Autumn, Franschhoek & Red roses…

Wow, what a weekend. We flew down to Franschhoek on Friday morning to attend Jay & Phillip’s wedding. As usual things were rather rushed, but we made the flight easily and arrived in Franschhoek at around 3pm. The first thing that struck me was how Autumn had cloaked the countryside in it’s colourful splendour. The old oak trees lining the roads looked magnificent in red, orange and gold. And the vines were touched with the same glorious warm colours. This was our first visit in the Autumn, and although there was a cool wind, the sun still had retained some of it’s Summer warmth. It really is beautiful to visit here in the Autumn.

We stayed with Rika & Neal in a cute little apartment in the Ivy Apartments. Beautifully decorated in a clean, contemporary style. Friday evening we had dinner at Col’cacchio’s which was conveniently just across the street. I was unfortunately being hassled by a filling which had come out and my rough tooth was scraping against my tongue. So I didn’t enjoy my food too much the entire weekend. Not pleasant I can tell you!!

Saturday morning we walked a bit around the shops and then got ready for the wedding. Jay was a little more than customarily late. (and hour and a 1/4!) But we enjoyed teeny milkshakes in shot glasses and a small jazz band outside the chapel and took in the beautiful gardens of the Franschhoek Inn.

The Chapel was all white, with clear perspex slatted chairs with black cushions. The Aisle was draped with wide white paper printed with words from sms’s and emails the couple had sent each other with scattered red rose petals printed in between. This was so striking and so unusual! The front of the chapel was twinkling with countless candles. So pretty.

Against all this, Jay walked in in a stunning red ball-gown wedding dress.

The reception was held in Le Verger, the hotel’s restaurant. A really beautiful setting. Having only 35 guests, we all sat at a long banquet-style table draped with a silvery grey cloth, thousands of red roses and teaming with tiny tealights. Then from the ceiling, hung red wineglasses, which caught the candlelight beautifully. We were provided with small scissors with which to cut the wineglasses down should we want to drink water. Such a cute idea!!

The food was delicious (despite the ache in my mouth!!) and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening with our friends. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the cake! Really stunning! It was around 5 layers, tiered from large to small. Topped with a black icing bow. Each layer looked like it was about to topple over and each one was decorated in a different pattern in red, white and black. To me the entire wedding had a contemporary baroque feel to it. Just my thing!

We left for the airport at 09h30 Sunday morning, having not been able to see much more of Franschhoek or take any good photos. Instead, I had to settle for taking some quick shots out the car window. I also couldn’t take photos at the wedding as we were asked not to take cameras. I couldn’t resist taking a  few shots with my phone just so I could show Shannon how pretty everything was. I’m hoping Rika sends me a few or posts some on Facebook.

Now back to our usual weekly routine. Tomorrow is Shannon’s audition for the SA Talents Competition, so she has some practising to do this afternoon. This afternoon I’ve managed to grab an appointment at the dentist thankfully due to a cancellation they had. So I am relieved!!

 

Under Construction

I am finally 'getting it'! Blog designing is not rocket science once you learn to play around a bit. I enjoy making use of Blogger's basics and getting it to do what I want! One of which is the Navbar I've finally figured out how to do. So go ahead and start clicking to be redirected to specific areas on my blog. Watch this space as I'll be upgrading it it soon now that I've figured out how to get it there!

I'm still busy with the Blog Design course "Bling up your Blog" at the Little Light Studio. What fun! I love this creative site. Kayla Aimee and Wilna are really talented and artsy and explain everything so well - so go one and click on their button which you'll find in the left side-bar of my blog.

Do pop in again to see how my blog changes as it is still Under Construction!

This weekend we went away to Buffalo Thorn Lodge in the Pilanesberg near Sun City. This was our second visit and we really enjoyed it. The accommodation was superb and the kids had fun with their cousins. The highlight was finding a pride of 5 lionesses having their lunch! They had caught a Wildebees, we estimate around 2 hours before we saw them, and were devouring the last of it. They weren’t too keen on the vehicle and the one dragged the carcass further into the long grass where they could eat in peace. Fortunately we could still see them when they stood up.

 

One thing we decided after our visit is that we are so spoiled at Olifants being able to drive around when we choose and also the landscape there is so beautiful , nothing can compare in our humble opinion.

The weather lately has been cold and wet to say the least! We have had such a lot of rain, so unusual for late April. At Buffalo Thorn, getting there was quite a feat! Take  a look at the car!

We literally drove sideways in parts! The mud got into the rims of the wheels and the car shuddered all the way home each time we exceeded 90km/hr! So now we’ll have to have the tyres removed and cleaned out. At least we got some real mud on the “Rangey” which normally only sees city driving with the odd pothole here and there!

Today is a public holiday and Leon’s sister, Denise is visiting from the USA so his mom and Denise are coming to us for lunch. The weather is still cold and wet – real comfort food weather! So I think we’ll have a roast chicken with potatoes & veg (which Leon has offered to cook! Yay!!) and I’ll follow it up with good old-fashioned South African Malva Pudding…

 

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

At last the July school holidays are upon us. In fact, the kids have been on holiday for a week now already. We're off to Buffalo Thorn Lodge in the Pilanesberg this weekend for 2 nights. Really looking forward to getting away and also looking at the property there. We're going with Corné and Kevin and their kids, so at least the kids will be entertained and we can simply relax and enjoy the bush.

I'm hoping to get stuck into my photography next weekend too - crossing fingers I'll have some willing children to pose for photos! (Yeah, like that's going to happen!!)

The following week we'll be off to Ian & Nikki to visit them on the farm for a few days. We haven't been up to Lesitele for months - so we do owe them a visit!

Shannon's singing concert went off really well - her term mark was 84%. She has really begun to perform well on stage - I can't believe how she has changed from the shy little 9 year old singing "Tomorrow". Next term she has loads of work cut out for her.

She has the Centurion Eistedfodd starting 5 August until 17th August. Then September she has her Damelin Intermediate singing exam as well as the school concert.
Besides all this, she has to keep up with her school work! So I am definitely going to have my hands full this next term.

On Friday morning we went to see the Pretoria Youth Theatre's production of sleeping Beauty. The kids enjoyed it as Tayla Catterick and Tarryn James are at school and do singing with Shannon. The production was really well done and the kids really are talented. Their dancing, singing and acting was really superb and they put on a really enjoyable show.
I think it's something Shannon could get involved in quite happily, but we'll wait a while as she is still a bit young to handle all the reharsing as well as her school work.

I've done no scrapbooking at all since the PC bombed out. I simply don't feel the urge to scrapbook. And I'm amazingly ok with that! I seem to be enjoying my painting a whole lot more nowadays. I also visited a bead shop and made myself a string of fresh water pearls and swarowski crystals - quite relaxing - so I might just make a few more.

Off to get the day going.....

Proud mom, nervous mom & excited mom....

Yes I am so proud! My little eleven year-old girl, Shannon, won the regional round of the Dros Kidz Super Stars competition! (For anyone who doesn't know- the Dros is a family restaurant chain) She did the best performance she has ever done! As I watched her, I could not believe it was the same child her started singing 3 years ago. The shyness had completely vanished and she took to the stage like a natural! Even if she doesn't get further than this round, I will still be so happy for her- her eyes literally sparkled with joy when she won!

And oh boy am I nervous & excited now too! She will compete tomorrow night (19 March) at the Dros in Midrand in the semi-finals (provincial round). They select 6-7 kids (as far as I know) to go through to the finals on 1st of April at the Silver Lakes Dros. I am beyond excited coz if she does go through, that happens to be the date of my 40th birthday! My niece says it's fate- and has already decided that Shannon will be in the finals. Well we're all rooting for her of course and praying that she is selected.

Shannon of course is really excited about the competition- especially due to the fact that the winner receives R100 000 in prizes! This includes a recording contract - she dreams everyday of recording her own CD!

So that's our exciting news at the moment!

I have almost finished my "Blue Dancers" painting - I'll glaze it next week and then also start my monochromatic paintings - I want to do two small square portraits in sepia tones of each of the kids. I'm really looking forward to that!

Last week we visited the gorgeous village of Franschhoek for 4 days. Our friends, Neal & Rika, invited us to join them from Wednesday till Saturday at the Franschhoek Country House. We stayed in one of the villa suites. What an absolute treat! It really is probably the most amazing place I have ever stayed in! It beats staying at the Palace of the Lost city by far!
Our friend, Mandy who manages a large liquor store, arranged private tours at two wine estates. What fun! We first visited Haute Cabriere, with its infamous Pierre Jourdan sparkling wine - made in the French Méthode Cap Classique. We ended up having a fabulous lunch in the restaurant there afterwards. Needless to say it was quite an inebriating day! Enough said!

The next day we visited L'Ormorins - owned by the Rupert family. Wow- what an estate! After a vineyard tour, we went on a cellar tour. They were harvesting so it was really interesting. The grapes were being moved in small crates from the vineyard (to avoid being pressed too much) into refrigerators while waiting to be hand sorted (the green stems and over-ripe berries are removed). After that, the conveyor belt moves them through a machine which lightly crushes the grapes as these particular ones had very strong skins and needed help bursting during the fermentation process. Fermentation takes place in new French oak barrels which cost around R9000 each. So the slightly crushed berries are poured straight into the barrels. They also add dry ice which helps to keep any oxygen out the barrel so the grapes cannot oxidise.

The natural yeast on the berries (grey powdery residue on skins) is the only yeast they use at L'Ormorins to ferment the berries. They believe in keeping everything as natural as possible. From not adding minerals etc to the soil and only using the minimum amount of pesticides. In fact they rely on birds to help with insects and feel that even if the birds also eat the berries, it doesn't matter as they prefer quality grapes over quantity. So interesting!

After going through the cellar, we tasted some wine - and bought some- and then ended off with a tour of the Franschhoek Motor Museum where we saw some 300 cars housed in 3 large barn-style rooms. As much as I have really not much interest in cars, I found the museum really interesting. The cars ranged from some of the first cars ever made right up to the 2002 Enzo Ferrari (I think there were only 3 made if my memory serves me correctly). The cost of each car and the entire collection is simply not up for topic there. We were told that the one particular Mercedes (forget the model now), was bought on auction for R17 million rand on auction (around $1.7 million)- and that's just ONE car!

Reece is sick at home today with a cold-so he is here nagging me, so I'd better go. Will post photos later of Franschhoek and of Shannon singing.

Just some catching up....

It's been ages since I was here! What's been going on in my life lately... Mmmm



Shannon entered the Dros Kidz Super Star competition through her school. She competed in the first round against 10 other kids from Woodhill on Monday 23 Feb. She was one of the 6 chosen to go through to the next round where they will compete against another school for 1 place in the Gauteng Regionals. So it's off to the Dros in Menlyn again on Monday 9 Feb. {Holding thumbs and praying she gets thru to the regionals- it'll be so fantastic!!} The regionals will be on 16 March at Dros Midrand and then the National Finals are on 1 April at the Silverlakes Dros. Maybe it's a good sign that the finals are actually on my 40th birthday! There is so much talent out there that it's going to be tough, but just the experience of entering a big competition is great for her anyway.



I just wish she studied to pass Grade 6 as well as she sailed through learning her next set of lyrics! Grrrrr - I feel lately as though I need to pass Grade 6 {and Grade 2 for that matter} all over again. I have summarised, asked questions and find myself repeating the HSS or Natural Science to myself as I'm falling asleep! But Shannon- I bet the little diva is dreaming of her next performance as she drifts off!



Reece luckily hasn't got to the stage where he needs help with serious studying. He has weekly spelling words which are tested each Friday. {And that's enough!!} I'm hoping that by the time he needs help in Grade 4 with his tests that Shannon is well into High School & no longer needs help! I'm really tired of studying - but I guess you've gathered that by now!



I hosted Bookclub at home this morning. Can't say I was in the mood, but in the end it was fun seeing everyone and chatting about everything & nothing. At least this month it wasn't just Rozanne, Belinda & I - there were actually 8 of us! I have been reading The Venetian (something or other- I forget the name) by Steve Berry. Quite interesting with loads of historical references to Alexander The Great - pretty much akin to The DaVinci Code - with a fairly complicated storyline that has many twists and turns. I have kept out 2 other books which are a lot lighter & should hold up to the many interruptions by kids, husband etc that I seem to be subjected to every time I pick up a book to read.



Still toying with the idea of my 40th Birthday this year. Do I let it slip by quietly or do I have a nice big bash with great 80's music & pretty decor, great food and my close friends? The second option really sounds more fun than ignoring the event completely....we'll have to decide soon as time is ticking by. {tick....tick....tick....}



Ooh- I recently won a $10 gift certificate from Weeds & Wildflowers for the Blog weekly challenge {every Monday} for last week- I did a Valentine's themed layout for it- take a peek by looking at my Scrapbook slideshow- it's called "Always my Valentine" - I had fun doing this one {especially since I can go shopping now for more digi stuff!}



Oh -$*^%$(&^)&^ - 'scuse the &^%(&^%&, but my mouse won't work!!!! If it's not one thing, it's another.... Salt chlorinator in the pool; internet connection; whole computer bombed; central vacuum system won't suck in any air; irrigation system need the valves repaired; oh, and before all that, the electric gate wouldn't work for a couple of days until we discovered that Leon had switched it off when he switched the pool off when the chlorinator stopped working!

So now that I need to use my arrow keys to navigate here, I think I'm simply going to call it a night and rather go read my book before going to sleep! G'night...



Okay - I'll go now once I figure out how to get down to the 'Publish' button without a mouse!

What's new? Yip- I get bored easily & simply am continuosly trying to figure things out! I changed my entire blog (again!). This time- I like it... for now. Still have to change the last 2 link buttons- but that can wait till later.

No time left to play anymore. We're going out to lunch today as Leon starts work again tomorrow. He decided it would be good for us to have a family lunch out. (a) As he is going back to work; (b) as the holidays for the kids end in a week's time; (c) I won't have to cook and (d) (the most important)- I'm sick of cleaning up!

I have decided I'm going to try my best to take on the "Project 365" Challenge- to take a photo a day for the whole year and then scrapbook them. Quite a task, but if I keep it up it'll be so worth it. I only skipped yesterday so far, but I'll still take a photo for it (one may have to allow oneself a little cheat here and there).

Off to lunch shortly...chat soon. Vxx

Our recent 2-night trip to Etali Safari Lodge was absolutely wonderful. So much attention to detail, nothing was too much trouble, and the fare was absolutely delicious! Here are some pics I took while we were there. This lodge is absolute luxury -a real spoil-me kind of place. Our own plunge pool on our wooden deck overlooking the bush. Fudge in a little triangular box on our pillow each night. - Pure indulgence!

The lodge is situated in the bush- no fences - only small electric fence in front of the deck at each chalet to prevent the elephants from damaging the deck. (I felt a little more at ease with the electric fence!) The lodge is really tucked in the trees on a small rocky hill in the Madikwe. Everything is open to the bush and you really feel a part of nature. Reece had very big eyes and gave Leon a knowing look when the game ranger cocked his rifle before walking us to our room each night after dinner. (You aren't allowed to walk around unescourted after dark).

We saw 4 of the Big 5 - all except a leopoard. A very close encounter with a very brave elephant got us a little nervous. I've never heard a game ranger talk in a stern voice to an ellie before- telling him to back off! Then I knew we could be in a spot of trouble! Luckily when he reversed slowly, the elephant also kept coming slowly and eventually moved to the side and carried on eating. I was so nervous I didn't even dare pick my camera up off my lap to take a pic for fear of startling Jumbo!

Leon spoilt himself with a back massage and me with a facial and facial massage at the Etali Spa - absolute bliss! Definately worth it, even though it cost a fortune!

Reece found the cutest 'Shoobeedoo' jacket for himself in the lodge's boutique. He saw it through the window and decided then and there it was his! He was so thrilled with it he even wore it when it was still 30 degrees C outside! Let me put you in the picture here- it was 30 degrees C after dark there! Oh boy was it hot during the day! - 45 degrees! When we saw the wild dogs I was so hot that I couldn't wait to leave them - and this is not something you see everyday. Wild dogs are extremely scarce. There are only 5000 left in the world today (including in captivity). Even when the open game vehicle was moving it was hot!

We returned home really relaxed and looking forward to the preparations for Christmas.