Walks the rows with a torch at 3 a.m. when frost is forecast.
Keeps the frost book on the kitchen windowsill.
Cooks potjiekos for the pickers on the last night of harvest.
What she hopes to read
A harvest with no emergencies.
Someone to share the first glass from the south slope.
What she will not put on paper
Will not discuss the price of wine or the farm's debts.
Does not take the baboons' side.
How she writes
Opens every letter with the weather and the state of the vines, as if the vines were relatives. Short sentences until the end, where one long tender one slips out. Uses Afrikaans words without translation.
Where the letters stand
Your letter arrived with the first frost warning and she read it standing in the rows.
She has begun to include you in the harvest report.
Letterhead
Hair
sandy blonde long braid
Eyes
green-blue
Height
5'8"
Build
strong
Away from the page
frost books, potjiekos, old chenin vines, stoep sunsets, baboon grievances
