Doing that thing that I do.

I love it when my sourcing takes me out Kalk Bay way, on a breezy sunny day.

The roadworks continue to frustrate, but there are so many treasures along the way. I wondered around the Sobeit Studio for a while, they have umpteen beautiful things to covet. Angels and lions, paintings and furniture... a bracelet made of small interlocking silver skulls @ R 9 950. Sigh.

Just downstairs is David Bellamy's fantastic fabric shop. The Liberty lawn always fills me with desire. (there are quite a few pieces in my fabric chest). Today I bought the starry clouds for some pillow slips. Bbellamy & Bbellamy also stock a dizzying array of Sanderson Linens, Japanese indigo linen, cotton velvet, crewel work, etc.

Kwagga Books has a sixties edition of Elizabeth David's "French Cooking" in the window. Sometimes it's so hard to obey those pesky commandments.

The new black.

"a similar weapon used in hunting fish or whales."

Freelancing. They should leave off the "free". We are Lancers, we are fighters. And sometimes my armor feels so flimsy. Bad habits arise from my childhood: the nibbling of finger nails, waking in the dead of night with my stomach aching. This weight of being in a position of responsibility.

Off days (one a week) become very precious.

A Sea Point stroll, a beer at the Winchester, a sunset of heartbreaking beauty.

Silver linings.

Every shoulder, every spine of every road, every little scrap of earth is covered in flowers. Small white daisies, orange and yellow Namaqua daisies, rust-coloured gazanias, creamy pink vygies, madeliefies. Stop and walk through them and your shoes and your trouser legs are soon covered in yellow pollen. Last week at Postberg we saw a purple hill, troupes of tortoises sunning themselves.
We all have Spring fever.

Every morning there are huge banks of cauliflower clouds over to the West. During the day they slowly disperse. Time to pack away the down duvet and air those Summer dresses.

The way we live.

Birthdays and Love Affairs.

I remember writing a post with the same title, exactly one year ago. On the surface, everything in my life has changed since then. But one thing stays constant -
I am surrounded by a group of loyal friends who make the world a better place to be in.

I spent my birthday yesterday on a recce in the hills. A three month job is a great present indeed. On a solitary sortie on a meandering path, this large egg lay casually to the side - no ostrich parent in sight.

Whenever I go to informal settlements, it's always the children and the animals that get to me. I think about my lucky childhood and the garden I had to play in, and these children with their ready smiles and laughter, playing with sticks and bits of plastic.

Employment, supper with my best friends, music and flowers, messages and letters.
This old world is painful sometimes, but there's beauty in it too. The love affair continues.

The Temptation To Exist.

We were classmates at university. Now he's a zillion dollar artist and me... well, I'm not.

Conrad Botes' current exhibition at Michael Stevenson is spectacular.

The scale of it. Countless brushstrokes, devilish self portraits, entrails, bones, fire and brimstone and an ocean of tears. A crossed out shopping list:
MELK, BROOD, VODKA.

And my utmost respect.

Seven Rand.

Walk in peace little doglet.

We'll miss you very much, but I know there's a cloud up there with your name on it.