Today is cold wet and windy…….and I LOVE IT!!! This is my best kind of weather (I know, I know, further signs of eccentricity….) and my garden is loving it too, since winter was unusually mild and dry this year.
I had fun playing around with the flash, and depth of field to get the different moods of these images…
The sea was really wild and miserable looking yesterday, and there was snow inland on the Lootsberg pass near Graaff Reinet.It started with these wonderful brooding clouds at sunrise, and just kept getting better.
Although I suspect this poor art student making his way against the howling wind and rain to the college across the park didn't share my enthusiasm!
Arty-Farties
Last night we went to another opening of an art exhibition,
the two nearby galleries were looking quite picturesque in the early evening light. This is EPSAC, where I currently have some work on show…. See more about it at Max’s blog. 
And this is the Cuyler street gallery, set in a quaint old corrugated iron and wood cottage built in the earliest days of Port Elizabeth. It is run by a delightful lady called Tossie Theron (by the way I know Americans call actress Charlize Theron Their-on but it is actually pronounced terr-on with the emphasis on the second syllable.)
Tossie is married to a professor of Architecture who has a particular interest in the historic buildings of Port Elizabeth, and has written some very useful books on the subject, while Tossie has published a guide to Eastern Cape Artists, and is busy with a new one at the moment. She has been a great mentor and patron to many Eastern Cape artists, and we owe her a lot.
Phantom Iceberg?
One thing I am PASSIONATE about is icebergs… Antarctica is my dream destination for a holiday, and I lap up any literature I can find about yachtsmen travelling the icy higher latitudes, and pictures of icebergs and glaciers have me practically howling at the moon. (It is something about the translucent blues and how light plays through the ice that does it for me…. So I guess no surprise that my favourite stone is the Black Australian opal, followed by moonstone and Labradorite, anything with that sort of play of light on blues, just breathtaking!) I can spend hours haunting websites that feature photos of ice formations.
So, having said that, there has been huge excitement chez-farty, because yesterday it was reported that a gigantic 25m high iceberg was spotted by a fishing boat, about 35 nautical miles South West of Cape St Francis, an unheard of phenomenon in these warm latitudes! Well, I was immediately on high alert, and while local news agencies scrambled for info and confirmation, I was already checking out the possibility of chartering a plane and getting my son (handy having a pet pilot in the family) to take us out there to photograph it. My bubble soon burst, though, because it would only be safe to go out that far in a twin engine plane, which is hectically expensive to hire, and it would take about 2 and a half hours to do the round trip….. just too much to spend on an impulsive whim, so that was that.
My next bright idea was to get hold of the guy who Max and Ian went fishing with last weekend (read about the infamous chumming incident over at the MaX Files, hee hee!!) They sometimes go as far as 85 miles out in search of Tuna, but again, costs would be prohibitive. SIGH!
Anyway, so far, there have been no further sightings, and the air force plane sent out yesterday came up blank, so there is now speculation on the local radio station that perhaps the fishermen who reported it were smoking particularly strong cigarettes!! Apparently they are still en route to Mossel Bay, and have a photo taken on a mobile phone camera, but they will only arrive on Friday, so I just have to be patient I guess….
But, rest assured, if it does turn out to be true, the wheeler-dealing will start up again as I figure out a way to go and see it for myself!! ……..watch this space!
(gratuitous iceberg pics, lifted off the web, because I can’t resist any excuse to enjoy those wonderful colours!)
One thing I am PASSIONATE about is icebergs… Antarctica is my dream destination for a holiday, and I lap up any literature I can find about yachtsmen travelling the icy higher latitudes, and pictures of icebergs and glaciers have me practically howling at the moon. (It is something about the translucent blues and how light plays through the ice that does it for me…. So I guess no surprise that my favourite stone is the Black Australian opal, followed by moonstone and Labradorite, anything with that sort of play of light on blues, just breathtaking!) I can spend hours haunting websites that feature photos of ice formations.
So, having said that, there has been huge excitement chez-farty, because yesterday it was reported that a gigantic 25m high iceberg was spotted by a fishing boat, about 35 nautical miles South West of Cape St Francis, an unheard of phenomenon in these warm latitudes! Well, I was immediately on high alert, and while local news agencies scrambled for info and confirmation, I was already checking out the possibility of chartering a plane and getting my son (handy having a pet pilot in the family) to take us out there to photograph it. My bubble soon burst, though, because it would only be safe to go out that far in a twin engine plane, which is hectically expensive to hire, and it would take about 2 and a half hours to do the round trip….. just too much to spend on an impulsive whim, so that was that.
My next bright idea was to get hold of the guy who Max and Ian went fishing with last weekend (read about the infamous chumming incident over at the MaX Files, hee hee!!) They sometimes go as far as 85 miles out in search of Tuna, but again, costs would be prohibitive. SIGH!
Anyway, so far, there have been no further sightings, and the air force plane sent out yesterday came up blank, so there is now speculation on the local radio station that perhaps the fishermen who reported it were smoking particularly strong cigarettes!! Apparently they are still en route to Mossel Bay, and have a photo taken on a mobile phone camera, but they will only arrive on Friday, so I just have to be patient I guess….
But, rest assured, if it does turn out to be true, the wheeler-dealing will start up again as I figure out a way to go and see it for myself!! ……..watch this space!
(gratuitous iceberg pics, lifted off the web, because I can’t resist any excuse to enjoy those wonderful colours!)
Finally, an appeal to look out for this CD for me. It was one of my absolute favourites, one of those compilation cheapies, and was in my car when my CD shuttle was stolen a couple of years ago, so the b@$*&%ds took it too. I have hunted town and tried ordering it but it is out of stock. If you see it, please let me know, and if it is not totally insanely priced, I will happily pay for it and postage!
4 comments:
Those iceberg photos took my breath away :o)
Rx
Suzi-k we are not going to charter a ship or a plane to look for that iceberg..............ho hum...... famous last words? We will have to wait and see
Hi Suzi-k,
Last year a large iceberg floated right up the South Island of NZ. Helicopters took some folk out to it and they even sheared( shore ) a famous very woolley sheep out there which was televised.the breg eventually got smaller and smaller as Summer came on. Apparently the last time one was seen off NZ was 31 years ago.
ali, interesting, but poor sheep!! Although i am excited about the chance of seeing it, I must admit it is very disturbing, because these are obvious signs of the breakup of Antarctica's ice shelf, which is really devastating. On the up side, maybe soon, instead of living in a cottage on a hilltop overlooking the sea, we will be in a beach cottage!
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