Wondering....

"People travel to wonder at the height of mountains,
at the huge waves of the sea,
at the long courses of rivers,
at the vast compass of the ocean,
at the circular motion of the stars;
and they pass by themselves without wondering."

St Augustine

 

 

Meadering around the Midlands!

We visited Durban and the Midlands this weekend :) I always wanted to go back to the Midlands as the last time I have been there, was more than 10 years ago. We were not disappointed!

We stayed in the African Pride Endless Horizons in Durban on Friday, and although it is small and has beautiful views, the food and service needs a bit of a lift.



 

 

But then we moved inland....and what a beautiful rediscovery. We went back to an old icon, Granny Mouse Country House and it was like walking into a green, lush cocoon of comfort. We stayed in the old part with the little comforts like flowers and slippers and a fire place, not to mention the wonderful king size cloud we slept in. Heaven :))

 

The star of the show is still the gardens and the nature surrounding this old lady. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I can say is...we'll be back!

 

 

 

 



Winged wonders....

My little nephew...the bird whisperer!

 

I am super aware of these beautiful creatures since my balcony had been unceremoniously taken over by a determined pair of doves, just over a month ago. I must confess, I was very apprehensive, but what I witnessed was the most beautiful form of commitment and total dedication to protect, feed and care of a very scruffy looking ball of feathers....ever. 

 

 

 

After 6 weeks of close company, I witnessed the first flight to freedom!
 

 

Today, I felt like a proud parent, softly shooing him on, and with one last look over a still baby-feathered wing, he inelegantly flew/fell over the railing. I checked to make sure the landing was safe, but his two care-takers were right on hand, guiding him along gently. Aaaahhhhh... I was witness to a miracle today:) 

 

 

 

 

O world-ignorance,
Although
You have shackled my feet,
I am free.

Although
You have chained my hands,
I am free.

Although
You have enslaved my body,
I am free.

I am free because I am not of the body.
I am free because I am not the body,
I am free because I am the soul-bird
That flies in Infinity- Sky.
I am the soul-child that dreams
On the Lap of the immortal King Supreme.

Sri Chinmoy

 

 

Beautiful places - Kalkbay

Kalkbay is a favorite weekend escape, and as this is the area where my partner spend his youth, I am blessed with the best tour guide ever :)

View of Simons Town harbour coming from Kalk Bay

We usually stay at the Majestic in Kalk Bay - some nice apartments to rent

Nice and central - you can walk everywhere from here....

Facilities include a spa & an on-premise, cosy restaurant behind the book shop

Simons Town is close by and a nice outing for lunch

 

Nice coffee & interior shop in Simons Town

The Tibetan Tea House is also worth a visit - See details http://www.sopheagallery.com/SOPHEA/Tibetan_Teahouse.html

You are enveloped by the mountains and hugged by the sea :)

Meditation room at the Tibetan Tea House

No visit to Kalk Bay is complete without going to Olympia Cafe...for breakfast, and lunch and why not dinner too?! Great food, nice vibe and a local pit stop 

Very good coffee and scrumptious croissants...actually all their baked goodies are worth the calories!

A breakfast for a carnivore :)

Great staff - makes you feel like family!

We love shopping in Kalk Bay with its distinct "hippy" feel. Great for antique lovers and those looking for that illusive incense you cannot find anywhere but Durban! Places worth a visit are Kalkies, the fish mekka at the harbour, Cape to Cairo if you want to have cocktails and good food and of course the Brass Bell. Drive out with the family, but come early, traffic can become hectic, especially on Sundays.

It takes weekends like these to make me appreciate just how blessed we are to live in Cape Town. So as we await the arrival of the Northern invasion over the festive season, I hope our visitors will focus on our well-earned slower pace, our beautiful food, our exquisite surrounds, our precious people...and forgive us our occasional lapses in service :)

Searching...

Socrates said: “An unexamined life is a life not worth living”. He obviously didn't grow up in Messina! Challenging your beliefs and your perspective can shake up every part of your life and leave you even more confused. I am trying to be OK with confused, whilst searching for amazing experiences this life is offering us.

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”  - Marie Curie

 

Here are a few  of my truths:

- Everything originates from inside yourself, although it is easier to accept that is was done on to you

- You cannot control life but you can choose to be a victor or a victim in any situation

- We do not have the capacity or the imagination to understand how beautiful we really are

- Empathy and compassion can only be fully experienced when the word judgement does not exist in your vocabulary

- We have all the support we require from the universe to live our absolute best life

- Every problem we have is equal in the opportunity it presents

- Be very clear about what you need (this is key), put it out there and realise that at the right time, it is going to happen

- Shut up and listen...on all levels of your being

- People react to you in the way that you unconsciously believe you deserve

- Love is not an emotion, it is a state of being

- Your mind is responsible for your emotional reactions - shut it down and see what is really going on...much easier said than done!

- Love, like religion is more often used to hurt than to heal

- Anything I can imagine is the truth!



Here I go, bravely facing this new day, always searching...trying to find the words to match my journey.

Your special place...

I again realised after a Goddess Retreat last year, how important your own quiet space is. An amazing woman told me about a place I go to, which keeps me sane and is harnessing my energy. I knew the place she referred to very well :)

The quaint harbour at Struisbaai...

My special place away from it all...

 

This is the place where I feel connected and ready to face life. I now realise that it doesn't matter if it is the sanctuary of a church or temple, a yoga mat or the privacy of a bathroom, even a corner in your home. You have to create a special place where you can connect with yourself. A place where you can go to in a moment, by merely closing your eyes. A place where you can connect with yourself.

 

I thought you had materialized from another planet or star

A familiar stranger

Gazing calmly through the stained glass windows of my eyes

Stained with grief and of old mistrust

 

I returned your smile, uncertain, while with some magical permission

Surely not from me

You rang the bells of my heart, long stilled

Knocked on the door of my mind

‘Till it opened

 

Then reverently, as monks walk

You entered the dark lonely temple of my soul

And you took a moment

         To light a candle              

 Author Unknown

To know is to love...

I was a late starter with the most important thing in life: Getting to know myself.

I married my school sweet-heart and when life started happening, I was lost. I realised that all those beautiful wishes and endearing comments from my youth, resulted in a suitcase packed for a stranger.

I vividly remember after I started living on my own, standing with a basket full of food and suddenly realising the food was what my partner used to enjoy. Or even worse, that I did not want to follow the career I studied for and worked at, for over a decade! Even the clothes I wore and books I read made a 360. It was if I was shedding a skin which never really fit my soul very well.

It took a while, but I get it now: To experience life and to grow results in a realisation of the whole person...the good, the bad and the ugly. Add to that the comfort of having people surround you, who have no concept of who you were when you grew up, and all of a sudden the real you shows up, little by little :) And may I add - it is not always a pretty picture!

I must say I feel more comfortable in my (slightly worn) skin today. I like that I have an opinion on a few things I have experienced, but also that I am OK with changing my mind. I love the friends and clients I choose to spend my time with. I like the lifestyle I now embrace, and most of all, I love the woman I am today and I cannot wait to look back on her life one day, to see what she became.

Ho ho ho!

Christmas is only 34 days away! This season evokes very different emotions amongst my friends and family: Some feel the pressure to spend money they do not have; some are overwhelmed by sadness for people they have lost, others feel lonely as they will not share the day with loved ones. Some actually manage to make it a very special day, avoiding the family dramas and commercial traps by just marking the day by giving thanks for blessings.

I love the message of giving, but I have a problem to make it fit in with the marketing storm which ignites around October in the shops every year - the selling of a "feeling" of happiness through buying stuff, all accompanied by Boney M in the background!

I made (another) commitment to myself: I am going to keep it real.
This includes giving more of myself this year through small tokens of love.

My list includes making:

- a garland for my door from last years collected pine kernels
- food gift baskets for friends which may include my home made Onion marmalade, Caroline's Chocolate Oats Cookies and bottles of home-made Brandy Exotica (see recipes below)
- "gift voucher" from me for a free energy healing session to selected clients
- personalised crystal bracelets for my special girl friends
- cards, gift wrapping and table decorations, rather than buying it

Stars for the walls

Tree decorations from ginger biscuits

Rain deer cup cakes :)

 

Home made gift cards

I know all of this takes time, but that will be my act of giving. I will spend a few Sunday afternoons and a couple of hours at night during the week to make these things. It will be a great time to put love into it and really get into the reason for the season :)

Ho, ho, ho - may you feel the love this Christmas!

Onion Marmalade

 

750g Sliced onions

50g Butter

½ cup Sugar

Salt & Pepper

1 cup Red wine

50ml Brandy
½ cup Balsamic vinegar
 

Melt butter and sweat onions till caramelised, adding salt and sugar after 10min. Add liquids and reduce for 20min. Seal in small bottles which have in sterilised in the microwave. Last months in the fridge.

 

 

Brandy Exotica (almost like Amarula)

 

 

1 tin of Condensed milk 

1 tin of Ideal milk

5ml strong Coffee, dissolved in 5ml of boiling water

250 ml Brandy

 

Mix all ingredients, pour into a clean bottles and place in fridge for 3 days before use.

 

 

 

 

Chocolate Oats Cookies 

 

 

 

http://carolineavnit.com/2012/11/chocolate-oat-cookies/

 

Sometimes

To my best friend....

Sometimes when I sit in my quiet space

familiar mistakes join in

I smile to find it shifted to a better place

to learn to love myself again

 Sometimes when I contemplate my past

and the familiar people ask to play their part

I invite you in first

to learn to love myself again

Sometimes when this world becomes too small

to keep a broken heart contained

you remind me of divine design

to learn to love myself again

 

 

Anne-marie

 

Nature is calling my name...

We were in Mpumalanga over the weekend, and I again realised how much I missed the Lowveld. I was born in Mussina on the border of Zimbabwe, and grew up surrounded by wildlife and boabab trees, so this was almost like going home.

We had a lovely stay at Komati Gorge Lodge. Everything is green, the animals are fat and there is a sense of contentment in the air. Although JC had to work, we had time for long walks and beautifully prepared dinners, accompanied by copious amounts of wine in front of a log fire....bliss :)

Walking towards the stables we came across some Kudu....

A river runs through Komati Gorge Lodge

Beautiful views from our cabin's veranda

 

but.....

I am so blessed to live in Cape Town, by the sea. Every morning is like opening a new book, it unfolds with a crisp smell of promise. The light is different here, the people look fitter and happy - even the dogs coming for a walk on the pier have a spring in their step. It makes me think of this stanza in Lord Byron's classic poem.

The dark, blue sea

 

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Lord Byron

 

Maybe it is just about being close to nature :)

 

 

Too much blessings!

I have diligently been giving love to my porch plant, which has been taking a beating with the seasonal summer winds. Part of the "save-my-porch-plant-campaign" included laying rose quarts around the stem...spreading the love so to speak, and doing a bit of energy healing.

This was obviously very successful, as within a week I had various birds, but in particular, a pair of doves, checking out my plant.

And then it happened...nestled between the rose quarts a perfect little white egg!

 

 

 

My beloved had just retrieved a discarded nest from his lawn and after hearing about "the blessing", promptly showed up with a better option for my visitors.

 

 



 

 

Needless to say, I now have constant companions on my porch. They do not mind sharing their space with me and I even got a (half-hearted) greeting when I stepped out this morning. All I can say is be careful with your blessings :)



Wanderlust!

I woke up this morning with that niggly feeling....again! I just love to travel and it usually starts off with a mild interest in a specific destination. Left unattended, it can manifest as a full blown, impulsive, booking-of-flight-ticket-without-thinking moment.

A dear friend is currently walking the Camino, another is on her way to India for a yoga retreat, another just returned for New York...and I can go on. Everyone around me is conspiring to make me pack my bags?! I know this is not every one's pleasure, but for me there is very little that matches being in a different country - the food, the culture, the music, the feeling of stepping into another lifestyle, the way other people live and best of all, how blessed we are to live in our country and how small our issues seem from a distance. It is almost like moving house, or cleaning out your cupboard, like letting the fresh air in and energising your whole system.

So the first step is to look at flight specials. This is like a sign to me, an invitation to where I need to go next. Then, matching great deals with possible destinations on my bucket list (not a problem, there are plenty!). Next, see if my beloved can be convinced (not a problem either, he has the virus too!) and then, make sure we can squeeze the adventure in between our commitments.

Traveling...again!?

Another country, another adventure :)

This will do.....

...and sometimes, I am a Princess!

A beautiful sunset at a marina in Hvar...

An Ashram in Kochi, India...



Have map, will travel :)

Need I say more?!

...and this is only at the airport!

Planes, trains and automobiles...18hours travelling and I am ready to do it again!

There is one thing I have learned through-out my travels: Manage your expectations! We are usually sold on a picture or someone else's views, rather than experiencing the moment for ourselves, in whatever way it comes. Search engines are scouring websites, my bags have been laid out.
Here we go....