Monthly Archives: November 2013

Flowers and stadia

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Flowers and stadia
As you can see, I took this photo in the Green Point Urban Park that's part of (or at least, borders on) the Cape Town Stadium complex.

If you haven't already, pick a clear sunny windless day and take some time to visit the park in the early morning (when it opens, at 7am) or in the late afternoon (say, at about 18h00). It's a lovely place to walk around and absorb the tranquility of nature and aroma of our indigenous flora.

Red Poppy or Single Ranunculus?

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Poppy or Single Ranunculus?
I'm not sure if you can tell from this angle, but what kind of flower do you think this is?

I at first thought it was a poppy, but then Kerry-Anne suggested that it could also be a single ranunculus. Any thoughts?

Late breakfast at Tokara

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Late breakfast at Tokara
After waking up a little late we hunted the web for a place that served breakfast until a reasonable time - which would be noon. :)

We'd often heard of Tokara, the wine and olive farm, but never visited - so we "whooped" and patted ourselves on the back when we discovered that they served breakfast until 12pm!

We rushed off to Stellenbosch, and ascended the Helshoogte mountain pass, arriving at Tokara at 11h40, just in time to order breakfast.

It's a beautiful place, and I'll post a few more photos, but in the meantime let me say that you really want to visit the delicatessen (where this photo was taken). The (huge) croissant, bacon, and eggs combination was both delicious and well priced - and their coffee, well let's say that they sure know how to make coffee.

Open gardens: Strange baby statues

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Open gardens: Strange baby statues
Wowie, who comes up with this kinda thing? I mean, it's interesting, but oh so strange! Do you reckon that's an eel, or a snake?

See this post for more about this photo and Rustenberg Wine's open gardens.

Open gardens: Tree tap

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Open gardens: Tree tap
Only when a young girl from a sitting with her family at the garden table next to ours mentioned it did I spot the unusually-placed tap embedded in this tree.

Now, that's a fairly large tree - I'd guess it's in excess of 100 years old. So, either someone drilled a horizontal hole into the tree and then a vertical one straight down into the ground (which seems unlikely to me), or the water point is so old that the tree grew around the original pipe.

In any event, it was kinda weird to see a tap coming out of a tree with no obvious pipes in the vicinity.

See this post for more about this photo and Rustenberg Wine's open gardens.

Open gardens: Beautiful buildings

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Open gardens: Beautiful buildings
The farm dates back to 1682, a mere 30 years after Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company landed to establish the first European settlement in the Cape [1], making it one of the oldest farms in South Africa.

If you have a spare moment, click though to the their website to read the Rustenberg story - surprisingly, it's somewhat interesting. :)

See this post for more about this photo and Rustenberg Wine's open gardens.

Open gardens: Pink sunshine

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Open gardens: Pink sunshine
While they're ok, I'm not a huge fan of the traditional rosebush. Climbing roses however - they're pretty awesome.

See this post for more about this photo and Rustenberg Wine's open gardens.

Open gardens: Lilypad pond baby

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Open gardens: Lilypad pond baby
Don't you love lilypads? I think I need to make it an objective for us to create a pond with lilys at our house - they create such a serene atmosphere.

See this post for more about this photo and Rustenberg Wine's open gardens.

Open gardens: The grim Creeper

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Open gardens: The grim Creeper
Creepers look pretty awesome, but boy oh boy, don't let them get out of control. We have one at our house and if I weren't keeping a chopping-hand directed towards it, I swear it would cover our house in a matter of minutes. Exaggeration perhaps, but still, there's some truth here. :)

See this post for more about this photo and Rustenberg Wine's open gardens.

Open gardens: Thatched roof

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Open gardens: Cool thatch
Besides for being really pretty, thatch-roof buildings are known to retain heat exceptionally well in winter and keep out the heat in summer.

One of the negative aspects of thatch is that it burns very easily. Once thatch has caught fire it's very difficult to extinguish flames and smoldering embers - which is why insurance companies tend to raise premiums considerably for buildings that have a thatched roofs.

See this post for more about this photo and Rustenberg Wine's open gardens.

Rustenberg Wines open gardens

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Rustenberg Wines open gardens
It was by shear chance that we stumbled upon Rustenberg Wine Estate (map) and their open garden day.

On a whim, while heading down the Helshoogte mountain pass towards Stellenbosch, I took a right-turn and came across signs pointing to "Open Garden". After a few minutes we discovered the Rustenberg Wine Estate, parked, paid our R30 entrance fee, and started our walkabout at this gate.

I'll post more photos from the walk in my next few posts - hope you enjoy them!

Fun digger-toys

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Fun digger-toys
I'd love one of these, just to toy around with - wouldn't you? Imaging driving around, digging holes and moving things about - or better yet, using one of these as a combat vehicle in a paintball game!

Clearly I have an office job - or I guess this wouldn't sound as exciting as it does right now. :)

Volleyball on the beach

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Volleyball on the beach
I think I probably suck at volleyball, but still (and even if you do also), don't you think this would be a hell of a lot of fun?

For interest sake, and not that I have any affiliation with them, the Virgin Active health club in Green Point has outdoor beach volleyball courts. Not that the courts are on the beach - they've filled huge sandpits with beach sand and voilà, miracled up an awesome addition to their facilities.