Stalking

Can  someone tell when you've been stalking them online? I've been a huge fan of Kathy Waddell for ages... she is the co-owner of the amazing Madwa, and she has the most gorgeous house down near the Outeniqua mountains (a few hours drive from Cape Town, to my non South African friends) on a property that makes my heart sing. She bought it years ago and started by restoring the natural flora on the property, ripping out all the exotic stuff and slowly putting in indigenous species, figuring out what worked by trial and error (pics of the land from South African House & Garden, October 2014. Yes, yes, I've been hoarding it for that long!)

She plants the way I would - letting the garden meet up with the surrounding landscape in a way that you won't notice... huge swaths of one particular kind of plant...

The house itself was an afterthought. After lovely lunches out under a pavilion on the property, she decided it would be nice to stay. She grew up in an old house in Kimberley, an old mining town in South Africa - where the porches are deep and cool - and it informed the design of the house. You can read more about it here, on the Cecil & Boyd website, where I found these images (originally from another House & Garden, April 2011).

The house's heart is the cabinet that was from Kew Gardens... oh heavens, its just lovely. 

And then the reed ceilings... deep verandah, Malawi chairs... sigh.

Well, I'm going back to my fantasies of an indigenous haven in South Africa. Feel free to click on images to see them larger.

Snowstorms, Skyfall and Bottega Veneta

Well, if you've seen the news lately, you'll know there's a wicked bad storm (as we locals in Boston like to say) heading towards Boston! I'm at home, the office is shut, and working on some illustrations for a project I have. Later, we're planning to finally watch Skyfall, because we missed it in theatres and its now on-demand through cable. Yay! Hopefully the anticipated hurricane force winds won't bring down any trees near us so we don't lose power... I've bought us some French macarons to enjoy after some indulgent pizza. Its going to be a lovely night!

Meanwhile here's a little something I've been oohing and aahing over - a dress from Bottega Veneta.

Of course it looks phenomenal on models on the back of InStyle magazine and on the runway, but what about a real person? You know, an every day person like 007's wife? Almost everyday... Rachel looks gorgeous, now if only I could afford the dress!

Biodiversity Garden

The passed few months I have been watching, captivated, by the progress on the Biodiversity Garden in Cape Town. Built to demonstrate the diversity of plants and animals in the Cape region, and to promote good garden practices, the park has been created by numerous local artists and experts, using mosaics, structures, and of course, local flora.

Situated near the Green Point soccer stadium that you may have seen during the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the area has blossomed (um, excuse the pun, and yes, click on the images to see bigger).
























My personal favourite is the scene that shows an owl, some rodents, three snakes and a honeybadger. A beautiful illustration of how everything is intertwined in life and nature. Here are some pics of the artwork in that exhibit.







I'm so glad Marijke, a garden designer who is working on the garden, is blogging about it. You can follow it all yourself, here.

PS: You may notice I've made some changes to the design of the blog (gosh, only took me 3 or 4 years!). Please let me know if anything is difficult to read.

Summer Weekends

After a wonderful weekend... good friends, delicious food, some gardening. So from around the house and garden: lavender drying (from my lavender bush! Hope I get a second harvest... but what to do with the resulting haul?) and peonies... not from my garden but I love them none the less. They have the most delicious fragrance!









And, after a home cooked dinner of pasta carbonara, how can life be any better?

South End Garden Tour 2010

Some highlights from a wonderful day, yesterday (more on the tours, here).

A (Visual) Feast

If you love gardening like I do, or love food like I do, or if you love to be an observer in someone's life (even when they are miles away) like I do, you'll like 66 Square Feet.

Marie, a fellow South African, is a garden designer in New York, and she posts wonderful, glorious photos of her garden...



of life in New York (like those endless days of rain that we shared from Boston to New York)...




and of delicious looking dishes (get the recipe for this here. I know, I tried it out immediately!).



I can't believe its taken me this long to find her blog... I look forward to seeing what's she's up to everyday, and being jealous that she's out there every day, getting her hands in the soil while I'm stuck behind the computer.



And if you're a cat person, you may enjoy her cat's blog, too!