Tuesday, 29 September '09: Getting side-tracked in Bloemfontein

Purchasing pot pourri from a sweet scented mix in a battered enamel basin at the Bloemfontein Organic Market on Heritage Day last week.

All things pretty, smelling of lavender and roses under the hot sun.

The syringas are covered in pale mauve blossoms against a blue sky. Goods for sale at the Organic Market related to a greener, cleaner world - bins for recycling, water-wise plants and worms to start one's own wormery. I drew the line at unbleached loo paper. I want to save the world but...unbleached toilet paper looked a little too natural for me!

Somehow I kept getting side-tracked from Green issues. Here are the ice-cream lickin' reasons: Joelle.

And Jaelene. The reasons for my visit to Their World - Bloemfontein (translated from the Afrikaans. Fountain of flowers) in the Free State.

I am rather late in posting. Just back from my short visit. But if you hurry, you will find lots of other interesting corners of the globe and equally nice folk on My World.

Wednesday, 4 February '09: Weekending away

Where was I last weekend? Down in Bloemfontein (trans. Spring of Flowers), capital city of the Free State Province, visiting Joelle and Jaelene. Tucked at the bottom of my suit case ("Your 'kootcase' ", says Jaelene) were the girls' quilts. Labelled: Lovingly made by Granny, 2009.
What bliss! On Friday morning I had a free time to meander the colourful streets of Bloem and popped into the Twee-toring kerk (trans. Church of the Twin Towers). Here the verger's wife, Daisy, showed me around the 160-year old building with obvious love and enthusiasm.







Afterwards I strolled up the road to my favourite antique shop, Die Waenhuis (The coachhouse) which, as you can see, is well-stocked with treasures. It's always a pleasure to chat to the well-informed co-owner, Bobby, and ask her for her 'best price, please!' Hmm! Now what treasure has my name on it? Silver teaspoons and book on Queen Victoria for Catherine. Bone handled dessert knives and porcelein budgies on a china branch for me. And the girls? I tossed aside the idea of yet more Barbie dolls...
...because standing on the pavement outside the front door was just the buy. A double 1940's school desk, dented, scratched, with spaces for inkwells, slots for pencils, a shelf for books and little seats that flap up when you respectfully stand to greet Sir or Mam. Much nicer than toys made of expensive shocking pink plastic!

Fortunately, the girls are made of the same sentimental stuff as their gran. They were delighted when their strange new 'toy' was delivered that afternoon. ("What is our present, Gran!" It's something unusual - just wait and see!") Both settled into the desk parked in the family room and began to draw. When best friends, Esme and Emile, arrived, the game was extended and the desk was the centre of attention! "We're not playing school, Gran. It's Office, Office!"
On Sunday, we dressed in our best for church. And that meant princess dresses worn at last year's ballet concert. Jaelene donned her ballet shoes; Joelle prefers the grass under her feet!
The days were hot and sultry. Just right for showing Gran the progress that has been made with the skill of swimming.

Sunday lunch was enjoyed on the lawns at Olievenhuis (trans. The House of Wild Olives), this little city's own art gallery. The lovely grounds are filled the avantgarde sculptures of the local art students, nestling under thorn trees. Here little girls can choose a surrealistic beast to ride on the The Carousel.

A pixie wearing a Viking helmet and platform heels piped the end of the weekend as we turned to head homewards, pack and take a reluctant Gran to the airport.

" I am going to miss you, Gran!"
" Going to miss you too!"

Thursday, 19 June: Snapshots from Bloemfontein

My long weekend in Bloemfontein(Afrikaans/Dutch: fountain of flowers) was far too short! This is my daughter's home, a striking house built in typical Cape Dutch style, which is unusual architecture for this part of the country. Perhaps the original owners were hankering for the lush Cape scenery in this arid part of the country, halfway on the national highway between Cape Town and Johannesburg. Bloem, as the city is affectionately known, has a modest population of about 370 000. Its Sotho name is Mangaung: place of the cheetahs.

Bloem is also known as the city of the roses due to the abundance of roses grown in the city and the annual rose festival held here. So what better way to spend Saturday morning, but at the well-known rose farm: Roses for you, attending a workshop on rose pruning and enjoying cream scones and tea.

The rose farm, set amidst a dry, frost-bleached countryside, is watered by the spruit (Afrikaans: creek).

One of the formal rose gardens just gives a hint of the splendour which will follow in October. Our roses will only be pruned in late July.

A gazebo shelters under bare trees. Bloem has a harsh winter and the leaves fall leaving the skeletons of the trees.

The weekend was also a culinary feast. Daughter, Ruth, cooks up a storm on Saturday evening...

while my two granddaughters, Joelle and Jaelene, snuggle up in the doggie bed with a very plump Schnaps, their little Staffordshire terrier.

Sunday saw us at a glorious church service at the family's church. The joyous, exuberant congregation is a true reflection of the 'rainbow nation', our multicultural society.

Then we took a stroll on the University of the Free State's campus. Here my husband did his first degree in Greek and Hebrew and Ruth qualified as a medical doctor. So it may be a small university but it has high acacemic standards and an impressive curriculum!

We shared the campus only with the pigeons - it was a long weekend.


Sisters and friends forever!

Bottoms up!

Monday morning we drove about six kilometers to the fringes of the town to visit a most unusual golf course. Unfortunately as it was a public holiday, the tea room was closed. But this will give you some idea of the dry winter grasslands and that big turqoise sky.

This is a pic of the driving range and in the far left (unfortunately my camera does not do a good long shot) are two unconcerned giraffes, munching leaves. If you click on the photo, it enlarges and you will see the giraffes.(Thank you, Dee Dee, for this tip.) Meerkatte (mongeese) scampered across the deserted driving range while buck grazed on its edges.

The Art Museum is a favourite spot during a Bloem visit, but it was also closed. So I had to take a long shot from the gates.

Monday lunchtime, it was off to the airport and goodbyes. And here is a waterbok (water buck) mounted on the wall at the golf course to bid youfarewell!


This extract describes the winter Free State landscape so aptly I had to share it with you, my friends in foreign lands.

Vroegherfs by NP van Wyk Louw

...die eerste blare val
so stilweg in die rook-vaal bos en laan,
dat die takke van die lang populiere al
teen elke ligte more witter staan.

Translation from Afrikaans -my own.

...the first leaves fall
so silently in the smoke-grey bush and track
that the branches of the tall populars already
appear whiter each morn...

Thursday: 12 June 2008: Off to the ballet (and Bloemfontein)

Off to the ballet this cold and frosty evening with friends! It's a performance by our local Youth Ballet Corps and should showcase some budding Fonteyns! Speaking of Giselle, I have seen several productions of that tragic story over the years but one stands out in my mind - that wonderful movie production of Giselle which featured the partnership of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev made in 1962. I remember viewing it at the Monte Carlo Cinema in Cape Town when I was a teenager. The electricity between the 42 year old ballerina and the youthful Nureyev (aged 22) was tangible and so romantic! Who remembers it? Margot (1919-1991) was over 60 when she retired from ballet and she and Nureyev had a lifelong friendship. Margot was born Peggy Hookham to an English mother and Irish father in Surrey, England. Her stage name is much more exciting, isn't it? Nureyev defected to the West in 1961 and was a huge asset to Western ballet.

Then, tomorrow I am off to Bloemfontein to spend the weekend with my daughter and two little granddaughters. Now I guess not all of you have done a drive by through Bloemfontein recently!! Except perhaps for Denise Truesdale who spent some of her growing up in the landlocked little Kingdom of Lesotho, some distance from Bloem. Bloemfontein is about 450 km from Pretoria and the capital city of the Free State. It has the reputation of being South Africa's Hicksville. But that is only to those who do not know its charm, hidden assets (Art Museum and historical buildings, to name a few) and its warm, hospitable people. So more of Bloemfontein next week. And I think I should post a map of South Africa too so you can all orientate yourselves! Have fun this weekend!