the one SS met the other SS. Bear with me, I will explain.

You see, sometimes, we all need a little help from a friend. And there is a song for that.

On 23 April 1969, Joe Cocker released his debut album. The title track – With a little help from my Friends, was originally performed by the Beatles, and the song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.  I am not a Beatle Girl. I never really developed an ear for Beatles music. It is only after their split, that some of John Lennon’s music (Imagine) and Paul MacCartney’s music (Mull of Kintyre) cracked a nod from me. But Joe Cocker? Now that is a different story all together. That gritty, bluesy voice, his dynamic stage presence and of course those (according to Aunty Google) expressive body movements (which I would rather describe as early onset of Rigor Mortis) – well, that had me on the opening bars of Love lifts us up where we belong! From then on, I have never looked back on my musical relationship with Joe Cocker. Joe and me, we are like Slap Chips and Vinegar, Klippies and Coke, Cocoa Butter Oil and a Beach Towel. You can’t have one without the other.

And so it is, at a time when we both needed a little help from a friend, that the SS’s got together and hatched a plan. You all know that I have great expectations for Meraki Mountain, but somehow the load seems more bearable with my other SS on board. The dream just got bigger, and the more I think about it, the more I like it. It is so much better when a plan comes together. So, watch this space.

Someone asked in the comments section a week or two ago: How is your plant nursery coming along? Yes, you are quite right. I have not given an update on all my seedlings and saplings for quite a while. When living in Botrivier Village, I had all the pots outside the kitchen window, where I could dote on them endlessly. Living on the farm, surrounded by hectares of land, my plant nursery seems to just get lost in translation. I can proudly report that all of my nursery is still very much alive. One or two plants narrowly escaped being munched on by a sheep. The ornamental clay frog was less lucky, as he did have to weather a bite or two and nearly got carried away by some animal, but in all, my nursery is still flourishing. The little Yellow Wood saplings eventually outgrew their pots and had to be moved to bigger pots. This was also a good opportunity to plant them into Betty’s Bay soil, to get their roots used to the type of soil they will eventually be planted in. Yellow Woods do not like being replanted, and you can imagine the joy in our household when the trees took to their new pots and soil. They are becoming proper big boys and girls now. In fact, we have discovered that a Mongoose has made my makeshift nursery it’s home. The moles have not been any bother, thanks to Domino who keeps their population numbers down. As for the odd squirrel, well, Domino showed no interest at all.

We have a way, in our family, of giving everything a name. We name our cars, our pet fish…you name it. Excuse the pun. Should you look back on my previous Crawls, you will know that even the Yellow Wood babies have names. So it is, that we have a couple of really bog rocks on our mountain. Some of them, we could dig up. Some we could break into smaller rocks and have built into walls.  But the big ones? Well, they were simply too big to do anything with. So, we named them. Right at the very top of the property, almost right on the boundary line, is one of those very big rocks. We named it Peter, as in the Biblical rock. Then there is also Paul. Paul is not exactly on our piece of property. He is sort of a bit like an ex-Pat, with one foot on our land, and the other on the neighbours. We have Picnic Rock (that is the spot where we used to go picnic in the early days), and there is that big rock in what will eventually be the courtyard, the rock with the big hole in it. Oh, look, I said, we can fill it with water and put fish in it. Colin and I do not see eye to eye on this one. He had in mind filling it with ice and perching a wine bottle in it. There is also the rock with the large patch of moss growing on it. Now this rock can never be named Mick Jagger or Keith Richards. You see, Mick and Keith are Rolling Stones, and rolling stones do not gather moss. I think we will have to call it Pedra Do Meu Amigo, in honour of the other SS.

And so it is, that Colin was on site during the week. He likes to climb up onto Peter the Rock. From up there, he can take the best photos. It is also from up there that he spotted a whale last year. It is from this rock that Colin took a photo of a rainbow. Cape Crawl is a team effort between Colin and I. I mutter on about all sorts, and Colin takes the photos and takes care of the graphics. I really like this photo of the rainbow, do you think we can use it as the feature photo this week, he asked. As I was writing this, I kept thinking: how can I incorporate Colin’s rainbow into all of this? Then it came to me. A rainbow is symbolic of representing inclusivity. It is an all-embracing image of Love and Friendship.

And how apt it is. So, this is to Team SS. May our rainbow be a promise. A pinkie promise, between two friends.