Number ten 30.11.2022

Grahamstown Cathedral. I took this photo on 25 March 2022 This is the last day of November 2022 and the start of the last month of 2022.   New beginnings face me every moment and I want to live until I die and I don’t want to die prematurely. Unfortunately, there are lots of people who just exist and not live. No, I don’t want to climb Mount Everest. I don’t have ambitions to out do Pablo Picasso or Henry Matisse or Damien Hirst. I don’t even...

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Number nine 29.11.2022

 Number nine 29.11.2022 The plants, or if you will, the seedlings in my maternity ward are doing well. Watermelon seedlings fromJeffreys Bay, Western Cape My friend in Jeffreys Bay, Western Cape gave me four watermelon pips to plant and two sprouted. Now my waiting game started; waiting for it to give me watermelons. During 2020 I participated in a seed-swop and got a fair number of seeds inter alia scarlet runner beans [8x]. I have three...

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Number 8 28.11.2022

The blue skies of Franschhoek, Western CapeWhat a lovely sunshine day we have in Rivonia, Johannesburg, South Africa. My plants are growing; and I still have seeds to attend to. A friend’s mother came from India to visit and she brought me some seeds as a gift. It is time for me to get on and get in the soil. And maybe I will be able to write about it later on. Yesterday I looked at my tender plants that are barely breaking soil; I wonder how on...

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Number 7 27.11.2022

Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut! I referred to him in Number 1 on 21 November 2022. And now I want to pursue his story further. Back to Kurt. I just read his story on Wikipedia and have some sympathy for the man. And yet, even with his background he kept at it and that is writing. That is what he could do best. I downloaded a write up of his, telling us how shy and embarrassed he was “not being good at any of his myriad of hobbies.”...

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Number 6 26.11.2022

The book cover. My ox-tongue is cooked. And it is delicious. It was the first recipe that I tried out of Marlene Van Der Westhuizen’s BORD [that is PLATE in my home language, Afrikaans]. I can’t even remember when last I cooked it. In legal jargon I might say it is since time immemorial – can’t even remember! Please have a look at her website - it is really something special. I got stuck with the sauce I had to cook – I did not have all...

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Number 5 25 November 2022

My sharpened knife, stone and sliced chillies with olive oilToday I am cooking ox tongue. It is so exciting to cook again; I started cooking round about 2015 and then about 18 months ago I more or less stopped. I really don’t have a specific reason except to say that we were in the process of selling our home where we lived for almost 41 years and I got somewhat ill as well. I had to concentrate on the logistics of re-potting plants to take with,...

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Number 4 24 November 2022

 Julie and JuliaJulie and Julia – the movie about Julia Child and Julie who was inspired by Julia. Oh, my word! I get carried away. I should start at the beginning. And the beginning is Number One. I mentioned Julie and Julia right at the start. Some of you might be familiar with this movie; some not. I was not familiar with this at all. I was only aware of Julia’s cookbook; have seen an original at a restaurant in Morningside, Sandton. And...

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Number three 23.11.2022

 My doodles - this is the doodle that created havoc in my friends mind about my sanity!!!!!!I started attending art classes and it is great fun – at the moment I am the grandpa and only male amongst a couple of ladies. They are noisy, fun to look at, and always discussing things at the top of their voices; this is not my normal scene. They are not shy to speak their minds. And they become quite animated; ask them what their favourite movies...

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Number two 22.11.2022

What is his story? Help him to understandStones, wood, Petria, colour, texture and ... Had my early morning walk and pottered around my land art-doodles on the pavement [side-walk]. My one friend, I met him at genealogy, referred to this pottering around as land art-doodles and I like it. It encapsulates the gist of it. I cannot go into the wild like Strijdom Van Der Merwe  or Andrew Goldsworthy and create their incredible ephemeral...

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Blue South African Skies in Franschhoek, Western CapeNumber One. 21 November 2022 Try to write every day for 31 days. About what? Does it matter? Start writing. Turn up and the teacher will be there waiting for you! I do go to my office every day and sit an work. That is no problem to me. But to write something every day for the blog - that is a huge challenge and I am willing to take it on for at least 31 days. Wish me good luck. Even if...

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