A Voice, Brains And Books
Dolly Parton, C.S. Lewis and Nelson Mandela had one thing in common. Rather diverse characters I’d say, but, for their love of Children, Books, stories and getting children to read. I firmly believe that our saving grace is education. To read must be the greatest gift one can bestow upon a...
My Ten Cents Worth
Our friends' enquiry about the weather in Zimbabwe got the ball rolling rather unexpectedly. We were on our way to Mana Pools for the summer holidays when I put a spanner in the works. I like glamping. Sadly a wet tent doesn’t do it for me. I’ve got the (wet) T shirt to prove it. Picture...
Resolution, Revolution Or Right On From Where We Left Off
The choice is always ours. New years have come and gone a few dozen times in my life, some good, some indifferent and some jolly awful. My New Years' resolutions have been a fickle affair, being of the opinion that if we try and don’t succeed this time we can start all over again in 365...
Finishing In A Flurry
Things are tight in this house. We have a couple of hours left to do all the packing. This year has gone from 0-365 in a flash, yet, we’ve achieved much. Our country has reached all-time lows and surprisingly we’ve become more unified, determined and resolute about our future, our freedom and...
If A Cobra Can Spit So Can I
That’s the extent of my frustration. If a gadget works perfectly one minute why not the next? Sending a Kodak film to the lab was so much easier, let them sit with all the hassles. What’s more if you went to Clicks you didn’t even have to take all the duds. My card reader has just died a...
Collywobbles On A Monday
is what I’m going to have. Unless I stop sneaking into the kitchen to grab a handful of sun kissed apricots.They’re sweet and tangy with the rosiest cheeks. As I brush the furriness across my lips I must confess I imagine my Grandson’s bottom, those plump, sweet cheeks. The juices run down...
Juanita Conchita Margarita
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for sure. What could’ve turned into a “slit my wrist” moment became a re-kindling of a friendship sorely missed. My hopes were restored and my budget stretched like old garter elastic. Every time I walk into her home I gasp, by the time I get to...
Posh Nosh On A Friday In November
To stop me smoking in the tickey box (phone booth) my Mom dangled the “once you’ve written your Matric you can do as you please” carrot. It didn’t work. But, what I did do once I was my own boss was have a really large slab of my Mom's delicious Chocolate Cake for Breakfast. I did it...
Of Times Gone By - Kleinplasie Farm Museum
My afternoon ends with a monkeys wedding, the drops are very small, more like a drizzle, but irresistible. Couldn’t really call the wet spot on the cement porch next door a puddle, but I did it, my first umbrella shot for the winter. I do believe it's in sympathy with the lousy Bridge hands I...
Doing A Street Beat
It’s a strange, strange world we live in Master Jack, it’s a very strange world and I’ll never go back. Don’t take my word on lyrics; I make them up all the time. It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us.”...
October November A Weekend To Remember
My job is opening farm gates, there were 18, this time I didn't have to open any.That pleased me. It delighted me to know our Swallows had returned earlier this week. Catching up takes time, unfolding and laying out the tales needs time and space. It's best to do so somewhere quiet...
Bargains Budgets And Builders
Those three things have nothing in common and could jeopardize a relationship especially a marriage. Renovating a house doesn't happen every day. One needs a decade to recover, to build up resilience for the next one or for the memories to fade. The pain of childbirth fades sooner. And so it...
A Spring Celebration In The Nuy Valley
The evening was perfect, balmy, windless with a promise of summer. Perfectly groomed gardens all around us as we mingled on the manicured lawns under the stars at Leipzig, right here on our doorstep in the Nuy Valley a mere 10 or so kilometres from Worcester. This was a celebration of good...
Monday Musings And Trip Advising
A week ago one of the children asked me how old I felt, without missing a beat I said 18. We must never get wiser with age, just a little more careful, then, we're sure to keep our freespirit alive. This morning while spinning I forced myself to stop looking at the very slow tick of the clock...
Seeing Is Believing
I need to see a place with my eyes before I believe a word anyone says about it. It may well be beautiful, gracious, modern or old but without experiencing it's soul it's really quite dead. I need to know my foot prints were left in that place. One day I may return, differently than the...
Treading Lightly On The Earth
Sometimes one meets a person who makes the right impression. I did, he's a strange man, quiet, introspective, solitary, a lot like the animals he loves. At first he is also quietly arrogant and a snob. He's a free spirit and born free, he played his guitar in pubs during the seventies,...
First Things First
I'm back! After months of being away I feel like the new girl on the Blog. Remember the anxiety one experienced after a long school holiday, that knot in the tummy before going to a new Grade? I have it again, how quickly our confidence wanes. These past few months have been...
Being An Odd Cod
Markets are great, but I always feel like an odd Cod, like a fish out of water. Could be the crowds, the bustling, jostling for position at the market stall or just the general jolly atmosphere that gets to me. I like the predictability of shopping at my local supermarket, where I listen...
If There's A Republic It's In Hout Bay
It’s that time of year again. If you live in the Cape you'd migrate to warmer climes in July, we normally would too, but we’ve opted to spend time here for a change. There’s not a soul about, everyone’s gone to Botswana, Namibia, Natal, the Kruger National Park or to Europe, Asia and if you’re...
Balmy Days In The Mother Of All Cities
What could be nicer than a day spent in our beautiful Mother city? For one, the temperatures are at least 10˚C warmer there and the skies are blue. I had one or two requests, some shopping to do, but mostly this was a day to relax and take in some of the sights. Of course this challenge...
Stepping Up For Arachnids
When I became a mother I also became a nurse, teacher, psychologist, handmaiden, idiot and lover of all things creepy. I was a secret keeper, housekeeper, goggakeeper, gatekeeper and promisekeeper too. I became fearless when it came to defending my children but, I have never overcome my fear...
Whooping For A Hoopoe
Whoop-whoop. Our resident African Hoopoe is back. He’s up to his old tricks and I’m thrilled. Today I was ready for him. He makes his daily appearance at about 10H00 every morning and nothing deters him. My contributions today are just him. He has all my attention, exclusively. While clacks...
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...