We had a full day today. Catherine was at daycare today. Mark went to both cricket and swimming after school. Tracy went shopping and did some research. And, I was at Stellenbosch all day.
One of the things we're learning, now that we have responsibility for a pool, is that crud in the air is an annoyance not only to the lungs but also to the swimming water. Our pool water is full of small black specks of ash from the fires. It seems like the strong winds must have kicked up all the soot and deposited it in our backyard!
Because the fires are essentially done at this point, we decided to drain the pool tonight and refill with some fresh water. We'll use the cover that Mark discovered in the garage henceforth.
While we were at the back working on this project, Catherine was watering the flowers and playing in the faucet. You can see two pictures of the happy child at the right.
A quick funny story about Catherine. There is a program called "Play Ball" at her daycare where some people from outside do athletic games with the children. Apparently, they do rhyming chants, too, because Catherine was saying
"Play Ball, Play Ball
rar, rar, rar!
Play Ball, Play Ball
I'm a stah!"
This is the first we've heard of the South African English accent from either child. The funny part is that it doesn't really count: we don't think she knows that "stah" is really "star!" She just likes the chant, even if it doesn't rhyme.
--Matt