Arty Fartying Around

Welcome to our world, Eva Belle.

2010-03-14T21:25:00.000+02:00

I was busy uploading recent pix in my last post, but my computer and I both ran out of steam, so the post ended somewhat abruptly! And I never got to the really cool bit of recent family history, which is the arrival of grandchild no 4 and graddaughter no2, Eva Belle Hoppe.

2 days old

I hope life gets a bit more exciting as i get older!

Welcome little lady (she has already earned the nickname "Eva the Diva" due to her demanding night time antics!) we look forward to watching you grow and getting to know you, even if it will be in dribs and drabs.

Howdy Strangers

2010-03-12T03:52:00.000+02:00

I am sitting here in the middle of the night, unable to sleep because of a million loose ends jangling in my mind... and decided to visit my blog. How weird is that... as I typed it I realise that it describes exactly how it feels, like I am a guest here, a stranger popping in to visit! I used to post daily, long rambling posts full of pictures, thoughts, a journal of my life, travels and ideas. I met some wonderful people around the world, and at one stage it felt that I was closer and more in touch with some of my cyber friends than with most people in my "real" life.

I hope to save this blog for posterity, who knows, maybe one day the great, great grandchildren will be surfing the web (or whatever its replacement is by then!) and say "wow, that old bird was really into a lot of varied stuff!" But from now on it will probably be, at best, an occasional update for the record books. I feel bad that I can no longer spend the time i used to, visiting, commenting, soaking up fabulous facts and photos from around the planet, and also sharing some close friendship along the way. I still find myself wondering "how old so-and- so" is getting on, or did "what's-her-name" ever solve the issue we were discussing...

One reason for the decline in my blogging was taking on way too many committments simultaneously, and finding real life rudely intruding on my cyber life. I almost reached burnout point a few times last year, and writing a blog post, instead of being recreational fun, became an ordeal of trying to wade through the exhausted cotton wool left in my brain after punishing days of decision making and networking. I would fish around in my brain to find something worthwhile to write, and come up empty.

Another reason was utter frustration with blogger, I see it is now sorted, but at that time i was having huge issues uploading photos, and simultaneously discovered that I could quickly upload big bunches of photos on facebook. So I found myself spending more time there and less here... until i just got out of the habit of coming here.

I said to Max-E just the other day that, with the Chairmanship of the local Community Art Centre, I feel like a vampire has attached itself to my neck and is sucking the life out of me. It has been a tough but rewarding year at the helm, taking something that was basically ticking along, dead in the water, turning it around, revving up the engines and getting it going in a fresh direction. it has involved an enormous amount of relationship building, networking and risk taking, and it has paid off handsomely.

The Society is growing at an amazing rate, we are becoming financially viable for the first time in years, and most important, because of this, we are finally able to start making a real impact on the working lives of local artists. We are currently running a New Signatures exhibition, and the standard of work from a variety of emerging artists was so high that the University has agreed to sponsor Exhibitions for 6 winners!

However, it has also had its downside. At the end of last year we discovered that the Gallery Administrator had been stealing from us over the last few years, and we had to fire her. That in itself was traumatic, no-one wants to be in a position to fire a lonely old woman who, no matter how annoying, rude, abrasive or dishonest she might be, is still a sad human being who will end up struggling to find another job and place to stay... However a lot of the sympathy has evaporated in the succeeding months of wading through the admin nightmare she left behind, by stealing the original receipt and invoice books to cover her tracks, and uncovering the extent of her lies and theft.

As she was the only paid employee, and the Society is run by volunteers, not everone has been able to commit to the time needed to build and maintain momentum, and a huge amount of admin has landed on my shoulders. (Very uncomfortably, I might add, I loathe admin and bean counting!) Before you get the impression that I see myself as a victim in all this, let me hasten to add that I am fully aware that we make our own choices, and the vampire is sucking me dry because I am allowing it to do so!) It just seemed such a shame to have worked so hard to turn the place around, and then let it all go down the tubes because of one selfish old woman. The task of getting back on an even keel has been larger than expected, but we are almost there, and just in time too.

We heard this week that a huge funding grant has come through, and we are finally in a position to impliment a lot of the community-based projects that were previously just part of a long wish list. This is going to take even more time and energy, and I would be lying if i said i wasn't a bit afraid of burning out in the process of putting structures in place to handle it... but all year things have been falling into place as they needed to, the right people have come along to fill gaps as they opened, so I have no doubt this will continue. And if we can make a meaningful difference in the lives of local artists, it will all be worth it.

So this long and navel-gazing preamble is to explain the gap in this blog, and what has been going on in the interim.

So here, in no particular order, are some photos from the last few months....

My friend Esme and I, along with 2 other artists, held an exhibition called 4 women in November. One of the things we did was to paint in the gallery during the show, which went down very well with the visitors.

we also attended a fab 4 day art workshop led by Greg Kerr, and although it caused a bit of stress due to the timing, which coincided with our exhibition, it proved to be a really worthwhile exercise, and we both came away having learned a lot!

My friend Julie and I took a day to spoil ourselves at our favourite spa, Casa Mia in Addo, and the timing was perfect because my favourite trees, her avenue of jacarandas, were in full bloom.

SCARY!!! (But feels fab!)

Max-E and I also went to Jeffries Bay for a Karen Zoid concert, love her music and sense of humour.

In October we had a visit from the Sudan kids, which was great. it was such a good opportunity to get to know miss Millie, who had turned into a real little person with a definite mind of her own.

We had some fun outings to the beach, game parks etc.

In December we went up to Lesotho to visit the West family, who live in a remote rural village. It was great catching up with them, and my sister and b-i-l at the same time.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American Friends....

2009-11-26T22:12:00.000+02:00

And here is a recipe for using up all that leftover turkey!

remove skin and break cold turkey meat into small pieces.
Sauce:
12.5 ml oil
1 small onion, chopped
12.5 ml curry powder
125 ml chicken stock
5 ml tomato paste (I often substitute tomato sauce)
12.5ml lemon juice
25 ml sweet chutney
250ml mayonnaise
Heat oil and fry onion until transparent. Add curry powder and cook slightly. Add stock, tomato paste, lemon juice and chutney. Cook until the mixture boils and simmer for 3-5 minutes.Allow mixture to cool and then stir in mayonnaise and turkey pieces.

If you like, you can bling it up a bit by adding chopped canned peaches or fresh mango, which go very well with the mild curry and add an interesting sweet and sour element.

Here's one for all you autophiles (if that's a word!)

2009-09-05T19:36:00.000+02:00

We took Ethan on a visit to the VW Auto Pavilion today. It is a really amazing place to go if you are into cars, and even more so if you grew up a few decades ago and have fond memories of the beetles and Kombis that were such a part of that era.

Two 1952 models stand together!

Ethan was fascinated by this safari beetle hanging over the doorway, but did not trust it not to fall on his head!

Back in the day, this was the perfect vehicle for our good climate. Anyone who was young in the late 60s and early 70s would have fond memories of touring around in some form of beetle!

Ethan drives along on wide screen TV....

And here is how it was done.

Grandpa couldn't resist getting into the picture!

I have particularly fond memories of this particular colour of Kharman Ghia. My dad, who was a car fanatic, had one that looked exactly like this. Her name was Olga and it was a rare privilege to be permitted to drive her!

Remember the Herbie movies? Ethan loves them so he was delighted to come across herbie climbing the steps.

Because blogger seems to have changed the way you move photos around while writing posts, and you can't drag and drop easily any more, it is an absolute pain doing lots of pics, so if you would like to see more, and especially the racing vws and a laser cutting a beetle in half, I am going to make an album of the rest in Facebook.

the circle of life

2009-08-11T19:09:00.000+02:00

As I look back over this blog, one thing that recurs over and over is the "circle of life." We have suffered many losses over the last few years, including my dad, Max's mom and dad, our cat Joshua, my godmother. But we have also had much joy, the birth of two grandchildren, our nieces and nephews marrying and giving birth to children, our son's wedding..... The last month has been no exception... while we were away in Bulgaria, we heard the shocking and sad news that Max's younger sister, Joyce, had suffered a burst vein in her brain, and she was gone within a day. It has been difficult coming to terms with it... because if we visualize her, we see a vibrant, capable, funny person, full of plans and dreams and busy working to make them happen. Being so far away when it happened, and not part of all the actual drama at first hand, it is so hard to accept that it is real. I featured her on this blog in a previous post, as she renovated her lovely old historic Karoo house.

from the left.... "Little sis" Joyce, Max and "big sis" Charlette

However, as we have dealt with the sadness and loss of our "little sis" we have simultaneously been looking forward to the birth of our grandson.

He finally arrived today, and as you can see, he is a delightful little chap! He is still waiting for a name... welcome to our world little guy!

so, as always in life, loss is balanced by happiness, day follows night, and we keep on taking it one step at a time.

still armchair travelling....

2009-07-31T05:51:00.000+02:00

I have posted another photo album from our recent trip to Turkey and Bulgaria, on my facebook page. This features the fascinating village of Pamukkale in central Turkey. It is home to an ancient ruined city (Hierapolis) and the travertines, a hillside covered with glistening white calcite formations from the calcium rich spring water that flows over it. There is also a fascinating ancient pool, a thermal hot spring full of mineral water, that is full of broken Roman columns from the ruined former Roman baths there.

(this may look like snow, but it was 35 degrees C when this was taken! It is calcite. On top of the hill you can see one of the ruined buildings from the ancient city of Hierapolis.)

more travels

2009-07-25T22:31:00.000+02:00

Hi, I'm afraid I've been neglecting this blog for a while. I have been uploading lots of holiday photos but it is just so much easier on Facebook. So if you want to see more of our trip to Turkey and Bulgaria, check out the following albums:

Random art in Turkey and Bulgaria

Plovdiv

Around Bulgaria

Srem Bulgaria, july 2009

Goreme

and here are 1 or 2 random pix taken on the trip, for fun:

at Heiropolis in Turkey

our staple diet in Bulgaria!

Istanbul, oh wow!

2009-06-23T11:48:00.000+02:00

The madness of the last few weeks has been dramatically exchanged for pure bliss. Max-e and I are in Istanbul, en route to see our kids and granddaughter in Bugaria next month.

No matter how many photos you see, or how much surfing you do online to get an idea of the place, nothing can possibly communicate the reality to you, because Istanbul is not a place to see, it is a place to EXPERIENCE.

Writing this post is going to be a real challenge for me, I am so prone to using superlatives in my normal life that I just don't know how I am going to express the enormity of this place, not only in actual size (20 million people, not counting the swarms of tourists!) spread across 7 hills and positioned on two continents, but in terms of age and impact as well.

We arrived on Saturday at 6am, and a shuttle took us to our accomodation in the heart of Sultanahmet, the ancient area where many of the "must see" sites are clustered. We hate regimented travel, pre booked and structured tours make us claustrophobic. So we booked the first two nights only, just to give us a base to orientate ourselves from and from here we will go where the road takes us.

We decided a casual hostel would be much more our cup of tea than having to look respectable at a hotel. We really hit the jackpot. The Mavi Guesthouse is the most inviting fun place and the owner Ali (who has never heard of the word "sleep") makes sure his guests are welcome, looked after and well informed. He organises forward travel at really good prices, protects young visitors from chancers, and generally makes you feel completely at home. Facilities are spartan, but for us that is part of the experience (just as, if you look back to our Lesotho trip, our nights in the mud hut were WAY more enjoyable than our night in the luxury hotel) and we have met such a cosmopolitan stream of people (90% a lot younger than us) that it enriches the travel experience enormously. We all sit and exchange stories on the sidewalk in the mornings and evenings, before rushing off to see the sights or shop or whatever the day holds.

In South Africa, we get excited about our historic buildings that are 200 years old, so you can just imagine how this place, where history is counted in millenia, has blown our socks off. Staying on a hilltop in the historic heart of the city, with a section of the ancient city wall right across the narrow street, is just awe inspiring. We stroll across the street when we wake up, sit at a table and chairs set up on the sidewalk next to the wall (bravely risking pigeon poop on the heads!) and eat a typical Turkish breakfast consisiting of a bottomless basket of freshly baked crispy bread, fabulous creamy Turkish cheese, boiled eggs, tomato and cucumber slices, washed down with a choice of coffee, tea or the delicious apple tea that is a staple here.

From here, a short walk up the hill brings you to the entrance of the Topkapi Palace on your right, and the Hagia Sopia on the left.

Further down the road is a stunning park, with big fountain in the centre, and the spectacular Blue Mosque behind it. In any direction you care to turn, there are delightful narrow cobbled streets winding down from the hilltop

Getting into the spirit of supporting local entrepreneurs, Max-e had a shoeshine on the sidewalk. Note the amazing brass apparatus, lovingly polished as thoroughly as his shoes were!

One thing it took us very little time to discover is the delight of buying food on the streets. There is a regular stream of men pushing barrows, or balancing piles of bread on their heads, or selling fresh fruit.

Pavement booths have chicken and lamb on a rotisserie, which gets sliced off as you order, mixed with lettuce and tomatoes and a lovely green pepper sauce served in a bread roll (in the Middle East they are called schwarmas, the Turkish name is Doner, pronounced "dernesh"...) and Max-e is ecstatic because so much of the local cuisine is cholesterol friendly and dairy free.

But there are also any number of charming restaurants, with sidewalk areas and also roof terraces, from where you can relax and enjoy views of the city that leave you limp with delight.

What better way to end the day than with a stroll to the edge of the Bosphorus to see sunset over the exotic Istanbul skyline, followed by a delicious Turkish meal served on a rooftop terrace, on a balmy summer night.

followed by a stroll through the park back to the hotel...

(It took me so long to edit the copious photos i keep taking, we are no longer in Istanbul, but living in a cave in Cappadocia. So there is tons to catch up, but I promise it will be worth the wait!)

equilibrium returns.... whew!~

2009-06-10T18:50:00.000+02:00

Sorry about the previous rant... i considered deleting it, because it is uncharacteristic of me to let things get me down that much... and I essentially am a "glass half full with lots of potential for more filling" kind of girl. But I see this blog as a journal of my life, warts and all, to look back on one day and remember how it was.

Anyway, there is nothing like a day away at a spa, sitting in the jaccuzzi with a wonderful friend who is a great listener (and offers some pretty good advice too!) to put things back in perspective. I also got some helpful comments on the rant, and all in all think that it is largely my fault for being so idealistic, naive and intense.... I shall tackle things from now on with a more considered approach, and not expect overnight results. Toddler steps and teamwork is the name of the game.

So watch out world, I'm back, rested, wiser, calmer, and still looking forward to my holiday, but not as a reason to run away, but rather to replenish my energy so that I am ready to do whatever needs doing when I get back.

Who needs a roller coaster?

2009-06-10T03:26:00.000+02:00

Sheesh, being a bleeding heart idealist who takes on Quixotic challenges is SUCH hard work!

I poured heart and soul into COPE for three months leading up to the elections. I won't go into it all again, as I have covered the reasons in past posts, but it seemed so vital to me to challenge the big majority of the ruling party, as the writing was on the wall that our hard won democracy was under threat from individuals intent on their own personal gratification.

I heard yesterday that the person I spent most of that time helping returned to the ANC in a fanfare of publicity. He had warned me it was imminent, and given me his reasons.

Beneath the politically correct "tell me what you want to hear and I'll say it" approach of the ruling party lies a sinister reality that is not openly discussed. The bottom line is, if you are black and in business, you either need to belong to the ANC, and part of the crony system, or you can forget about getting work.

So people who joined COPE because they believed in change, freedom of political association and a healthy opposition to keep the politicians honest, find themselves out in the cold. They face 5 years till the next election, in a fledgeling party that has little funding and is unable to offer them paying positions, so they have the agonising choice between feeding their families or following their ideals.

In some cases it is even worse. Assinations have already taken place here, and the authorities were "unable to make arrests". My friend has been threatened (not the first time) that if he does not support the ruling party he will be killed. So much for democracy and political tolerance, South Africa might wear a veneer of it, but it is wearing thinner by the day. Anyone who believes in the facade of South Africa as a beacon of hope, showing that true democracy is possible in Africa (I was one of them) is delusional.

All that said, and I do understand the huge pressures to return and take up the cushy job offerred, I still feel betrayed. I also doubt my ability to judge people. Was he just an opportunist all along? And if he was one of the Mbeki-ites who saw no future in ANC politics, and hoped that COPE would nicely fill that gap, so he joined for a position in the new party, only to leave when there were not enough to go round, how many others have the same agenda?

I am left with the horrible feeling that I wasted three months of my life, sacrificed time with my family etc to help a bunch of opportunists. I suppose time will tell how many genuine people stay behind and don't cave in to the pressure, for whatever reason. But they will do it without my time or effort, I'm moving on to my next windmill!

Speaking of which... the art gallery. It is a community art centre, non profit organisation, run by volunteers. It has been going for 90 years, and at one time was a highly respected player in the Port Elizabeth art scene. However, as happens with so many similar organisations, the people who are able to volunteer (either because they have the spare time, money or passion to do so) are not necessarily the right people for the job, they are just the ones who are willing to do it. (I include myself in that statement.) So internal politics and scrambling after ever decreasing funding had eventually reduced it to a pitiful shadow of its former self, hardly making a ripple in the art world, just limping along trying to stay afloat. It is, quite frankly, regarded by most leading artists as a place for blue haired whites to sit around painting flowers, so it was neither supported by leading artists, nor the black community.

Along came yours truly, full of Quixotic zeal to turn it around. Make it relevant to all artists, help those in the poorer areas to exhibit, source funding, get mentors among experienced artists.... draw the top artists back by raising standards... yadda yadda yadda, you get the idea.

But I have encountered a Catch 22 situation. I rushed off and networked with all the non-white artists I know. I invited them onto the committee. (I must make it absolutely clear, the invitations were not based on skin colour, as token blacks, but because the people I approached have a lot to offer, are skilled artists and communicators, and as a bonus they have good contacts to help get the word out that our services are open to all.) I asked for contact details so I could send out invitations to exhibit. You know what the response has been? "How many blacks are on your committee?" I answer 1. The reply?
"Well it is obviously still white dominated, so I'm not coming on the committee." (The same has happened with exhibitions.... the invitations were ignored, and so at exhibitions the remark is... "see, it's still for whites!" ) ........... so I need blacks on the committee to send a message that we are not a racist organisation, but they will not join because there are too many whites on the committee....

I was therefore delighted when an young black artist from a remote rural area in the Eastern Cape said he had sourced funding, and hired the gallery. When the due date was approaching, I suddenly got a call saying he was now exhibiting at Fort Hare, and would not have work ready in time so he wanted to postpone. This is not how one treats a gallery who is mounting a solo exhibition, but because of the whole "bleeding heart trying to accomodate the emerging artists" thing, I gave him the date he asked for in July, and used the gap he created to renovate the gallery.

After no response to my calls and e-mails for the past two months, I finally got a letter yesterday saying he was cancelling as he can't get funding... (he already had it so I assume it was used on something else.)

Now, apart from the inconvenience of finding a good exhibition at short notice, and all the work involved to change the press releases, etc, the worst thing is what this has done to my efforts to bring about a change in perceptions of the gallery.

I assumed some of the people who have been on the committee for years were just clinging to the past every time I encountered resistence to my efforts to draw in artists from other cultures. But I am beginning to realise most of them are simply dissillusioned because past efforts to do so have failed. And this simply reinforces that resistence. So the next time I want to help emerging artists, I will again have to battle through all that negativity, from both sides. On one hand the dissillusioned ones will not want to open us up to being jerked around AGAIN and on the other, those who do not know all the inside stories will look at the gallery and say "see, all whites still...." aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrggghhh!

I never thought I would have to beg people to make use of facilities that are being offered to help them, but it is OVER! From now on, no favours, no special treatment. Business is business, you make the grade or you don't, same as anyone else. We will help where we can, to mentor and network for funding, and offer open exhibitions, but that's it. I suppose that means we will continue to carry the label of "colonial relic"... pity, because that is so far from the truth.

I felt so dis-spirited by all this yesterday, i went and ordered a pizza and a chick flick, and had a small pity party, but all I got was heartburn!

Windmills are pretty, but tilting at them wears a bit thin, the damn things just don't budge! So in a week's time I'm dragging my tired and disillusioned butt off for a holiday. Hopefully I will return refreshed and ready to tackle the next windmill that rears up in front of me... but for now, they must all just spin on unchallenged, enough is enough!!!

There was a hole in the sky that the sun poured through

2009-05-30T21:06:00.000+02:00

Sunrise is getting later and later, as we head rapidly towards mid winter, so we get to see it nearly every morning now. How can a day not be great when it starts like this?

A rush of blood to the head.... well at least it looks like that.

2009-05-27T18:04:00.000+02:00

After a particularly gruelling renovation involving an obscene quantity of old carpet glue and copious amounts of sandpaper and noisy cumbersome machinery, not to mention getting through the process by popping pain killers like smarties, the gallery transformation finally happened and, with the help of my friend, Nigerian artist Usen Obot, we got the Chinese Exhibition hung half an hour before the opening... no pressure!!!

So today I took some ME time, swanned around the house all morning in a disreputable old kaftan, and then took myself off to jazz up my hair a bit, watch out world, this granny will be back soon, brighter and bolder than ever!

if you wait for life to get back to normal, you'll wait all your life!

2009-05-22T22:13:00.000+02:00

...... So with that breathtaking realisation... I have stopped waiting, and accepted that life is a series of unplanned (and often planned, but bigger than intended) events and tasks, and so it is best to just go with the flow, do what you can, and enjoy the ride. One thing that makes it possible to survive the more hectic passages in one's life is the ability to stop and smell the roses, to see beauty all around, even if it is just stopping for a millisecond to take a photo and acknowledge the moment, before re-entering the spinning wheel.

And I guess that pretty much describes the last few weeks. I have been in "community crusader mode" on a couple of things (having left "political activist leading up to the elections" mode behind me for now!!)

One of the things at the forefront of all the others were a David and Goliath battle between us and our neighbours on the one side, and the Police Force, Public works department and Municipality on the other. Way too long to go into at this late hour, but i have mentioned it before... they wanted to build a really ugly 4 storey modern building and 50m mast on the edge of the park that we overlook, blocking our views and ruining this historic area. But by far the most serious aspect of the planned development was that part of it was to be on a portion of the park that was a historic burial ground (in the mid to late 1800s for the workers who lived here at the time, in what was called "the strangers location". I told a bit more of the story on our old PE daily photo blog last year. The developers did not believe us about the burial ground, but we made such a fuss that an archaeologist was called in to dig and sure enough, human remains and bits of coffins were found!

Max wrote copious documents for the Environmental Impact Assessment, and I even went so far as to organise an interview on National e-TV news for our local City Councillor, to protest about the fact that, despite the finding of the remains, the State seemed determined to proceed with the project.

Well I am delighted to say that this morning's paper carried an article with the good news that, due to the finding of bones in the disputed area, the project has been moved elsewhere, and our historic park is safe, for now! We will still be able to enjoy this view for some time...

The other crusade is to get our local Community Art Gallery running on a sound footing, and one of the ways of doing this is to renovate it. So I am afraid I have again donned the "chicks with power tools" mantle, and have been sanding and varnishing seemingly ENDLESS wooden floors for the last few weeks, as we had an unexpected gap in the exhibition schedule, and not enough time to fundraise and pay a professional contractor to do the job.

The walls were clad in some very drab green carpeting, and had had nails hammered in and pulled out at regular intervals for many years, so there was some major work to strip them, fill them and paint them. The floors had blue carpeting glued on them with some hideous glue that clogged up endless sheets of sandpaper.

The wooden floor was rotten in places, and as the gallery was formerly a semi-detached double storey that had adjoining walls knocked out, there were cement strips where the old walls used to be. These had to be chopped out and replaced with wooden floor boards.

This weekend we will rehang the picture rails, build a reception desk and complete the varnishing and painting, et voila, hopefully by Tuesday it will be all shipshape for the opening of our fabulous international Chinese art exhibition (I'll post some pix of that for you next week.)

We had no sooner started stripping the walls when I got an urgent call from East London to say my dad was very ill, so I dropped everything into the hands of other committee members and went down there. Sadly he had had a stroke, and was not responsive... he seemed to move his head slightly to my voice, so i think he knew i was there, but he could not talk, and his eyes were glazed. He died the following morning. He was 91, and very frail, so it was not a real shock, although even when you are expecting it, it actually does take you by surprise.

Luckily, just weeks before, my sister and her husband had come down from Zimbabwe, and we spent a lovely time with dad and Connie for his 91st birthday, and then i was there just two weeks before his death for an Art AGM, and had two lovely visits with him, so there was a sort of closure.

As he had outlived nearly all his friends and family, it was a small group who met at the Chapel in the Frail Care centre the next morning to bid him farewell. Our family is so scattered around the world, and were not able to make it, so i made an unusual request at the end of the service, and asked that everyone would remain seated so i could take a photo of the service, and send it to them, so that they too could feel as if they were there in some way, and had an opportunity to put a fullstop on the story of his life.

That is where one of the "stop and smell the roses" moments i spoke about happened. Well, not so much roses as catterpillers! The Milkwood tree in Connie's front garden had the most fascinating appearance, covered in webs from some sort of moth.

Bizarre!!!

One really good thing happened because of the funeral. I have often posted in the past about my somewhat fraught relationshiop with my father, he could be unbelievably selfish, demanding and difficult. As we were supporting him for several years, I had built up a lot of anger and frustration towards him, I did my duty as a daughter, but found it hard to like him as a person. I guess all the tension and bad incidents had overshadowed any happy memories. A while ago, when he moved into the frail-care, Connie gave me a box of his family photos and books. I hung many of the photos, but could not bring myself to hang the one of him, as every time I saw it I got the old familiar knot in my stomach, and didn't want to be constantly feeling like that in my own home.

Anyway at the funeral, as his grandchildren were all unable to attend (being scattered all over the world) they e-mailed their memories of him for me to read out at the service. They had not experienced any of the drama of the last few years, and their memories were all the happy child/grandparent ones, laughing fondly at his foibles and eccentricities. Reading them out reminded me of the other side to dad, the side where there were happy memories.

At the same time, the minister, who didn't know us at all, but is a wise and gracious man, made a profound observation. He said that there is an apparent contradiction, on one hand we are "made in the image of God", and on the other we are "dust of the earth" He said the part the kids were remembering, the happy parts, were the "image of God" parts, and were to be kept for eternity. The unhappy parts, the parts that one would not want to hold on to, were the dust to dust part, best left behind with his ashes. I didn't realise the impact all this had on me until i was back home, and tidying the study last weekend. I came across the photo of dad, and, instead of the familiar tension, I felt a warm closeness. So I hung the photo on the wall with the others, and enjoy having it there. So, thanks kids, and Reverend, for restoring all my happy memories!

During all this, I had another "smell the roses" opportunity when I went to have tea with a friend who lives on top of a tall building on Brookes Hill, with what must be the very best view of the City ...... it was bliss sitting there enjoying this panoramic view while sipping coffee and talking art, thanks Basil and Esme! As you can see through the mist in the distance, our 2010 World Cup Soccer Stadium is nearing completion, and has become a major landmark in the city.

Anyway enough for now, I must try and get some sleep and be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow to continue the renovation saga! Good night.

Howdy Strangers

2009-05-04T19:20:00.000+02:00

Oh dear, time seems to have been flying by, I hardly know where to start! The last month has been a roller coaster ride of travels, elections, exhibitions, hardcore political discussions on facebook, and very excitingly, planning a trip to Turkey and Bulgaria!

So, in no paticular order, here are some images from the last month.....

A trip to the Addo elephant park on Easter Sunday was a delightful outing....

strangely enough, for us, although we loved the elephants, the highlight for us was the meerkat family, their synchronised antics had us in stitches!

Of course, the big news of the month was the election on 22nd April, and it was preceeded by the usual hoopla and promises. Cope came to the party late, due to lack of funds, so while the election posters of the other parties faded on the lamp poles, Cope was noticeably absent, but went big near the end and wrapped whole buildings!

Also on Easter weekend, there was a family day rally to celebrate family values.

We had more encounters of the wild kind this weekend, when we took our grandson to meet the big cats at the Seaview Lion Park. I am not crazy about caged wild animals (I will never own a bird in a cage for the same reason) but these are well looked after, and the cages are huge, so it wasn't too bad or depressing to see them there.

One interesting aspect of the place is their program for breeding the extremely rare white lions. They are not albinos, but have a recessive gene for the blonde colouring. Some of the tawny lions in the park carry the gene, so that they sometimes produce white cubs in their litters.

there were also three Bengal Tigers, which must be the most magnificent of all the cats, although this chap was hardly putting on much of a show for his species, he was totally blissed out after lunch!

Meanwhile this lioness was waiting for her lunch with great anticipation.

And this guy was having a bad hair day!

Another adventure during the month was to go with my friend Julie and her daughter Nana, who had decided to conquer her fear of heights in dramatic fashion, by doing the world's highest bridge bungy jump. It was actually a lot of fun, they had disco music pumping under the bridge which created a great atmosphere in combination with the adrenilin of the jumpers, well done Nana!

This guy went twice!

Don't look down! The Bloukrantz Bridge, about 2 hours to the West of Port Elizabeth.

I also had a trip down to East London (about 3 hours the other side of Port Elizabeth, to the East) In fact to the East in more ways than one... because one of the arty events was the opening of a wonderful exhibition by 4 leading Chinese artists, I just adored their work.

I also attended the AGM of our National arts body SANAVA and got to meet the heads of several other galleries and art bodies around the country, and even a delegation from the Portuguese Art School in Mocambique. It was a very inspiring weekend.

Another exhibition opening I attended during the month was that of Lizo Pemba (on the right)at the Red Location Museum. He is the grandson of the legendary Eastern Cape artist, George Pemba. I had previously met his father Titus (third from the left) who is a character of note, so it was an entertaining evening!

So I'll end this update with one of the lovely sunrises we have seen lately, and the bonus is, since winter is almost here, we don't have to get up obscenely early to enjoy them!

Capetown Cameos #3

2009-04-06T10:48:00.005+02:00

To finish up the Capetown trip, I will share a few pictures of the third day. After another wonderful sunrise from the roof deck,

and breakfast on the pretty little front patio, we trundled off to Woodstock, in search of three of the top Galleries in the Cape, which are fortunately all in one building, a converted industrial space that was absolutely perfect for the display of art. Goodman Gallery had a fabulous review of some of South Africas iconic contemporary artists from the last 7 decades, and it was a treat seeing works by artists one can often only enjoy in textbooks.

Then back to explore the charming De Waterkant district, which has such a fascinating vibe and unique character. It is such a delight wandering through the narrow cobbled streets, browsing through eclectic shops and cafes,

and ending up in the Cape Quarter, at a fab Italian Restaurant.

Then, reluctantly off to pack and get to the airport, for the return flight to PE. A pretty end to a blissful interlude,

and both Julie and I can't wait to go back with our husbands to share this magical spot with them!

Cape Town Cameos #2

2009-03-23T20:48:00.009+02:00

Continuing our trip to the Mother City, we went to bed after a hectic day and woke up the next morning to ash in the doorway. Going up onto the rooftop deck, with its wonderful 360 degree views, we were greeted by the sad sight of Table mountain burning,

and the drone of helicopters shuttling back and forth with giant buckets of water to release on the flames.

The fire had burned all the way over the mountain from the Rhodes memorial side and was burning right down to the city limits.

However the sadness caused by that sight was lifted by a stunning sunrise over the City....

Even the ugly crane that that hovered over the Waterfront skyline took on a brief glorious etherial beauty

After a leisurely breakfast on the delightful little patio overlooking the street,

we went to town to stroll around and check out some art galleries. Being the oldest town in South Africa, Capetown has a delightful city centre, an ecclectic jumble of historic and new, with influences from many different cultures.

To just park the car and wander around soaking in the sights and sounds (not to mention the delicious aromas of coffee and Malay cooking wafting from corner cafes as you pass!) is a rare treat.

First stop on the gallery circuit was 34 Long St, an old building wedged between tall modern ones on either side,

but very contemporary inside!

Finally the coffee aromas got too much for us, and we ended up enjoying cappuchinos in a lovely Italian Cafe with an entire wall of driftwood encased between two sheets of glass.

We eventually ended up having lunch at a pavement cafe in Greenmarket Square,

being entertained by the Ganga Muffins, a jazz/blues duo with a distinctly Cape flavour to the music... it was such fun!

We then went for a drive around the mountain to check out some of the panoramic views from up there, before heading across to the back of the mountain for a bit of shopping in Newlands. From above Sea Point we got a view of the half finished Greenpoint Stadium,

and the infamous Robben Island with the Greenpoint lighthouse in the foreground.

We rushed back to change, then straight off to run the gauntlet of the rush hour traffic, and off to Camps Bay, for dinner and a show at the Theatre on the Bay. it started drizzling just as we arrived.

And then cleared a bit and rounded a perfect day off with this sunset from the theatre dining room.

The show was very good, an Italian called Ennio Marchetto who is uses origami in a very original way, to make costumes and change rapidly between characters. A good laugh, and then off for a well earned sleep..........

check out Ennio in action

Cape Town Cameos #1

2009-03-22T08:52:00.007+02:00

I just got back from 3 days R&R in Capetown. Believe it or not, this was my first trip alone with a friend (Apart from day trips of course!) Max and I are so in tune when travelling, so I was not sure what to expect from 3 days with a friend whose holidays usually take quite a different form to ours. Max and I have travelled in the past with friends who whip through, notching up experiences like some sort of scoreboard, "ok seen that, move on." It is very frustrating. Luckily Julie and I have similar tastes and interests, and she turns out to be a traveller who also takes time to look around and soak up the vibe and the visual impressions (and is very patient while I go mad taking photos every five minutes!) We are also familiar with quite different parts of Capetown and so we were able to take it in turns to introduce each other to some of our favourite spots, and explore new ones too.

The only appointments we had were a booking at the exceptional Moyo Restaurant, the first night, and Tickets for dinner and theatre on the second. The rest of the time was a fluid "go with the flow" time of exploring new areas, shopping a little, going to lots of galleries, and sitting on sidewalk cafes letting the magic of Capetown flow over us, while street musicians entertained us.

The B&B we stayed in was in De Waterkant on the slopes of Signal Hill, in what has become a very trendy district of restored Cape Malay houses. It is central to the seaboard, waterfront and City centre. The place we stayed in was on the highest street, and like its neighbours, was a 3 story narrow building scrambling up the hillside.

It has a roof deck with 360 degree views of the City, Table Mountain and waterfront.

On the first day we arrived quite early in the morning and went straight to the B&B to settle in and have a quick breakfast at a sidewalk cafe. (I am far from being a fussy eater, but really, the lead-like roll offered on the plane with a nondescript bit of cold meat glued to it with some sort of mayonnaise, and who-knows-how-long-in-the-fridge was guarenteed to cause drama with the digestion, so by the time we landed we were ravenous!)

Then we headed off for Franschhoek in the mountainous winelands to the North East of the city. We soaked up the scenic surroundings on the road into the village, farmlands making the most of the rich soil at the base of soaring mountains.

On the way we stopped at an antique shop with a difference. If you looked at this old warehouse exterior, with old enamel basins and farming gear, would you guess that inside you would find some amazing pieces of elaborately carved French Gothic furniture, and simply amazing crystal chandeliers? It was one of those magical places that holds a surprise around every corner, an ecclectic mix of rugged farmstyle and highly sophisticated, simple and ornate, bargain and priceless, so that a walk around it was a feast for the senses.

I had driven through Franschhoek before, with Max, but we must have been on a bypass route, because we didn't see a fraction of this delightful little village. It has one of the most picturesque main streets you will find anywhere, with historic cottages converted into wonderful galleries, boutiques and restaurants.

After a simply delicious meal at the French Connection, where subtle blends of flavour left one in a comatose state of bliss, we set off to explore the street.

Reluctantly leaving Franschhoek behind us as the sun began to set and the shops closed, we headed across the mountains to Stellenbosch, and the Spier Wine Estate, home of the legendary Moyo Restaurant. This is not a place you go just to eat. It is designed, from the moment you enter, to engage all your senses in an experience of what makes Africa the unique continent it is.

You enter a vast marquee through a shop of African arts and crafts and music cds.

This leads you back out into a wonderful garden, where you are greeted, and have traditional painting done on your face, before you are shown to your table.

This could either be in a series of little Moroccan style tents are dotted in clusters around the garden, or back in the main tent, which also houses the enormous buffet.

This is composed of combined flavours and favourites from the length of Africa, from Morocco in the North, via Kenya, to South Africa.

The genius of Moyo is that it is completely geared to tourists, introducing them to the African Experience, yet it is authentic enough that locals, who would normally avoid places full of tourist tat like the plague, love it too.

African rugs are thrown over the back of each chair, so that as you enjoy your meal in the little open tents, you can bundle up against the night time cold mountain air. There is a passing parade of African musicians, at one point a Xhosa man and his wives arrive to sing accappella and they are followed a while later by drummers and dancers in a nearby clearing. in the tent a jazz guitarist strolls around, and water tumbles from a nearby treehouse fountain, which houses another table on top of the deck, for those who don't mind running the gauntlet of the stairs to fetch more food from the buffet.

Our waiter, innocent, made sure we were well looked after, and a long relaxed evening unfolded.

On the way back to town, we saw that the side of the Mountain was ablaze, in the vicinity of Rhodes Memorial. ................ but that is another story for another day.

Life is the Blues..........

2009-03-15T21:54:00.003+02:00

Not really! Life is cool, just like the sound of that, it is the title of a nice music album I once owned, and seemed to suit these reflections, taken recently at Port St Francis. It is the kind of photo i love to look at when life is manic, I take a deep breath and imagine I am back there where life slows to a gentle stroll!

Don't Fence me in!

2009-02-11T05:42:00.005+02:00

On the home front, the hope of a chance to make things better politically has been keeping many of us busy. Up until now, I have felt "fenced in" by the fact that the ruling party is getting more and more entrenched, and giving itself more and more freedom to play around with the constitution and the law to suit its own agenda. Much as I believe every citizen has a duty to vote, in recent elections I have struggled to decide who to support, as it seemed so pointless. But, as I have mentioned before, the new Cope party has, for the first time, offered a realistic hope of challenging that.

Things are getting interesting..... South Africans living overseas may now get a chance to vote (in a piece of policy making madness, it was decreed that SA Citizens who were abroad at the time of elections could not vote, but convicted criminals in prisons could freely do so....this has been appealed and overturned in court.) An election date has been announced (22 April) and it is all systems go to get the fledgling Congress of the People party, with no Government funding or billionaire backing, ready for the challenge to ANC's entrenched place in Parliament.

Intimidation is becoming rife, the ANC has been attacking Cope supporters around the country, and engaging in dirty tricks like electioneering at pension payout points in the rural areas, telling people that if they want to continue getting their pensions, they must vote ANC (they must have been taking lessons from their friend Bob up North!) and Cope is working hard to get the message out that what happens in the ballot box is private, and it is safe to vote for them.

So..... interesting times ahead. By the way, if you are interested in this development, and want to know more, there is an extremely lively Discussion Board on the COPE facebook group and a link to the Cope manifesto. There is also a fascinating group called Political Discourse, where a high level of articulate debate goes on. (If you do get into the Cope DB, just bear in mind that it is a free for all, and not confined to Cope members, so don't take everything you read as Cope policy, I sometimes think there are more ANC and DA members than Cope people taking part in the debates, but that in itself indicates the broad tolerant approach of the new party, which welcomes healthy interraction and freedom of speech.)

When I am not doing my "political activist" thing, I am conscious that I have such itchy feet lately, all I want to do is travel. The reality is, both time and budget constraints don't allow too much of that right now. But there are ways around that, like blogging and visiting all those fascinating parts of the world I long to go to, portrayed through the eyes of those who live there and document these places in Fab photos. I am loving the Northern Hemisphere snow scenes right now. (To be honest, there's a lot to be said for this armchair travel, keeping warm whilst admiring the snowy scenery has its up-side.)

My other strategy is to make a point of enjoying the world in my immediate vicinity, noticing the everyday beauty around me, a new flower in the garden, a lovely sunrise over the sea, a confused Jacaranda tree that put out some beautiful purple blossoms, thinking it might still be spring :), kids playing in the park.... capuccino at Vovo Telo, the great cafe and artisan bakery around the corner, and of course, taking every opportunity that presents itself to hit the road over the weekend, even if it is just a jaunt along the coast to Schoenmakerskop or further afield to St Francis.

This sunset was taken on Friday night, on the outskirts of town, on our way to Port St Francis. (I posted more pix on facebook if you want to see them....)

How's this for a cool motto....

2009-02-04T11:47:00.003+02:00

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass ..... It's about learning to dance in the rain."

or in this case, being willing to run around taking photos in the rain.... and capturing a beautiful image as a result!

I don't know who to attribute this quote to, but it is very close to the way I have always chosen to see life. I like to live for today, whatever it is throwing at me, rather than just sit around longing for some sort of better future. And it has paid off handsomly, because every day has dark and light moments, and celebrating the light ones means that, if there is a big dark cloud hanging over the future, it is kept in perspective, and not allowed to rob me of those small delights that are to be found in every day. By the time I get to that cloudy place, it seems to have shrunk, and I seem better able to handle it. (Not that any clouds are looming for me at the moment, although I know some friends and loved ones have a rainy forecast ahead, but it is actually a great way to look at life, in good or bad times.)

Photo journal..... the last couple of months

2009-01-26T07:57:00.015+02:00

I just seem to be so absorbed in art, politics, fighting crime, etc. lately, that when I do have spare time, I am too tired to put my thoughts down in any coherent way, to either post or visit and comment. As a result, I have been a bit reclusive in blogland for a while.
So I decided to just upload a bunch of photos with captions, (not necessarily in chronological order) which will give you an idea of some of the events of the last few weeks, without me having to battle against my erratic memory to describe it all. Hopefully, in this case, a few pictures WILL be worth a thousand words!

A TRIP TO ADDO GAME PARK IN NOVEMBER.......

Watching the antics of the weaver birds and red bishops from the bird hide.

Addo is as much about the little guys as the big 5. These dung beetles are gathering elephant dung to lay eggs in.

Pushing its dung ball along in reverse.

Another exciting sight, the enormous and exotic looking Secretary Bird.

a rare sighting of a black-backed jackal in the open, they have been so persecuted by farmers over the years that they are still very shy.

Most exciting of all, a caracal posing obligingly! These cats are very rarely seen in the wild.

A lone zebra surveys the coming storm , with oxpecker on his back eating ticks.

considering their reputation as very grumpy animals, it is a little tense when a baby with protective mom passes this close!

you DON'T want to irritate this guy!

the huge but reserved Eland

the wonderfully elegant Kudu

get off my territory...push ... grunt... snort...

the closest we got to seeing lions....

... no need for a zoom lens here....

just hold your breath till he's past !!!

Help me mom, this mud is slippery...........

OK, there you go...

mud wrestling....

their idea of a bath is a bit different from ours! The caked mud helps protect against ticks and sunburn.
The warthog beats a hasty retreat...

HAD TO GO AND SETTLE MY DAD INTO FRAIL CARE IN EAST LONDON, STOPPED IN GRAHAMSTOWN ON THE WAY BACK TO SOAK UP SOME SCENERY

a stunning historic town 1 and a half hours from PE, full of beautiful old buildings

Dulce, our favourite sidewalk cafe

The 1820 Settlers Monument, on a hill as you drive into the town. It was designed to look like a ship in memory of those who sailed so far in little ships to settle here in 1820. It is now famous as the nerve centre for organising the annual Grahamston Arts Festival.

The fascinating observatory Museum.

BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR... A TRIP TO ST FRANCIS...

AND ALONG THE BEAUTIFUL GARDEN ROUTE TO PLETT AND KNYSNA TO FETCH AND DELIVER PAINTINGS....

NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH PATROLS......

in all kinds of weather!

LOTS OF EARLY MORNING STROLLS...

watching ships arriving at and leaving the harbour

beachfront sunrises

and the odd sunset too!

WENT WITH CHARLIE AND JUDE (FROM SPAIN) ON THE TEST RUN OF THE REFURBISHED APPLE EXPRESS....

full steam ahead, so glad to have it back on the rails!

HAD FUN WITH WEE E....

TOOK NOEL (FROM NEW YORK) ON A TOUR OF THE APARTHEID MUSEUMS.....

Noel is shown around the Red Location Museum by activist Annette du Plessis

who has been fighting to save these historic shacks that are being demolished by vandals. They were the home of the resistance movement.

...and the South End Museum which documents the forced removals to racially segregated areas in the 60s

FOUGHT TO SAVE OUT HERITAGE AREA FROM AN UGLY 4 STOREY POLICE BUILDING AND 50M COMMUNICATIONS TOWER BEING BUILT ON THE EDGE OF THE PARK, BLOCKING THE OLD ERICA BUILDING....

ENJOYED OUR SUMMER GARDEN....

ATTENDED THE COPE MANIFESTO LAUNCH IN KWAZAKHELE

I could have done with one of those umbrellas....

... but it was inspiring to be part of that amazing crowd and witness history in the making.... hopefully we can follow in the footsteps of America and have a Presidential upgrade soon!

Whew! No wonder I feel like sleeping some more!

Cope-ing with political change....

2009-01-20T20:38:00.005+02:00

The reason I have been so scarce..... a new political party has emerged onto the scene in South Africa. I have checked it out on the facebook groups and discussion boards, and it looks very promising to me. I believe it is the one chance we have to seriously challenge the dominance of the ANC (which, under the leadership of the "machine gun" singing Mr Zuma, will head in the direction of Zimbabwe very fast) but it is in its infancy, and needs serious guidance if it is going to grow into a worthwhile party that doesn't just repeat past mistakes. check it out here . The Manifesto launch is in PE on Saturday, so I am off to the Wolfson Stadium along with half the country, to show solidarity with the new party. What with this new Hope on the South African horizon, and Obama in the WhiteHouse, things are looking interesting. This might end up being one of those pivitol periods in world history!

Even the keenest politician has to take a break. We are involved in our local neighbourhood watch and do weekly patrols in the wee small hours. Saturdays patrol ended around sunrise, so we popped down to the beachfront to check it out.

These fishermen also took advantage of the perfect weather to make an early start.

So excuse my absence for a while, I'm off to save the world! Rats, where did my white horse run off to?

Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T20:16:00.002+02:00

the sign says it all.....

Wishing all my friends in blogland the very best of everything in 2009.

Skywatch, it's good to be back!

2008-12-11T19:39:00.003+02:00

Here's something you don't see every day!

The small helicopter landed in a swamp, and started sinking. In order not to lose it, the large one was called in for an emergency recovery, to pull it out before it disappeared under the raft of papyrus reeds! To see more Skywatch photos, go to the site and follow the links, you'll see wonderful photos and meet a great bunch of people from around the world!

I have been out of blogland for a while, but am looking forward to visiting around tomorrow, now that life is getting back to normal.

taxi lunacy

2008-11-21T07:54:00.003+02:00

Ok, so it is a sort of unwritten, accepted fact that, when you live in Africa, life is seldom logical and predictable. In fact it is one of the attractions of living in this crazy-colourful-charismatic-chaotic continent.... you know, life on the edge, adreniline rush just by waking up, that kind of thing!

But sometimes the things that happen in society, and the way the government reacts (or fails to react, most likely, in our current dispensation) are so gobsmackingly illogical, destructive, STUPID, that even when allowing for the 'life in Africa' factor, they cause you to sit back and shake your head in wonder.

Minibus Taxis are the subject of much heated debate in South Africa. The industry emerged out of the repressive Apartheid years, mushrooming as freedom of movement was suddenly allowed, and government control over public transport ended.

They quickly set themselves up as the mafia of movement, the terror of transport, the scourge of the streets, the killer of commuters....... you get the picture.

Over the years, a kind of dumb acceptance has settled in, there is one set of rules for taxi drivers and another for the rest of society. The rules of the road apply to normal drivers, taxis have only 1 rule... 'stay off my turf or prepare to die'.

Now I know all this sounds extreme, and by now you are thinking "what is this woman ranting on about? She must be exaggerating."

Well I wish I was. In South Africa, to enter a minibus taxi is to play Russian Roulette.

If you are a woman,or even a child, there is a very good chance that you will suffer some form of abuse. It has been publicly announced that any woman boarding a taxi in a short skirt is making a declaration that she wants to be raped.
Overloading is the norm, and taxis designed with tight seating for 14 have been frequently found to have up to 30 onboard.
Roadworthiness of the vehicle seems to be a relative thing.... normal cars need to meet certain standards, taxis can fall to pieces around their passengers with impunity.
if you happen to enter a taxi involved in a turf war, you stand a good chance of being caught in crossfire, shootouts between taxi drivers have become so common that they often don't even make it into the press. Occasionally if an innocent child or bystander gets killed, it may receive a mention.
speeding down multi lane thoroughfares, weaving in and out of the traffic, stopping suddenly in the middle of a lane of traffic to pick up or drop of passengers, and hooting loudly the whole way is standard taxi behaviour.
the traffic accident statistics are regularly boosted with horrendous taxi accidents in which, due to the overloading, unnecessarily large numbers of people are killed or maimed.

The latest actions of the taxi owners in Port Elizabeth eclipse all this selfishness. Because of all the rah-rah over the 2010 World Cup Soccer, and the sudden realisation that we need infrastructure to cope with the hoped for influx of visitors (don't even get me STARTED on that subject, we'll be here all day!)... the powers that be are constructing a special bus route and upgrading the public transport system.

Perceiving a threat to their strangle-hold on the transport of workers (after all if people have a choice about how to get to work, you can be sure a lot fewer would subject themselves to the abuse handed out by the taxi drivers) they decided to go on strike! Their plan is to let a few hundred thousand people miss work, bring industry to a halt, jeopardise the jobs of the workers which are already under threat due to the economic crisis, and shoot at any bus or car that tries to help them get to work, in order to force the Municipality to abandon plans for improving public transport. To read the response of the Mayor of Port Elizabeth to their letter of demand, go to MyPE.

Now that all this liberty has been won, and the democracy achieved at so high a price, I find it hard to come to terms with the type of people, taxi drivers, politicians and fat cat business men amongst them, who are set on a path of self enrichment at the expense of their own people. There are many thousands of people who depend on taxis to get to work every day, and who work on a 'no work, no pay' basis. Thousands of scholars also rely on them, and those writing their Matric final exams have been unable to get there. They are the ones who are paying for the greed of this handful of people who control the lives of so many.

I will give you just one example. I have a domestic worker who comes to my house twice a week. She works for someone else for another two days. She is a widow in her mid 50s, with 4 children to support. One is studying, (on a bursary) one is still at school, and the other two have left school but have been unable to find work. She is an unskilled worker who works slowly and not very well, largely due to poor health. I pay her well above the average that is paid for such a job, but even so, she earns a pittance for her 4 days of labour. Every cent counts. She was in despair this morning when she phoned and said there were still no taxis or busses, so she can't come to work today. I offered to collect her, but she said no, it is not safe. Even though I said I would pay her, because it is not her fault, it will still be only next week before she can come and collect her money.

Now the things I battle to come to terms with are these....

The people who are most at risk in all this are the passengers, who are PAYING CUSTOMERS!! These are the people who had the courage to stand against a repressive regime and use passive resistance and mass action to win their freedom. Yet they tolerate this abuse and blatant disregard for their lives from the taxi drivers.

I cannot comprehend how someone will, day after day, PAY someone for a service, and willingly submit to being treated so badly. With the high level of unionization in this country, and emphasis on human rights, workers rights, consumers rights, democratic rights and freedom to choose, it is just beyond me why a lobby has not yet been formed to insist on the taxis putting the comfort and safety of their customers first.

And I also wonder where the law enforcement in our country is whenever the taxis break the law.

Do the taxi operators think that being "previously disadvantaged " gives them the right to trample on the rights of all the other previously disadvantaged people who stood side by side with them, to bring about the freedom from oppression that makes their industry possible?

The best quote that comes to mind in this regard is one of my favourites from former President Nelson Mandela...

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

What I've done.........

2008-11-20T19:48:00.003+02:00

I found this on Janet’s blog, and thought it looked like fun. If you want to play along just copy this and then bold the things you've done.

I HAVE….

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

And…

100. Ridden an elephant

Wow 52, more than half... One thing I really really want to do sometime is go to Antarctica, but somehow doubt if it will happen. ..... in the meantime I travel vicariously, I read everything I can find about it, and drool over iceberg photos!

Congratulations, Ian and Cursty!

2008-11-15T19:01:00.014+02:00

31st October 2008, Curstaidh Mitchell and Ian Hoppe got married in Port Elizabeth.

It was a FAB FAB event, with wellwishers flying in from all over the world.

Ian and Vaughn..................................................................cousins

the maters....................................................................Cursty's parents, Charlie and Jude

the stunning bride

the kids had a ball, Miss Millie, Ethan, Katie and Carla

The ceremony........

The dinner....

The party....

Congratulations and thanks for a wonderful wedding. We love you lots and wish you all the best and many, many, many years of happiness together.

erratic blogging

2008-10-28T07:29:00.005+02:00

Hi, I am shocked to see that it is almost 3 weeks since I last posted, I don't know where my life is rushing off to, but I feel like I am trailing behind! One thing that has been happening is the arrival of our son, his fiance and their daughter from Sudan, along with friends and family from around the world, and they are getting married on Friday. So we are having a great time getting to know the visitors and showing them around, and of course it is wonderful to see the kids again.

It is SOOO great getting to know our granddaughter, who was a pink blob the last time we saw her, and is now an amazing little person with a strong will and delightful nature.

On Saturday we went off to the much anticipated airshow, and had a great day of ooohing and aaahing over the aerial antics, while simultaneously keeping an eye on energetic grandchildren at ground level, and getting pretty sunburnt and wind buffetted into the bargain.

Last week I went out with the plein air painting group, and had a fabulous time ferretting around in a steam train graveyard, I took enough photos to fill a blog for months! So as usual, I emerge from the whirlwind, wondering where to start when it comes to posting photos.
Perhaps I should start with one or two of each of these events, and then if time permits, I will enlarge on them later.

The airshow was great fun. Even the little Miss Millie was fascinated by the helicopter display. Since she lives near a runway in a war zone, I guess this is par for the course as far as she is concerned!

There is something very bizarre about watching 3 large noisy machines, decked out in camouflage colours, dancing gracefully together through the sky, to the strains of Bolero.... really cool!
This year's airshow included a real action packed mock hijacking display, with fake baddies attacking a fake tourist bus, holding hostages, firing automatic weapons and throwing grenades at the special task teams and dog units sent in to catch them. A sniper in a police helicopter mopped up and the medical rescue helicopter airlifted the "casualties" to hospital. The crowd loved it, but as a tourist, Miss Millie's mom found it a bit un-nerving that the South African audience were watching this as if it is an everyday occurence.... which it practically is in some areas!
What none of us realised at the time was that a real life drama was going on during one of the displays, and one of the helicopters was diverted to track down some thieves who had been spotted breaking into a home, and were being pursued by the home owner, before taking cover in thick bush. One of them was arrested, while the other two got away!

Even with all this excitement going on, little boys have a short attention span, but boredom and impending nagging to go home were skillfully dealt with by grandpa, who bought a toy helicopter in the nick of time, and bought us a few extra hours of enjoyment in the process!

For me, the highlight of any airshow is always the formation flying. I adore the artistry and skill of aerobatics, but when it is combined with the precision and teamwork of flying close together at high speed, it makes for breathtaking displays.

The Apple Express is narrow gauge steam train and a very popular tourist attraction in PE. In its heyday, it was run by the railways, and had a few pristine engines to choose from. Sadly it was allowed to get into a sad state, and was eventually rescued and taken over by a private enterprise. These enthusiasts struggle along, trying to keep it viable, whilst working hard to keep the high maintenance trains going. In the old Apple Express yard, all is now ruin and decay. the buildings are falling apart..........

and several old trains are rusting away on a siding.

Whilst this is a great shame, it also gives rise to wonderful photo opportunities, and I will do a post sometime on some of the images I took while we were sketching the trains.

I LOVE A RAINY DAY!

2008-10-09T07:18:00.008+02:00

PE has a reputation for being the "4 seasons in 1 day" city.... so rapid changes from 1 extreme to the other are no surprise to us. Funnily enough, our climate is actually relatively mild, in terms of heat and cold, we never get snow and whine if it goes below 6 degrees C, likewise if it is hovering at 30 degrees C we are swanning around feeling the heat, so the label might be a bit misleading.

Having said that, it is true that in PE, we get into the habit of dressing in layers, that can be peeled off or added on as needed, because we never quite know what the day is going to turn out like. Yesterday seemed like a standard, slightly drizzly day. As a point of reference I have included this picture of how a normal rainy day looks from our dining room window, taken around this time last year....

But yesterday around 9am, after the sun had already been up for over 3 hours, A belt of mist came across and it suddenly got so dark that the streetlights came on. It is the first time I can remember that happening in the morning, since we got here 30 years ago, it was VERY dark.

We couldn't see the little church down the road at all. Even the street lights were barely visible!

It cleared slightly, and the cold front was clearly visible curving across the sky, with a tumbling mass of clouds below it on the horizon.

As you can see from the grass in the park, it has been quite dry lately.This was taken at 9.18 am, just as the heavens opened in earnest, thunder, lightening, the whole 9 yards.

By 9.47 the park looked like this....

Throughout the day there were warnings on the local radio station of high winds, hail and heavy rain, road closures and traffic accidents, as we followed its progress across the region. Today it is cold and very windy, and the mop-up begins! So much for spring ..... Think I'll curl up with a book, a cup of coffee and a couple of cats on my lap..... !

......Nothing like a bit of escapism when it seems that the world around you is going completely mad! In the midst of all the hectic activity in our lives, running from one art exhibition and neighbourhood watch meeting or late night patrol to the next, we woke up one morning recently to find our State President had been fired... Now don't get me wrong, he was pretty useless, and spent so little time in South Africa that he was totally out of touch with what was going on here, but in comparison with the alternative, he was a way better proposition. It has been nothing short of disgusting (not to mention a little discouraging) to see the ANC wrangle and tangle, with no regard for the country that elected it, in order for a few leaders to get themselves out of legal hot water, and establish their power bases. With the unbelievable situation in Zimbabwe dragging itself out to the North of us, and the economy free-falling, it seems like the former sane and stable part of Africa is on the brink of becoming like the rest of the continent.

But wait, who is this knight in shining armour we see riding over the horizon? And he seems to have a jovial companion in a purple robe......
Looks like former defense minister Mosioua Lekota and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have had enough! They have taken a stand against what the ANC is doing, and have spoken out against all the members who are so busy chasing their personal agendas at the expense of the Nation. Good for these courageous men, all strength to them as they try and turn the tide of political self interest that is sweeping our nation!

In the meantime, kettle is on, where's my book? ..... come kitties.....

heave to me hearties!

2008-09-28T20:12:00.006+02:00

I have mentioned before how alluring tall ships are to me.... the romance of a bygone era, the courage of those early seafarers, the craftsmanship of the ship builders and the sheer aesthetic beauty of these ships really does it for me! So imagine my delight on hearing that the Portuguese Navy Training vessel Sagres would be paying us a visit.

Along with half of Port Elizabeth, it seems, we went there this afternoon, and smuggled our cameras into the harbour to capture her beautiful lines (har har very punny, but seriously, speaking of lines, those thick white ropes everywhere were very impressive!)

So here is a bunch of pix to share the joy, so to speak!

this 'n that

2008-09-16T05:12:00.006+02:00

Hi, here are some random shots taken in the last few weeks. I am busy preparing for another exhibition so blogging time, for both posting and visiting, has been very sparse lately. There are all sorts of political issues i am dying to rant about, but they will have to stand in line and hopefully my addled brain will remember to come back to them when time permits!

A stroll along the beachfront one evening resulted in these shots, it was SOOOOOOOOOOO restful and beautiful absorbing all that reflected colour!

And just as breathtaking was the sunrise as seen from the Donkin reserve on Sunday the week before last.

The coral tree was in full bloom, they are interesting indigenous trees that drop their leaves and clothe themselves in masses of flowers which look amazing against the bare branches and blue skies. (Erythrina Caffra for those who need a formal introducion)

And after years of frustrated attempts to get inside Fort Frederick, we finally found it unlocked the other day. I enjoyed taking pix, but to be perfectly honest, after all those attempts, it was something of an anticlimax. I know the history of the place, (built in 1799, earliest remaining structure built in PE etc) but for any tourist who happened in there, the lack of any info would make it a pretty lame stop. But then what do I know, I'm just a girl, young Ethan was wildly excited by all the "big guns" (canons) around the walls and ran around making suitable machine gun noises.

Sepia seemed an apt medium to give a sense of history to the thick old stone walls of the blockhouse.

And then, unusual in this part of the world, we had a wonderful pyrotechnics display the other night, courtesy of mother nature, with the odd hailstone thrown in for good measure.
(A bit wobbly, handheld, there is a better one on PEDP.)

recent storm claims victim....

2008-09-07T15:41:00.004+02:00

Sadly, my pet giraffe, who lived with her partner in our back courtyard, lost her head in the gale....

Literally! ...........

Her husband was rocked by the loss of his spouse.........

while a ferocious feline predator took full advantage of the unexpected windfall!

Spring? You coulda fooled me!!

2008-09-03T07:29:00.015+02:00

We have had an interesting couple of days, so the rest of the trip to Capetown is still on hold.

A massive cold front swept through the southern part of the country, causing havok along the coast. As you might know by now, I ADORE foul weather, so I have been running around since Sunday like a kid in a candy store, snapping away and trying to capture images that convey the conditions. In the process I discovered a fascinating place and met one of life's unique people.

On Sunday Mr Farty and I bundled up warmly (not warmly enough if his hunched shoulders were anything to go by!!!)

..... and went out in the howling gale to see what the sea was up to. As the storm coincided with very high spring tides, warnings had been issued about rough seas and freak waves. Even as we were leaving home in Richmond Hill, we could see that the breakwater was taking a pounding.

Usually a pretty good gauge of the waves is the New Brighton Pier. On normal days you will see fishermen all along its length, and the pier is high above water level, but on Sunday the waves were engulfing it as they rolled by.

On Monday it was WAY worse, see our Spring Day post on Port Elizabeth Daily Photo for some spectacular shots taken from the freeway.

Because there was an offshore wind, the breakers were being whipped back and the spray was catching the lowering sun, and making lovely rainbow colours.

We went along to Kings Beach. Beach? What beach? The water was all the way up to the access road!

.... and the sand was blasting off the top of the dunes. The lifeguards tower was wallowing forlornly in the water.

Further along Restaurante de Mauro was taking a hammering too, and the spray being whipped off the waves was really beautiful.

Returning home, we spotted a huge flock of terns circling above Kings Beach.

The following day dawned cold and clear, and Max phoned to say the news was mentioning that there was snow in the Eastern Cape. On an impulse, I phoned K and asked if she and wee E would like to go off looking for it. On the way it struck me how different our sense of distance is in Africa, because we are so used to huge open spaces between towns. To us it is quite a normal practice to hop into the car and drive somewhere 300km away for the day. I realise most people who live in Europe will think it is totally insane to drive the equivalent of London to Scotland for a day's outing, but that's Africa for you!

We decided to head for Hogsback, and stopped on the way for breakfast in Grahamstown. Then we started towards Fort Beaufort, winding our way up the passes as we climbed inland.

We rounded a bend and squealed with delight as we spotted snow on a distant mountain.

So off we headed enthusiastically towards it. We passed through Fort Beaufort, and Alice. But as we left Alice, heading towards Hogsback, I could see that there was no snow on these mountains, the one we had seen was much further to the North East. So I phoned Mr Farty to send me the number of the delightful Granny Mouse house in Hogsback, where we have had some really nice stays. (And by the way, as I was hunting for a link, I realised that I promised in MAY that I would show you this magic place, and somehow time and events overtook me, so that is another journey we must do soon!) The ever friendly Ingrid laughed when I told her we had driven all that way to see snow, apparently it had snowed there the previous day, but had already melted by the time we got there, RATS! So we turned around and headed back to Alice, where we filled up with petrol. At the garage there was a guy in a really well maintained old Porsche, rather an unlikely car to see in this remote country area! I asked him about the snow, and he said it was FAAAAAAR away on the Winterberg Mountains. He lives there, 8km from the snow, and said even in a really powerful 4x4 it would take 2 and a half hours to travel that 8km because the terrain is so rugged. So that was the end of that! But as we headed back through Fort Beaufort, we decided to make the best of it, and as we passed the museum, we decided to pop in for a quick look around.

Boy did we underestimate that place! It was absolutely fascinating, and a well laid out balanced display showing the history and lifestyles from the point of view of the original tribes who lived there, as well as the British soldiers and Settlers who were tasked with establishing it as a frontier for the Colonial Government. Room after room of well labelled and well kept artefacts greeted us. Just as we were leaving, having taken in a fraction of what is there, because it would really take several days to see and absorb it all, a rather shabby looking man shuffled up to us. He asked what our interestrs were, and we said just general history. So he said that the museum was about to undergo a reshuffle, and would we like to see something else.

Now don't forget that we are city girls, who live practically under seige to criminals back home, and had a 4 year old with us. So every defense mechanism was bristling.... was it safe to go with this man who, although he looked like a hobo, seemed to be in posession of the keys to the museum? My natural liking for eccentrics took over, I didn't want to offend him, so we followed him into a little courtyard, with a lovely view across a river to the mountains beyond.

It was full of all sorts of bric-a-brac, which is going to find its way into the new displays.

He unlocked a door and ushered us into a large room, which turned out to be the old blacksmith's workshop. I still had ash in the fireplace and an ENORMOUS set of bellows, and a fascinating assortment of tools. He also showed us his magnificent collection of vintage clothes and uniforms.

I asked his name, and at this point he disappeared, leaving K and I looking at each other with slack jaws.He returned wearing a cap with a moose on it, told us his name was Moose van Rensberg, and proceeded to tell a long and involved story about how he had decided in his youth to become a professional bum, and earned the name on his travels. He eventually settled down in Fort Beaufort, married, and has now been the curator of the museum for the past 20 years.

He said we must go for a walk with him as he had something more to show us. Again the defences sprung up, and I tried to excuse us by saying we needed to find Ethan some lunch. He said "well you are wasting time then, come on" and Ethan said "granny, you are wasting time!" So we had no choice but to follow!

We walked along the street, enjoying the lovely old historic buildings,

....and came to one with the original old curved veranda, which turned out to be Moose's home, which he calls the Mooseum.

The dining room has no curtains, just a stunning collection of old bottles covering the window.

Moose led us through the kitchen and into a back garden that was like entering wonderland.

It was a menagerie of animals and birds in interleading aviaries, with bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, chickens, pigeons, budgies a tortoise, dogs, cats and many other types of birds co-habiting happily together. Ethan was delighted.

There was an outdoor pub in one corner, called the "Horny bar"! .....

and a door covered with old Apartheid era signs......

By this time we had long since had the feeling that we had entered a time warp, and moved back in time a couple of centuries......but t his feeling was completely confirmed when we left his house, and there across the street was a man taking photographs....

with an old bellows camera and a red cloth draped over his head! We returned to the car in a daze of sensory overload, and tucked into some 'padkos', (literally food for the road)

and the little guy was gone for the trip home!

What a magic day of dropping off the planet. We returned to a bit of harsh reality, in the form of a monster traffic jam caused by the freeway being awash with monster waves. You can read all about that on the Port Elizabeth Daily Photo blog if you follow the link near the top of this post.

All creatures great and small

2008-08-31T08:13:00.008+02:00

We interrupt this journey to Cape Town ..... to bring you another short trip!

It was Mr Farty's birthday yesterday and we decided to treat him to a picnic at one of his favourite places, the Addo Elephant Park.

the birthday boy

It is only 70 km from here, so perfect for a day trip, or even, as in our case, a half day, because we had to wait for our son-in-law J to get home from work. K and I (supervised by young Ethan, who did the quality control) made chicken and avo tortilla wraps, and sweetcorn fritters. Due to many ... well let's just call them "baking malfunctions" that I have suffered over the years, we have a sort of unwritten agreement that K will handle any baking that is required for special occasions. She has become so good at substituting ingredients that she can now produce a gluten free, dairy free, cholesteral free carrot cake that still feels and tastes as good as the real macoy! Mr Farty went off and bought the fruit juices and spring waters, and when J got home, we were ready to roll. We all piled into Thandi, who was bought for just such occasions, and headed for the Park.

One thing we found to be a delicate balance was explaining to Ethan how dangerous the big game can be, while at the same time wanting him to enjoy them and not be scared of them. Just after we drove through the gate, we encountered a large lone buffalo bull. As you can see he is clearly having a bad hair day, and looks lonely, comical and docile. To Ethan, he looked like any number of friendly cows he has already met. So he wanted to yell out the window, and was surprised when we were all shushing him! The reality is that the docile looking animal right next to the car is one of the meanest tempered and most unpredictable of the African big game. (In fact, when we went camping at Mana Pools in Zimbabwe a few years ago, a woman had been killed by a buffalo there the previous week. And Ann, who ran the Kariba Breezes Hotel on the shores of Lake Kariba, and from whom we used to rent boats to go across to Sanyati, was also killed by a buffalo.) But we didn't want to freak him out, so we explained how wild animals don't like noise etc. Later this week, K will explain to him all about how wild they are, even if they don't look it!

The great thing about a place like Addo, for us, is that it is not just about the big 5 (elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard) although all are found in the park. We can derive as much joy from watching the antics of the birds and dung beetles as we can from the big guys. Yesterday really was a sort of "all creatures great and small" day.

We started off at the picnic site overlooking a large waterhole, which was unusually dry, and did not have the usual large crowd of animals hanging around it. As we unwrapped the lunch, the trees were suddenly all aflutter with a variety of birds, who are clearly used to being fed and were remarkably tame. If they hadn't all been so cute and colourful, it might have felt a bit like something out of the Hitchcock/Du Maurier movie!!!

Cape Weavers, Spotted back weavers, Cape Glossy starling and fork tailed drongo

Despite the very large quantity of enormous elephant droppings on the road ( a fact that delighted Ethan, who is at that age where toilet humour can double him up!) we did not see a single dung beetle. This was very disappointing, as they are fascinating creatures and I was dying to see Ethan's reaction to a creature who eats poo and rolls it into balls!

But we did see the old lone Buffalo, and a large Jackal, who was off on a mission of his own and didn't wait around to pose for Max! We also came across Red Hartebees, warthogs and a distant group of Eland.

We also saw numerous kudu of all ages (in fact they are getting really common in the park, it gets to the point where you hardly blink as you come across another group.)

But of course, Addo is all about the big boys, and at first we were surprised how few we were seeing. Just the odd lone bull lurking behind a bush,

and one drinking from the outlet pipe of the spring that feeds the Domkrag Dam.

(Domkrag literally means "dumb strength" and was named after a famous HUGE leopard tortoise who lived in the park many years ago. The word also means 'jack' in Afrikkans, and this tortoise had a peculiar habit of walking in behind cars and lifting them up with enormous strength. Domkrag came to a sad end when he fell into an aardvark hole and couldn't get himself out. His shell is still on display in the reception foyer.)

But then a huge group approached the waterhole as we were leaving, and things got pretty exciting.

Again, it is hard to see them when docile like this, and realise that they can be very dangerous. Fortunately Addo elephants are much less aggressive than their Zimbabwean counterparts, especially the ones in the Zambezi Valley. Anyone who grew up in Zim either knows someone who has been charged or has been charged themselves, (as have both Max and I) and has the greatest respect for these giants of the bush. The most lethal are the mommies with small babies, you do NOT want to mess with these ladies!

We found ourselves hemmed in by cars in front of and behind us, bush to the left, and a large group of mommies and babies walking along the road next to us. We literally held our breath as one momma looked right at us with a beady eye and flapping ears, as her baby came up behind her. My window was wide open, and I couldn't close it because the noise and movement might have made her feel threatened, so we just sat and hoped that Ethan wouldn't choose that moment to tell us again that elephants are "velly plitty" .... little guy still has a hard time getting his tongue around 'r's! Luckily he didn't, and they strolled gently past.... whew.

Next week we will resume our Capetown trip, and see a different kind of African beauty.

where do I begin?

2008-08-29T19:11:00.003+02:00

So much has been going on in the last few weeks that I really don't know if I can even remember it all. If I tried to go through it all in chronological order I'd have to write a book. So suffice to say that the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of exhibitions, painting, granson's birthday party, weekend in St Francis, Crime Forum , Gallery and Body Corporate committee meetings, sitting for a portrait (!!!!!!) and a trip to Capetown.

So I think I'll just start at the end, and fast forward to the trip. I adore long distance driving, and my absolute best is when I am on a long trip alone in the car, is to have my music going and me singing along full volume. (Trust me, with my voice this can ONLY ever happen when alone on the road!) Sadly, I soon discovered that this was one pleasure I would not enjoy on this trip, because I had a sore throat and the first song was mutilated worse than usual with excruciating croaks and squeaks, followed by a coughing fit. Oh well, never mind, just settle down and enjoy the scenery.

What could be cooler than relaxing behind the wheel, travelling along in no particular rush, and enjoying scenery which is world famous for its beauty? The coastal belt between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth is known as the garden route, because of the wonderful variety of indigenous vegetation along the way. It is mostly bounded by the sea on one side and mountains on the other.

Between Swellendam and Grabbouw the land is a tapestry of farmlands, including the most wonderful fields of Canola, grown for its oil. It flowers profusely in a rich lemon yellow.

This isn't the greatest photo, I shot it through a rather bug splatted window at 120 km per hour, but I have included it to show you the stunning solid yellow colour of the canola fields.

I have a "thing" about lighthouses, and the one in Mossel Bay is particularly interesting because it is built on a rocky headland, and from below, you can see that it has been built over a large cave.

I have often seen it from below, but this was the first time that i have taken the time to drive to the top and see it from the gardens that surround it.

I even had company, i was being closely watched by this little chap... a Rock Hyrax, or as we call them Dassie. (Believe it or not, although this looks like a rodent, its closest relative in the animal kingdom is the elephant!)

Right, so we are halfway there, we'll continue the journey in the next post.

i'm off again

2008-08-18T07:01:00.002+02:00

hi, apart from ongoing hassles with blogger, resulting in hours of wasted time with no post uploading, I will also be away for the next week, so please bear with me ... hopefully when i get back I will have completed the move across to wordpress, and will have some nice new pix of the Garden Route and Capetown for you. And I will be able to resume visits and catch up with all of you then. Have a LEKKER week! (Afrikaans meaning nice... but so much stronger than nice, kind of ...lovely -nice -good -enjoyable rolled into one descriptive word!)

cruising the bay part 2

2008-08-12T21:44:00.002+02:00

After leaving St Croix Island, we headed for the third of the little rocky outcrops in this part of Algoa Bay, Jahleel, Island.

We were accompanied by a huge Antarctic Skua, a mean tempered scavenger, who flew low over our boat and then deposited a very nasty looking dropping in the sea, we were most grateful for his good timing!

It is not particularly interesting so we bypassed it and headed for the breakwater of the new deepwater harbour at Coega. I have written in some detail about these concrete structures, called dolosse in a previous post. They are enormous, about 25 tons each, and although they look as if they were randomly scattered, each one was precisely postioned using GPS. In front of the breakwater a seal was sleeping, wallowing around in the water with his flippers sticking up. He looked dead until he shook his head, and paid no attention to the boat at all.

We continued along, hugging the coast to avoid the increasing wind and swell, when, near St George's Strand, BINGO!! There in front of us, very close to the beach, we came across a pair of Southern Right whales. We acompanied them for 20 minutes as they gently wallowed along, apparently unfased by our presence. It was so wonderful and humbling being so close to these awesome and peaceloving creatures.

Reluctantly leaving the whales behind, and very aware of what a privilege it was to be in their company for a while, we moved on down the coast, heading past the mouth of the Swartkops River, just as some canoes paddled out to sea.

We passed one of the important beacons that keeps shipping safe, the Deal Light on the Eastern outskirts of town.

And then, as we entered the harbour and passed the harbour Master's tower, it was full throttle back to our berth, and the end of a really memorable and special experience. Thanks Llloyd, it was wonderful!

cruising the bay

2008-08-11T19:04:00.003+02:00

Max and I have a thing about whales, and every year we make a point of spending time at the coast, looking out for them. When we went on our wonderful sunset sail a while ago, we met Lloyd Edwards, who runs an operation called Raggy Charters. Lloyd is both passionate and very knowledgeable about marine life in Algoa Bay and is involved in all sorts of marine conservation, education and research projects. In order to fund these, he has written a stunning book called Scenes from Algoa Bay, full of photos he has collected over his years of boating in the bay. In addition, he offers charters around the bay to the public.

Lloyd at the wheel of Orca 2, with Brenton Island in the background

We have been wanting to go on one of these ever since, and had decided that we would treat each other to a 3 hour whale watching and island cruise for each other's birthdays this year. Although the actual days are later in the year, we needed to book early while the whales are still in the Bay, as there is only a 3 month window of opportunity from June to September each year. We have been waiting for the right time, as far as available free time, weather etc is concerned, and finally it all came together.

There is, of course, no guarantee that we would see any whales, it is a very big bay, and the whales, although their numbers have recovered in recent years, are still not THAT plentiful. But it is a chance one takes, and anyway it would be fascinating to see the islands that we normally see as dark specks on the horizon when we look across the bay from our house.

So at 8.30 am we set off to the yacht club, and off we went on the Orca 2 catamaran. A gale and 5m swells had been forecast, and it was REALLY cold, but the sea wasn't too bad yet. After various infamous episodes in the past where both of us had deposited our breakfast in an inelegant fashion, I took the precaution of dosing us up with motion-sickness tablets, which, as it turned out, was a good thing, because there were times I felt very green around the gills, and if it hadn't been for the pills I would definitely have added to my already impressive portfolio of embarrassing moments!

For those of you who share my love of maps, and knowing where the things you are seeing are situated, here is a google image showing the hightlights of the cruise.

Did you know that whales leave 'footprints'?

Neither did we, until we saw a whale spouting nearby. It turned out to be a Brydes Whale. They are permanent residents of the bay, and are very shy creatures. They are also fast swimming predators who spend time chasing fish, so they are very hard to spot. We immediately headed fast in that direction, but the whale dived under the boat and dissappeared. The reason Lloyd was able to follow the movement of the whale and know which direction it was swimming in was because he is so practiced at seeing the "footprints" they leave in the water as they move along. If you look at the pattern of ripples on the water in front of the boat in the picture above, you will see an elyptical patch of smooth water to the bottom left.

This is the footprint, and you can learn to track whales by recognising them.

Our next milestone was Brenton Island, a bleak little outcrop of rock. From this angle, you can see the larger, but no less bleak, St Croix island peeping out beyond it.

Leaving Brenton and approaching St Croix, we noticed little clusters of penguins floating on the sea, and diving in after fish periodically.

We came around the windward side of St Croix, and immediately saw what a bleak and inhospitable place it is, stark, arid and windswept. Your first impression is that no living thing could survive there.

But as we rounded the island, our eyes adjusted to the well camoflaged clusters of birds nesting on the bare rocky slopes. Look closely and you will see lots of birds in this picture!

We saw penguins,

black cormorants,

white chested cormorants,

and the endangered black oystercatcher too.

It was quite amazing to see such a collection of birds clinging to life on this unfriendly windswept rock!

The cross on St Croix Island is a replica of one left by the Portugese explorer, Bartolomeu Diaz, way back in the 1488. Joshua Slocum talks about Algoa Bay in his book 'Sailing Alone Around the World':
"The early Portuguese navigators, endowed with patience, were more than sixty-nine years struggling to round this cape before they got as far as Algoa Bay, and there the crew mutinied. They landed on a small island, now called Santa Cruz, where they devoutly set up the cross, and swore they would cut the captain's throat if he attempted to sail farther. Beyond this they thought was the edge of the world, which they too believed was flat; and fearing that their ship would sail over the brink of it, they compelled Captain Diaz, their commander, to retrace his course, all being only too glad to get home. A year later, we are told, Vasco da Gama sailed successfully round the "Cape ofStorms," as the Cape of Good Hope was then called, and discovered Natal on Christmas or Natal day; hence the name. From this point the way to India was easy."

St Croix has been home to a couple of unsuccessful enterprises over the years. If you look carefully at the picture below, you can see the rusted remains of a large metal pot on the rocks. This was used by whalers to boil whale blubber, but the shark population around the island proved to much for them, they couldn't cope with the sharks jumping clear of the water to steal their whale meat, and abandoned the venture.

In the 1950s, an attemp was made to collect guano, and these cottages were built. But the island proved too inhospitable, and it was not viable trying to collect on the steep slopes, so that was also abandoned.

in this picture you can see the abandoned cottages of the guano collectors, and to the left is the smuggler's cave which goes about 30m into the rock of the island.

This makes it a great place for smugglers, and conservationists like Lloyd are constantly on the lookout for such activities, in fact when we arrived there was a boat there for a bit of illegal fishing, a fact that was duly noted and reported. A while ago Lloyd found a huge stash of Perlemoen (abalone) in the cave, left there for collection by poachers.

Who would have thought a little bare rock could be such a fascinating place? I will continue with the cruise in the next few days.... and we will meet the whales!

Braving the elements

2008-08-09T17:25:00.000+02:00

Hi, well we all know by now that I am an all or nothing kinda gal, but still, 3 weeks of silence is unusual. It's not that I've had nothing going on or nothing to say, but just that by the time I settle down at night, my mind is so fried that I just don't even have the mental energy to string words together or form a coherent response to any post I read. In fact I haven't even been doing much lurking this time, it has almost been like a kind of sensory overload where I just can't absorb any new information. So I hope no-one feels abandoned, neglected or ignored because I have not been returning visits and comments, I just really needed to recharge my batteries! And then, when I was ready to get going again, we had a whole upload hassle, which we are still trying to sort out. We have narrowed it down to a conflict between blogger and our adsl service provider, as we can upload on blogger with our cellphones.

There is so much to share with you, including a stunning whale watching expedition we went on last week, some spectacular sunsets, family news etc, but rather than try and fit it all in one post, and make it ridiculously long, I’ll just nibble away at it over the next few days. Apart from anything else, we are in St Francis at the moment, and I am blogging on my cellphone, which can get a bit pricey if you go mad with pictures and visiting blogs, so a modicum of restraint is called for!

Today is my favourite kind of day to be in St Francis.... it is cold and blowing a serious gale, but not raining. So it is possible to sit on the rocks near the lighthouse, being buffeted by the wind, and soak up the wonderful impressions being made on all one’s senses, before retreating indoors for the comfort of a warm cup of coffee and an English Muffin.

the lighthouse faithfully and sturdily doing its job, as it has since 1878, on days like this it really earns its keep!

Experiencing nature having a tantrum is both humbling and exhilarating. It is a sort of sensory feast that includes intense beauty, but not in the usual passive way that one experiences the beauty of, say, a peaceful lake or tropical beach. This also demands participation, in order to avoid being overcome by the overabundance of wildness.

Even taking photos involves more than the usual decisions about zooming, exposure and placement of focal point. Now it is also about protecting the camera from flying spray and foam, but at the same time not wanting to miss the wonderful scenes in the teeth of the wind.

It is about bracing oneself and trying to hold the camera steady whilst staggering on the rocks, as the wind attempts to tear one from ones viewpoint, and deciding at what point it is no longer worth the risk.

It is about seeing seething wildness all around, and deciding how best to capture the atmosphere it creates in a static two dimensional photograph, devoid of the accompanying sensations of cold, muscles all working against the buffeting, and the overpowering screeching sound that is pervading everything, and almost drowning the roar of the waves as they are shredded on the rocks.

So as you look at these photos, taken just after sunrise this morning, please imagine the soundtrack of any movie you might have seen, dealing with storms at sea or in the Arctic wastes, and add that sound to the mental images.

I often wonder about this compulsion to record every scene for posterity, this seeing everything through the lens of a camera. There is no denying the satisfaction of viewing one’s images later, seeing it all again, capturing a fleeting moment so that it can be seen over and over. But it also removes one from being “in the moment”. It takes away the sheer luxury of letting oneself be totally immersed in experiencing fully what is around one. So more and more, at times like this (and especially if it is a rare event that I may never get a chance to experience again, such as being in the boat right next to a pair of Southern Right Whales last week) I am trying to consciously stop taking pictures once I feel I have captured the moment as best I can, and then to just turn on all my other senses, look around and see the big picture, and to fully experience all that it entails. There is a world of difference between the two, both have their merits, and to do one to the exclusion of the other is to lose out. So this morning having photographed the wildness as best I could, I tucked the camera back inside my anorak, and just stood and fully participated in all the sensations of the storm. It was such a treat!

here's someone who really knows how to enjoy the elements first hand... a lone surfer making the most of the swell.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

2008-08-07T07:16:00.001+02:00

5 days now, and we are unable to upload pictures to blogger. Every time we try, we get the following message

Network Error (tcp_error)
A communication error occurred: ""
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.
For assistance, contact your network support team.

On the forum there is a short note from a Google Employee saying there is a problem and they are working on it.... well 5 days is a bit long, you'd think they could at least give updates to their frustrated bloggers!

So reluctantly, we are in the process moving across to Wordpress. I much prefer Blogger, but it seems they have outgrown their capacity and the service offerred when there is a problem is becoming more and more dismal.

So please excuse the enforced absence, and bear with us while we set up the new sites, we'll be back asap!

on another roller coaster ride

2008-07-21T18:04:00.003+02:00

Hi, sorry, i seem to pop onto the blog intermittently these days, in between manic sessions in the studio. As I explained recently on my art blog, doing the actual painting is a fraction of the actual work, there is a bunch of admin, publicity, running around etc that also happens. There are quiet spells, and then ones when everything seems to be happening at once. Now is such a time.... it seems that many of the galleries in town are having open exhibitions and a new gallery is giving me a solo exhibition starting on Friday, so that is enough incentive to do without some sleep and get motivated. My godmother died last week, at the age of 80, and I want to do a tribute to her, but it will have to wait a bit. I know she would understand, she was a brilliant artist and knew what it was like to be driven to create!

But there is just one thing I wanted to mention briefly.... I have posted before about the amazing Red Location Museum.... and shown pictures of the 3 remaining historic huts that remain from the establishment of the location in 1903. If you are interested in the struggle against apartheid, and want to read more about the background to it, and see lots of pix, follow the links.

Anyway, we got a comment on our PE blog this weekend, about how the shacks are under threat, due to vandals and thieves stealing the materials from the shacks and selling them to scrap dealers. There is even a facebook group to help save them.

All this was obviously churning around in my mind, because today, lo and behold, out popped a painting! So here it is.....

the words on the painting read "The time is running out. It is urgent that we unite and work together to mend the rips in the fabric of our society. Our freedom was won at a high cost – and we have the opportunity to rebuild and restore – but there are too many who vandalise, steal and destroy. We need to end the negative actions and save our heritage to remind us of our past- then build the future hand in hand.”

ok, that's it for now.... will chat again in a few days time when the exhibition is up.

Bonus Skywatch... Happy 90th Birthday Madiba

2008-07-18T09:19:00.004+02:00

I just could not let the special significance of this day go by without comment, so I am giving you a second Skywatch post. (The first was posted in the wee small hours, but then I saw this sky this morning and had to add it)

It is so apt, because today is the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, my personal hero, and icon of inspired leadership to many around the world. The sky over Nelson Mandela Bay this morning seemed to beam down rays of light, which is utterly descriptive of his effect on our country, and the world.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADIBA, thank you for being you, and for saving our nation from tyranny. I hope your example resonates with all the leaders who are honoured enough to step in your footsteps. May your selfless humility, deep integrity, steadfast conviction and humanity and strength without bitterness in the face of adversity be an everlasting beacon to all who follow.

I was feeling so inspired in the middle of the night that I did a painting to commemorate this special day.

The words written faintly in gold are a quotation from Nelson Mandela...

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

All new super doopa Skywatch

2008-07-18T01:31:00.001+02:00

You can visit the new Skywatch site for more.....

Nature's Artistry...

2008-07-15T14:36:00.002+02:00

Sometimes nature presents you with such wonderful images that all you can do is marvel at them.

A walk in the Park......

2008-07-12T07:36:00.004+02:00

Parenting is one of those tasks in life for which we are least prepared, and yet it is the most important one we will ever do. To complicate matters it is crammed with paradoxes.... we train them to grow up strong and independent, then miss them like mad when they leave home and go to live halfway across the world.

We avoid showering our kids with all the put-downs we experienced as kids, so that they can grow up with good self esteem, and they pick up on our attitudes to our selves rather than what we are saying about them, so it all perpetuates anyway.

By the time we finally get to middle age, and grow up and learn to like ourselves, our kids have already grown up and are dealing with their own insecurities! But just when it seems that we have blown it, (and don't get me wrong here, our kids are great people!) along comes a second chance! Grandchildren arrive when we are settled and know who we are, and they are a delight! .... except that they often live far away because we did such a good job on the independence thing!

We went through all these dilemmas until our daughter and son in law left Zimbabwe a couple of years ago, and moved nearby. Now, at least one of our grandchildren is able to spend time with us, and we really enjoy our times together.

Last weekend we went for a long walk, and the little guy gamely trotted along with us (ok, lets be more accurate... he ran circles round us!)

He had hundreds of questions about the war memorial at the park entrance....

We looked for rats next to the big pond, where Max photographed them once before....

We fed fish in the pond next to the conservatory.......

He was enchanted by the pergolas....

But his absolute best was hamming it up on the stage of the outdoor thetre where a Shakespeare production is put on annually!

It was sheer delight for all of us.

Skywatch Friday.... having a whale of a time

2008-07-11T07:58:00.005+02:00

We had a wonderful time at Cape St Francis last Sunday, watching the unusual clouds on the horizon, the waves smashing on the rocks......

and humpback whales cruising past..... to see more, see previous post.

Have a great Skywatch, I must apologise in advance that I might not be able to visit as much as I would like to this week. Tom at Wiggers World has links to tons of great blogs who participate in the compulsive pleasure of skywatching!

Chilling and Whale watching

2008-07-09T15:19:00.005+02:00

One of the highlights of our year is the return of the whales to our shores. Each year, between June and September, whales (mostly Southern Right and Humpbacks) return from their feeding grounds in Antarctica to give birth and mate. It is an event we look forward to keenly, and we have a few favourite spots where we like to sit and look for them.

The prime one, for us, is the wild side at Cape St Francis. There are few things in this world that can beat the simple pleasure of sitting on the rough, weather beaten rocks, with waves pounding in front of one, watching pods of whales ambling past, or if you are REALLY lucky, stopping to play.

We have been champing at the bit to get down there since the beginning of June, but were stuck at home, as my extremely high maintenance father was staying with us. However, we despatched him back home (with, I am ashamed to confess, a HUGE sigh of relief!) on Friday afternoon, and with indecent haste took ourselves off for a weekend in St Francis to unwind from the stress of the previous few weeks, and hopefully see a whale.

We only got there quite late on Saturday, and after unpacking, we headed straight for the rocks to see the sunset. We watched for ages, snapped some shots of interesting clouds, and sat in the car checking out each other's photos.

We heard a boom on the water that sounded different to the waves crashing on the rocks, and looked up to see a group of humpback whales right in front of us, lobtailing and creating huge splashes. It was SOOOO exciting! It was already too dark to take decent stills, so I just stood and squealed like a five year old at the pure joy of it. With great presence of mind, Max set his camera to take a movie clip, and despite the poor light, it worked. He will try and post it on his blog in the next few days, and if he does I'll post the link. The one thing that we find hugely frustrating about our cameras is that they film in MOV format, which plays back on Quicktime, an Apple product. It does not seem to be compatable with any of the programmes we have for editing movies. I looked on the site, because I considered getting quicktime pro, but there is no mention of being able to use it to edit clips and make stills from them, on a Windows based PC. I don't want to spend all that money upgrading if the programme will not do what I need it to do. If anyone knows what we should do, please let me know!

This might sound corny to anyone who has not been in the presence of whales, but I find they impart an amazing sense of wellbeing. Even when they are too far away to see anything but the distant spout of vapour as they breathe, somehow their presence is so powerful, peaceful, even joyful. (Obviously not everyone reacts like this, I imagine the guys who handle the harpoons on the whaling ships just see them as a particularly big catch, but less hardened and soul-less individuals seem to be deeply touched by them.)

The next morning we went to watch the sunrise at otters landing .....

.... and saw a school of bottlenose dolphins cruise by. They meant business, and were heading fast across the bay, no playful jumping was going on, so the photos are not too exciting.

Still, this is another animal that has a similar effect to that of the whales, and it is always fun to spot them. I know many people, and particularly surfers, (including our son) who have swum amongst groups of dolphins and they always come out of the water on an absolute high.

After breakfast we headed straight for the lighthouse, because we thought that Seal Point, which offers 360 degree views from the rocks, would be a good place to spot any whales that might be around.

Before long we had spotted the first group...

and by mid morning we had seen 3 families cruise past.

They were not playing like the ones the previous night, and were much further out, but it was still wonderful to have a grandstand view of these awesome creatures.

Nothing could have been more effective in getting rid of the stress of the past 5 weeks, and we went home content and relaxed.

Getting around....

2008-07-07T23:37:00.002+02:00

We're on the road again... first a quick visit to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown...

This is a highly regarded annual event in the South African art world, with a wonderful selection of theatre, music, fine art, dance, craft, and a huge selection of stalls selling all sorts of goodies, gathered in the picturesque historic town of Grahamstown, an hour and a half inland from PE.

My friend Julie and I took a day off last week and decided to check out as many of the art exhibitions as time and our feet would allow! The views as we approached Grahamstown, in its "bowl" between hills, were lovely.

The art exhibitions are housed in various churches and school buildings around town. It is a really pretty little town, established in the early 1820s by the British Settlers who were brought in to help defend the Eastern frontier of the Cape Colony. Many wonderful buildings went up in the early years, with good old fashioned pride in the craftsmanship and attention to detail....

It was a perfect winter's day, clear blue skies, crisp but not too cold.

A few autumn leaves were still clinging tenaciously to the trees, and it was a delight to stroll around the streets, going from one exhibition to the next.

One of the things that gives the festival its atmosphere are the show posters attached to every available surface....

.....and even some surfaces that are not available! (Locals hate them, because they usually end up having to remove them at the end, when everyone has packed up and gone home!)

Here is a tiny selection of the many art exhibitions we saw............

We eventually arrived at the Cathedral, which is the centre of town. When I was a potter in the 80s, the Festival was in its infancy, and far less regulated than it is now. I used to make the trip each year, and set my pottery out on the lawns in front of the Cathedral. Now it is a no trading area.

In this area is the "container village", with the sort of crafts that tourists seem to love, but which are available on just about every street corner throughout Africa.

Going down a little alleyway, one heads for the Village Green. This is a large lawn, set up with white marquees containing more commercial handmade goods. This is a great place to fing unique handmade jewellery, glassware, pottery, clothing, leatherware etc.

Everyone gets in on the act, even Jack and Jill the donkeys, who stand around looking cute and hoping for handouts!

Ok, that's it for today, later this week we'll go whale watching in St Francis!

Skywatch Conservatory

2008-07-03T19:57:00.003+02:00

The lovely old Victorian Conservatory at St George's Park, the perfect place to see the sky whether inside or out! Visit Tom at Wiggers World for links to lots of great sky photos.

Big OOOOps

2008-07-01T13:32:00.003+02:00

I just made what, I think, may stand in line for an entry in the Guiness Book of Records as the most expensive slice of crispbread....

It all started innocently enough. I got home from a hectic session of aquarobics, and thought "breakfast would be nice... " check the fridge, nothing really grabs me... look around, there is only my dad's sliced white bread, which is not my favourite... look in the cupboard and there is a box of crispbread... except it is no longer crisp.

"No problem" I tell myself, "a few seconds in the toaster will re-crisp it, and it will be very nice with mashed avocado pear." Now my immediate family will realise that this is quite a revolutionary statement. Ever since I was a kid, I have thought that avos were the most revolting thing on the planet, almost in the same category as some of the gross items the competitors on Survivor get to sink their long teeth into... my worst was the Tatrantulas.... eeeeuuugh!!! I now LOVE avo, and can't believe the wasted years when I missed out on them! But, as usual, I digress.

However, as I have previously pointed out, I have the attention span of a gnat these days.... so into the toaster went the un-crisp crispbreads, and I turned around to see that the tumble drier had just finished. Off I trundled to fold my dad's laundry before it creased, and as I was finishing that, I heard a strangled yelp from the kitchen.It was Princess, our char, who had arrived in the kitchen to see flames pouring from the toaster and engulfing the top cupboards! The plug, which is in a section of trunking running under the top cupboards, had melted and was dripping a plastic puddle into the toaster
the plastic sides of the toaster were also melting, and the earth leakage had tripped, leaving the whole house without power.

The electrician has just departed, struggling manfully not to laugh openly.

The amazing thing is, just this morning, I was thoroughly enjoying reading Bill Bryson's book "Notes from a Big Country" containing columns he wrote in 1997. One of the chapters deals with his mother's cooking, and clearly if we met, she and I would bond instantly and recognise in each other a soul-sister. To quote Bill Bryson "A combination of haste, forgetfulness and a charming incompetence where household appliances were concerned meant that most of her cooking experiences were punctuated with billows of smoke and occasional small explosions. In our house, as a rule of thumb, it was time to eat when the firemen departed."

I wonder if there is any connection between all this, and the fact that Mr Farty has recently developed a love for raw sprouts, nuts and salads?

sunrise, sunset

2008-06-28T15:09:00.005+02:00

When I took the 'trick photo' for yesterday's Skywatch, the view that initially attracted me and prompted me to run home to fetch my camera was this.....

I had strolled across to collect some documents from a friend who lives nearby. They have awesome views down Albany Road and across the bay, and the mist across the water with a watery sun struggling through and turning the water to a mirror was amazing. It had already changed quite a bit by the time I got back, but it was still quite striking. If you look really closely you will see a ship floating on the horizon.

This is the same road where there was a burst water pipe last week, and when I went to photograph it, the same mirror effect was happening over the sea. Cars splashed through the flood while municipal workers frantically tried to stem the flow.

I don't know why I should expect it, since it is the same optical effect operating in both cases, but I always somehow feel that you should be able to see when you are looking at a sunrise or a sunset, but in fact it seems to be impossible, unless you happen to know from the landmarks whether you are looking towards the East or West at the time. This was sunset of couple of weeks ago, again looking across Albany Road.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who helped with sourcing Bosphorus photos. I have received some lovely ones from people all over the world, another indication of how awesome people in blogland are!

Skywatch .... super-dooper street light

2008-06-26T14:30:00.004+02:00

A REALLY bright street light!

I am appealing for help with sourcing photos that I can use as reference for a painting of the Bosphorus Bridge, that I have been commissioned to do. If you can help, please drop me an e-mail ..... sueatelgeckodotcodotza

Tom at Wiggers world will link you to lots of really cool Skywatch pix. If you have time, go and meet some lovely people around the world.

rum and raisins

2008-06-24T08:45:00.005+02:00

The door opens and a querullous voice issues down the passage...

"Sue, my back is killing me, I need raisins."

I start to explain.... again.... that raisins are not a cure for backache. Backache is a very normal and common aspect of aging, and eating raisins will not help it.

The voice rises several decibels... "I KNOW that raisins help it, and I have been asking for raisins for 3 WEEKS NOW!"

"Dad, you have been asking for raisins for 2 days, and Max bought a large bag yesterday."

..."splutter splutter.... well I didn't know that!"

Here they are....

I try to keep calm, although inside I am quivering like jelly, pity there isn't any drink in the house, I bet a large neat RUM would be really good right now!

Sometimes all you can do is see the funny side, and from now on, I know the prescription to use when anyone complains of aches and pains... instead of raisin' my blood pressure, I will run for the raisins!

Thank goodness for aquarobics and heated swimming pools... breathe in.... breathe out... relax...
I'm off to escape for a couple of hours,

the heated pool, you didn't REALLY think I would show all us large geriatrics in our costumes??!!

cheers for now.

Bosphorus Bridge pix?

2008-06-23T11:46:00.003+02:00

Hi, I have been commissioned to do a painting for the birthday of a Turkish gentleman. It must be of the bridge over the Bosphorus. I found 2 tiny ones on wikipedia, but they are not big enough to paint from. Can anyone in blogland help? (Of course, in a perfect world, I'd just hop on a plane and use the excuse to go there myself, but for many reasons, that can't happen... )

For one thing there is the money thing.... and then there is the fact that I am currently trapped in a situation where i have to look after my father.... this sounds really mean, and I hate the fact that looking after him feels like a real unwelcome duty to me and not an act of devoted love, but if you had an idea of what a cantankerous, manipulative, selfish and demanding person he is, you might understand that this is not a task to be undertaken joyfully, relishing the last bits of time spent with an old man. (He is 90 now and says he hopes to go on for at least another 10 years.... heaven help us!)

It is amazing how one person can change the atmosphere of a place for all the others who enter it. I have often seen it in workplaces, where one sulky or manipulative person causes the whole office to be a tense place. Remove them and the whole place feels lighter, happier, more harmonious. Sadly my father is one of those people, and our normally happy and loving home transforms into a tense and stressful place as soon as he arrives.

So rather than delighting in an opportunity to spend treasured time with a parent, instead it is an agony of constant dancing on eggshells to avoid yet another pointless confrontation over his irrational and unreasonable demands. I'd love to excuse him by saying he is old and losing his mind but he has been like this throughout my life, so it basically just boils down to the fact that he is an unpleasant person, who makes my home feel like a prison. And instead of cherishing time with him, I am counting the seconds till he leaves, and I can wake up and walk around my house without a knot in my stomach. And Max and I can go back to enjoying quiet , relaxing and harmonious evenings together.

Even though Max is very supportive about all this, and never gives me reason to feel that it is just my problem... (in fact he often bales in and deals with situations when I am struggling to cope) I still feel guilty, somehow, that he has to work so hard to earn enough to not only support us, but my father too. And that he has to come home to all the stress, and unpleasantness. I am not even talking about the revolting bathroom habits etc here, because I quite understand that when one is old, nappies might be neccesary etc, although waking up to the thankless task of cleaning a house that smells like the local sewer due to an accident in the night is also not my first choice of how to start the week!! But I am talking about the horrible and unneccesary atmosphere created by a mean personality. It just seems unfair that Max has to come home to all this, when it is not even his father!

What a sad legacy, to go through life and look back at the end to discover that the only impact you have made on the planet, and the people around you, was a negative one...... that when you are finally gone, the overwhelming feeling will not be one of loss, but of relief.

When I mentioned my reservations about dad coming to stay recently, Tom left a comment "Good luck with your Dad... I have a soft spot for Jane's old mum.... it's a swamp at the bottom of the garden :O)"

hehe, I must admit, I am driving past wetlands with fresh eyes lately!

Having been brought up on many old cliches, not the least of which was the one that goes "if you haven't got something nice to say, don't say anything at all...", I have agonised about whether to post this, or just let the writing of it be a pressure release valve, and hit the delete button. But this blog is a personal space, and this particular struggle is part of my life, so I decided to post it. Maybe someone else is struggling with similar issues and beating themselves up too, about the whole thing of being expected to love and honour your parents, when they have basically gone through life giving you every reason to dislike and disrespect them. And just knowing that someone else also battles with this might make them feel better, so here goes.........

Spa---ring partners

2008-06-21T04:20:00.006+02:00

Ok, I promised to tell you a bit about my day of being pampered on Thursday.

My friend Julie fetched me at 9am, and off we went to Addo. This is a little farming village about 70km from PE. It is better known for the Addo Elephant park nearby, but it is actually a citrus growing area on fertile soils fed by the Sunday's River.

On the way we went past the Swartkops River mouth, with the little village of Amsterdamhoek nestling on the river banks.

The lighting as the sun struggled to make an impact on the cold and bleak day was stunning, and Julie could see I was itching to take photos, so she very patiently stopped on the side of the freeway so i could do my thing.....here she waits in Ndlovu (her new monster car, appropriately named... it means Elephant in the local Xhosa language, but what a great ride!)

As you can see, it was a really sombre day, but this is on the sea side of the freeway, and you can just see the line of buildings along the shore, with the sandbanks in front of them that shows the position of River mouth.

looking inland is the Swartkops Estuary and behind it the mountains where Uitenhage lies (famous as the home of Audi and Volkswagen South Africa). There is even a glimmer of blue sky!

We arrived at the Spa to this wonderful welcoming sight....

It was on a farm in Addo that Suzette Meyer had the vision of setting up a health spa. She trained as a beauty therapist, and then set about modifying the old farm house and building the Resort. She is a very talented lady, and has created a delightful place with a really welcoming, relaxing ambience.

(Here is Julie, seated on the front patio, with Suzette on the right. )

One of the things about building on an established farm is that there are already some wonderful old trees, like this magnificent Tipiana Tipu, which give is such a settled, peaceful atmosphere.

We started of with a nice hot cup of coffee on the front patio, overlooking the lovely gardens.

As you can see from our attire, it was still pretty cold!

The spa has been constructed around a gravelled courtyard, with the reception area and all the treatment rooms and in the old farmhouse along the front, and then surrounding it at the back are the Jaccuzzi, the gymnasium and some outdoor chalets for accomodation.

Then off we went to our respective treatment rooms, and wafted off onto clouds of bliss as we underwent all sorts of massages, facials, body wraps, Vichy showers, moisturising masques etc. By the time lunchtime arrived, we were glowing gently and feeling decidedly mellow!

We ended a delightful treat with lunch on the patio, and then headed for home.

And as a bonus, there is an orange orchard along the driveway. I bet there are not many Spas in the world where you are invited to pick your own oranges as you leave!

Thanks for the treat Jules.... it was wonderful!

Skywatch errr Thursday... or "Can't this woman ever get it right?"

2008-06-19T20:26:00.005+02:00

I could literally fill my whole google upload allocation on sunrises and sunsets I have seen this week, it has been so beautiful, and so difficult to choose. Anyway eventually I settled on two, this one, of the sun rising through the little gap between the Church Manse and the Bed and Breakfast in St Phillips Street......

......and this one that I took this morning. Max spotted the body surfer in the clouds, whooshing down from the top right towards the church.

And as a tailpiece.... hehe..... I REST MY CASE!

2 posts ago I wrote about the perversity of cats for insisting on drinking from the oddest places in favour of their lovingly filled kitty bowls. I had no sooner hit the publish button, when I spotted Fergussen on our front steps....

I still want to tell you all about the trip to the spa, but it is SOOOOO tiring being pampered, so I will do it tomorrow, hehe! Cheers.

(To see more of Skywatch, go and visit our charming and dedicated host Tom.)

Variety is the spice of life

2008-06-19T06:43:00.007+02:00

I adore living in Port Elizabeth. You have to dress in layers here, like an onion that can peel or put on layers as necessary. Most of the time the bay looks blue and serene like this (taken on Thursday last week) and even though it is mid winter, you are running around in a T-shirt.

Then you wake up to amazing sunrises... with the promise of an interesting partly cloudy day. It is windy but pleasant... but it could go either way, so you carry a jacket around just in case.....

And then suddenly you find this...(taken yesterday morning)

And you pile on a few more layers, jersey, hat, scarf...

If you are chicken, you just stay in the car to enjoy the views! I must admit, I adore winter, so for me the grey is a fabulous change from all the clear blue skies. Bring it on!!!

And now (in the immortal words of Monty Python) for something completely different....

I am about to be SPOILED! Later this morning my friend Julie is picking me up and taking me to Casa Mia a wonderful health spa in Addo for a day of pampering, facials, massages and possibly a jaccuzzi (although, since today looks pretty much like yesterday, and the jaccuzzi is outdoors, the jury is still out on that one!)

here we are at Casa Mia a couple of years ago, doing a session of African drumming. I am in pinkstripes and Julie is to my right in the photo (left in reality!)

No sleeveless tops today, that's for sure! YAY.... I shall return tonight glowing, and wafting along on a cloud of bliss..... Don't fancy poor Max's chances of me climbing off the cloud and cooking dinner, hehe... but since take-aways are a thing of the past chez farty, (see his post on heart issues!) I guess it's going to be re-heated leftovers.... mmmm bean curry again!

Dogs have owners, cats have staff......

2008-06-15T18:30:00.004+02:00

Appropriately enough, this black cat lives at my favourite art supplier, Chat Noir, although he is not the original black cat after which it was named.

I was tickled to see him lapping from this puddle on the roadside, because my cats tend to do the same thing. No matter how careful I am to make sure there is fresh water in their bowl, they will always choose to drink from some other place.

Fergie and Felicity both love jumping into the shower and bath after we have finished, and lapping the droplets around the drain. They will drink the green water from our garden water feature, and when we lived in our old house, the cats all contorted themselves in amazing ways to reach down and lap the swimming pool water, and the fish pond water, rather than drinking from their bowls. It makes no difference if I use filter water or tap water.

I guess the bottom line is, cats are perverse creatures, and if you are one of their willing slaves, you just have to accept that!

Skywatch - skylight

2008-06-14T09:36:00.002+02:00

The skylight of one of our favourite restaurants, 34 degrees South, at the Boardswalk Complex on the beachfront. ......

And to see it in its context.....

Here it is ...... the blue roofed building on the right. On the left is the floating bandstand, where jazz is often played over weekends. Sitting on the deck, looking out over the lake and enjoying good music, while eating great seafood, what a treat! If you want to see what it looks like inside, we did a couple of posts on it in the last few days over on Port Elizabeth Daily Photo.

I am flying under the radar here, I love Skywatch Friday, but won't get a chance to visit, as I like to, if I participate. So I am posting some pix, but not linking to Mr Linky this time. However, if you do have time to visit some friendly people and enjoy their wonderful sky shots, check out the links at Tom's place!

Enough is Enough

2008-06-11T03:14:00.005+02:00

This is the slogan of a movement called the Million Man March, held in Tswane (formerly Pretoria ) yesterday. It is an anti crime initiative, led by comedian and actor Desmond Dube, who was inspired to arrange the event after a neighbour, Bashimane Mofokeng, was killed in a hijacking.

The idea is to mobilise citizens across the country to stand up and be counted, and make a statement to both the Government and the criminals (often one and the same...more about that later) that the people of South Africa have had enough!
Here is the mission statement of the MMM movement:

The Million Man March is an anti-crime initiative formed as a direct response to the unacceptable levels of crime in South Africa.
The March aims to:

Unite all South Africans against crime, crime can only be defeated if confronted with a collective will, a combined commitment and a united plan of action.The March endeavours to empower people who feel helpless, vulnerable and alone by giving them a specific time and place to join together with others, and provide them with a voice against that which they fear the most.
The March will call on the Government of the Republic of South Africa to act decisively on the crisis of crime in South Africa. Urgent attention needs to be given to combating crime, more resources need to be allocated to our police, with efficient mechanisms put in place to combat corruption.
Law abiding citizens have the constitutional right to have an efficient justice system to support them. We want to call on the people of South Africa to recognise that we are part of the solution. We call on each and every individual to take responsibility of his or her actions.
We aim to challenge the perceptions that our society have about crime and use this opportunity to engage government, business, religious groups and individuals that this is the platform to launch and extensive and aggressive MORAL REGENERATION PROGRAMME.
Remind one another that there is a lot to celebrate about our country and need to make sure that the negativity of crime does not take away from all the good that has been accomplished.
The integrity of the march is dependent on the peacefulness of its nature. It is scheduled and planned to take place within the boundaries of the law.
This march is for all citizens of South Africa who feel passionate about making a positive contribution towards the country, it will not be used as a platform to advance political or financial gain.

The march took place yesterday, and although the goal of a million marchers was not reached, a large number of people did participate, and it was a peaceful event. A memorandum was handed over to Minister Balfour, who received it on behalf of Government. ..... somewhat ironical, since this is the Minister of Correctional Services (the new euphamism for Prisons) who, in response to overcrowding in prisons, resorted to a special remission of sentences, whereby all offenders irrespective of their sentences or offences got 6 months off their sentences. This trivialized the sentences of the courts and was a slap in the face of victims of crime.

Placards saying "where is Mbeki" emphasised the weak leadership this Government has suffered under. From the start of his Presidency, Thabo Mbeki has been involving himself in international diplomacy, at the expense of his own country. Many are deeply outraged that our taxes are used to fund his little jaunts around the world in the Presidential jet, so that he can angle for International glory and a crack at the top spot in the UN, while back home, the country spirals out of control on many levels.

My advice to anyone who considers offering him any leadership post after his term is over would be... DON'T do it! His so called 'quiet diplomacy' in Zimbabwe basically translates into "Mugabe is my buddy so keep your hands off him and leave him to finish the plundering of his country in peace". Every important crisis here is met with "crisis, what crisis?" His silence over the recent spate of Xenophobic killings and attacks on foreigners is nothing short of criminal, weeks went by before he issued a lame statement, and not once did he bother to show his face at any of the hot spots or personally intervene to show how unacceptable it is.

However, I digress, sorry, at the moment the word Mbeki is a bit like a red rag to a bull, I am outraged by his silence on so many critical issues in his own country, and his total lack of concern over the suffering and deaths of people here. And I assure you this is not just me ranting about the ludicrous lack of leadership, check out these cartoons...

To me the statement at yesterday's rally that really hit home hard, and for which I want to applaud Desmond Dube wildly and loudly is the one he made to the effect that "crime is not just when someone holds a knife to you and threatens you. Crime is someone taking money from an institution and failing to provide services to that institution."

Yes Desmond, you hit the nail firmly on the head. We have become so conditioned to extreme levels of violent crime in this country, that we sometimes fail to even see day to day dishonesty and lack of integrity as crime any more, and the threshhold of what is acceptable keeps sliding further and further along the continuum from petty to extreme crime.

But every civil servant or Cabinet Minister who receives a salary at the end of each month, and fails to do the job for which they are being paid, is STEALING from the tax payers who employ them.

Well Done Desmond for highlighting this fact! I salute you for this initiative, for using your celebrity status to get the attention of the nation, and for giving so freely of your time and money to organise this initiative.

(Going back to the irony that it was Minister Balfour who was sent by Government to receive the anti-crime memorandum, it is Ngconde Balfour, the Minister of Correctional Services, who said that 738 members of his department had been suspended on full pay in the 2005/6 financial year, costing the taxpayer over R34-million!!!)

I hope the MMM initiative will continue to snowball, and that ordinary citzens who are tired of being victims of crime will stand together and clearly let the criminals inside and outside of Government know that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

reflections on flying

2008-06-10T06:24:00.005+02:00

On one of his visits to PE, our son chartered a Cessna 172 and took us for a flip down the coast to go whale watching. We didn't see any whales, but it was still really beautiful up there. I love this shot of the sea reflected under the plane's wing.

We also got some interesting angles on the lighthouse at Cape Recife, which was obviously a delight for my little inner child who still squeals with excitement when spotting cool stuff like that! (If you want to see more of the lighthouse, I have been featuring it in a series of posts on Port Elizabeth Daily Photo.) And best of all, it is only the second time I have been up in a light aircraft that I didn't disgrace myself by puking my heart out. (Although I must confess we didn't land a minute too soon.....) Motion sickness is a dreadful pain for someone who is a travel/speed freak who adores flying and aerial photography!

Skywatch ...errrr....Saturday

2008-06-07T06:00:00.003+02:00

Ok, so I missed the boat a bit, but you know how the old cliche goes, better late than...

and hopefully this sunrise will bring a smile to your dial like it did to mine when I saw it from the dining room window recently.

Links to more awesome skies over at Tom's Place

bizarre topiary

2008-06-03T23:16:00.002+02:00

There is a gardener at Malealea in Lesotho, who delights in trimming the bushes into these odd little drum shapes.... they provide a humorous diversion on an early morning stroll.

clicketty clack down memory lane

2008-06-01T17:38:00.005+02:00

I love train travel. In Harare, where I grew up, and Port Elizabeth where we have lived for the past 30 years, there are no suburban trains. They have never been a part of our daily lives. So a ride on a train has always been a special event, and brings back so many memories for me.

The circus used to arrive in town on a train, and somewhere in one of the family photo albums are a couple of black and white photos of my sister and I as little girls, greeting the elephants at the station. (Obviously, as an adult, I have different views about all that, and I hate to see performing animals in captivity, but I have to admit, as a child it was magic! )

I went to University in Pietermaritzburg. It was a two day journey by train, as the line didn't go straight South through Beit Bridge at that time. (The direct line was only constructed as an emergency measure during the Zimbabwe civil war, when South Africa was the only country that did not apply sanctions, and a direct link was needed for sanctions-busting fuel and other vital supplies.) So I used to travel by steam or diesel train SW through Bulawayo and into Botswana. Then we would turn SE to Johannesburg. There we would swap onto an electric train to head East for the coast. Those student journeys were great fun, but I did learn one important lesson................. If you are sleeping overnight on a steam driven train, do not lie with your head facing the window, and the window open! I woke up in the morning with my mouth feeling all gritty and crunchy, and when my friends saw me they fell about laughing. I looked in the mirror, and my face was pitch black except for white rings around my eyes. The soot had blown in during the night, and it was a real mission to wash it off!

In Port Elizabeth, there is a narrow gauge line which runs through the outlying farming areas, Westwards towards the Langkloof. For as long as I can remember, (which admittedly is getting shorter by the day, I seem to have the memory span of a gnat these days!) there has been a steam train running on this line as far as Loerie, over weekends, taking passengers for a little jaunt into the country for lunch and back. It is called the Apple Express, and we first went on it for our son's third birthday, my mom was visiting from East London and came with us. The kids adored her, and had a ball on the train. I still remember it as one of those special memorable days that you look back on fondly.

Sadly the beautiful steam engines like this one, called Granny Smith after the apples she used to transport, are in serious need of TLC, and the train is currently being pulled by a diesel engine until they can be renovated.

My sister's family used to visit us regularly from Harare, and one year we realised that their kids had never been on a train. So we arranged to travel from the lovely old Victorian station in PE, which had been freshly restored and had lovely pictures of Port Elizabeth places of interest on the walls, to the nearby town of Uitenhage, and Max, who does not share my love of train travel, was happy to give it a miss, and would drive Dave's car and meet us at the station in Uitenhage.

He was delighted at the opportunity to drive the fancy new Merc, and sat there behind the wheel feeling very good. Then, looking left and right in a Mr Bean-like fashion to make sure he was being admired in the fancy car, he tried to pull out of the parking bay. At this point, things started going pear shaped, because he couldn't get the car to budge. It had a fancy foot operated handbrake, which Dave had forgotten to show him. He sat there at PE station stressing about not getting there to meet us, but luckily, setting aside his usual aversion to reading handbooks, he found the manual in the cubbyhole. Thus enlightened, he set off to fetch us! In the meantime, the 5 cousins (our two and their 3) were having a ball, and to be honest I must confess we adults didn't do badly either, we loved it. I imagine those of you who spend hours commuting every day must think this is insane, but we adored the novelty of it.

Train travel in South Africa is not what it used to be, in fact in Capetown and Johannesburg you take your life into your hands if you have to travel on the commuter trains. Which brings us to this photo, taken a couple of weeks ago, at the PE Station. We took our pepper spray and went to check it out, because it is in a part of town that few people go to anymore due to the poor security situation. It was a pleasant surprise, the station still looks cool, and we had a great time wandering around taking pix for our PE Daily Photo blog. But I don't know when we will ever get a chance to travel by train again, perhaps in Europe, if we ever manage to get there!

Skywatch Friday, still on the road!

2008-05-30T05:56:00.005+02:00

Hope you are not already bored out of your skulls with our trip to Lesotho! On the way back, we took a different route back through the Eastern Cape. I never realised we lived in such a varied and picturesque province, it was a real eye opener.

It began raining as we stood in line at the Border Post to leave Lesotho, and continued most of the way to our next overnight stop. We travelled through quite a few mountain passes as we left the Mountain Kingdom and descended back to sea level, which gave great panoramic views of countryside and stormy skies.

Approaching Queenstown, all was serene, with a faint rainbow to mark the end of the rain.

Then only 10 minutes later, we rounded a bend to see these dramatic clouds, as the sun headed off over the horizon.

We got into town as it was getting dark, spotted a sign for a B&B, and followed it to a delightful place called Justine's, where a farmer's wife, well practiced in the art of gracious hospitality, has set up an award winning guesthouse. Our room had all the comforts we could want (at an extremely reasonable price) and breakfast the next morning was the kind of meal that leaves you feeling good all day!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! And to see lots of fascinating skies, hop across to Tom's friendly spot at Wiggers World.

PS I just looked outside and had to add one more pic, because it is not such a shabby view from here either!

this 'n that #?

2008-05-28T19:38:00.004+02:00

Hi, it's been a manic time lately (where have you heard that before?) as I had to paint for 3 exhibitions opening within a few days of each other.

The first one, which opened last night, is a very popular annual event at the Cuyler Street Gallery. It is called the same size, same price, unsigned exhibition, and is exactly that. People love it and literally queue at the door for the opening, because you can buy work by a student, or a very well established artist, but as all works are unsigned, there is an element of taking a gamble about it. As the prices are set reasonably low, in relation to what a well known artist would charge (but probably higher than an average student would charge) this adds to the fun. If you really know your art, you can pick up a bargain from a well known artist, but if you make a mistake, you could be paying a premium for student work.

Then tomorrow a beautiful exhibition opens. It is being held in a private home, a recently built stunning house that really lends itself to being used as a gallery. The owner invited 5 painters and a ceramicist to exhibit, and I was delighted to be one of them, as I love the work of the others, and our work goes so well together. In addition, she has taken a musician under her wing, because he does not have enough money to continue his studies at University, but is really talented. So on Friday and Saturday evenings, she will combine the art exhibition with a music recital, which will be a benefit concert for this young man. We will have dinner and listen to him performing Classical Guitar works, with some of his fellow students.

Then next week an exhibition entitled "Beacons" opens at the Khune Boekkooi Gallery. It is a nice topic and I am having fun interpreting it in different ways.

Yesterday would have been my mom's 80th birthday. I am not usually one to mark this sort of anniversary or dwell on past losses, but yesterday I thought of her a lot. She died of lung cancer in October 2000, not too surprising since she smoked up to 2 packs of 30 a day since she was about 15 years old! She was a model in her youth, and was always very young looking for her age, and very elegant. She was amazing, when she was told she had inoperable lung and liver cancer, she said that was fine, she'd had a good life and didn't fancy getting really old. She went through all her things, and made sure that each person who was special to her (family and friends) got at least one of her personal items, such as pieces of her jewellery etc. She wrapped each one, and wrote little personal notes to accompany them. As time passed, she even decided how her funeral should be, and wrote a note for me to read to all her loved ones. To the very end, she handled the whole thing with her usual dignity and grace. She would have hated being 80! Happy birthday mom!

And tomorrow my 90 year old father arrives for a 5 week visit. I'm afraid he has not aged as graciously as mom did, and is extremely demanding and difficult, so I may be a bit scarce for a while! On the other hand, I might find the need to escape into blogland frequently.... we'll have to see how it turns out!

Felicity Update

2008-05-26T06:43:00.004+02:00

It's hard to believe that 3 and a half months have fled by since a sick and scared little bundle of feline fur arrived in our care. It took a while for her to get used to people, having been abandoned on a rubbish dump when she was way too young to leave her mom, contracting feline sniffles, being rescued and spending a week in a vet's hospital having needles stuck in her and pills rammed down her tiny throat. Max did a post about her first day here.

We were a little hesitant about introducing such a vulnerable little creaure into our household, because our white cat, DeeDee is a complete and utter dragon when it comes to new kittens on her turf. And she is stone deaf, so you can't even shout at her when she is attacking them. She gave poor Fergussen a hideous time when he was little. But Felicity cat had to remain isolated for at least 10 days after arriving here, so that she did not infect our cats with her sniffles, and in that time she got quite bold.

We introduced her to Fergs first, and after a bit of a sulk on his part, they have become friends.

She now rules the roost, and yesterday I even came across her and DeeDee curled up together asleep on the couch, so I guess all is well!

She is at the gawky teenager stage already, and is growing into a very adorable but very stripey looking Siamese with a long body and short legs. And a giant personality! We are completely besotted.

As I try and type this, she is snuggling in her favourite place, in the crook of my left elbow, making it necessary for me to do everything with one hand. She is watching the movement of letters and cursor on ths screen with great fascination. Every now and then she can't resist the urge to take a closer look and I have to delete the extra words that result. Oh good, she's just spotted Max putting on his socks and gone off to attack them!

contrasts

2008-05-24T09:17:00.004+02:00

In Port Elizabeth, we don't experience the clearly defined seasonal changes that occur in higher latitudes. There is a marked difference in the length of daylight between summer and winter, here at 34 degrees South, compared to the fairly even days I experienced growing up in the tropics (in Harare, Zimbabwe.) But we don't get wonderful Autumn displays, because it is too warm, we never get snow, and it is warm enough throughout winter that many plants continue to blossom, so spring does not arrive with the same drama as it does in colder climates.

However, that is not to say that there is a boring sameness about our weather. It is just not necessarily seasonal. It is a well worn old saying that in PE, you can get 4 seasons in one day.

As an example, let me share with you some pictures of sunrise two days ago, and sunrise this morning.

This was how it looked from our dining room window on Wednesday.

And here was the not too successful attempt at the sun showing its face this morning!

As you must know by now if you have been around this blog for any length of time, I adore this old church that is just down the road from us, and it features in many of my photos.

The bright patch you can see in the bottom right hand corner is a glimpse of the bay, with the dunes on the opposite side.

A few leaves are still clinging tenaciously to the plane trees in the park across the road from us, but winter is on its way!

Skywatch Friday ... Malealea, Lesotho

2008-05-23T04:44:00.007+02:00

I guess, because we live on the coast, the air is relatively warm, and planes flying over us are usually at low altitude (mostly just landing or taking off.) So for us, seeing con-trails is a rarity. We were fascinated, while staying up in the high mountains of Lesotho, to see the sky constantly littered with con-trails , particularly around sunrise. From the directions of the lines, we could identify the Port Elizabeth to Joburg plane, Joburg to Capetown, as well as the Durban to PE plane. We particulary enjoyed the feeling of disjointed unreality it gave us, roughing it up in the isolated wilds with no phones or electricity, yet seeing all this hi-tech machinery scooting along above us, connecting hubs of industry and crowds. It made us even more grateful to be there, and heightened the feeling that we had somehow dropped off the planet!

Camping in Malealea, freezing our butts off in our ricketty tent, we woke up both mornings to wonderful skies, with a sunrise on one side, crescent moon overhead, and jets painting lines all over the place! Here is a selection of the variety we saw on those magical mornings.

Speaking of Malealea, if you want to read a really inspiring story, about a subsistance farmer who lived on a piece of land that was unusable because it was so badly eroded, and covered in huge bare gullies, and who turned it into a model of productivity, with no capital or farm equipment, just a vision and sheer hard manual labour, follow the Malealea link above.

In there, I mentioned that his fondest wish is to own a small old tractor, to help reduce the manual labour. I have had several responses, from people who are not in a position to buy one, but would like to contribute. I am in communication with Malealea Lodge, and awaiting a response so we can work out the logistics of how to go about it. I'll give you updates as we go along.

To see more wonderul Skywatch photos, visit our genial host Tom for a list of links.
Have a great weekend everyone!

And we finally made it across the border......

2008-05-19T20:52:00.006+02:00

Here are some favourite shots of Lesotho. If I had to try and distil the essence of the country into 12 pictures, these might go a little way towards it. But there will be lots more. Malealea deserves a post of its own. And there are so many stunning skywatch shots to look forward to.

On the road from Tele Bridge to Mount Moorosi, one comes across the mighty Senqu River several times. It is beautiful looking down on the meanders far below.

Isn't this the most beautiful face, so full of wisdom and quiet humour? He was a lovely old man, who we gave a lift to into town one day. When the corrupt Policeman at a roadblock was trying to extract a bribe from us by saying that the bakkie was only licenced to carry two people, and that it was illegal to have the old man in the back, I asked him if he was seriously going to prosecute us for helping an old man up the hill. It must have shamed him, because he looked self conscious and waved us on.

Another friendly villager at the Moorosi Chalets.

A scene of the village at the foot of Mount Moorosi. It was from here that we parked the bakkie and walked up the mountain. I would imagine that it must make your day, walking out of your home to a view like that every morning!

No photo essay on Lesotho would be complete without a famous Basotho Pony. These hardy and nimble little ponies are incredibly tough and sure footed, traversing slopes that most mountain goats would think twice about. They are an indispensable part of rural life in this place of isolated villages, steep terrain and poor roads.

One thing which the people in Lesotho take for granted is their skill with stonework. It is such a natural part of their lives that they don't seem to see it as unusual. But to most of us, who don't live where there is an abundance of rock, it is, and so it was a delight to come across a bunch of stoneworkers preparing blocks of sandstone, all done laboriously by hand.

We adored the sunrises at Malealea, the crisp cold air and the warm first light were a winning combination.

And what a view to wake up to!

The road from Malealea to Mohale Dam took us up 3 spectacular mountain passes, until we felt we were sitting on top of the world.

The Mohale Dam and Katse Dam are part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which is part of a huge hydro-electric scheme. Very few parts of the country have any electricity, so it was a change to see giant pylons on the horizon.

And wherever you look, no matter how remote, look closely and you will spot a couple of huts.

The only thing that can be recommended about the Orion Hotel known as Mohale Lodge, overlooking Lake Mohale, is the view..... seriously it is a rip off staying at this seedy hotel, but the place is so remote that if you get there close to dark, as we did, you end up not having much choice. Be warned, give it a miss on your itinerary!

I'll show you around Malealea soon, that is definitely not a place you want to miss!

some more favourite photos

2008-05-18T21:27:00.002+02:00

Snow on the mountains between Barkly Pass and Barkly East

Fascinating ruins of stone dwellings in caves between Barkly Pass and Barkly East.

Wonderful sandstone formations between Eliott and Lady Grey

A delightful old church in Lady Grey

But we still haven't made it to Lesotho, next time, I promise we will have crossed the border!

this'n that weekend ramblings

2008-05-17T13:55:00.005+02:00

Well, it has been a fairly productive week. On the work front, I finally goaded myself back into the studio. I was having a spell of severe procrastination, and just could not seem to motivate myself to christen the new studio. I read a post by CJ in Scotland which pretty much exactly expressed what was going on, and so we made a pact to encourage each other to get going. It seems to have worked (thanks CJ, knowing you are accountable to someone does provide the needed shove in the right direction!!) It is quite gratifying that requests to exhibit at various galleries have been coming in, and I really needed to make a start, so it is a relief that when I did get in there, it really started to flow, and i have made a great start. I finished a large one and began 5 others, and also made frames for some of them. Will post pix on the art blog shortly!

On the health front, Max and I have been making a concerted effort to maintain the momentum of improving our lifestyle since his heart attack. For me the motivation is a cholesterol reading that is still too high, despite 4 months of careful eating, and for him it is making sure he never has to go through that again!

But having said that, we have both been aware that the occasional stroll round the neighbourhood, stopping every few seconds to take photos, is NOT going to do much to contribute to greater fitness.

We did manage to climb Mount Moorisi in Lesotho,

and last weekend we climbed the Campanile, an iconic PE landmark, which is a tall (204 steps to be precise) brick bell tower built to commemorate the centenary of the arrival of the 1820 settlers.

We surprised ourselves by being able to do these at all, but now want to get fit enough that next time, this issue will not be "can we make it?" but "how fast can we make it?"!!! I joined an aquarobics class recently, and work out in a heated pool twice a week, led by a physiotherapist. It is wonderful and I hate it if I have to miss a class. It has already made an enormous difference to the amount of pain in my knees and back, and I feel a great sense of well-being after each session. But it is not possible for Max to join in, as it is during his work hours, and it is not a cardiovascular workout, which I know is what we both need.

Soooooooooo .............. today we bit the bullet and bought an exercise bike. Hopefully, spurred on by the guilt if we don't get the maximum use out of such an expensive machine, we will now cycle ourselves to fitness (and with any luck less flabbiness will be an added bonus!)

So as I write this, I am waiting for my heart rate to drop and my legs to lose the jelly-like feeling (and secretly thinking "what have we done, are we totally mad??!!")

I'll end by sharing a few of my very favourite photos taken on our recent trip to Lesotho. As usual, I took so many, so today will only take us as far as the Barkly Pass, near Elliot in the Eastern Cape, next time we might even make it as far as Lesotho!

The forest in the arboretum in the delightful little mountain village of Hogsback.

On the road between Hogsback and Cathcart

Between Cathcart and Elliot

The mountains peeping through the mist at the top of the Barkly Pass.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Skywatch Friday: twice as nice

2008-05-16T02:13:00.002+02:00

But before I get to the Skywatch, an urgent appeal..... on behalf of the suffering people of Zimbabwe....If, like me, you are devastated to see images of people being beaten, tortured, murdered, starved and left homeless by ZANU, in its efforts to hold onto power, and if you are also growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of action by the International Community to help these people, then PLEASE take a minute of your time, and add your voice to the many calling on the UN to intervene urgently. It is quick and painless, but if enough of us respond, perhaps we can help to bring about a better life for those in Zim who have no voice. Here is the link to a site called Help Save Zimbabwe.

I received the link in an e-mail from the originator of the appeal, so if you want me to forward it to you so that you can send it on to your mailing list and help spread the appeal to a wider worldwide group, please e-mail me on sue(at)elgecko(dot)co(dot)za . Thanks.

Thanks to all who hop across quickly to register their concern to the Secretary General of the UN..... we'll wait till you get back.... and then move onto something altogether more serene!

A double dose of puffy clouds, and a railway bridge thrown in for fun!

Eish!

2008-05-13T19:47:00.004+02:00

OK game viewing is one thing, but this might be a bit close for comfort.............

In fact a closer look reveals that this elephant probably does NOT have the most honorable intentions towards the little Citi Golf! Don't you just love the look on the guy's face? And the fact that the girl is so rivetted by what she is seeing on that side of the car that she has failed to notice the trunk heading for her window behind her! A friend sent this photo by e-mail, so I don't know who took it, but well done whoever you are, it is priceless!!