Gardens, generators and grizzles.

What is the saying, while the cat's away the mice will play? Well, in my case someone has been 'playing in my garden and to use Jane Austen terminology, I am seriously displeased.

When I left there was lovely, lush, leafy green to hide the red brick wall and the hideous razor wire and I returned to find mature shrubs cut back, decapitated actually, down to about six inches off the ground.

This is not pruning, which is how Fred the gardener explained it to me.... not that he was responsible.... this is destruction. I have called the gardening company which looks after the complex and asked them to come and explain to me why my garden has been reduced to shreds and I am now staring at red brick and razor wire instead of peaceful green?

Thank God for the enormous avocado tree which dominates the lawn and distracts somewhat from the paucity of foliage which I now face.

I know that in many ways it is something of a useless exercise but I have to try. They did this last year, although actually, not as badly and I asked them to talk to me first before embarking on the slash and murder of my plants. Fat chance!

Organising anything in Africa is next to impossible but I cannot look at what has been done to my garden and do nothing. At least there will be a conversation which, even if it achieves nothing, will make me feel better. I know it amounts to a grizzle but that's really the only satisfaction I am likely to get so I may as well go for it.

It is, as always, a salutary reminder that certainty is an illusion and change is constant. The garden will grow and perhaps my lesson is to learn to look at stark reality, no matter how unpleasant it may be. I think I am a bit lessoned out of late. I am beginning to understand why some people disappear into sports, soaps and anything which prevents too much pondering on the insanities and frustrations of life. Perhaps after all that is the true lesson of Africa!

However, beyond the brutalised garden all looks good. Limited and Andrew looked delighted to have us back... there is no doubt the food is better when I am around and there is more of it, but I also think that they get a bit bored when we are away and I have been gone for two months and Greg for most of that time. Our Thai neighbours have also been away and our new neighbour, Malawian born Indian gentleman who lives in London has still not appeared so the house across the way looks sad and empty still.

We have been back two days and flew straight through from Perth with nearly 12 hours Perth to Johannesburg; a five hour stopover which we sensibly spent in a transit hotel and then two hours to Lilongwe. It is only six hours behind Perth so adjusting to local time is pretty easy and after two nights sleeping through we are both feeling that we are back in Malawi time.... probably on all counts.

I was reminded of the vagaries of life in Africa yesterday when we lost power in the morning and I could not get the generator to stay on and so I was chasing electricians to see what was happening.

I did get surprisingly fast results with them arriving within hours although at this point we do not know why the Genset cannot cope with oven hotplates and oven at the same time when it did so happily before I left.... change is a constant in this part of the world... but I am beginning to wonder if a final solution might be a new oven which is more energy efficient. Apparently there is a spare one which was ordered for the mine site and so if we bring that down from Karonga we might finally have what we set out to get nine months ago... a permanently functioning oven and stove-top courtesy of our very large, very noisy and costly generator.

But such things are minor and after quite some time living out of suitcases it is wonderful to have something approximating a normal life and a decent bed in which to sleep. Getting back to a quiet and relatively ordinary life is the goal.... a bit of dullness will go a long way!

Things have not been dull in Malawi however with riots some weeks ago owing to fuel shortages, new taxes and higher costs and the President has only just appointed a new government after getting rid of all of his ministers a fortnight ago. Let's hope, for the sake of Malawians, that things begin to work better than they have been. 

N.B. Roderick and Charles who are responsible for the gardening teams sent by the nursery have just been and apologised profusely saying this is not pruning this is destruction and they will be more careful next time. Here's hoping. Even they could not disagree with my assessment that the bushes had been not so much cut back as cut down. Perhaps it is part of the psyche here to cut back hard.... then again, I do think men in general have a different approach to pruning than women. For women it is more likely to be a 'less is more' approach and for men, a 'more is more' approach. Slash and burn no doubt has a genetic memory in men more than it does in women and perhaps it is enough to hold a 'weapon' in their hands to want to use it!