Red Admiral

We have a late flight to Cape Town tonight so it gave me the day to do countless loads of laundry - bedding, towels, clothes - so everything is fresh and clean on our departure and thankfully when we come home again I don't have to do it then. 

It has been cloudy today with some sunshine, but it has felt very warm, in fact today felt hotter than the previous two sunny days. I enjoyed a long walk with Xena in the woods this morning. She definitely knows something is up, and is sticking to me like glue - they are not called velcro dogs for nothing! When I walk her she follows at my heel so well, I have never really trained her to walk to heel but she just does it. In fact she is the easiest dog we have ever had, very intelligent and therefore easy to train. Today she was sticking to my heel so much I nearly tripped over her a couple of times!

I was taking photos in my garden of the agapanthus and suddenly there was a red admiral who settled on one of the flowers - I have never seen a red admiral around here before - I know they are common but we don't get them in my garden - so I was very excited to get this photo of it.

I then spent hours packing - yes hours! I lay everything out that I wish to pack, after planning my wardrobe for the next two weeks - then I look at it again and as I pack I remove items so that I reduce what I am taking. I use packing cubes and it really helps to keep my suitcase organised which is important as we are moving around on this trip to four different locations.

The violence in Cape Town has now calmed down as an agreement has been reached with the taxi drivers - whew! My nephew who lives there confirmed this as did the travel agent so we feel more relaxed about that now.

We are departing home at 7pm, our flight is only at 10.25pm which is very late but has allowed those working to finish their working week. It is an 11 hr 40 minutes flight to Cape Town so we will only be arriving at the hotel around lunchtime. Tomorrow night we are having dinner with my nephew and his family at the hotel, we have not yet met his young daughter and the boys have not seen their cousin for many, many years. 

I will try to keep up with journals when I can but we have a very busy schedule over the next few days in Cape Town so I won't have much spare time. We have a driver with a larger vehicle to accommodate all seven of us and have booked outings every day, so it will be a busy time.

Now its fingers crossed that the BA flight is not delayed and all goes well....