It is time for the annual winter burns. It is not unusual to see plumes of black smoke in the Lowveld this time of year as farmers burn the dried grass.
Archive for July, 2010
Winter Burns
July 30, 2010
A New(ish) Restaurant
July 26, 2010Latest news …. L has bought a restaurant. Yes, apparently single handedly running a golf course, guest house and lodge is not enough work & stress 
There is a restaurant/tea room/curio/cafe type shop in town. He saw a For Sale sign and bought it. No I’m not exaggerating, he saw the sign, stopped and phoned the guy and 24 hours later it was his. It has a LOT of potential and I have no doubt that in his capable hands it will do extremely well. At the moment it is called “Kom Kletzke” but will soon be renamed (and thankfully repainted) to “Golf Club Restaurant & Shoppe” I have to add that the “Shoppe” part was my idea since they will still be selling curios as there seems to be a demand for it. 
They make the most divine home made pies, pizzas and scones. Lina and Gladys are amazing. They promised to teach me so I can also be an awesome domestic goddess at home. I’m not sure who is going to be the taste tester though.
So anyhow, this is what it looks like at the moment. The “quaint” interior decorations will remain, but the neon pink and purple will be painted over with something less offensive to those with a hangover 
Horse Show
July 24, 2010There was a horse show at the resort this weekend. Apparently it was also “International Photo Walk Day”, so I guess walking around a horse show counts right? I took these photos for Tanya, who tweeted that she’d love to see some “pony pics”
This horse made me laugh. He is from New Zealand and was going to be lion food before his owner rescued him. Kiwi kept on whinnying and “having his say while we were chatting. It was so funny. I managed to get this shot while he was getting his word in.
I hope these meet your expectations Tanya, I’ve never photographed horses or a horse show before
Swinging High
July 23, 2010Much to J’s delight, we made a swing for him in one of the trees yesterday. 
This morning after he got dressed I could not find him, till I looked outside and this is what I saw. Aaaw a real “heart melting” moment, my boy just loves his swing 
The Photo Walk that wasn’t
July 22, 2010
On Tuesday J and I started off on our photo walk as he said he wanted to add some more photos to his blog.
We stopped to take some shots of a cormorant that was at the edge of the dam.
There is a stream that runs along the side of No 2 fairway. The water is directly from the mountain and is always icy cold. He was wearing his wellies so I didn’t mind him standing in the stream and feeling how cold the water was through his boots.
Of course the temptation was just too great and he wanted to walk in the stream.
This proved to be so much fun that ……. mmm I think that perhaps this would be a good time for me to stop typing and just let the photographs speak for themselves, because in all honesty I have no words. I do need to point out that we are currently slap bang in the middle of an ice cold winter and as I mentioned earlier, this water comes directly from the mountain and is ice cold.
I had so much fun taking these photographs, there is no doubt in my mind that these are my weekly winners. Go and have a look at Lotus page for more winners.
A Golfing Weekend
July 19, 2010This weekend we had 2 events here. On Saturday was the annual CANSA Golf Day which is held to raise funds for the CANSA association. The Troupant Golf Club stayed here for the weekend as they were having their annual winter championships. They are a “virtual club” and compete against each other as couples.
There really is not very much that one can do to be creative when photographing golfers, so I decided to rather try and get some shots that were not the norm.
This poor man never looked particularly impressed when his wife insisted on rubbing sunscreen into his face for him and she did it both days
I was quite fascinated when I saw where this lady kept her pegs – something I had not seen before
This lady was ALWAYS smiling or laughing and she does have such a beautiful smile
I do not have a long zoom lens, so I was using my 24-105 and zooming to the max to get these shots. In order to get this close I had to actually physically be close. Not a good thing when photographing amateur golfers. When this lady tee-ed off her shot narrowly missed me and she was mortified. It is rather dangerous when you consider what could have gone wrong, but oh so worth it to get these shots of her. (hint – maybe someone who loves me and reads this post will buy me the 70-200 lens I so desire? )
Photographing Fun with my Son
July 15, 2010Now that J has his own blog, he is super keen to get out every day and take photos. Here are some shots that I took while walking around with him. I totally followed his lead and only took photos where he said I was allowed to. It was quite a challenge, he said we were having a competition to see who could take the nicest photo! I didn’t realise I had such a competitive little man
Here he is taking a photo of the view over the dam
My little man playing at being “Superman”
Reciprocal Photographer
You can see the reciprocal photograph on his blog
I was instructed to take a photograph of an aloe
I was also instructed to take a photograph of the water. Have a look at his blog to see a photo he took of me in all my glory with my fat behind up in the air!
The water photograph was rather boring so I spiced it up a bit with a texture
I have password protected his blog, just to protect him from the weirdos that are out in the cyber world. If I haven’t already mailed you the password let me know and I will send it to you
Frosted Moss
July 14, 2010Yesterday morning it was quite frosty here again. That darn cold front that was in Cape Town has reached us. J wanted to go and play in the frost again, so off we went. I spotted some “white stuff” in the bushes and had to investigate. I really wished I had a proper macro lens so that I could get super close. I tried using my 50mm and my 100mm but couldn’t get as close as I wanted to. I eventually used my 18-55 EFS lens which is not good quality but the closest that I have to a macro lens. The detail was the most beautiful petticoat lace pattern. This was the best that I could do but I don’t think it does the beauty justice
This was a strange looking furry seed that was frosted but started melting the instant I brought it into the sun so that I could try to capture the sparkle
The Kings Blog
July 13, 2010J has been asking me why he can’t have a blog so he can also show everyone the photos that he takes. Sally set up a blog for her kids and he rather likes it, so I thought I would do something similar.
So allow me introduce to you The Kings Blog. His bio was written almost entirely by him. I corrected grammar here and there and made it slightly less verbose, but essentially it is what he said and I typed.
Of course we had to do a photo session so that he could take photos for his blog, and I could not resist taking some photos of him in action.
Climbing into the bushes, determined to get his shot. According to him he sees me doing this all the time
The subject of the photograph, his cat Garfield
Taking a photo of L on the fairways machine
Sunset through the tree
July 11, 2010Here in Badplaas we lose the sun fairly early in winter, although it only gets dark about and hour and a half later. This is because it disappears behind the mountain that is really close to us. I’m always quite sad because the chance of taking any great sunset shots or warm silhouettes is near impossible. Last night I looked outside the bedroom window and noticed the sun shining through the tree. I decided to try and get some “sunset” shots and this is what I came up with.
