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.

Winter Wonderland

Sigh. Tomorrow the Christmas tree comes down. It's ok, it will be nice to have the living room feel big again. But it's always tough to consider because now Janu-Feb is a hard reality that must be faced. For my readers who're not in Boston, Janu-Feb is the heart of winter, the longest and darkest days, and boy, the coldest too. Walking the dogs until March is going to be tough!

But let's enjoy the festivities one more time before getting back to that. Here are some pics I took around my neck of the woods (Waltham, MA), some with flash and some without... (as usual, click on the image to see it bigger)


















... and my favourite.

Beatnik Bazaar

A great blog and South African shop I recently stumbled upon is Beatnik Bazaar (shop and blog). Run by Thaya in Kalkbay near Cape Town, there is so much to love... the styling:





the lovely goodies for sale (I'm dying to get my hands on the enamel jewellery, and Thaya ships to the US! My birthday is coming up soon...!!)





and I love getting a peep into Thaya, and her son Luca's lives down by the sea (love the first shot, from her Christmas holiday sequence... isn't that silliness what possesses us all round this time of year?)

Alexia Webster

Wow. More here.

Mary Sibande

Happy New Year everyone! Let's get 2011 off to a great start with an artist I've been admiring for a while, and am so happy to finally blog about on South of the Sahara.



Mary Sibande is an artist born and raised in Johannesburg, and her creation is Sophie, who has appeared in a series called Long Live the Dead Queen. To quote from The Fox is Black (I couldn't say it better myself),

"Inspired by the explorations of race, gender and sexuality in the work of American artists Kara Walker and Cindy Sherman, and London-based Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, Mary cast her own body in fibreglass and silicone to create Sophie. She then painted her a ‘flat black,’ so that she stands out like a dark and static shadow … Sophie’s eyes are always closed as if in a ‘constant ecstasy of fantasy’ and it’s in her mind that her dress becomes a thing of voluminous Victorian splendour. ‘If she opened her eyes, it would be back to work – cleaning this, dusting that. Her dress would become an ordinary maid’s uniform,’ said Mary."



Mary's work critiques the stereotypical depictions of women, particularly black women, in South African society. In mixing the "uniform" that a typical domestic worker in South Africa wears, with the pomp and flourish of Victorian garb, Sophie brings up all sorts of questions about "slave" and "master", disempowerment and really how these things are all still hovering around a long, long time after they should have been gone.

The series were posted up as billboards around South Africa during the Soccer World Cup last year, and I wish I had seen them in person.









There was recently an open top bus tour (seen here and here) of Long Live the Dead Queen, and Mary Sibande herself travelled with the attendees to discuss the work. Jealous does not begin to describe my feelings about that!











I got my images and info from a few different sources, you can read more by clicking on the names:
designboom
Gallery MOMO
The Fox is Black
RiekieKiekie on flickr
Travels with the Joburg Tour Guide
Mark Straw (this is his, the last and most amazing pic)

Christmas in New York

I'm a liar, I know, but at least if I'm going to break promises it's bad promises, like not writing until the New Year.

We just got back from New York, where we spent a fun Christmas with family, and then drove back valiantly through the blizzard. Adventures. Here are some highlights from the trip...

We started up by finding the family near Rockefeller Center, tourist central, but beautiful in its Christmas glory. In fact, the whole city was be-decked and it looked gorgeous... and only in New York do you see Camels on the pavement! I can only imagine how those same places look now, with all that snow.









Spending time with family on Christmas day was priceless (sorry again, Mom and Dad, for the 4am phone call... wasn't my idea!) and wonderful. We had an unusual Christmas dinner of pasta at Ristorante Amarone, which was delicious and we will definitely be going back.We managed to squeeze in a visit to Schiller's Liquor Bar on Boxing Day for brunch, and watched the first few flurries begin to fall. We decided on Schiller's after seeing this post on Remodelista, and it was so much fun! Here's a sneak peek at Schiller's. (If you click on the pics for a closer look, you'll see the snow, which would only get much, much more obvious as the day wore on.)







And then, once we'd met up at Grand Central Station with a friend who'd be travelling back to Boston with us, we jumped on the train to head to Connecticut, where we'd change to the car and go, single file, back to Massachusetts.



This last pic is from that wonderful blog, 66 Square Feet, where Vincent got pics of the city after the storm. Boston doesn't look much better.

Merry Christmas

Well, folks, Christmas is nearly here. The time to reflect, spend time with family and just take a deep breath is here. One of my favourite times of year... and I'd like to share with you a new favourite blog of mine, everything in between, by my lovely new friend Hayley. Her Christmas decor got me so inspired and I'm sure you'll love it too.







I love Hayley's baobab Christmas tree! Reminds me of my own metal African Christmas tree, stored away in South Africa... I'm thinking I need to bring it back next time I'm home!

Here are some pics from my neck of the woods, in Boston... today it is finally snowing. Not much more than a few inches, the weathermen are promising, but it's good because it finally feels like Christmas. I've become quite accustomed to what Christmas "feels like" in South Africa, and how it feels in Boston. We are definitely getting that feeling!







I find it so amusing to see the similarities and the differences in our photos. Its so funny how dark my pics are. Gotta love northern hemisphere winters!

Merry Christmas everyone! See you in the new year!