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Saturday 20 December 2014

Hallo from South Africa

Phew! We left for South Africa on the 9 December and although the flight was good my travelling was not so hot and it took a couple of days to begin to feel myself again........I really don't know what I am going to do about this traveling lark, but got to get my head around it somehow.  Still, the journey is always worth it and this year is no exception.   We have never spent Christmas with my daughter and her family in SA so it was lovely to see the house decorated and the children getting excited.  We brought over a couple of gingerbread houses for the kiddies to make.  Lots of fun and I have to say they turned out really well, what do you think?

Just the beginnings 

Don't they look smart and all their own work

Oh so proud

Where do we start

Start with the chimney.....Yummy


 Before the celebrations we have some forest time to catch up on, and a few tourist and seasonal days to 'do'.
There are obviously the beautiful walks in the mountains, which are cooler and not so busy with visitors.





Mr D and I took the children to the fairy forest while J was working to get the last of her orders off before Christmas.  Our plan was the fairy forest then off to 'Deerpark' for lunch.   One of the favorite bits of the forest is the stream and tadpole catching, but silly Nana and Gaga forgot that chasing around the water is always going to end  with wet clothes........ Good job the sun is hot and shorts and T Shirt dry quickly, so lunch was had in comfy clothes.

Great tree to climb

The mountain stream is too tempting

Tadpole catching

Just a beautiful spot

We also had a day practicing putting up tents ready for the holidays.  Mr. D and I used to camp when
our children were small so it's not that we are novices at camping, but of course things have moved
on and the tents of today almost seem like pop up tents, unlike our ones which had poles that fitted together like a monkey puzzle, and canvas that was a lot heavier than the nylon/Teflon, so in just  a few shakes the tents were up, tested, and put down again.  We seem ready for our trip to Beaverlac

A week into the holiday and our first trip to the waterfront.   I love the waterfront as it has everything you could wish for, harbour views, table mountain views, restaurants where the seafood is delicious, shops for the posh, shops for the tourist, shops for the locals, and in the 'Watershed' Cape craft people.   The first
stop though was to find Santa and remind him of the things on the Christmas list.  He was nice and comfy in his garden and the children told me that although he sends his helper Santas to other shopping malls, he likes to come to the waterfront himself!  We shopped a bit, lunched a bit in the food hall, where the choice of freshly prepared and cooked food was so yummy that I think we all overindulged. Then shopped a bit  more before going to the play area for the children to run off some of their energy.  Ending up at The Hildebrand  restaurant for supper......what a lovely way to spend the day.

Ben with Santa

Isabella with Santa

Mr D and I have our wedding anniversary on the 18 December.  I know it's a silly time of year to get married but at the time I thought a winter wedding would be fun, not realising that with Christmas just a week way there would never be enough money to celebrate, but as we are in S,A we decided to go out for a special meal.  We booked into the Round house restaurant which sits above Camps Bay over looking the sea.  We chose the 'taster menu' which was a 7 course meal starting with the 'organic vegetable patch' set as a garden of raw and pickled vegetables with mushroom soil, so yummy!  We ploughed our way through the rest of the food with Mr. D having the appropriate wines with each dish ( I am not a drinker and someone needed to drive us home) a glass of champagne was ample for me.  The last course was a white chocolate panacotta with mulberry sorbet and fresh fruits.......I thought I had died and gone to heaven!! The staff were so attentive they even rushed out and opened the car door for us.....what a treat.

What a setting


Organic vegetable patch

Setting sun 


Last course White Panacotta with red berry sorbet
This was not quite the last of the tasting, we had 2 macaroons each, one violet and the other apple- infused, and a honeycomb chocolate and almond sweet.......we almost rolled back to the car!!
Until next time I would wish a Happy Christmas to everyone.




Tuesday 2 December 2014

Maybe last post for a while

It seems to be getting to that time of year when we are all chasing our tails trying to get visits done, and everything bought and made for Christmas, and we are no exception.  In fact I feel like I have been running around for months trying to get everything done before we take our trip to see our daughter her hubby and two children in South Africa...... Yes we are soon off ...up up and away! So I thought I would let you see how my 'quilt as you go' quilt is progressing and a few last minute bits and pieces.

My quilt is not quite finished as I think I may have to try to remove the blue markings on the hand quilted centre before adding my final touches,and for that I need better weather than we are having at the moment...

Basically finished 
I have added some yoyo's to the centre to tie all of the quilt together.

I might need a few more yoyo's, 
I have also been getting carried away with making beaded baubles.  I have put the pattern somewhere safe and for the life of me have no idea where that is, so I have had to play around, but they are all basically the same.

 nice to make while watching T.V. 

And last but never least......my daughter S made a lovely little Santa from felting.  Now, you may remember earlier this year I tried to make a gnome for my grandson and it was so 'naff' and down right rubbish I couldn't give it to him, but after seeing Santa I thought I might have another attempt.  S has made arms, hands, belt, shoes and altogether far superior to mine,

Isn't he a darling
but I am rather pleased with Mr Gnomie.....

Before adding his eyes

Think he will pass muster?

Not sure when I will be back to post anything new, so just in case I don't get to you before Christmas I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful healthy wealthy New Year.  Take care if you are travelling x x