Up and down the Vaal

As part of my niece's birthday we booked a cruise on the river after lunch, lovely, lazy, relaxing.

In no-man's land between Gauteng the the Free State.

Wonderful surprise in Modderfontein

I saw on someone's blog their visit to Modderfontein Historial Village. Wow, what a wonderful surprise. There was a market on the grounds of Frans Hoenig Haus. Lovely coffee and beer brewery nearby where I had a late breakfast. Drove around a bit and it was wonderful to see how well maintained the old building were, most are being used as offices, for business. I drove to the casino but the security guard wouldn't allow me to take photographs. A stones throw from my house and I never knew. I have been to the Modderfontein Nature Reserve not knowing that up the next road was this incredible historical landmark.

Visiting a friend in Heidelberg

I went to visit a friend in Heidelberg. Whenever I have been to visit her I drive home through the town and say to myself: I really should explore the town next time I come. So eventually I made the effort - got there a little early, before the appointed time I was to meet my friend and strolled around the town a little. Pretty.

Urban farmer 2

I would love to be able to harvest fresh produce from my garden, select it as I need it for cooking or baking. I picked these pomegranates in a friend's garden, wanted to dry the seeds in the sun and then plant them next season. Alas, as soon as they were dry and wonderfully warm in the sun mice (and perhaps rats too) came and gobbled it all up. Empty shells and broken plates is all I had left.

My stash of chilli was a little more successful, and I have shared this harvest with friends, and made some spicy meals. Yum. However, these are very thirsty little plants.

Cosmos season

Cosmos season was about a month ago, but you can still find the odd flower on the side of the road. There is a small holding on the way to my evening classes that has a whole field of cosmos, all in white. So beautiful. The gate was open and I wanted to drive in, but I didn't. And only because I wouldn't want some random person driving unto my property either, no matter their motivation.

Plates and misfits

After 4 months of pottery class, once a week, this seems all I have to show. The rest I was really disappointed with. I have to ask myself: am I just not passionate enough about it to get it right or am I just not good at this? It seems likely that I will not continue with this 'hobby'.

Albert's farm

I want to walk some of the CityParks parks in areas that I don't normally frequent. So this is Albert's Farm. It was a little awkward because I was walking and everyone else there was doing their park run. When they finished the run they were picnicking or braaing a little something for breakfast. Seems like a lovely morning out, especially the picnic bit.

Web designer

Almost walk across this web but the light glistening off it made it visible.

Happened, even if it wasn't forever

Wonderful life lesson from this Facebook post.

Fresh green bouquets

With my garden so overgrown after all the rain this year I have been cutting these big bunches of greenery as bouquets for the house. Quite magnificent. 
Even when I buy fresh cut flowers, like the sunflowers for instance, I add garden cuttings to increase the volume and dimensions of the bouquet.

Do better

I find words and quotes everywhere that inspire me. This one I have been quoting to everyone at work so I thought I should put it up on my board at home.

'Do the best you can do until you know better, then do better.'

Buildings springing up like mushrooms

As I mentioned before, Mike bought this new camera and wanted to experiment with it, as a theme he choose time-lapse city traffic, using interesting, landmark building as backdrop, on this day it was in the Sandton area. I tagged along out of interest and took some pictures of my own. I love the contrast of the steel and glass with that one moment of three friends strolling down the road and sharing a good laugh.

Serbian Orthodox Church

I find all churches beautiful and wonder about their interiors. Every religion, I suppose, manifests their beliefs with different rituals and adornments and I find that so interesting. When I was at school I would go to church with my friends just to get the different views, the different experiences. In essence and at the core, I think, it is all similar but the differences in presentation and expression is what resonates with you or not. 

Everyday I drive past them Serbian Orthodox Church. I have been wanting a peep inside so when they had a food market day I went along. The church is so simple outside, so rich inside. Small but with so much detail. 

They also have the Serbian community hall on the property, the music I am sure just makes them remember, makes them homesick. There were posters, photographs and memorabilia on the wall brought over from Serbia and shared in this space where everyone has an appreciation of them.
I was certainly the odd one out. But I do understand what it means to them and how important it is to have this space. My parents gathered with others at the German club, sharing the music, stories, memories, jokes, gossip. Never were they so free of inhibition and so expressive as in their mother tongue. Great memories.

Art Eye Gallery

I plan most Saturdays end to end with activities but then I get sidetracked or I get caught up at one point and the rest of the itinerary is abandoned. So it happened the Saturday I went through to explore Art Eye Gallery, there was an hour allocated but I stayed for five. So interesting and inspiring. 

Art Eye is made up of many rooms and different spaces each more exciting than the previous one. Sanele gave me a great and informative tour, even of the storeroom/basement, where I could have stayed all day unearth masterpieces. I just wanted everyone from the office to come on over and enjoy the experience. Alas, I haven't even shared the idea with them yet.

I love the colour of the walls in the Launch Pad, the dark grey, it highlights the colours of each artwork. 

It is too much to take in, a real wow. Honestly, I would have bought at least four pieces if I had the money. I even wanted to take up brush and paint and splash some design onto the wall. Haha!

They told me to go a few floors down and see if any of the artists in residence were about. A passage of closed doors until there was an open one. The artist is Thokozani Mthiyane. He made rooibos tea and we chatted about his incredible experiences and his art. He shared the notebooks, books and dairies covered in sketches from moments throughout his varied and interesting journeys. I felt honoured to have met him and the time he afforded me. As if the day had not already been awesome. Icing on the cake. I bought one of his small illustrations. 

At the other end of the corridor was another artist, that I had already met in the gallery, David. Also a lovely man, putting together artwork with printed images, textures and paint.

Another wonderful experience.

Leafy Greens Cafe

Jill and I have had been wanting to go for ages, to the Leafy Greens Cafe. Jill is a vegetarian and I enjoy a good vegetarian meal. We had the boys with us and it was a beautiful sunny day. We got there to have brunch but decided to wait for the lunch buffet. Mmmm, well worth the wait. It was so delicious. We each bought their recipe book.

It was so delicious I went back. 

After lunch walked through the fields and saw rows of wonderful vegetables, chicken running around  and sunflowers reaching for the sky. I returned to the restaurant for coffee and a take-away slice of cheese cake. Bought a few things for the pantry in the shop as well.

Klipriviersberg nature reserve

What a wonderful day. Got home exhausted but felt great.

This is a great reserve to walk/hike at. There are many people and some are faster than others but everyone is enjoying the great outdoors. I only did some of the trails, the brown one, bit of the blue, red and green but a mish-mash and in a loop to get back where I started from. Crossed over on the pipeline and avoided the steep and rocky hills because my intention had been to go for a leisurely walk. But five hours later when I ran out of water I really wanted to call it quits. I started chatting to this guy and the went right past the exit so I had to go all the way back again. Argh. Ha, ha!

Dancing building of Prague

When Mike told me he was going to Prague as part of his European trip I asked him to please, please, pretty please take a pic of the dancing building. He kept his promise, although, he tells me, he stumbled upon it by accident. He was out walking the streets one morning when around the very next corner there is was, dancing with delight to the gentle awaking of a new day. 

He took a time-lapse video which is really lovely. This image is a frame from that video.

He has this great new camera, he explained all its remarkable features, but I have already forgotten them along with the name of it but what remains important is that he is able to capture beautiful movement, motion and memories with it. 

Mike Kelly +27 (0)83 288 0131

His video company is called Storytellers. Such a wonderful name.