Tata Madiba

A face that shows so much of life and yet is so soft and beautiful.

Yesterday was Madiba's 95th birthday - Daily Maverick's Ranjeni Munusamy wrote a beautiful letter to Madiba on his name-day that I wanted to share - take a read here. Image was taken by Mike Hutchings.

Adventures in Raku

While I have been doing pottery for about 3 years, there is an endless list of ways to do almost anything with pottery that I have barely even glanced over!

One of those things is raku firing - under which there are endless techniques and methods and and and…

Ceramics is truly an incredible art form - centuries of years of exploring and playing with clay have led to some mind-blowing discoveries and I want to learn it all! It is so dynamic and exciting.

These photos were from a raku firing day I went to a few weeks ago where we watched and learnt and played and shrieked with excitement - yes a sunny garden full of women getting beyond excited about what may come out of the fiery drum of burnt sawdust and waiting impatiently to see a 1000 degree pot pulled from the kiln and held in the air for just the right length of time to form some cracks but never really knowing what those cracks will look like or what colour something will turn, will it crack right in half or stay intact?!?

It was such a pleasure to watch Evette Kruger calmly enjoy controlling the process - years and years of wisdom subtly coming through in every dangerous and not so dangerous part of the process.

Ok, enough rambling on - have a look for yourself…

4th of July

This is an old picture of my dad when he was my age, sitting amongst the clouds of Patagonia.

While many celebrate independence in America today, I commemorate in Johannesburg - today would be my dad's birthday.

Birds

Sometimes when it is all just a bit too much, its soothing to look at birds in a crisp blue sky…

Yip, even if they are just Egyptian Geese!

Because its Friday

Here are some sweet pictures of my brother and his Becky

and there is always room for another Becky in the world!

To be still

The stillness of farm life is just what I need at the moment…

Baby Noah

Curtis's sister and brother in law are the proud new parents of the sweetest baby boy, Noah.

and never have I been so in love with a little being as this mellow and beautiful guy…

Welcome to the world sweet Noah, we have loved spending these first few days of your life with you and we can't wait to watch you grow up!

Sweet Alyssum

This pretty little perennial steals my heart every time I see it - a common garden flower in the city I call home…

after a bit of reading I discovered that it is also commonly called Sweet Alison - isn't that the sweetest name?

Frisbee...

Can either make your inner athletic prowess shine;

Or not.

Although one can't be blamed after spending a lazy day on the sunny Vaal River with beers and friends.

A new house, a new home

This is my new home where I live with two lovely ladies in a quaint house with a perfectly sized back garden and a view over the city! A short and peaceful walk away from a coffee shop, a book shop, a bar and a lovely pizza place - what more could you want...

Green Garden

This song is pure goodness...

and this site perfectly describes it as having an "air of flourishing fertility, [but] it’s still Laura’s mercurial voice that’s the richest component: breezily shifting between gravelly soul and pure, theatrical pop sounds"