reflections in, on and round about
Of late, in South Africa, and as I keep on mentioning, we’ve been having loadshedding. Actually, if you play(ed) SimCity as I did in the late 90’s, you’d have known them as “brown outs” if you’d grown your city too big too quickly. It’s about the only computer game I’ve played (other than one or…
“She’ll read anything,” my mother would say, “even the labels on jars.” On occasion she would decide that I was reading too much, and the book of the moment would be confiscated and put on top of the fridge. I hated that. Much of my childhood was, at different times, lived through the books I…
Where did December go? Actually, where did 2019 go? It’s hardly imaginable that it’s a year ago that I talked turkey. Three things defined last month: fire, Christmas and peaches. All in the space of three weeks. The fire, nothing like those happening in Australia, did leave a trail of destruction. It started on the…
We live in one of the more water scarce parts of South Africa and in a region that is drought-prone. Water scarcity and drought are nothing new to The Husband and I. He grew up and farmed in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia). Water and farming? Cattle must drink and eat. One of his responsiblities on the…
In March, South Africa, was on the brink of a national electricity blackout. And we are there again. Why? At the time, I said that the reasons are myriad and what one chooses to believe, also depends on to whom one listens. Now, it seems, we are getting closer to the truth: acknowledgement not just…
It’s no secret that I love vintage items: glassware, bone china, linen. Actually, it’s not just vintage; I love pretty things. It goes back as far as I can remember, and especially high days and holidays like Christmas. I loved the sense of occasion and I loved the opportunity to set a festive table. Favourite…
This blog is all about my favourites. Mostly. I do write sometimes about the things that weigh, but mostly, it’s about things, people, stuff I love and which make me content. I have difficulty separating comfort food from favourite food. I love food, and cooking and my kitchen (actually, any kitchen) is one of my…
I loathe coleslaw. It’s a long and irrelevant story, summed up in two words: institutional food. In my case, that was boarding school, followed by university. By the time I reached university, I just simply didn’t eat what I didn’t like. At school, that was less possible. However, more than forty years later, coleslaw remains…
Gandalf is a clever cat, but sometimes he is too clever for his own good. There is a feral cat that comes calling – literally. He also leaves his smelly mark in The Sandbag House kitchen because he uses the cat flap. It’s bi-directional so at night it is now set so that the princess…
Things have been a little crazy at The Sandbag House this last while – we have had a borehole drilled – and we found water! So, that and a couple of other things has meant little time to actually pour the “brew” out of my head. Suffice it to say, there is a stock building…