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

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?

sunrise, sunset

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 Friday, Ironman weekend

Friday will be really hectic so i am cheating a bit and posting this evening.

As promised when I featured the Ironman contest the other day, I saved some of the sky shots from last weekend for Skywatch. We went to the Pier on Saturday at sunset, and were there again before sunrise on Sunday for the start of the race. Both times the skies were wonderful, so enjoy!

Sunset........

As we arrived, there was an interesting cloud hovering over Brookes Hill

The sunset started out soft and gentle..

but it soon brightened up...

and lit up the sea too...

until it became really spectacular

Sunrise:

.......was altogether gentler, almost monotone, but it turned the sea and wet sand into molten silver....

You can see lots of other Skywatch pictures, the links are over at Wiggers World.

this 'n that again

Old habits die hard. So although I reluctantly withdrew from SkyWatch Friday a few weeks ago (because with pressure of time and the huge growth of the group, I felt it was unfair to be a member but not be able to reciprocate visits) I still look out for good sky shots wherever I go. Here are a couple of recent ones.

Street Art Update: A while ago I showed you a log that had been turned into a bikini clad woman by a clever artist.

Well, she has a family now! A man, child and dog have joined her on the grass. You can see more on Port Elizabeth Daily Photo.

On Thursday a new guesthouse opened in town. this is not particularly newsworthy, it happens all the time. But what makes this one special is the history behind it. In the early days of PE, parcels of land were granted by the Colonial Government in Capetown, and subdivided, to be sold off so that the funds raised could be used for special projects. One of the earlier land grants of this type was in 1856, and it was in favour of the Grey Institute, to fund the building of boys and girls public schools.

This is a photo of the original handwritten Land Grant, and the accompanying surveyors drawings of the subdivided plots.

The guesthouse is in Ivy Terrace, and is a delightful stone-built cottage with thick walls and beautiful wooden trim and floors. The new owners have a Title Deed showing that the house was bought by a Mr Bilson in 1858. What makes this really special is that the house has stayed in the Bilson family ever since, until it was sold recently, because Miss Bilson was too old to continue living there alone. You can see her at the opening of the guesthouse, with more pictures of the cottage on Port Elizabeth Daily Photo.

The new owners have restored it very sensitively and furnished it with period furniture and wonderful old items, even the garage has a delightful collection of old tools. If you ever want to stay in this fascinating old place, let me know and I'll give you a contact number!

And the ABSOLUTE HIGHLIGHT of my week has been a visit to the PE Opera House yesterday, to see the play Sizwe Banzi is Dead. What an amazing experience!

The play was created 36 years ago by Athol Fugard, along with acclaimed actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona, at the height of Apartheid. It is a protest play, dealing with the alienation of South African blacks, and their loss of individual identity under the Apartheid system. It was naturally banned at the time (freedom of speech was viewed as a Communist plot, and anything remotely anti -Government was outlawed and punishment for breaking those laws was very harsh.) So it played "underground" to black audiences, mostly in church halls in the townships. It has come full circle, and the actors who took such chances to perform the play in those days have returned to give absolutely BRILLIANT performances at the Opera House.

Note the very sparse stage set, this play did not rely on razzle dazzle or music to entertain, but pure brilliance! Also, because it was done at a time when a Police raid could happen at any moment, the props had to be easy to move around, and be seen as everyday objects. (Excuse the horrible photo, cameras were not allowed so I had to sneak a shot with my cellphone before the show started.)

One would wonder how relevant a this play could be 14 years into democracy, and played to mixed audiences. Well, it worked. It was almost a surreal experience, sitting there next to a black man a few years younger than me, both guffawing loudly at the absolute ridiculousness of the laws and human relations and behaviour portrayed on stage.

It was sort of awkward but not..... I am at a loss for words to describe the feeling. There were those of us from the group who perpetrated the injustices (and, lets be just blunt as usual, EVIL treatment) even if we personally were opposed to it. We sat in an anonymous audience, so who was to know who actively supported it and who didn't? It was purely the colour of our skin that could be seen there, "Whites", used in the play with the same derogatory undertones that the term "Blacks" attracted in white circles. So in a way, the sort of generalised loss of identity, and being lumped into a group that is despised or belittled was part of the experience for the whites at the theatre, and it was obviously an eye opener. Because it lasted for an hour, not for years and years, and we walked away unscathed by it, in contrast to those who suffered untold loss in those dark times. There was again the discomfort which I often feel when confronted with what really went on behind the scenes, the regret that I took so much at face value and didn't look beneath the surface to find out what was being censored so vigorously, guilt that I didn't do more to oppose it, the feeling that, by an accident of birth, I live in relative comfort and privilege, while so many around me, no less deserving, live in poverty and trauma, with little chance of ever breaking free from its grip.

But this is where the surreal part of the experience comes in, because you would have thought it would be a real downer to experience all that. But it wasn't. We had deep belly laughs all the way through. I can't speak for how the black people in the audience experienced it, but I can tell you that a real camaraderie developed between me and the stranger sitting next to me. In fact when asides were made in Xhosa, which had half the audience shrieking with laughter while the other half wondered what they had missed, he spontaneously translated for me. I almost got a sense that the feeling was...."now at last we can share the truth with you, see what it was like?" but not in a bitter revengeful way, but in a "wasn't it ridiculous?" way now that we all see each other as individual people and not as nameless members of the Black or White group.

The only words I can apply to the actors and their portrayal of the characters are superlatives, and even the strongest ones I can think of do not do justice to their performance. All I can say is that it was an HONOUR to be in the presence of such brilliance, and I left there awed, humbled, entertained, enlightened, challenged and enriched!

I'm back

Hi, wow, after a spell of mad activity, I have so much to catch up on! (Thanks for the concern shown about my absence, as you will see, I have been fine!)
I was laughing with my daughter K as we went through some of the vast quantity of photos taken in the last two weeks, seems that Max and I count our lives in Gigabytes! Hopefully I can resume more regular blogging and visiting now that the latest exhibition is hanging (opening was last /night.)

So to do a quick catchup:

The building operations for my new studio have proceeded well, just a couple of final touches from the builder, and then I have to get in there to clean, paint, seal the floor, build cupboards and shelves etc. I can't wait to move my art stuff in there.

While we were at it with the bashing and messing, we got the builder to put a window into the kitchen above the top counters, to bring in more light from the East. We went through that hideous "what was I thinking" stage.......

........but it has made a great difference, and while we were at it we added some cupboards to the top to keep all the clutter, and gave the colour a bit more va va voom!

It will be wonderful when I can paint out there and our dining room, living room and study can stop looking like this!!

Amidst all the hectic activity, we have made a point of continuing our morning walks and getting some R&R..........

Last week there was a wonderful sunrise, witnessed by us and this cat on the chimney of a neighbouring house...... no it's not real but a ceranic sculpture! It was a great walk, wonderful moody skies, and as we were nearly home a summer cloudburst with warm fat raindrops, we got home soaking and refreshed, it was FUN!

One evening we went to the Spur restaurant at the beachfont. They made their name as a steakhouse serving lots of meat, burgers, and a famous "salad valley" where you can load your plate with an assortment of imaginative salads. What deeply impressed Max was the fact that the menus have little heart foundation emblems on them to show which dishes are heart friendly.

We also had a meal at a place overlooking the bay,

the Jazz Cafe at Brooks Pavillion. Sadly the only decent thing about it was the view. It was grubby, run down, and the food was appalling and overpriced. We will NOT be back!

One of our regular visitors to our Port Elizabeth Daily Photo blog, who used to live here years ago and is now in the States, asked us to feature St George's Park. Well, sadly, strolling around the park is not as safe as it used to be, and stories of muggers abound. So we decided to walk there at sunrise one morning, but we made sure that we were accompanied by Harry.

Harry is short for Dirty Harry, and he is Max's very evil looking paint ball gun, which is loaded with pepper spray pellets. It is insane that this is what peace loving people are reduced to in order to stay safe, but it is our daily reality and we have to deal with it as best we can. One thing we are determined about is that we will not allow the criminals to turn us into prisoners in our own home, too afraid to enjoy the beauty around us!!!!

One of the things we went to see was a sculpture a friend told us about. It is a tribute to well known local playwrite, Athol Fugard. There is a line in one of his plays about a kite.

This weekend I felt that I had enough art ready for the exhibition, and was too tired to do more, so we went off to St Francis for a break. Felicity cat is still too little to stay home alone so she accompanied us, and turned out to be a most delightful travel companion.

On the way there she curled up on my shoulder like a parrot, and purred as she watched the world go by.

In the suite, she settled in and took over, here she is keeping Max company as he blogs.

Both mornings had spectacular sunrises to greet the perfect days.

On Saturday morning we strolled down to Otters landing, the area to the south of the port, and had a great time rambling along the hiking trail, amongst the indigenous bushes, snapping away like mad!

The morning was not without excitement.... on our way back for breakfast we spotted two high powered rubber ducks with long range fuel tanks leaving the port. We had seen them on our last visit and we knew that they are Perlemoen (abalone) poachers, setting out for a raid on our shores. A little yellow boat followed them but came right back. We didn't know if he was one of them, (turned out he was a good guy!) so we went back to get a phone, stopping on the way to photograph the cars with trailers which brought the rubber ducks to the port, and catch the registration numbers.

Then I contacted the NSRI (National Sea Rescue Institute) and they reported it to the police task force. Apparently they had been after the same group the previous day, with helicopters etc, but the poachers just run out to sea and with their long range tanks and got away again. They are completely brazen! And unless they are actually caught red handed, there is nothing the authorities can do .........grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

It seems that every time we have made it to the Port in the past year, the weather has been cloudy and miserable. It was quite nice to see blue skies for a change, even though I also love the bad weather.

After breakfast we went to the Bay and village to photograph different aspects for our St Francis Daily Photo blog, and the sea was a wonderful colour.

this beach is one of my favourite places on the planet at any time, but particularly at sunrise, the huge expanse of unspoilt sand, the waves rolling in and the sun painting it in all shades from pastel to wild, it is just amazing to be there and soak it in!

As soon as there was enough light, I settled onto the beach and did a little painting of the lighthouse, while Max strolled along the beach and then back to the lighthouse, and took a whole bunch of photos (including this one!)

Back home, Fergussen finally decided to let Felicity cat snuggle close, hopefully they will be friends soon.

And then on Monday, I did another painting...... inspired by one of our daughter-in-law's photos of Sudanese refugees.

And I hung the exhibition, which opened last night.

Here is the gallery owner Tossie, a delightful person, lurking in the doorway.

And here I am explaining the inspiration behind the refugee paintings to a journalist from one of the local newspapers.

Pete Parrott very kindly gave me permission to use one of his photos as inspiration for a picture, here is the result. Thanks Pete!

And that brings us back to today, where I have spent hours editing photos and compiling this mammoth post, so there we are, all caught up on my news, and tomorrow I will start to catch up on visits and see what you guys have been up to!