I was lucky enough to visit Verlorenkloof, at the foot of the escarpment between Lydenburg and Machadodorp, over the weekend. It’s really quite lovely, surrounded by mountains, and the Crocodile River.
Weekend adventures
Exploring Joburg
Over the weekend I took myself off to China Mall in Amalgam, for the first time, and the Oriental Plaza, for the hundredth time. What a lovely day of kitsch, bargains and busyness. And samoosas, always samoosas!
Vertical gardening
I love succulents (they are intricate and amazingly varied, but they are also one of the few plant species I manage to keep alive!), and I love vertical gardens. I’ve been thinking about a vertical garden for a long time, and finally over the weekend the wall outside our front door got some decoration!
We mixed up some cuttings from other succulents we’ve been growing, and some new, bigger plants (including some herbs) from the nursery. Tada!
Dullstroom
Last weekend was spent getting out of Jo’burg, and getting into (always) rainy, cold and atmospheric Dullstroom. It’s lovely to get out of the city, and Dullstroom is a perfect, close retreat, even if I could never live there – that climate!
What do you call a vegan restaurant?
A florist.
I persuaded my father, and some other confirmed meat eaters, to venture into uncharted territory over the weekend. Leafy Greens is an amazing vegan (and mostly raw) restaurant in Muldersdrift (next door to the meaty Casalinga), and there were happily many sighs of delight all through lunch.
The vegetable garden is also a thing of wonder and a good place to stroll around after two helpings of banana crème pie.
The Cradle
So close to home and yet so rarely visited.
I went to a wedding in The Cradle of Humankind a few weekends ago (at The Cradle Restaurant and Game Reserve). So lovely! It’s beautiful out there, and (if you avoid the disaster that is Fourways) an easy 40 minute drive from Sandton.
I’m also in love with the Nirox Sculpture Park. I’d like a little house on one of the patches of lawn there. The pictures below were taken at the Jazz in the Cradle event last year – a lovely day.
In the same area, there’s Happy Horse Farm (I mean really, who wouldn’t want to visit happy horses?). That’ll be my next spot to visit in the coming weeks.
Gliding
A few weekends ago I went gliding in Magaliesburg – what a rush! I’m not the best flier, so I was pretty nervous, but once up in the air, the view was magnificent, and it’s the closest I’ll ever come to being an eagle spiralling in a thermal.
A word of warning though: stall-turns are not for the faint of heart. Cue adrenaline shakes.
Joburg City Festival
This weekend was the first of the week long Joburg City Festival.
The frustrated ballerina in me loved every moment of the performance by the SA Mzanzi Ballet company at the Joburg Theatre (formally the Civic Theatre). It’s an hour long taste of the company’s current and upcoming shows, and its talent. Catch the other shows this week on Wednesday and Thursday nights, 7pm.
Randlords is a pretty great venue with pretty fabulous views over the city. Yesterday their Balcony TV Sunday was hot and sunny, with Jeremy Loops, Shaun Jacobs and BCUC (the banging highlight for me) performing against Joburg’s winter skyline. A lovely day out in a city alive with beat, despite a slow Monday!
Body Worlds
Over the weekend I went to Sci-Bono to have a look at the Body Worlds exhibition. It was quite extraordinary – a whole universe within each of us.
There’s a moment of the ick factor knowing the bodies were once real people, and then just pure wonder at the magnificence of the human body, the intricacies of the systems keeping us moving, thinking and feeling, and the importance of ‘using it or losing it’.
I was again reminded of the reasons I practice yoga (which I from time to time forget after practicing pincha mayurasana again and again for months on end ;-)). A strong, flexible body (and a strong, flexible mind) will go a long way to easing the path to old age.
I’m finding getting older quite a tough thing to deal with, an adjusting and readjusting of my sense of self. The twenties are filled with feelings of immortality, brazen youthfulness and incomprehension of years passing and the body changing … until suddenly you notice a wrinkle that doesn’t unwrinkle.
It’s such a small portion of our lives that we spend young. Here’s hoping though that with the help of yoga, I’ll spend a large portion of my life feeling youthful.
The week that was
It was a tough week. In fact, I don’t have much to say except that the Wits Art Museum is rad, Zaki Ibrahim is also rad and luckily my mom thinks I’m the raddest.
My new specs continue to me feel a little ill. Chocolate covered raisins are stemming feelings of missing and Sunday evening trepidation. And watching The Hunger Games last night still has me reaching for a teddy bear and glass of warm milk.
Jen x