16/07/2026
This post is dedicated to our wonderful Dad, Michael Antrobus.
Born in Cradock in 1939, a farmer, war child, and a life-long friend to Guy. He supported mom, Sandra Antrobus throughout her journey founding and building our business Die Tuishuise and Victoria Manor.
‘Karoo Town 1939′ From Guy Butler's collection: ‘A Stranger to Europe’.
In a region of thunderstorm and drought,
Under an agate sky,
Where red sand whirl-winds wander through the summer,
Or thunder grows intimate with the plain, and rain
Is a great experience like birth or wonder:
By the half-dry river
The village is strung like a bead of life on the rail,
Along whose thread at intervals each day
Cones of smoke move north and south, are blown
By the prevailing winds below the clouds
That redden the sundown and the dawn.
Here the market price of wool
Comes second only to the acts of God:
Here climate integrates the landsman with his soil
And life moves on to the dictates of the season.
It seems that farmers discussing the weather,
Arguing prices round the cattle pens,
Might well repeat the ritual
On the last stock-fair in time.
In the magnesium light of summer,
Behind the colours comes the column
With solemn tread to the thud of the drummer,
Six foot tall, in a leopard skin.
The call to arms!
The cry for recruits!
Europe asserts
Her infallible remote control,
Demands decisions
From us among our wool and lucerne bales,
Among our memories of hard rebellions and wars.
Drawing the entire village in its wake,
The catalysing sight and sound move on,
Past shutters closed against the noon
And bluegums drooping in the heat,
Crystallising loyalties, hardening hates
Of a village lost in the plain, unknown
To the gods of London or Berlin.
The trumpets bay in unison
Imperative demands upon our lives.
Echoes ricochet between hot white-washed walls,
Divide
The father from the son,
The child from the home,
Bring
The parting kiss,
Death in the desert –
But cannot shake the rockstill shadows of the hills
Obeying remote instructions from the sun alone.
Thanks to our special friend Chris Marais for this beautiful picture of our parents on our beloved farm Longacre, the inspiration behind it all...
