I wish I could tell my Mum...

..that the beautiful bride in this photo has recently made contact with my cousin through Rhodesian's Worldwide ... she used to work for the accounting company his Dad and my Dad used to own in Bulawayo. The company still exists today ...with our family name, but sadly no members of the family are there anymore.


She asked after our families remembering the two little boys at her wedding being the sons of one of the partners ... and also the little flower girl on the left of photo.

That's me !!! aged 5 .. in 1957 !!

It was the one and only time I have ever been a flower girl or bridesmaid and it was on the occasion of her wedding. The wedding reception was held in our beautiful garden ...

It was the one and only time I have ever been a flower girl .. or bridesmaid .. and the wedding reception was held in our garden of our beautiful home, Craigo, in Bulawayo. Our home .. built by my paternal grandfather. The photograph below is in a collage of my child/growing-up photos which my Mum put together years ago and hangs on the wall .. right in front of me as I am typing this ...

From my Mum's photograph album, where I found the wedding photo, on the same page, was this photo of me with my cousins, in the middle and my eldest brother on the right - I grew up with boys ! ... no sisters and no girl cousins close by! I always had beautifully made dresses .. all made by my Mum


I wish I could tell my Mum that this beautiful bride has made contact after so many years ... and she and her husband are well ...

I always sleep so well ..

... at Ian and Kathy's in Somerset West !!!!! :)

When my Mum first went into the Old Aged Home several years ago, my visits consisted of spending the entire day with her .. taking her to teas, coffees, lunches ... more teas, coffees, lunches .... at many of the picturesque wine estates, gardens, beaches, tea\coffee rooms all in that area of the Cape. I used to go back to their house exhausted ... chat until wee hours .. then fall into bed at night ... and sleeeeeppp !!! I was always exhausted ... mainly mentally !!!

Now that my Mum can no longer go 'out and about' and my visits to her can only last a maximum of an hour at a time .... the rest of my time is spent ... not lazing on my brother's fine deck overlooking the entire False Bay ... no ... no ... no !!!!

I am kept very busy !!!! :) I love it actually !!!

Last week, I was only there for one night and two days .... Kathy and I seem to be on the go the whole time ... had a tyre repaired at the 'tyre repair place', tried to sort a stove that wouldn't fit into their apartment which is occupied by a tenant .... no matter what .. it just wouldn't fit ! ... so we had to take it back .... do exchanges etc ... etc ... :) In the middle of getting a quick bite to eat ... nooo leisurely lunch with a glass of wine here !! ... her phone rang and we were off again ... to do another errand !!! :) :)

I visited Mum while Kathy went to a 'beading session'. As we had to share her car, I dropped her off at her friends home .. and what a beautiful home !!!! .. perched on the side of a mountain with views forever .. or so they said ... could only see smoke that day, unfortunately, as there were devastating mountain fires in the Franschhoek region.

When I got back to collect her, I stayed for a cup of tea and marvelled once again at the intricate detail that goes into beading !! I sat with a group of 'beaders' the last time I was there and was totally mesmerised by the exquisite jewellery they were threading together ...

Kathy's friend, S, pulled out some boxes for me to peek inside ... Christmas decorations which adorned her entire Christmas tree over the Festive Season ... oh wow ... they are amazing !!!

Little teeny tiny angels, stars, and even little Christmas crackers ..

... snow flakes that twinkle held against the light .... can imagine them with all the Christmas lights on a tree .... twinkling and sparkling ... !!!

A box filled with Christmas ballies covered in intricately beaded designs which dangled and caught the light like tiny chandeliers ...


Christmas ballies ... with air inside .. no filling .. just air ... made entirely of shiny beads ... and I might add ... perfectly round !!!!

Little wreaths and danglies ...


.. different sizes of angels with pretty wings and skirts ... one was all frilly ... (it's the way the beads are put together that makes the frills, I was told !!!) ... absolutely fascinating !!!

.. and look at this fine chap .... sparklingly perfectly round body and head !!! ... keeping warm with scarf and fancy hat ... love his 'carrot' nose !!!! There are even tassles at the end of his scarf!!

Oh .. these are clever ladies indeed !!!! Thank you, S, for the tea and an insight into your amazing craft!!

Now ... off to make a cake for Connor's birthday !!!! He has asked me to make a 'Granny's Speciality' ... !! Can't believe he's three already .. seems like the other day he was in NICU after his birth !!!

Weekly Winners : 18 - 24 October

Haven't taken many photos since coming back from our wonderful holiday in Ireland ....

Sooooo ... thought I'd give an update on the area in my garden that was squashed and trampled on when the three huge conifers were felled ...

... not looking tooooo bad .. only lost one rose bush but that was because I transplanted it .. not very successfully ... and in it's place planted a Lavender Tree .. to help hide the neighbour's rather ugly house ... shall now plant some more little 'things' in-between to fill the gaps ..

Last night .. we had a lovely evening with our Colombian friends .... plus one !

Thought I'd add some abstract ....

... before showing Bradley, who was the coolest of dudes !!

.... and trying so hard to stay the coolest of dudes ...

Connor .. not to be left out ... showed me his 'cool dude' pose ...

... and ended up being .... the cutest of dudes !!!

'Brotherly' cool dudes ...!

For more Weekly Winners go to Lotus at sarcasticmom.com

What a traumatic few days we've had ...

Firstly Connor spending last weekend in hospital with suspected pneumonia and thankfully as fully recovered - back to his normal 'wild child' self! On asthma medication for the next six months.

Then my daughter in law - who started feeling ill on Sunday while they were with us for lunch, ending up in High Care a few days later and is still very ill. The first thoughts were 'swine flu' as she had all the symptons but tests came back negative. A battery of tests have now been conducted and hopefully today there will be progress and confirmation as what she has. Very worrying. Waiting to hear from my son what progress has been made and then she will be on the road to recovery.

Little Erin is missing her mommy.

And now ... friends of ours have been the latest victims of an armed robbery - it happened last night while they were having supper. We don't know all the details yet as they are busy sorting and putting back the pieces of their lives - including trauma councelling today. I cannot imagine what they must be going through. They were, thankfully, not physically hurt.
Tied up, threatened and traumatised.

What more can we do .... electric fences, pallisade fencing, alarms, passive alarms ...

Weekly Winners : 23 - 29 August

"Hello ... my name is Erin ....

"I spent last Sunday with my Grwanny and Grwampa while my mommy and daddy went to play golf. We had a lovely day celebrating their friend's birthday who is visiting from a long, long way away ... over the sea ... and she is missing her little girl and her family ... so my Grwanny and Grwampa gave her presents ...


... and my Grwanny made a huge castle-chocolate-eclair cake - I helped put on the candles ..

"All the grown-ups had a 'cool drink' which their other friend, C, made because it's made from 'stuff' that came all the way from Peru (that's where C comes from!) ... it's called Coctel de Algarrobina ...

... they said it was very, very, very yummy ...

... but my cousins - Bradley and Connor - and I also had yummy stuff - chocolate eclairs!!!

I wasn't going to share with them .... they shouldn't have eaten theirs first!

Look at the pretty flowers my Grwanny had in the house .. !!

They had such a nice smell ...

"I see a birdie looking down at my Grwanny .. she thinks it's a chaffinch but she's not really sure ..

... doesn't he look very proud with his chest puffed up ... ?

"There are lots of pretty Spring flowers in my Grwanny's garden ..

.. this one is called Scilla natalensis (Blue Squill) ...


... with the little blue flowers starting to open ..

.. but the best is the Flowering Plum (Prunus x blireiana) ...

... covered with delicate pink flowers ...

"He he he ... peek-a-boo .... I see you! That's my cousin Connor .. he's funny ... I like to play with him ...

Thanks for dropping by ... bye for now ...

Love from Erin x x x "

P.S. Note from Grwanny -

My Wine-of-the-Week is this one - Allesverloren Shiraz from 'the oldest wine estate in the Swartland' in the Cape. Mmm mmm .. oh yes ... this was nice ... will definitely buy it again .. lip-smackingly good!!

For more Weekly Winners go to Lotus' - sarcasticmom.com

Birthday celebration .. far from home!

M celebrated her birthday yesterday. Our three South American friends, who are out here on business, came on Sunday for a braain/bbq but as it was the day before M's birthday, we decided to make it special ... she's so far from home and her own family, her beautiful young daughter and friends

THE PREZZIE : ... and it wasn't anything African!

She said once, that she's never had a tea set and only when she gets married will she have one. Romantic .. tea for two ...! I said that she didn't need to be married to set a small tray of tea. I do it all the time when hubby's away .. and he does it when I'm away visiting my Mum! Soooo ... I bought her a tea set. I walked the malls and shops to try and find something African on it .. no luck .. so it's a plain one. Someone take note - there's a market for African designed tea sets ... I can't be the only one looking for one!!!!

Now she has to buy a bigger suitcase to take it home ....!

THE FLOWER : We also bought her the King Protea - our national flower. Also can fit in her suitcase as proteas dry well and can be kept for years! Ummm ... not sure about customs etc !

THE DRINKS : C made us cocktails - Coctel de Algarrobina - ooooh ...yumm! A Peruvian cocktail made with Peruvian Pisco, condensed milk, eggs, lots and lots of crushed ice and Algarrobina honey/syrup ..

Yummm!! Cooool .... refreshing .... very very morish ....... not to have tooooo many ...otherwise concentration levels of being a hostess-to-all-including-littlies goes out the window!!! AND we/I end up with very very red cheeks!!!!

THE CAKE : A castle of chocolate eclairs !! Oh my .. couldn't get it in a beautiful circle piled up right to the top with one perched high in the centre ... you know ... like they do in the cooking programmes and pictured in cooking books ....

NO WORRIES : it was devoured!!

.. by all ... ...

Through my hubby's eyes ..

... who attended the wedding of Mr T and P in Bogota over the weekend, once all the business 'stuff' was complete (which is why he went in the first place !)

... and who was amongst a few friends and family at the Andres Carne de Res restaurant which is well-known for it's superb beef .. and Latino beat ... and which seats around 1 000 people!!

.... where the decor is all made from recycled material ...

... and if you're special ... especially extra special like the future Mr and Mrs T ... then you are a King and Queen for the night ... !!!

View of Bogota from the wedding venue ...

.. where the civil ceremony was held ...

.. and a happy groom with his Mum, who came, with Mr T's brothers and sister, from Australia ... I must say she looks very well having broken her arm days before ...

Saying their vows ... (and look at her stunning dress - sooo elegant!)

Mr T's Mum saying her speech in Spanish!! It just goes to show you .. you are never too old to learn something new!!! She went for 'secret' lessons so that she could surprise them! Well done, Mr T's Mum !!!! :) Just before we move onto the next beautiful photo .... look at the wedding cake!!! Sunflowers and chocolate !!! Oooh yumm!!

A stunning bride sharing a moment with her new brother-in-law ...

... a beautiful bride ...

The first dance/salsa!! ... and may they dance forever ... together ...

Then the party began ....

Goodies which hubby brought back included napkin rings which were on the tables (those grass rings with tiny hats, baskets, shoes etc attached - cute!) ... a little bag given to guests on leaving ...


... and out popped a kangaroo and Colombian keyring hat ...

... and the wedding invitation with a tiny Colombian hat and boomerang ... inside had these words ...

We wish you a lifetime of happiness together!

Note to Mrs T ... hope we meet one day .... soon !