Owl Love

Kapala Game Reserve on the outskirts of Kruger National Park is home to the Big Five and they are always awesome to see on safari, but the highlight of our afternoon game drive on Saturday night happened after sundown on the way back to our rented cottage. This beautiful spotted eagle owl was out looking for food. And he caught a huge cicada which he ate right before our eyes. (I was secretly glad it wasn't a small rodent or something!)

That was a first in the wild for us!

with the cicada in his grasp

eating the cicada

Suburban Graffiti

During our tour of the graffiti in the Joburg CBD, our tour guide and graffiti artist Bias told us about a couple of commissioned pieces of graffiti in the suburbs, specifically in the Parks area (Parkhurst, Parkview, Parktown, Parktown North, etc. So many parks.) My friend Marguerite who lives in the Parks told me exactly where they were. Now I'll tell you.

This one is on Emmerentia Drive across from the Parkview Golf Club.

This particular piece reminds me of the murals I saw in San Francisco's Mission District where Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitors Center leads tours of the murals in this traditionally Mexican and Middle American immigrant district. It seemed to me that many of the Mission murals are of women and they are all very colorful. Just like this one.

This one is next to 3 Chester Drive.

Love the owl!












Check 'em out!

The Camellias of Vergelegen

Chanel at NY's National Arts Club

One of my favorite flowers was also the one immortalized by Coco Chanel in fashion, the flower loved by La Traviata, and the one which empowered Charlotte's alter ego Camille to bloom in Dark Victory. The Camellia.

Our recent trip to the Cape Winelands happened to coincide with the peak viewing season for the pink, red and white blooms of Vergelegen, South Africa’s first, and Africa's only International Camellia Garden of Excellence.







International Gardens of Excellence have been judged by the International Camellia Society as featuring "a significant collection of camellias along with information about them.  Moreover, they are also kept to a high standard and are rewarding to visit." I agree!













Being a camellia enthusiast, I never miss a chance to visit camellia gardens at their peak and after researching "International Camellia Gardens of Excellence" on the internet, I was amazed to find that Vergelegen was not my first visit to an International Camellia Garden of Excellence. Who knew?

Out of the 40 that have been so honored, I had been to five others during their peak viewing season. The Gardens at Magnolia Plantation in Charleston during Charleston Garden Week, Huntington Botanic Gardens in Pasadena, CA, Trewithen Gardens in Cornwall,  the garden of Villa Anelli in Lake Maggiore, Italy and the  Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Peak viewing time in the northern hemisphere is from March to April and in the southern hemisphere, July to August.









In addition to the camellia garden at Vergelegen, there are 16 other unique gardens there as well, including a splendid Octagonal Garden, and an impressive collection of trees including the oldest oak tree in South Africa, an ancient White Mulberry tree ...













... and the five magnificent camphor trees gracing the front of the Homestead ...
















... with a resident owl. Most excellent!

The Owl House

Some 50 kilometers north of Graaff-Reinet in the valley of the Sneeuberg Mountains is the tiny hamlet of Nieu-Bethesda. There are no street lights. There are only a couple of streets anyway. In fact, it has only recently had electricity installed! Nieu-Bethesda sells no petrol, has no banking facilities or ATMs and no one will take your credit cards anywhere. (Warning: if you visit, bring cash and a full tank of gas.)

What it does have is a reputation for being an artists' colony and a place for creative people like Athol Fugard whose play The Road to Mecca is based on the little town. Fugard was actually born in the Karoo in nearby Middleburg and still uses Nieu-Bethesda as his retreat. There is even a Fugard Festival that happens at some point in the year. (We saw signs.)

And one of the characters in Fugard's play The Road to Mecca was based on an eccentric artist who lived in Nieu-Bethesda and whose home is now an art gallery and museum called The Owl House. Her name was Helen Martins and she was a recluse who took refuge in Nieu-Betehsda after her failed marriage left her alone and destitute. She began to create art objects and sculptures using broken glass and cement in order to "search for the light" in her closed world. She and her assistant Koos Malgas created a menagerie of camels, human beings, lambs, sphinxes and owls which are all displayed in the yard. Many of the inside walls of her house are even  "wallpapered" with finely ground colored glass giving it an enchanted igloo feel.

"The Camel Yard"

I love these skirts made from beer bottles.

This cat has eyes made from car headlights! Clever up-cycle.

inside the house

She particularly favored the owl, but there are many sculptures of mermaids and angels too.

And the other thing of note to visit in Nieu-Bethesda is the Brewery and Two Goats Deli.

We stopped in for a brew (or two) and a platter of cheese and kudu salami.

They make their own goat cheese!

And Karoo Ale ...

Owlet silhouette in Marakele

It is so rare to see the nocturnal owl in the wild. I had a confirmed sighting once in Vermont on a midnight full moon snowshoe hike but taking pictures at midnight was pointless. These are not much better but ...

pearl-spotted owlet