Bright spark

I saw this amazing cloud while travelling to Baardskeerdersbos last weekend. The sun was behind it and it looked like a sparkler - with the edges of the cloud serrated in a most peculiar manner. It didn't come out quite right in the photograph; it was taken from the moving car, and the trees kind of got in the way ...

For the past year I have been trying to read two or three interesting articles a week - to keep the old brain going. Man cannot live by novels alone. I have decided to post links to these every now and then - more as an archive for myself, although of course you are welcome to follow the links and read the articles yourself. My idea was to gather all these interesting little titbits and nonchalantly drop them into conversations, impressing people with my amazing knowledge and insights. Only, I forget what I've read after a day or two, and I have no conversations. With people, I mean. With Snous I talk plenty.
On eating local food. An alternative viewpoint.
On language: How did it evolve?
On language: How it shapes your thinking.

A salad for spring

Gosh, when did I last post about a salad? As many of you (and with that I mean one or two of my three readers!) know, I eat a salad for lunch every day (for example here and here and here and here). They are usually a variation on the same theme: something green, something fruity, something cheesy, something nutty, something for colour, with an interesting dressing added. This one was particularly inspired, I thought.

Mange tout, stirfried in a little olive oil with whatever fresh herbs you have available - I added a bit of thyme and a few leaves of origanum. Use this as the base of your salad, then add slices of pear, some baby tomatoes (for colour) and feta. I finished it off with a salad dressing made of leftover basil pesto, olive oil and lemon juice, with a dash of sea salt and ground black pepper. I shake up all my salad dressing ingredients in a jam jar with a screw top, Jamie Oliver-style. The salad needed nuts, but unfortunately I had none. Some toasted pine nuts would have rounded it off nicely, I think.

New Acquisitions #14

I have coveted garden furniture from hope for a long time. Their tables, chairs and garden benches are all handmade locally, using timber grown and milled in Knysna. A few weeks ago I bought a square table, just big enough for two people to have lunch, and two scandinavian-style chairs for our patio. I can't wait for summer!

Happy weekend, everyone! Be outdoors! (We will be going to Baardskeerdersbos to attend the opening of my brother and his wife's new coffeeshop/gallery. Snous will be having her first sleepover as she can't go along. Oh dear, I just know there are going to be tears .... mine!!)

New Acquisitions #13

I don't usually put food on my list of new acquisitions, but this is an experiment. I am no gardener, but I would love to grow my own food. At least some of it. So I bought some lettuce plants, coriander and basil - I hope to soon be making my salads fresh from my garden!

It will be interesting to see if they survive the fresh sea breeze here. And more importantly,  the stormwinds! And did I mention the army of snails that has made my garden its operational headquarters?

New Acquisitions #12

This is my worst kind of buying - Buying Because it is a Bargain.

Over the last few months the little stationery shop in Simon's Town has been selling off its old stock at ridiculous prices. I mean, they were practically giving the stuff away! R1 (that is roughly 70 US cents) for a box with eighty A5 plastic sleeves. What a bargain!

Do I need eighty A5 sleeves? Not really, but they could come in pretty handy, I guess. I also got 104 photo corners for R1. What a bargain! I have no idea what I will do with them; my photo prints are already filed in photo albums; these days I use a digital camera and store everything digitally anyway. Parker and Sheaffer rollerball refills at R1 each. What a bargain! I do not have Parker or Sheaffer pens, but who cares. I have already decided the inners themselves make pretty handy little pens for one's handbag. Cash register paper rolls at R1 each. What a bargain! I have no cash register ( nor do I have any cash, actually), but I just love paper in all its forms. I suppose I could do something creative with them. A plastic PUSH sign for R1. What a bargain! Now this one I actually bought with a purpose. I am going to stick it on a door that you have to pull. Hehehehehe.

New Acquisitions #11

This is what my desk looks like:

Scary, hey? That little space in the middle towards the front is where I work. So that is what prompted my new acquisition. A school desk!

I must state that I am not one of those people who think back longingly to their school days, nostalgic tears trickling down their cheeks. Although I did very well academically - usually top of the class - I hated school. Let's face it, I was considered a nerd. Never popular. Always on the outside looking in. So the immediate affection - even love - I felt when my eyes first fell on this desk was rather weird, if not suspect. But consider this - a lid that lifts to reveal a lovely space for storing notes, pens, books and so on; a little groove for my pen and pencil; a seat that lifts, the perfect back rest, the solidness of it. I mostly use it for working on my laptop. The strange thing is that I did not go out and look for something that would solve my untidy-desk-with-5x5-inch-space-for-working  problem. No, I just walked past a junk shop and saw this lovingly restored desk, and then only did I realise that I needed to solve the untidy-desk-with-5x5-inch-space-for-working  problem. I didn't even realise I had a problem until I saw my school desk. So I do not really know how to classify this one ...
Have a great weekend, every one. School's out!!!!!

New Acquisitions #10

A few weeks ago I bought one of these for a dear friend. Made by a woman in Simon's Town, in her workshop overlooking the harbour. My friend's has butterflies on it. I had to play with it a little before I wrapped it - just to check that it worked, of course. And was so taken with it that I got this one for myself ...

Can you guess what it is?