You are invited to a Christening, please bring champagne!

First of all, a note that I started African images #2 on Sunday, and have been steadily copying old photos and battling the vagaries of Blogger till now, so do not be fooled by the date, the Sunday post is in fact a brand spanking new Tuesday post.

Since I surprisingly find I have spare time on my hands today, there are in fact 2 Tuesday posts. Those who have been following the saga of the nameless one will be delighted to hear that the old duck has a name, and a lovely poetic one at that, with a great story behind it. Before we get to that, here are a few of the latest developments.....

The new pillars start rising from the ashes of the old wall....

....Xolisa painted the timber, so we can start constructing the panels for the front wall.

...and Ethan made a new friend (a crazy dog who climbs onto the garage roof from next door, then gallops all over the roof of the house, which is a tad disconcerting at first!) Good from a security point of view though, I mean who expects to meet a watchdog on the roof?!!

Right, to the Christening.....

PO has decided to call the house Croick Cottage. ( My trusty Scottish tutor gave this explanation of the pronounciation..."Ok the way to say it is croy-ch the ch is like a soft 'g' in Afrikaans. Kinda back of the throat soft Scottish ch as in loch.")

Here is how it came about....

1 member of PO is of Scottish descent, a delightful soul with a wicked sense of humour and the heart of a poet!

They decided to name the house after her favourite place at home in Scotland. It is a church in the middle of no-where. During the highland clearances, when the land owners cleared the crofters (small local farmers) off the land and off to America, against their will, because they believed that they would make more money from covering the Highlands with sheep, the people were shipped down from the mountains to sleep at the church before they were sent to America. They were very simple quiet farmers and they took refuge in the yard amongst the stones. Not knowing what was happening of if they would ever see family and friends again, they scored messages in the glass windows. It is so far off the beaten track that it's always deserted but if you go and read the messages it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. PO decided to name their house after it because they like the connection to travellers, home and the highlands, the somewhat spiritual aspect and that it is such a beautiful place.

Cool hey? So, pop the champagne corks, lets welcome Croick Cottage into the family!