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Category Archives: South Africa

Puppy, Present and Pruning

We were having coffee in our favourite coffee shop this morning when our favourite puppy, Tobi, went by with our friend N. In they came and just look at those eyes!

We arrived home to find a present on our doorstep. What a glorious Butternut Squash this is and it will make pints of delicious soup. Thank you so much S and M.

My lovely Mr S cut me a branch of our Twisted Hazel that had been waiting to be pruned and I have put all our beaded decorations on it. We bought many of them in Mapoch, the village where we volunteered in 2006, others in Eswatini ( used to be Swaziland ) when we drove through on a later trip.

8 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 14, 2024 in art, Christmas decorations, craft, friendship, Mapoch, Postaday 2024, South Africa, Uncategorized

Tags: African beading, Homeground Coffee Shop

Allotment – Flowers and Fun

10 Jul

We had a shared lunch at the allotment today – lots of courgettes in evidence! My muffins (recipe to come as soon as I can) were joined by Courgette Fritters and more muffins and some delicious Cinnamon rolls. I took some photos of a couple of flowers around the plot.

Chatting together we talked about travelling and learning languages and I remembered learning some IsiZulu for our volunteering in Mapoch, near Pretoria when we first retired. I made flash cards to learn with and afterwards wrote a diary of our experiences. Here is the opening paragraph of my diary and some of my flash cards.

4 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on July 10, 2022 in community, languages, Mapoch, nature, photography, Postaday2022, South Africa, travel, Voluntouring, Words

Tags: IsiZulu, volunteering

Dawn, Street Art and Beaded Tree

05 Jan

Lovely peachy clouds as we drew the curtains this morning.

Our walk today, allowed, was into town to collect the bread. It’s the last we’ll do in town for a few months. I spotted a new street art mask today on a tree outside the clock tower.

We have taken down our Christmas tree but we are leaving up all the twinkly lights, the greenery wreath on the front door and a small white tree filled with South African beaded decorations. They were made by the women, the gogos, the Grandmothers, in Mapoch where we did our volunteering in 2007. We helped build a new classroom and worked with the children and the teacher.

You can read about some of our experiences here.

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on January 5, 2021 in art, Cornwall, nature, Photography, Postaday2021, South Africa

Tags: Gogos of Mapoch, Mapoch

My Dad

17 Dec

On this day in 2004 my lovely Dad died after seventeen days in the hospice, very special days that I was able to spend with him. I’ve posted about him before but never about the days before I was on the scene. The following photos are some of those he sent home to my Mum.

They had been on their way to South Africa but because of U-boat activity, were re-routed to Nova Scotia. By January 1942 they had arrived in South Africa.

Makoalis, Basutoland January 1942

The last one is of Dad with one of his beloved Burmese cats, a favourite of mine.

Dad with Shoshone

21 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on December 17, 2020 in family, family history, Photography, South Africa

Tags: WW11

Angels, Earrings and A Pot

15 May

I bought some beautiful items while in KwaZulu Natal. I always try to find an Angel for our Christmas tree when we are on holiday and found two pretty beaded ones on a market run by a collective so each maker was selling her own creations.

Market Angels

I found earrings in each of the museums we visited, again, each was labelled with the maker’s name though the name labels were taken off so that each maker was properly rewarded for their own work.

Earrings from three different places and makers – The outside ones were from the Talana Museum shop and the middle pair were from the Rorke’s drift museum shop.

After watching the women at work weaving, we bought two of these pretty little pots – one for us and one for our lovely neighbour who has kindly watched over our place and kept our house plants alive.

Small woven pot with lid

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 15, 2018 in art, community, Photography, Postaday2018, South Africa

Tags: makers' co-operative, Zulu basket weaving, Zulu beadwork

KwaZulu Natal – Day 10

04 May

May 3rd 2018

This morning the whole gang did the walk to Doreen Falls, a gorgeous rainbow waterfall. Our guide had brought coffee for us all to have before our return hike.

Doreen Falls

Some folks did a demanding scramble up the mountain to see the Bushman art up there.. You can see how high they were!

Look very carefully to see the rest of the gang way up the mountain under the overhang where the Bushman art was to be found.

We spent the afternoon bird and bug watching.

Sunbird

Mayfly?

A spotty bug

2 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 4, 2018 in Beauty, environment, nature, Photography, Postaday2018, South Africa, travel, Uncategorized

Tags: Greater Double Collared Sunbird, South African bugs

KwaZulu Natal – Day 9

04 May

May 2nd 2018

We are in the Drakensburg Mountains, where my Dad was at some point in WW2. It feels a bit of a pilgrimage to be treading in his footsteps, seeing things he saw and he is in my thoughts as we take in all the grandeur.
We were up early to catch the Sunbirds collecting their nectar then after breakfast went on a walk to Belinda Falls, a pretty if a bit scrambly walk.

Sun bird

Later, after the gang had set off for their Grade 5, 5 hour walk up the mountains we went with the Leader’s wife to the Lake Jarred Overlook, another gentle and delightful walk spotting birds and flowers.

African Hoopoe

Grasshopper whose wings flash red when he flies

Beautiful remains of a Grasshopper, as yet unidentified

7 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 4, 2018 in environment, Happiness, nature, Photography, Postaday2018, South Africa, travel, Uncategorized

Tags: African Hoopoe, South African Grasshopper

KwaZulu Natal – Day 5

01 May

April 28th 2018

More safaris! More wonderful creatures and birds!

Cape Glossy Starling

Monkey watching our lunchtime picnic

Elephant

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 1, 2018 in environment, nature, Photography, Postaday2018, South Africa, travel

Tags: Cape Glossy Starling, Hluhluwe Safari Park, monkey

KwaZulu Natal – Day 4

01 May

Safari day! Into the big jeeps and a day of driving through Hluhluwe Safari Park.

Baby elephant

White Rhino

We have been without Wifi for many days and have been too busy anyway so watch this space as we are now where we can relax a little(been up at dawn every day and bed at sunset!) and we can catch up.

3 Comments

Posted by mybeautfulthings on May 1, 2018 in environment, nature, Photography, Postaday2018, South Africa, travel, Uncategorized

Tags: Baby Elephant, White Rhino

KwaZulu Natal – Day 2

28 Apr

On our first full day here we woke to Nyala prancing about outside our window, spent the morning being immersed in the Zulu culture with a fabulous guide who took us first to a Primary School (where the 41 children in one class sang and danced for us. We were asked if we would sing or dance for the children. I sang Skinny Marinka for them and got a round of applause. D danced and was similarly rewarded!). ) Thence we went to a village where we learned a great deal of fascinating information about the local way of life and their customs.

South Africa’s National Anthem which I sang along with, having learned it many years ago with The Quirky Choir

In the Zulu village

The afternoon was a long walk through the woods and alongside the water at False Bay, quite a challenge!12,500 steps on my counter, 24.000 on someone else’s!