Category Archives: Home and Garden

Stop! Letterbox Thief!

Some horrid person nicked the brass plate cover of our letterbox on Friday morning. We reported it at the Pinelands Police Station this morning, leaving our contact details and these two ‘before and after’ photographs. (See, sometimes there’s an advantage … Continue reading

Posted in Around the Neighbourhood, Home and Garden, Life in South Africa | Tagged , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

Giving 2011 a proper send-off: Festive season outings in and around Cape Town

As we had had so much fun exploring Cape Town and doing all manner of touristy things with mom-in-law and sis-in-law during their various visits in 2011 (for instance, have a look at this post), we were really excited when … Continue reading

Posted in Around the Neighbourhood, Entertainment, Exploring the Cape, Green Point, Hikes and Rambles, Home and Garden, Life in South Africa, Live Music, Mini-Excursions, Travel, West Coast | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How to Bake Streifenkekse or Black-and-White Christmas Cookies: A Slideshow

When hubby was a laaitie (i.e. a young boy), one of his favourite types of Christmas cookies were something he called Streifenkekse (loosely translated from the German, this means something like ‘striped cookies’). They are also known as Schwarz-Weiß Gebäck … Continue reading

Posted in Home and Garden, In the kitchen, Life in South Africa | Tagged , , , , | 23 Comments

A Slideshow of our Knusperhäuschen

A couple of weeks ago (Who would like to buy a Knusperhäuschen?), I told you about my creative friend Colette of Cakes and Desserts who, in the run-up to the Christmas season, and in keeping with the German tradition, has been … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Home and Garden, In the kitchen | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Finding Inner Peace and Tranquility at Bodhi Khaya Retreat Centre

As mentioned in an earlier post, hubby and I attended a meditation retreat at the beautiful and supremely peaceful Bodhi Khaya Retreat Centre outside the village of Stanford in the Overberg. During our 9-day retreat in early November, I took … Continue reading

Posted in Birds, Bodhi Khaya, Flowers, Getaways | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Bread, glorious bread!

During our retreat at Bodhi Khaya (which I wrote about in my previous post), two items in particular stood out for us: Nina’s buttermilk rusks and her freshly baked bread. The large bowl of rusks in the tea-room was magically … Continue reading

Posted in Bodhi Khaya, Getaways, Home and Garden, In the kitchen | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

Pollen season – and beautiful pigeons on the recently mown grass verges

Haa-a-a-a-a-tchoooo!!!! Every year during springtime, there is a conflict between the local residents of Pinelands who want to keep the beautiful wild spring flowers on the grass verges flowering in our neighbourhood for as long as possible, and who thus … Continue reading

Posted in Around the Neighbourhood, Birds, Flowers, Home and Garden | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The demise of the wasps

Remember the wasps that recently made their home in the hollow cross-bar of our washing line? We’d been very much in two minds as to what to do about them… Should we allow them to stay, potentially build an even … Continue reading

Posted in Home and Garden, Insects | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

The creator of the nightly spider web

After showing you all the spider web that dangled off our washing line this morning, I thought I’d see whether I could spot the creator of said web. Fortunately, it was a fairly windstill night, and spidey must’ve been rather … Continue reading

Posted in Home and Garden, Spiders | Tagged , | 19 Comments

Spider webs and wasps nests: Unexpected hazards near the washing line

Do you remember the posts I wrote about the two nocturnal spiders who make their nest every evening between our carport roof and the washing line, or thereabouts? December 2009 – Two hyperactive spiders January 2010 – Two hunting spiders … Continue reading

Posted in Home and Garden, Insects, Spiders | Tagged , , , , | 19 Comments