Can you say “Holidays”?

Yay! School holidays started today! I picked the kids up from school today at 11am and already felt a sense of relief.

4 weeks off bliss! No homework in the afternoons, no fetching & carrying to & from school (sometimes 3 or 4 times a day!), no school projects, just some pure fun! = HAPPY MOM!

This weekend is, of course, Easter. We’re at home, a quiet long weekend for us.

Tuesday we’re off to our little place of African heaven… The bushveld.

Hopefully we will see more of these beautiful prehistoric looking creatures…. I just love how this little baby is resting on his mommy’s back!

& this won’t happen again…(feb 2012)

the new, wider floodplain after the floods this summer…

Don’t you just love these faces?

You get the picture?

We’ll be back again after about a week, then we’ll relax at home until it’s my mom-in-law’s 80th birthday.

The whole family (the birthday girl + 5 kids + each of their spouses, + all 10 grandchildren= 21 in total) will be off for 3 days down to Umhlanga in Kwazulu Natal to a beautiful old hotel which was recently revamped …

I cannot wait to take photos of the beautiful lighthouse! (and I have to admit staying in such a gorgeous spot will be sublime!)

So this school holiday, we’ll have a bit of the bush and a bit of the beach – the best of both worlds – I can’t wait!

It’s been a while…

Hi there! It seems time has simply slipped by and I have not blogged in 3 months! I really have to get my act together!

Well April is upon us and so is Autumn. Today there seems to be a crisp nip in the air. If you're in the sun it's a glorious day though. Bright blue skies and sunshine are abundant!

We've spent 2 weekends at Olifants since our trip in December/ January. Both were fabulous! In Feb we spent the weekend there with my son's best friend & his family. We had a mid-term break from school, so we had a good long weekend to enjoy in the bush.

Grey Roller

   

Fondly called “Ronald” by the kids. They were horrified by the lack of dental hygiene!

  

The boys looking for pretty rocks on the road.

  Reece & Ethan

Two lionesses keeping hungry eyes on a giraffe. {The giraffe lived to see another day}.

Croc on the banks of the Olifants river

Ellie on the banks of the river.

Lazy lionesses in a dry riverbed

Reflections on the water at Hide dam

Our second visit this year was with Leon’s brother, Graham & his family. We tried out different routes this time, hoping to find some lions. We heard them, others saw them, but we missed out [this time!}. The weather wasn’t perfect, it rained a bit and there was a bit of wind. So I think this played a part in not much game being about.

We drove down towards Rhino plains this time and enjoyed the Candelabra trees- so unusual! The farm was also full of spider webs inhabited by these Golden Orb spiders. Which are apparently {and thankfully} not harmful to humans. We drove through a good few webs and had these not-too-friendly looking creatures land upon us in the cruiser! Eek! Rozanne & Graham were horrified to see me grab one by the legs and throw it out the car. Afterwards I thought it may not have been such a wise decision! LOL!

such

Candelabra trees

Golden Orb Spider

We also managed to spot 4 cheetahs , though they were around 20m in from the road and hidden behind some shrubbery. Had it not been that another car had been there and they showed them to us, we probably would have driven straight past. We could see them when they moved and at one stage the one stood up. Well we got to see their spots and I got one okay-ish photo.

This is a HUGE Kudu bull we came across, but being so shy he kept to safer ground behind the bush, so I only managed to snap this one shot which wasn’t too bad.

The Kudu lilies down at Moolman’s airstrip were beautiful and seem to favour this area as there were quite a few large bushes.

Well that’s about all from the bushveld for now.

Here’s a layout I recently did of Reece & Ethan hanging off the roll-bars in the landcruiser. I love their happy faces here.  I did this for the Sprague Challenge over at Jessica Sprague

I’ve subscribed to JS for ages now and always enjoy reading her (almost daily) newsletters. I’ve also been trying to do one of the photography courses there by Candice Stringham, but each time, either we’re away on holiday at the time it’s offered, or like last time, with the time difference, by the time I got to apply, the class was full! So I am determined to be there for the next one!

I was so excited recently when I got the wonderful news that she was looking for new Creative team members. So I simply had to try…. I would love to be a part of the Spraground Team!

Here are the other the layouts I entered:

This one is a new one I did specifically for the CT Search. Love the camera angle. {I just happened to be sitting behind them}. Reece loves driving the cruiser at Olifants, and it’s perfect as it is so safe and quiet for him to drive on the roads.

Here are the other 2 layouts:

This was from our trip last year in April to Cape Town.

This one is of Reece in June last year. He looked so cute with his shirt pulled out and his tie half down, that I had to snap a photo when he got back from school. He always gets back from school looking like he’s been playing a rugby match all morning! Often full of dirt on his white shirt and his shirt out, shoes often off and remnants of his lunch somewhere on his face.

So that’s where I’m at at the moment. My daily photos haven’t been kept up, but I’ve decided to take what I can and try to keep up as much as possible. Some weeks are better than others, but that’s my Life365.

April is birthday month in our house, so I’ll post some pics on my next post. This one is already getting to be far too long and I need to go fetch the kids shortly. Chat soon…

I'm BACK!!! Yip, I have finally got back to the PC!! I've been painting, visiting the bush, got thru a very hectic school term 3 (including Shannon's Intermediate singing exam).

We've since had 3 visits to our house at Olifants and we look forward to the next visit the minute we leave the reserve to return home. Not sure when we'll get to go again as we have a few busy weekends coming up as well as Shannon's year-end exams and the term is also so short.

Our first visit was quite a task! I drove the Range Rover, Leon the bakkie and trailer and each vehicle was loaded to the brim with new linen, towels and goodness knows what else (except the kitchen sink!).

Corné and Kevin joined us with their kids for the first visit- thank goodness they could help us get everything sorted out.

We had the elephants behind the house pull over a tree and we had to get the rangers to move it (and the ellies) before we could go on our gamedrive.

On our next visit, Ian and Nikki drove down form Letsitele- such a quick 1 hour drive for them.

This was our 'ellie encounter' weekend!! We came across a breeding herd of around 50 ellies and theon young male decided we were not welcome and proceeded to mock charge us. We were relieved to eventually get out of that situation, even though we realised it was only a 'mock' charge, it was deifinitely real enough for us!! Shannon is now so scared of the elephants that she is wary of going on game drives at all.

Our third visit was a full 8 days of bushveld bliss! The kids were on school holidays and Leon took some time off work. Neal and Rika and mom visited for 3 days, then Graham, Rozanne and Scott joined us for the rest. Poor dad volunteered to look after the animals at home as we couldn't get anyone to 'babysit' at home. We had such a fabulous time. Saw so many animals. Ellies again made many appearances, yet thankfully, they were calm. We had a close encounter at hide dam with Graham & co. when a huge breeding herd walked down to drink and bath in thecdam while we were having lunch. We had to quickly make a hasty reverse out their way or we would have been surrounded by them.

It was amazing to watch the tiny baby calves bathing and playing in the dam.

Having spent more time there, we have now managed to clear out a lot of things and throw out stuff we didn't want. So the place is slowly becoming more the way I would like it. I'm looking forward to revamping it next year, but in the meantime I am planning the decorating and assembling all my ideas.

I start my art classes again tomorrow after a few weeks break over the holidays while Johan was away in Italy. I'm also looking forward to hear all about the Bi-centennial Art Expo in Venice that he took some students to. I have also got a few commissions from Ian - a contemporary sunset with elephants as well as a monochrome portait each of Calyleigh and Dee-Anne. I still need to complete the girl with the guitar I'm painting for Shannon's room at Olifants and then will start my task for art classes- a study of Baroque painting. I'm really looking forward to that. It's going to be a big challenge, but I know I'll learn a lot.

Today I also sent off my application for a spot on the Creative Team at Weeds and Wildflowers. I really hope I get accepted as I simply LOVE their digital designs!! I'm hoping this will be the way I'm going to get back into my scrapbooking again after being lazy for so long!

Gotta go now and do some stuff around the house and then pick up the kids.

At this very moment, Leon is signing the documents to transfer Number 14 Olifants North into our name. So exciting! The kids are just as excited as we are. Shannon was so excited that she insisted on buying everything for her bedroom last weekend already. (Bearing in mind we've only ever seen the place once for about an hour and most of that time was spent out on the deck!)

Shannon has chosen orange (oh boy!??) for her room. Yip, bright sunshine orange! . I managed to tone the orange down with white bedlinen and two beige square ottomans. Even her bath towels are orange! At least it'll be bright and cheerful!

We have named each of the four bedrooms after a South African bird which is commonly found in the bushveld.

Shannon's bedroom will be called the "Gorgeous Bush-shrike" room because of the bright orange throat the bird has.

Reece opted for the "Little Bee-eater" room. So we've suitably chosen lime green as the accent colour in his room. I'll probably pair the green with a rich chocolate brown. His bathtowels are a neutral champagne colour. As yet we haven't purchased any other decor - so the cushions etc .will wait until we've had our first visit.

Our bedroom will be the "Woodlands Kingfisher" Room - with touches of blue-grey and the 4th bedroom will be the "Lilac-Breasted Roller" Room finished off with purple hues.

As with Reece's room, I will purchase all the other bedroom soft furnishings once we get back from our first visit. I am so looking forward to shopping for all the new goodies! We're probably going to redecorate the lounge too. We have a few ideas rolling around, but we can only finalise that once we've measured up the room to see what will fit.

This morning I went and stocked up on household essentials- cleaning stuff, herbs and spices, shower gels and liquid handsoaps etc for the bathrooms. At the moment the kitchen and guest bedroom look like we're a) moving house; b) starting a shop; or c) getting ready for Christmas!

It really has been so much fun planning and searching the stores for beautiful decor to compliment our little lodge in the bushveld. I'm planning on taking loads of photos of before and after as well as of the beautiful view and the fauna and flora. This is definitely going to be the start of a whole new way of life for us.

That's all for now until after we return from the long weekend....

Vxx

Our Bush Lodge becomes a reality....

We are so excited! Yesterday we heard that our offer for the house in Olifants Private Game Reserve was accepted. We shall very shortly officially own our house in the bush! We should be able to go up next weekend already. We are fortunate that next weekend is the mid-term break for the kids at school so we have 2 extra days for the weekend.

We can't wait to go up and sort out the house, to see what needs replacing, repairing etc. We are looking forward to making it our home away from home. We already have so many ideas with regards decorating. Although it is fully furnished, we would like to put our personal stamp on it, making it our little African escape.

This has been Leon's dream for as long as I can remember. He always wanted to buy a farm, but after viewing Olifants, we decided that a lock-up-and-go is far more practical. Plus here we are in the bush, in Big 5 country, with no fences between our reserve and the Kruger National Park.
What more could you ask for? (Hopefully we won't have too many very close encounters with elephants!)

So this is now officially my first entry in the 'Olifants' category. The next one should be of our visit next weekend and should include loads of photos!

Back home again...

We did end up visiting Ian & Nikki up in Letsitele over the weekend. As usual Nikki cooked up a storm and we had to roll home! The kids so enjoy seeing each other. Shannon had to sleep in Cayleigh's room with her as she says Dee-Anne always gets to have friends to sleep over and she never does (she is only 4!). Shannon crept into the bed next to hers some time after Cayleigh was fast asleep in Dreamland and the next morning she asked Shannon if she heard her trying to wake her up in the night. (She hadn't). Obviously Cayleigh wanted to check to see that her cousin had in fact kept to her promise of sleeping over in her room!

On Sunday morning we took a drive up to Olifants nature Reserve to have a look at property there. We found a gorgeous place in Olifants North - what peace and tranquility! Although there hasn't been much peace and tranquility at home since as we have been debating eversince whether or not to make the purchase!

Here are a few photos:

The view over Olifants Nature Reserve from the patio

The game viewing vehicle in carport.

The boma adjacent to the house.

Shannon took these photos with her 'new' camera. When Leon bought his Nikon, he sold his Panasonic to my mom and she gave her old digital camera to Shannon. Shan naturally thinks she is the bees knees as she now gets to snap away at whim!

I am amazed - she isn't too bad! Occasionally she ends up with blurred shots but mostly her photos are in focus and some are quite good.

Here are a few photos I took at Buffalo Thorn Lodge on our game drives...

I love fiddling around with my photos in Photoshop once I've downloaded them. Sometimes I think, maybe it's 'cheating' a bit to tweak them here and there, but then again - if it makes for a better result - why not?

Here's an example :



Before :


After :


The result- a brighter image with more of the sunset hues moving down onto the trees and Impalas. This I did by adjusting the contrast, levels and colour in 2 different layers. I then erased parts of the bottom half to end up with a photo where the Impala, trees and the sunset are better exposed. I love the warm 'African sunset' tones in the resultant photo. I think there is an improvement- but that's just my subjective opinion.

Well I'd better go get some stuff done around the house now. The kids are back at school, so the holiday is officially over and I need to try to get back into routine!


Bye for now.
Veronica