Good luck, Sophie

We went to Sophie's book launch on Thursday evening. Well done, poppet! Wishing you much success. Book cover design by Vanessa.

Leftovers

Sunday evening we had leftovers from Saturday, but it was still great.
To make that refreshing drink: 1 cup brandy, 1 heaped teaspoon grated ginger, 500 ml ginger beer, 500 ml ginger ale, fresh mint - ah!

Dark and delicious

Made this chocolate cake on Saturday morning and had to wait all day to taste it. Served it with coffee after the meal. It uses a whole tin of cocoa, and is die-lish-us!

Blowing in the wind

Where the wild things graze

Just outside Sasolburg is the Riemland Eco Park, home to at least 14 species of buck. We went early on Sunday morning. It was lovely. Just being in an expanse of space that is open feeds the soul.

Friday Breakfast Club - yum!

Sweetcorn fritters, bacon, homemade tomato sauce(tomatoes, onion, chilli, garlic, basil & thyme)

Let me out!!!!

How cute is this little guy?
I don't know how they get in, but they all want to be outside again.

A spark, a light, a clap

As I stand outside lightning flashes to the left of me. Two sparks disconnect and travel across the sky in tandem as if holding hands. My eyes follow, I point at them and as I want to say: Look at that, there, it's amazing! Poof! They evaporate.
Later the lightning is so strong it lights up the night, like day, and the thunder so sharp, so close, I fall to the floor looking for cover. The water falls from the sky like a burst dam. I run from room to room closing the windows and when I'm done so is the rain.
Another flash, another clap, right next door, and their lights go out and don't come back on and their security alarm won't stop screaming.
The water arrives again, so much more than rain, pushing against the window, slipping under the door, pulling down the trees, drowning the earthworm. It etches a path through the garden, rushing downhill towards the sea it seems.

Early morning silhouettes

Red-billed wood hoopoe! I love the sound they make, their chatter sounds like laughter. They're always in a flock and always make a lot of noise.

Rain, rain

Have had quite a bit of rain since Sunday, it has been wonderful!

Lunch with college friends

Sunday, T invited me to lunch because O was in town. Yummy food, good company. Nice to see them again.

Saturday, all day

On Saturday I did nothing, but read my book. I had started it on Friday evening. On Saturday evening late when I had finished it I went to bed. It's the first Deon Meyer book I have read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Page 17: That was what struck her most, all these rich white people, but not a book in the house. But every single one had a bar.

Page 234: Life is a four letter word, without dimensions. You live. Or not. Like a switch, on or off. The dimension comes from what we do with it. That makes the difference between living, and a life.

I told Jessica I wanted to do things, to experience. I wanted to live. I thought my new beginning, my new job, my dance classes and plans for a book constituted life. And then I compared it with the life of one Lukas Bekker and I knew then that my switch was not yet on.

TRACKERS © Deon Meyer 2010

Originally published in Afrikaans as Spoor

Memories

Passing the chocolates in the supermarket I see that KITKAT is celebrating their 75th anniversary.
So it makes me remember - KITKAT and I - my mother and grandmother would do the grocery shopping on Fridays. When we got home from school there would be a KITKAT waiting in our room, resting on top of our pocket money. From my gran, every Friday, and always KITKAT, never anything else, always in the same spot. Vielen danke, liebe Oma, fur al die gute Erinnerunge.

Image is of the inside of the wrapper, after it's all over!

Not my best moment

ABOUT 10 YEARS AGO one of the editors from a decor magazine came to my house, I think it was for a treatment, and afterwards asked if they could do a feature of my house in their magazine. Of course I was flattered, wow! But the more I thought about it the more I worried that I would be judged (ag, shame, yes, pathetic) and that they would photograph my things and they wouldn’t look as great, that the reproduction onto paper would not do justice to my things, etc. I know - complete control freak. So, I phoned them and cancelled. To this day I still wonder how it would have looked. But I have moved on and am not so precious anymore. So if you want to come back... :-)

Weekend, just past

On Saturday N and I went to David Krut at Arts on Main, and then we had lunch at Canteen there. Nice lazy morning, chatting, gossiping, laughing.

Happy Valentine's Day

To you all!
I wish my loves, past and present, a wonderful day. Mwah!

Rosemary bread

My boss promised me his bread recipe if I promised not to share it with anyone. Then this morning I get the recipe and the bread! What a wonderful surprise. Can't wait to taste it. Thanks, G.

Cooking is his passion. He's working on getting all his best recipes together and putting them all in one cookbook, watch the bookstores for more!

EISH! 2

Follow -up from last week's post. The white t-shirt this time. Message is still the same: save the rhino!

Building styles

I have been collecting these discarded weavings off the ground this summer.

So beautiful

How lovely is this little mushroom?

Pretty boy!

Stones and crystals

On Saturday morning I went on a mine tour in Crowthorne. I was disappointed to discover that it was a 'mock' mine, with 'mock' veins of semi-precious stones. The real mine is in Zambia.
But they had a great selection of stones in the yard - I loved it. Could honestly bought a cart-load  but held back and selected a few that were really different, that I perhaps don't have yet. Of course, once they're all polished up they look so different, but I prefer them raw.

Lunch with the family

It was a wonderful day, 'n lekker kuier dag. I baked flat bread and we had all these sauces and spreads for it - wasabi & horseradish sauce, tomato chilli jam, peach & mango jam, red pepper hummus, lemongrass honey, Bovril (for the girls). Later my brother braaied the kebabs, chops and wors. South Africans + summer = braai. We had that with a salad. Dessert was a refreshing fruit salad - mango, paw-paw, nectarine, blueberries, grapes, granadilla. I baked cranberries cookies for coffee later. Yum-yum!

Name in the snow!

Amsterdam. My dear friend is taking a walk in the snow and sent me this pic.
I'm sitting at the other end of the world, a fan and air-conditioning on, limp in the African heat.

EISH!

A colleague of mine designed these t-shirts and had them printed. Watch out next week for the other one (black on white t-shirt).

Rationale:

The word EISH is an African slang word used in South African English and Afrikaans to express exasperation or disbelief. The word was first transliterated from the Xhosa language to Afrikaans, and then into South African English. Eish (aysh) - Used to express frustration or outrage.

I used the word EISH! as the main design element, to portray the outrage and shock people feel when a rhino is slaughtered for its horn. The red exclamation mark, depicts the severity of the act and the blood shed every time a rhino is poached. I used black and white in the design to tie back to the ‘black’ and ‘white’ rhino.

Both black and white rhinos are used on the design, the rhinos enter and exits the word ‘EISH”, when they exit the rhinos becomes smaller and diminishes in numbers until there is only one left, this is to show that our rhino numbers as reducing at an alarming rate and that if there is not a drastic turn in events they may become extinct.

Namaste

This week I did some Reflexology and Reiki treatments and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Afterwards I felt so calm and happy. I want to thank those clients who chose to come to me. Namaste.

Interpretation: The Goddess Spirit within me recognises and honours the Goddess Spirit within you.

Limbs torn off

Yesterday's storm was quite bad, it ripped several branches off my trees. This morning I had to saw them off, to clear the pathway, to be able to get past the house. But a whole lot of clearing still needs to be done.

5 o'clock rains

As I passed through my gate at home, it started to rain, then it hailed.

Thunder and lightning, very, very frightening!

A friend goes to Paris...

...and sends a postcard!

Postcards from Moscow and Belarus

Love the stamps as well.

Lusuko

Idea for a mascot - for the athletes. Concept stage only.


Lusuko – meaning Glory in Xhosa, is what every athlete hopes to achieve, what the nation expects.
He stands head and shoulders above the rest, he is graceful, slender and proud.
The fabrics that will be used are locally made, will be in warm, earthy colours and recognisable as South African. Perhaps a patchwork of fabrics from Amafu hand-dyed fabrics. These fantastic, colourful fabrics are hand-dyed and hand-screened by Glenda Kirkiridis and her team in Westville, near Durban. All 100% South African export quality cotton. To view some samples of the fabrics go to: http://www.africanfabric.co.uk/amafu.php 
The horns will be made up from traditional Shwe Shwe fabrics.
His 5 horns represent what it takes to be a great athlete.
Talent
Desire – without desire talent comes to nothing
Discipline
Strength – stamina and endurance
Performance
On his back is a traditional blanket – for comfort, and represents the support of the nation. Although he takes part on his own, he is not alone as the nation stands behind him. Messages from ministers and the president will be embroidered onto the blanket.
The colours of the beads in his tail will represent courage, success, perseverance, focus, health, strength.