National Heritage Day

It is quite scary how quickly time skitters and fritters away.  I last posted early, early on Tuesday morning.  

I spent the day with Bev on Tuesday.  We had a really lovely day.  Here is a picture of her pool, and the view that she has from her verandah out across the sea of Camps Bay:

I caught the train to Claremont.  Bev picked me up there.  We did some shopping, and then went through to her house.  Bev then dropped me off at Cape Town station where the trains were delayed :(.  I finally got back to Fish Hoek a bit late for knitting club, but walked up anyway and had a lovely time with a group of about 20 other beaverish knitters.  I posted a picture of Devil's Peak, as seen from Bev's house on Project 365.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent exploring work options.  I am making some headway in that regard, which is good news. Other pursuits on these two days were working on Christmas gifts which I am planning for friends.

Friday was another hiking day.  We hiked up through Newlands Forest:

I posted a picture of  beautiful waterfall that we saw on our journey on Project 365.  


I spent the afternoon with Cleone.  Cleone is a friend of mine from Toastmasters.  We went to her cottage in Glencairn, and then onto her cottage in Simonstown.  We haven't spent time together in ages, so it was good to catch up.  I am seeing her again later today.

And today is National Heritage Day.  I am about to go and do some shopping, and then resume the activities of Wednesday and Thursday.  I also aim to tuck in some gardening, which is an ongoing daily joy.

A little bit of happiness:  My blogs are now viewed in 10 countries.  Not bad for a l'il ol' South African chick :).

Hiking through farmlands in Constantia

Today's hike was through farmlands in Constantia.  Here are pictures of some of my fellow hikers:

Something of a surprise was to stumble upon a community of pear trees, simply bursting with blooms:

Afterwards, a lovely light lunch of fried camembert, with apple chutney and toast, with a good cup of coffee, and then home.

In the evening, computer club, where Elfi gave a lovely presentation of web-sites that she has stumbled upon in her journeys around the net.  Some were informative, some fun and some anachronistic.

A self indulgent day

It is very cold and wet.  That is ok.  Our dams will be a little fuller than they would be without it.  So today has become a self-indulgent day:  reading; scrabbling; catching up with light household chores.  Not much in the way of pictures today.  Here is one of some violas growing under a tree outside my back door:

I have posted one of a caterpillar on Project 365.

Coffee with friends

This morning I went through to Kommetjie to meet with friends for coffee.  We have a lot in common, so there was a constant buzz of friendly banter and loads of laughs.  We have a lot in common, these friends and I, so we could laugh both at and with each other.

Then I came home and spent some time in the garden.  Here is a marigold which sits amongst the veggies which are still from my first planting:

And some Zim creeper:

This afternoon I did some more origami.  I have posted my efforts on Project 365.

Hike up the Ridge

Today's hike started in Glencairn with the intention of going up the mountain to the Ridge behind Elsie's Peak.  What is so special about this hike is that from the Beacon at the top of the ridge, one has a 360 view of the Peninsula, into Fish Hoek across to Gordon's Bay and Hangklip, into Simonstown and across Noordhoek Beach to Kommetjie.  Between these coastlines, there are hectares of mountainside with many different species of Cape fynbos.

Below are pictures of the three different perspectives of the coast:

Fish Hoek, across to Strandfontein with the mountains as a backdrop

Noordhoek beach, with Kommetjie nestled in the left hand corner

Boulders and Miller's point on the way out of Simonstown going towards Cape Point

Some of the mountainside on our way up

Here is a picture of some of my fellow hikers sitting at the beacon on top of the Ridge, with Noordhoek beach behind them:

Today is a cause for celebration.  One year ago today, I made and actioned a decision which changed my life completely.  When I look back over the past year, slowly but surely I have confronted my fears and overcome them.  It is fitting that the views of the hike reflected a clear day when one can see forever.

A Pollyanna Moment

Do you remember those special knitting projects that I was doing before going to Korea?  They are gifts for family members.  Here is how I planned the giving of the gifts:

A getting together, either on Muizenberg beach:

or at Knead:

It was going to be a Chinese Auction.

Here is the reality:

Packing them all into a box and finding a way to get them to Stellenbosh.

Today I am going to finalise the sewing up, pack them, each with their personalised little gift tags that I made, and then put them in a box for sending.  Here is the picture of the gift tags:

I think they are rather fun

Anyone know of anyone who is going that way soon that might want to drop the box off for me?

Spring is in the air, there are flowers everywhere

Today has been such a lovely day.  It started with playing down scrabble and word games, followed by a quick chat with Isy where we shared a giggle or two.  

Despite the fact that Cordelia now only works for me once a fortnight, she comes here anyway on the day when she would have worked for me.  Her daughter goes to school in Fish Hoek.  She has not yet found alternative employment, so comes here for a safe haven between dropping Patience off at school and collecting her at midday.

During the morning, Bolle and I went to the beach.  It is a perfect spring day - warm, without being hot, wind-free and low humidity.  The beach had recently been cleaned, so there were long stretches of sand with waves lapping gently on the shore.  For years, Bolle has been outstanding at fetching her ball when I toss it.  It is only recently that she is learning to give it back to me in order to throw it again.  What she actually wants is to play tug of war with it, so we do that a bit, and then I ask her to drop it, and she does, albeit unwillingly.  I love watching the expressions in her eyes as she goes through the process of realising that the only way to get it thrown again is to let go of it.

Afterwards I returned to Noordhoek Farm Village to retake yesterday's pictures of the flowers there.  Yesterday was wet and cold and most of the pictures that I took were blurred, or the lighting was bad.  I forgot to use my flash.

I have uploaded pictures to Project 365.  I noticed that the sequence of pictures was a bit out so I sorted that out, but have not extrapolated the changes through to this blog.  Sorry if some of the posts are a bit wrong in this regard.  I may, when I have time, revisit posts over the last few days and 'fix' the links.

Bev called and we had a brief chat and shared a laugh.  We are planning some hiking in the near future when both of us are free at the same time.

Later today, I am going to visit another friend of mine.  We are working on the possibility of some part time work for me.  However it turns out, I am learning a lot, and enjoying the process.

A quick picture to brighten this post:

Another member of the protea family, seen at Noordhoek Farm Village