As the weather cools and the leaves change their hue, the vines generously offer their harvest. Driving through the Overberg at this time is a visual delight.

The local wine producers have some unusual solutions to their daily challenges. At the end of a long hard year at Stanford Hills Estate, workers announced the coming harvest in a unique and novel way - with vuvuzelas! During the season, they had used the noisy trumpets to scare off baboons and birds. This year will be the first year of production of Shiraz, and the small harvest will be stomped by foot. Talk about putting your foot down!

On the other side of Stanford, driving along the R326 in the early hours of the morning, you may be startled to see a strange contraption with lights ablaze in the vineyards. This was Raka Wines innovative solution to their harvest schedule. They had to pick earlier than usual, because of the warm summer, and dry season.  They wanted to get the grapes to the cellar while still cool, so they made a plan to pick at night. The young Dreyers mounted a generator and light bulbs on tuna-poles on the arms of one of the farm’s tractor-drawn sprayers, creating a ‘lightbug’ with which to harvest.

We look forward to enjoying the fruits of their labours. Let’s raise a glass to the Stanford wine producers!

20 days from now, South Africans will watch with pride as their  players run onto the pitch at the Soccer City Stadium for the opening game against Mexico - and the Vuvus will go wild!

You may have a good knowledge of the intricacies of the game, and be tempted to argue with the ref’s whistle from your privileged position on the couch, but how much do you know of the history of the Beautiful Game?

Did you know that Soccer was first played in Johannesburg in 1888,  two years after gold was found on the reef?   Although very competitive, it was mostly amateur soccer.

• In 1896 Indian Football Clubs united to form the Indian Football Association.
• 1937 – Orlando Pirates, 1947 – Moroka Swallows, 1971 – Kaizer Motaung’s All-Star XI became Kaizer Chiefs.
• In 1958 the South African Bantu Football Association affiliated with FASA and FIFA and subsequently recognised FASA as the sole governing body of soccer in South Africa.
• In 1959 Orlando Stadium in Soweto opened.
• In 1965 Moroka Swallows won their first national championship in the South African Soccer League.
• In 1983 Jomo Sono bought Highlands Park, a historically white club and renamed it Jomo Cosmos.
• In 1985 the National Soccer League (NSL) was launched.
• In 1989 the First National Bank Stadium (Soccer City) with a capacity of 80 000 opened at Nasrec.
• In 1991, four historically divided and entirely separate bodies united to form the non-racial South African Football Association (SAFA) in Durban.
• 1990 SAFA was accepted back into FIFA.   Domestic soccer was re-organised along non-racial lines at last.
• In July 1992 South Africa re-joined international football by hosting the first fully representative international soccer match at King’s Park Stadium in Durban.   The South African team (dubbed Bafana Bafana – the boys), defeated Cameroon 1-nil.
• Three years later Orlando Pirates won the African Champion’s Cup.
• The following year SA hosted the African Cup of Nations and the national team became champions of Africa after beating Tunisia 2-nil at the FNB Stadium.   The Premier Soccer League was launched the same year.
• In 1997 South Africa qualified for the 1998 World Cup with a 1-nil victory over Congo at the FNB Stadium, but the team lost in the first round of the World Cup in France the next year.
• On 15 May 2004 South Africa won the bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
• In June 2009, South Africa successfully hosted the Confederations  Cup

Let celebrate being part of history, and embrace with pride,  our national team.

Good luck Bafana Bafana!