Russel Street Durban through my window.

On sunday afternoon a friend and myself were driving home after being taking photos down at the Durban harbour. On the way up Russell street it struck me how it had changed and the activity and life outside my window was fasinating. These are the photos I took from my window. I came home and played around with some filters in Photo shop and these are the result. Hope you enjoy them.

Corner of Russell Street and Smith Street.

West Street Cemetary.

Towads Victoria Market.

Flats

The Tudor Hotel.

When I man is tired of London he is tired of life.

Samuel Johnson wrote in September 1777 -When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. I have been to London many many times and I can only agree with him. You never know what is around the next corner, London waits to surprise and that it does. These are some of the pictures I took, what I loved most was the colour, even in the grey weather that is so typical of London who can not feel happy and glad to be alive being surrounded by colours like these.

In August Mike and I celebrated our third wedding anniversay. We spent it at Cleopatra's Mountain Farmhouse in the Kamberg area of Natal. It was absolutely beautiful. I can highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get away and celebrate something special.

Action Photography

My passion for photography is fairly new so I am in a learning curve. I took my camera to rugby to try get some action shots. This is one I took of Freddy Michalak in action which I really like.

I have recently taken up the fasinating hobby of photography. I signed up for some Photoshop lessons specifically to learn how to edit photos. As an assignment my teacher did a project called "item in a box" we all had to put an item in a box and give it to one of our fellow students to photograph. I got given a plain white candle with a red ribbon around it.
My brief was to photograph it but not in its present form, to think out of the box!!

This is what I eventually submitted.






What I did was, I picked two Hibiscus flowers and separated the petals. I then tied them around the candle with a elastic band which I covered with the red ribbon.
After taking the photos I added some lighting effects from Photoshop. I was quiet pleased with the result.

My first digital scrapbook quilt page.

I am a huge fan of Scrapgirls.com. Yesterday I saw this template for a quilt scrapbook page. They have all the traditional quilt patterns. This one is the friendship quilt square. What a fantastic idea. I just had to buy it and I just had to do a page. I must say it was a little harder than I thought to sort all the layers out, those of you who work in photoshop will know what I mean. Anyway I persevered and the finished page is what you see above. I am quite proud of my first attempt and even more proud of my dad who is also my hero. I loved this photo of him in his navy uniform in his younger years. Love and Miss you dad!!!

England 2008

Some collages of my trip to England August 2008.

CLARENS/GOLDEN GATE TRIP

This year Mike and I decided we would explore our own country South Africa. I cannot believe that I have lived here my whole life and only now have visited Golden Gate and Clarens in the Orange Free State. It was absolutely beautiful (a little chilly in the evenings) and I am sure it will be the first of many visits to come. God willing! We drove up to the Free Sate and through Golden Gate National Park in pouring rain. For our first night we had really pushed the corners of the envelope and we had booked two nights accomodation in a traditional oxwagon. We were met by Ollie who showed us to our wagon. It was surrounded by puddles of rain water. So much so that Ollie had to dig a furrow to divert the water.



I must say it was an experience that I am glad we had but probably would not do again, not for any reason really except that as we mature in years you like more comforts. There was a communal kitchen and ablution facilities which were very clean and functional. The water was heated by a coal stove and could have been hotter. The setting under mushroom rock was beautiful and the surrounding scenery stunning. For more on St Fort Oxwagon camp check out the website on http://www.oxwagon.co.za/stfort.php



THE BEAUTIFUL LITTLE TOWN OF CLARENS









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Look at the talent used in making this art totally out of dried branches, my favourite the bicycle!















I saved the best for last, the absolutely amazing mountains and scenery of Golden Gate Highlands National Park, settled in the rolling foothills of the Maluti Mountains. We stayed at Glen Reenen Rest Camp, we were going to camp but it was too cold so we stayed in a chalet. 10/10 rating this. I recommend the camp site for campers, but suggest you wait for warmer weather.

This is the Rest camp taken from the walk to Mushroom Rock.



The actual accomodation and camp.





Look at the size of Mike compared to the size of the mountain!