The Silk Road detour

The 'Silver Mine' above Pniel in the Cape was driven into the Simonsberg in the 1740's. At that time the Dutch East India Company was running short of gold and silver, the only thing the traders of the Spice Islands or India would accept. After all, apart from wool, maybe, they produced better quality materials and goods, silks and pottery, for example, than the west could provide. That way of doing business predated even the Portuguese. Initially, the Arab traders had set up a triangle of trade which included gold from Greater Zimbabwe, in itself a trading post for gold and, reportedly, tin and copper, from sub Saharan Africa. Following the details of that trade led me to East Africa and a place called Kilwa in Tanganyika.

The picture is of the Simonsberg with its Cape finebos cover and the views of the Dwarse River Valley from there are magnificent.

www.sullatoberdalton.com

The Snow Queen

The skiing season is at its end but I'm sure some have tried and found it far from the blissful exercise it looks on TV. My wife tried it but decided it wasn't for her. I'm sure she would have felt a strong kinship with the narrator of the story linked to this blog, which was originally called, The Snow Queen and is included as one of the short stories in Bees in my Bonnet.

http://sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober/short-stories/the-spirit-of-skiing

The Lady in Pink

I've written quite a bit about Pniel. It's between Stellenbosch and Franschoek. Just be very careful of you go along that road in October. Linda warned me that a lady dressed in pink walks across the road during that month. According to Linda, she had already caused two deaths by drivers trying to avoid her. When the police arrived, both victims managed to whisper they had crashed because they tried to avoid the lady in pink. Who she is, where she came from and how she chooses her victims is a mystery.
Unfortunately, I don't have an image of the lady and one of me will have to do.

www.sullatoberdalton.com

The Spy in Cairndhu

In WW2, although we saw the glow of the fires burning in Clydebank, more than thirty miles away our village, being in the country, was little troubled beyond rationing and soldiers billeted in the castle grounds. That doesn't mean there was no excitement. Over to You is based on an actual sequence of events following the discovery of a spy or fifth columnist in our midst. The picture is of the plantation where the action took place and from that it will be appreciated the difficulty that faced the intelligence officers in the pursuance of their duties.

http://sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober/short-stories/over-to-you/

Best in Show

One of the things that I remembered from visits to Pniel was the Flower Show in the village I grew up in, which in turn led to the book Best in Show. My father had been a keen chrysanthemum grower and, when I mentioned that, Linda insisted I meet with the local flower show competitors. We had a good chat about the tricks otherwise honest men tried when the prize of Best in show was at stake. It was the wrong time of the year for blooms or harvesting anything but I was shown pictures of some of the winning exhibits. The pumpkins were enormous and it reminded me of how much colour village life had added to my living. The close contact that is forced on people in a village leads to mixtures of such a variety of characters that is unnecessary on a city where one can pick and choose to socialise with. I suppose that's why I have enjoyed writing about villages and country folk. I can bring the most unlikely people together.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/books

A dogs life

Granny Clarke, who was a great character, appears here and there and in different guises in my books. The first one to be written included her dog, Ruff, an independent soul, and he too has slunk into a story now and then. My first real involvement with him taught me to be wary of his sense of humour. I suppose that should really be sense of honour because he had a highly developed code of behaviour.

http://sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober/short-stories/ruff-times-in-a-dogs-life/

The village Apartheid forgot

I've mentioned the type of people in Pniel and explained their racial mixture was ambitious members of the Dutch East India company and uncooperative merchants in Indonesia, exiled for their opposition to the Dutch company. Because of that heritage, they were an economically active group and developed businesses buying fruit from farmers and selling it in the Cape Town market. When Apartheid was introduced they were, being non-white banned from the market place and had to found other markets. They turned to the country areas to the east and north, where fruit and fresh vegetable were treats, if not luxuries and made fortunes. With their profits, being community minded, they built their own reservoir and several other facilities.
The picture is a King Protea in the Pniel church garden.

www.sullatoberdalton.com