Number 20: Round the World every time, a unique friendship

Fred capturing a Pied Kingfisher

A round trip from Hawaii to Johannesburg is 25000 miles, a round the world trip, so how about doing that trip 15 times in 8  years!

We are home after a few days in the Pilansberg National Park with our friends from Maui, the John's and they have just left for their 14th trip to the Kruger National Park.

NUMBER 20:

Round the World every time 

It is their deep appreciation for the wildlife here in South Africa that keeps them coming back, loaded with cameras, lenses, iPads and lists. 

They have been to more than 10 of our parks over the last 8 years, but it's Kruger that they love. During their 14 Kruger trips, which is over 150 days in the park, they have stayed at all the camps and bush camps and driven every road many times over. 

In 2017 we met up 3 times, twice in the Kruger National Park, we hiked the wild flower trails in the West Coast National Park and went out to sea from Cape Town on a 4 day pelagic for seabirds! 

We met in the summer of 2013 at the Karoo National Park, they were star gazing, a glass of red wine in hand, when Fred decided to share some of his knowledge about our southern skies. 

The friendship has been easy, heated when politics is the topic, but so unique in that we can spend many, many hours together in a car, loving the bush, taking amazing photographs and videos, game and birdwatching, having a breakfast 'skottle' and an evening braai, and I keep learning more about our parks and our wildlife, from these 'tourists'. 

A glimpse of a Brown Hyena!

See you both in Cortina, Italy in June, for hikes in the Dolomites and good food! 

PS - it's December, another South African trip and KNP for another two visits.

Number 6 Part 3: Seeing my city through its Art Galleries: Juta Street, Braamfontein

We found a window of time in our diaries to continue our quest to visit the top Art Galleries in our city. Mondays are tricky to find anything open but we choose the Stevenson Gallery in Braamfontein and spent time along Juta Street.

NUMBER: 6

Seeing my city through its Art Galleries, Juta Street, Braamfontein

A walk along Juta Street, Braamfontein

The quiet, gentile space of the gallery is a stark contrast to the urban busyness of Juta Street and I was completely enthralled with the Deborah Poynton Exhibition: 'The Human Abstract' , titled after a poem by William Blake. The art of this Cape Town based artist is finely detailed realism combined with loose gestural brushwork and unpainted areas as she explores the Blake theme of each virtue requiring its opposite to exist at all. My virtual spend was R330000 on a 190 x 230cm oil on canvas called 'Desert Wild become a Garden Mild', it held me in an awe.

Our next destination was 99 Juta, a newly renovated Art Deco space, featuring pop-up exhibitions and the iconic Doktor and Misses, a modernist furniture, lighting and interior objects business. Martie wanted to see her friend Claire Waters' pottery at the 991/2 Vases exhibition and we were able to access the space thanks to Katy from Doktor and Misses. The building is exciting, having kept original elements like the staircase, and is a breath of fresh air among the urban decay along Juta.

Any outing needs a good coffee and Braamies has plenty of trendy choices, ours was Post, just near the gallery, an unpretentious, quirky and just perfect for a quiet moment with a dear friend.

Number 19: A standout Wedding Song

The wedding dance.

I have been listening to Baaba Maal with Mumford and Sons this morning.

The song "There will be Time", performed live in South Africa, has lyrics that make me catch my breath, and this is the song Kim and Barry choose for their wedding dance.

I love everything about their choice of song it so reflects their happiness and love.

Number 19: 

A Standout Wedding Song

In the cold light, I live to love and adore you
It's all that I am, it's all that I have
In the cold light I live, I only live for you
It's all that I am, it's all that I have
There is a time, a time to love
A time to sing, a time to shine
A time to leave, a time to stay
There is a time, a time to cry
A time to love, a time to live
There is a time, a time to sing
A time to love

Three weeks ago we quietly basked in our son's wedding day. The build-up, the preparation, Barry getting dressed among the companionship of his bestmen, the subtle beauty of the Magaliesberg, a restful chapel, a quite beautiful bride - we have a daughter-in-law!, a beaming Barry, an unusual venue decorated with care and detail, these two people surrounded by a roomful of family and friends who value them...

Venue at Black Horse Brewery

Mother and Father of the Groom, a rare and quite wonderful moment in our lives.

A happy FotG and MotG

The mantle of mother lifts from my shoulders as I acknowledge the adult Barry has become and the husband he will be.

Number 18: Remembering Shirlee

I took down the birthday calendar behind the bathroom door this morning and noted a death. Shirlee died yesterday. 

NUMBER 18:
Remembering Shirlee

My early childhood and teenage memories are defined by family get-togethers at Kalkwal, the farm of my Grandparents; Percy and Ina Wedderburn. 

The extended family would spend lazy December holidays at the farm, swimming in the Modder River, playing cards in the cage to avoid the fierce summer afternoon heat, tea under the huge pepper trees in the front garden, dinners in the cool, dark dining room, the 'grown-ups' having a game of scrabble and how I loved the build up to Christmas Day.

For me, it was all about my cousins. And especially Shirlee.

My heart is so aware today of how our lives and the choices we made, have kept us apart. 

I thank you for the times we did have and for what you meant to me, and I choose to remember you as my beautiful golden cousin.

Me with Shirlee and her first child, Shinel.

The Wedderburn clan at Kalkwal in the Free State

Number 17: Two Paintings, Three Sisters

There is a new oil painting hanging in my lounge in Johannesburg and soon Doreen will have one hanging in her home in Hilton, KZN too. The artist, Inel Date from The Artshed, Cowra, New South Wales, Australia.
There are 3 blue palette knife scrapes in the landscapes, that is us, the three Wedderburn sisters.

NUMBER 17:

Two Paintings, Three Sisters

Two Paintings, Three Sisters

Our story as sisters is a little different, when I left Vanderbiljpark to go to Johannesburg at 17, Inel was 6 and Doreen 2 years old and being a self-centered teenager, I had paid scant attention to these little girls around me.
A wedding has brought us together again.
One of the quiet pleasures in my life has been overcoming our age gaps and geographical separation; and getting to know and appreciate these two beautiful and creative women.
I look at my landscape and I am happy to know that somewhere in the world I have two sisters that I love.

Number 16: An Alphabet Blanket for a dearest little Boy

It's very early, the house is eerily quiet which had not been the case for the last week and I have been tripping over 'different things', so it's a good time to think about this particular post. I have used quiet time over the last month to work doggedly at finishing a knitted Alphabet blanket for James, my grandson, who is upstairs sleeping.

NUMBER 16: 

An Alphabet Blanket for a dearest little Boy

A blanket for James

This knitting project started a while ago with a pattern from Resi who made the blanket for her granddaughter. 

While in New Zealand last year I bought the wool, a soft possum, merino and cotton blend from Zealana called Kiwi - very apt for my little Kiwi man. 

Making the squares was a cinch, but I was sorely challenged with the thought of crocheting the 36 blocks to make up the blanket. 

The deadline for his visit got me spending hours and hours in front of the TV, listening to cricket, and slowly it all came together. Fred pressed the blanket and we fetched James from the airport.

He is a real boy, running, playing, exploring, swimming and a blanket holds no appeal but I know in the quiet moments in his cot in his home in Wellington, New Zealand, his mom will tell him about his Nan in South Africa who knitted his blanket.