Are you dreaming? Or are you awake?

In August 2014, we attended a “Mindfulness of Dream and Sleep Retreat” with Charlie Morley at the tranquil retreat centre of Bodhi Khaya, outside Stanford. It was wonderful to spend some time in those peaceful surroundings, marveling at the beauty of Mother Nature, and soaking up the teachings of an inspiring spiritual teacher.

Charlie’s recently published book, Dreams of Awakening: Lucid Dreaming and Mindfulness of Dream & Sleep is an excellent guidebook for any aspiring oneironaut (lucid dreamer) who wishes to learn how to be more mindful, more aware, and more kind, in their waking, sleeping and dreaming life.

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 hundreds of photos. That place really is a paradise for a wannabe photographer! Unfortunately, I…

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 replenished every morning. By night-time, to our communal sorrow, it was empty, with not even…

A tribute to Nina’s marvellous meals at our Bodhi Khaya meditation retreat

In November this year, hubby and I attended a meditation retreat at the beautiful and supremely peaceful Bodhi Khaya Retreat Centre outside Stanford. (I will post some photos as soon as I have a free moment between deadlines.) I confess that, in addition to wondering whether I would be able to cope with the long…

A relaxing Women’s Day Weekend in Riversdale

In August this year, we spent a relaxing weekend in the beautiful Southern Cape town of Riversdale. Here are the links to all the other posts about our trip – I hope you enjoy clicking your way through them! 1. From Cape Town to Riversdale 2. Oakdale Cottages 3. Riversdale and surroundings 4. Sonja Herholdt…

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 10: Returning to Cape Town

From Tradouw Pass, we headed westwards through the tiny rural village of Zuurbraak, reaching Swellendam and the N2, which took us home across the gently rolling hills of the Overberg with its dramatic yellow canola patches amidst vast fields and meadows of green. In the distance along the northern edge of the Overberg, the mountain…

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 9: Tradouw Pass – Traversing the path of the women

“We have two options: We can either continue westwards along the R62 towards Montagu, across the Montagu Pass, and via Robertson and Worcester up to the N1…” “Or?” “We can head south across Tradouw Pass, and join the N2 near Swellendam.” We chose the route across the magnificent Tradouw Pass, built by Thomas Bain right…

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 8: Through the Little Karoo to Ladismith and Barrydale

As we descended the curves of Garcia’s Pass that traverses the Langeberge, we emerged into the wide open spaces of the Little Karoo, with the mighty Swartberg mountain range appearing on the far northern horizon. According to the map, a couple of gravel roads branched off here, to Barrydale and Herbertsdale. However, as neither of…

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 7: From Riversdale across Garcia’s Pass into the Little Karoo

On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we stowed all our gear into the car, tidied up our little cottage, and shared the remaining carrots and apples between the two horses. It felt great to have made friends with both of them – even the grey one looked sad to see us go. With a final wave…

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 6: A round trip to Stilbaai and Jongensfontein on the coast

After our explorations of the Korentepoort Dam to the north of Riversdale, we returned to our accommodation at Oakdale Cottages to pick up some nibblies – and to prepare that obligatory thermos of tea – for our drive down to the coast, some distance south of Riversdale. We wanted to explore the small seaside towns…

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 5: A drive around Korentepoort Dam

After the breakfast concert with Sonja, and still humming some of the tunes we had heard, we were pleased to see that the previous day’s rain had not returned and that the skies were blue! Perfect weather for a drive to the Korentepoort Dam, a little to the north of Riversdale.

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 4: Sonja Herholdt in Riversdale, performing “Heartbeat of a Woman”

On Saturday morning, we attended a delightful breakfast concert in the Riversdale Town Hall. The event had been arranged by a local organisation known as DROOM. An Afrikaans word that means dream, DROOM is actually an acronym for Diens aan Riversdal en Omgewing se Ouer Mense, i.e. Serving the Elderly of Riversdale and Surroundings. This is…

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 3: Riversdale and Surroundings

Here is a slideshow of some pictures we took during our weekend in Riversdale.

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 2: Oakdale Cottages in Riversdale

The pelting rain that swept us into the lovely town of Riversdale almost entirely obscured our view through the windows. The directions to our accommodation hadn’t been entirely unambiguous, and because we hadn’t visited Riversdale before, we soon found ourselves quite disoriented. We took a couple of wrong turns through the centre of town, but…

Weekend in Riversdale – Part 1: Cape Town to Riversdale

When we left Cape Town in the late morning of Friday, 05 August 2011, it was partly overcast, but it wasn’t raining. It was extremely chilly, though, and we were grateful to have the heater on in the car. Brrrr… We had the i-pod plugged into the i-trip (technology rocks! an i-trip is a little…

Grains of Sand

“To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour."

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