"Raindrops on roses .."

.. and whiskers on kittens ... "....

No kittens .. no whiskers ... only raindrops on roses ...

.. same rose .. different angle ..

... another angle ..

.. and another ...

An opening bud ....

... from a different angle ..

A tighter bud ...


.. from a different angle ..

.. one more bud .. all from the one rose bush : Queen Elizabeth

I planted a 'Queen Elizabeth' rose bush in my garden 30 years ago .. as time passed, trees grew, the shade changed and I eventually had to take out the original roses. This is a 'newish' bush - it's in it's second season ... flourishing nicely ...

Have two rose bushes (name unknown) with these red tight-open flowers ...

... they show up orangey in photo but they're red .. believe me !!! The first bush was grown from a cutting brought from the grounds of the complex where my Mum and Dad lived for a while ... I then grew another bush from another cutting .. successfully !!! Transplanted both bushes two years ago and they are now also flourishing !!

Bradley ... deep in thought ... 'what are you doing .. ?'

"... 'ta daa' .... a tower .. nearly as tall as my brother ..."

Not much photographic variety for my contributions to Weekly Winners ...

... sooo ... I'll add the wine I've been drinking this week .. from the Lourensford Wine Estate on the slopes of the Helderberg Mountains, Somerset West .. which I happen to have a photo of ... taken during my December trip last year ..

Their flagship cab/shiraz blend ... "black cherry, hint tobacco, classy feel and flavours with supportive oak for fine-grained dry finish" !!! It's rather yummy ... !! Photo taken yesterday .. on my garden bench !!

For more Weekly Winners visit Lotus .. sarcasticmom.com

Skywatch Friday :

Boo !!

First impressions of the dark shadowy 'ghost' faded fast .. when I got out the camera to take his photo, his arm on the left of pic, was quickly disappearing ... I suppose that's what ghosts do .. they come and then 'poof' ... they go !!

For more spectacular skies around the world visit Skywatch

Wordless Wednesday :

For more Wordless Wednesday's go here and here

Oh-so civilized ...

... that's business class .... which is normally seen from this angle by the 'masses' who travel in 'cattle class' .. but my hubby, like most business people, travel business class .. so they arrive refreshed after a good nights sleep, or a pleasant days journey ... ready for work !

He left over the weekend on another business trip and .. once again ... experienced the comfort of this way of travel ...

I have been very very fortunate to have experienced it too .. twice !!! Using voyager miles he has accumulated over the years enabled us to upgrade our tickets for our overseas flights so that I too could 'travel in comfort' ... ahhhh .. what a pleasure !!!!

Look, hubby says ... a place for your shoes !!! And those little cubbie holes are for the toiletry bags provided by the airline

.... comfy little cushion awaits ... with water and the menu for the flight ... :)

.. little night lights ....

... a chilled glass of bubbly before the flight gets underway ...

... 'comfort buttons' !!! ... for the already comfortable .. large ... chair ... like a little space module !!! Especially when the foot rest goes up and the back rest goes down !! .... and the duvet is unfolded and handed to you from a smiley air hostess !!!!

Flight under way ... and orders are taken from the menu .. by another smiley cabin chappie/steward !!!

.. and just look at that ... little table cloth ... WHITE and crisp linen !!! ... equally white, crisp linen napkin in serviette ring (a paper one, but they are forgiven for that!) ... real knives and forks are folded inside the said napkin ... and this is only the starter !!!!


... munch .. munch ... food on little trays attached to your own chair .. not the seat in front ... and legroom .. enough to 'swing a cat' !!! That little round tube looking thing near the water bottle and my yummy glass of wine is the TV screen which slides up and around ... which I didn't take out at all .. so busy watching what everyone else was doing !!! well .. and I had a book !!!

OOoooh yessss !!!

Cheers ... to more travels ... more comfort travels would be good too !!!

Weekly Winners :

Measuring .. sifting .. mixing ....

.. add some Smarties ..

... and some candles ...

... add a birthday boy ...

.. and a little mind that says .. when I can dig into this cake !! ...

... add a birthday prezzie ...

... a mommy who can guide and teach ...

... and a big brother to look over your shoulder ...

... makes one happy face !!! (Mommy got the best photo - from the front!)

Add some flowers ...

... indigenous Nerine's like pink spiders dancing in the breeze ...

.. and sparkling crystal ....


... of my exquisitely, beautiful bud vase from Waterford Crystal in Ireland ...

.. catching the sunlight .... ping !!!!

Add one of our resident froggies which hopped around last night under the watchful eye .. and nose .. of Jackie ...

Add a glorious sunset ....

... and you have my Weekly Winners for this week !!!

For more WW visit Lotus ...

Skywatch Friday :

Sitting on the patio of the Bistro and Tapas Bar at the Asara Wine Estate has this amazing view ..

... I have featured it on Skywatch before but it's just so beautiful, just had to do it again!!!

Last week, on our trip to Cape Town, hubby and I met up with family for tapas on the patio. We were not there long before the wind came up and clouds covered the Stellenbosch Mountains .... notice where the group of white birds moved to .. they were on the bank (above) and then moved to the sheltered bank (you can just see them to the left of the photo below).

For more spectacular skies around the world go to Skywatch

Like mother .. like son ...

I just had to ... couldn't resist ... post these photos of Jeanette ... at the age of three !!!

Same hands .. same fingers ...

(below) ... oh my goodness ... same cake !!! Well .. very very similar !!! The little guy was the neighbours child - we were new to this country and hardly knew a soul !!!!! None of the few new and wonderful friends we made had babies or children - we were on our own in that department !!!!! No internet .. no google .. no support groups ... no family ... just 'Living and Loving Magazine' !!!! We survived !!!

The baby is my son, Carl .. cute hey ? !!

Gorgeous child ...

.... gorgeous mommy ...

... gorgeous family ...