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Overfed Dogs In The Winter Sun
There’s no place like home. I love walking into our home after being away for a while. I love the smell, the familiarity and knowing I’ll be sleeping in my own bed again with all my creature comforts around me. My down pillow which has been around as long as I can remember, I’m sure I had it as...
Trains And Things In Matjiesfontein
“Daar’s ‘n trein, daar’s ‘n trein, daar’s ‘n trein na Matjiesfontein.” So while Precious was firing up the Cruiser I dashed to have a last look at the station at Matjiesfontein. As with most other railway stations in South Africa it was deserted. Not a soul waiting for a train. Still ...
Matjiesfontein Meander
On a train sounding very much like a centipede or shongololo, is how I arrived in Matjiesfontein the last time I was there. It was a circus, one long party all the way from Cape Town to Matjiesfontein and back. The engineer was probably the only person who didn’t have direct doings with...
Courting Candles And Dirt Roads In The Karoo
Our Karoo capers are almost over. A slow meander is what we’ll do today. We'll flip a coin, if it's heads we turn left at the next turn-off if it’s tails we’ll turn right. We’ve got all day. We turned left about a kilometre outside Sutherland on the main road leading back to the N1. According...
Slow Food In Sutherland
Our last day in Sutherland. We relaxed, no rushing, no pressure, and no agenda. Seeing what comes our way was the order of the day. For me it means just a day with the camera, making photographs of spontaneous arbitrary things that happen. Call me macabre but I love visiting graves, you...
Blooming Marvelous
Stepping out into the cold once again one morning I put my nose to the ground and photographed the plants. Hardy is what I’d call them. Nestled amongst and in between rocks, gravel and desert sand they battle to survive the extreme conditions. Very hot in the summer and very cold in the...
Facing Sutherland
After all is said and done, no matter how beautiful a place is or what the towns status is or how grand the houses are, in my opinion, it’s the people who inhabit the space that give it it’s character. Here cats sun themselves outside on the steps and the ancient Jack Russell is tolerated...
Sutherland's Freezing Landscape
Dedicated Photographers are disciplined. They set off at the crack of dawn and wait until the sun has set and the blue hour has passed before switching off their cameras. It’s a fact. Those are the rules for the golden hours. So, instead of spooning in the freezing Karoo after a long...
Saturdays Sutherland And Sandstone
Sadly Karoo towns as we know them are changing. They’re dying a slow death. Sutherland too. Some call it progress, others the state of the nation, a few just shrug, sniff and probably think it’s someone’s just deserves. I think it’s tragic. These once bustling towns, the heart of...
Skitterland Sitterland Sutherland
Everyone needs to spend at least one weekend in the Karoo. The best time to do so is anytime, but, for me, its wintertime, when it’s stark, bitterly cold, dry and brown, when it seems dead and desolate. Hunters are flocking there in their droves now, its hunting season and most...
Lines Reflections And Patterns
Lines, reflections, patterns, colour or the lack of colour was what caught my eye. I was still drinking my morning coffee when I noticed the lines and geometric patterns the forlorn deck chairs were making on the slatted deck. What drew my eye was the rain water which had saturated the wood....
A Heavenly Creation
Three nice things happened: it was still raining, it’s a bank holiday, we could lie in late, all of which beckoned exciting options, we went out for lunch, we admired a porcelain art collection, I had my first Risotto for the season, sipped my favourite wine in a favourite restaurant and I...
Heaven's Winter Landscape
Rain only lifts a farmer’s spirits, those old men who stand on the stoep day in and day out watching the sky. We mere mortals often feel our spirits sagging, songwriters have used the rain as a metaphor in songs for centuries it’s especially relevant when describing love! I prefer thinking...
Vital Attention
After a decade our house needs a good paint and there’s no better time for that than during the winter months in the Cape (you’d think not!) In my current mood I’d like to move away from traditional white, cream or winter white and explore something more avant garde. I loved the bright...
A Ceramic Walk In Hermanus
The best way to move a mountain using a teaspoon is to start one teaspoonful at a time. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this challenge would become so "challenging". One never learns. Life isn’t a smooth path from start to finish now is it? My troubles started about on about the...
Winter Walks in Walker Bay
In life we always have choices; it’s that Jing Jang thing, positive or negative, left or right, yea or nay. After a long relaxed lunch celebrating a friends’ birthday it’s more difficult to make a choice. Either the long walk or succumb to the heavy eyelids, full tummy and lethargic knees,...
Frosty Friday
I used to love Fridays, the last two have been awful. This week it must be the misty conditions, although they create a great atmosphere and I know once the sun burns the mist away it’ll be a lovely windless day this one didn’t auger well. Instead of Fabulous Friday it’s been downgraded to...
A Big Fish In A Small Pond
Today is an EYE CANDY day. Girls I’m sweetening you up for a real surprise! Nothing like Ginger to make the blood boil and sizzle. Our home grown export has returned for a visit to his Mama, who’s as excited as can be and he tells me she spoils him rotten, all he has to do is give her a...
Hot Chick Spicing Up The Kitchen
Winter food to spice up your life, add heat to your menu with colourful spices, bring out the tartness of Citrus with a saucy pudding, go tropical with a pod of Vanilla and pick up an exotic thread of Saffron. Wrap up snugly in rice paper and fry up some Spring Rolls. These multinational...
Autumn Days
Sometimes I miss the woods for the trees, that’s how I felt this morning when I took the drive along the banks of the Breë River from Worcester to Rawsonville. For me, Rawsonville has never appealed aesthetically, it’s a cliquey, conservative, one horse town with a shady past and a bleak...
Just Souping It Up
There’s something to be said for being busy in the kitchen. It’s the heart of a home after all. My neighbour walked past my window this morning and made a statement about the gorgeous aromas wafting on the airwaves from my stove. He was salivating! I said it’s just a normal day, but it...
Odds And Sods In Macro
Our annual winter visitor is back, like last year only the one, a huge grasshopper. I’m always caught unawares by this monstrous critter as he lurks around and in the most unlikely places, this time he was there glaring at me when I opened the patio door, eyeball to eyeball we were,...
Sundays Springfontein And Stanford
On a clear day we can see forever, today is such a day. How lovely to be able to lie in bed with a perfectly brewed cup of Vietnamese coffee and a book. We decide to venture out to Stanford for lunch, a 20 minute drive along the coast, the mountains on our left and miles of water on our...
Turning A Weekend Into A Holiday
An extra day in Hermanus turns a weekend into a short holiday. Thank goodness I pulled myself up by my winter bootstraps, put the windbreaker on and flung my camera around my neck. I took off to do a walk along the Cliff path. It’s a weekend of art in Hermanus and what a delightful surprise...
Mountain Birds Have Voices
My best friend, a wonderful woman, accomplished, clever, creative, funny and very intelligent sometimes loses her mojo, she’s not into pitty partying so it’s a flash in the pan sort of occurrence, but it happens when she least expects it. Her adorable husband folds his arms, stands with...
Bookclubs Are Bookish
I’m not a songwriter nor a lyricist, but I’ve got Anne, Sandra, Jocelyn, Valery, Yvonne, Jeanette, Marthie, Esther, Lindsay, Carina, Allison, Barbara, Emma, Jurie, Marie, Jenny, Pam, Helene, Debbie, Denise, Ann, Alma, Cherry, Maureen, Lorette, Aletta, Will, Elsabe, Riette and Gerda on...
Putting A Colourful Foot Forward
Moody, Mundane; it’s Monday! Blue is the colour of this day, and it’s not for nothing. To cheer ourselves up we gave it a colour. I need colour today. Bright and vibrant colour to give this misty, wet day a lift. Life really is very boring when it’s all wet and grey. For me it’s a...
A Sunday Drive
I'm always spoilt for choice when it comes to selecting my favourite photographs for the day. I am a happy snapper and have an abundance of clicks on my card. Not today. Although my eyes were open and I was constantly aware of my surroundings I just didn't get anything "original". So today...
Wending Ways Through Baines Kloof
It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring. Well not really, it is drizzling, it’s not pouring yet but, the accumulated misty drops on the mountain tops are pouring down the valleys and streams into the rivers which are starting to broil. The cat sitting in the doorway was haughty as...
Frustrating Friday
When there’s a knock on the door at 6h45 in the morning you can be sure the day isn’t going to turn out the way you thought. I was still in my pyjamas when our neighbour banged on the back door. One of two things, someone’s popped his clogs or, yes, it was no 2, someone had broken into...
Hip-Hopping
The days of tutus and pirouettes are long gone, little girls don't stand on pointe and think Margot Fontaine is cool, they're into baggy pants, loose long sleeves and their pumps are Nike, they stomp and jump, jiggle and gyrate and they shake their tiny shoulders to the beat of Reggae as...
Being Contemporary At Dance
It always surprises me how accommodating people are, especially when they’re passionate about what they do. Today was a first for me. Photographing Contemporary Dance. Exhilarating. Energetic. I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a class of Grade 12 pupils. ‘Never try to paint...
Just Horsing About
I doubt my English teacher would believe that I still remember the famous poem Horses of the Camargue, strangely every autumn when the wind blows cold I think of the poem and in my minds’ eye I can see those white horses. The early morning pink clouds were the first sign of the weather turning,...
Changing Seasons
Not much to report today, it’s Sunday. A reflective day. Coffee filtering through a beard is what I saw, one was ginger and the other nicotine stained, both looked impressive and give the wearer a certain air and character which is out of the ordinary. “I have a beard of fog that I wear...
Sports Days Bringing Back Memories
We had cravings for fresh produce from the morning market. En route we noticed a more than usual sighting of Worcester motor cars, one and one made two and we realised it was the annual Inter-School winter sports day at the Hermanus High school. Worcester Gymnasium was in town For 22...
Inter-School Sports Day Worcester Gymnasium vs Hermanus High School
A continuation of just photographs of the U19A Rugby game held on Saturday in Hermanus ...
Hex River Valley Celebrating Autumn
“Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.” ― Ansel Adams. Today God was on my side. Continuing with a family tradition the South African flag was raised on another perfect day. It’s only when I stand surrounded by the ever present mountains that...
If Not Cabbages Then It's A Landscape
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.” ― Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds. Our blue mountains are ringing out tonight. Of cabbages and kings I know nothing but I have pored over black and white photographs made by...
Light Shining On White
“Women think of all colours except the absence of colour. I have said that black has it all. White too. Their beauty is absolute. It is the perfect harmony.” ― Coco Chanel, Chanel Today is a WHITE day. I know I have the right theme for a day when I get butterflies in my tummy. That’s...
Complimenting Colour
“I am always hoping to make a discovery here, to express the feelings of two lovers by a marriage of two complementary colours, their minglings and their oppositions, the mysterious vibrations of kindred tones.” (Vincent van Gogh) Minimalism. Complementary and primary colours. Cool colours...
