Sunday afternoon activity (or the sewing fever)

Sewing, sewing, sewing ... today I made two skirts. I know ... self-praise sucks, but I think they look really cool. :)

a two-layer skirt ... quite colorful :)

a one-layer skirt made of African printed cotton

Sunny Saturday

After I finished some work in the morning, I went with Bridget to the so called Root44 market. They have great handmade clothes and other stuff there. I didn´t took pictures to avoid looking like one of these weird tourists ;) ... but you can get some impressions of the market following this link: http://www.root44.co.za/

Now I´m just back from a nice walk with the dogs through the vineyards just behind the residental area where we live. Look at the pictures ... isn´t is amazing? It´s just a five minutes walk from the house and you can see this beautiful landscape with the mountains in the back. I really love it.

Sybil with a pine cone in her mouth and waiting that I catch up

Sybil ... waiting that I kick the pine cone

I really like the clouds above the mountains ... it looks amazing, but sadly this means that we´ll have rain tomorrow.

another sign for rain ... little hills made by ants

Long Weekend

We had a long weekend due to the holiday (Day of human rights) last Friday. So at Friday, I went with Bridget to Somerset West to visit her son Jack and afterwards she showed me Strand which is a Town on the eastern edge of False Bay. I have seen the beach and we visited the street market where they sell different stuff (clothes, craftwork, food, ect.). We bought a fresh fish for supper. Back home, we had a lekker braai (grilled fish, mushrooms, salad, ect.) with some friends of Bridget.

Saturday: Pia (a friend of Bridget) took us to a wine estate called "Spice Route" (http://www.spiceroutewines.co.za/) where we had a look to their glass blowing studio. They have amazing glass artifacts there. Afterwards, Pia showed us bit of the town Paarl where she lived before she moved to Stellenbosch and then we went to another wine estate to have lekker lunch and wine. It was a really nice tour to see a bit more of the surrounding of Stellenbosch.

The Sunday was kind of a pretty lazy day. I spent the most of the day at the couch or on my bed reading Acacia paper and so on. However, during the afternoon we went to the horse stable to visit Victorias horse Ali and to have a nice walk with the dogs through the vineyards.

at the market in Strand - lekker fish for the braai

the beach

glass blowing studio

glass blowing studio

glass blowing studio

in the vineyards

in the vineyards

in the vineyards

me and Ali

Sunday afternoon hike ...

Sadly, we haven´t seen any fancy animals during the hiking tour, but at least I found a spine of a porcupine in the woods ... so they should live there somewhere :)

Rustenburg farm / Rare species show

today, I joined Bridget to the rare species show at Rustenburg farm (http://www.rustenberg.co.za/) which is a huge farm with wonderful vineyards and gardens. I was strolling around a bit to see which plants all the different nurseries are going to sell and I spend some hours in the gardens on a bench to read some papers about Acacias (my actual reseach species). It was really nice there and finally I couln´t resist to buy some plants for my room. :)

the rare plant show

one of the main buildings at Rustenburg farm

the gardens of Rustenburg farm

the gardens of Rustenburg farm with two Hadada Ibis foraging on the lawn

the gardens of Rustenburg farm

the gardens of Rustenburg farm

my new succulents for my room :)

another animal in the house ... Rodger the baby gecko ;)
When I was watching TV with Bridget yesterday this little baby gecko climbed up the couch and because he was so confiding (he ran all the time my arms and hands up and down) we decided to give him a name ... Rodger. I hope he´ll catch a lot of mosquitos and other bugs that he´s growing strong and tall.:)

The dogs ...

Savanna in her bed

Sybil in front of my bed ... waiting that I´ll play with her

... still waiting