Birthday Bash

It was a friend's birthday this week so I had an excuse for a small party! Dinner for eight insane writers and artists! An eccentric, very dapper sculptor and artist, a former Kirov prima ballerina, fellow South African film maker (who used to be married to the prima ballerina and once dated another of my guests - a gorgeous blonde bombshell very chic boutique owner, plus skier extraordinaire, surfer, in fact -all round jock!) A colourful group to put it mildly! The birthday boy is an English ex-pat, a writer with a deadline (new book) a very funny, handsome and intelligent guy. I invited a few mutual friends and another writer he had not yet met. John Nichols wrote the Milagro Beanfield War, among other (numerous) works. John is a bit of a hermit, who loves to complain about the writing life being a life of rejection. One of my other guests, is the son of an iconic Hollywood director, and a not too shabby writer, himself. He and I had a good laugh over John's whinging, as we know too well about that aspect of writing for a living. But looking at John's (large and published) body of work, it doesn't appear to be the result of too much rejection! John is a great raconteur, and kept us in stitches with his stories all evening! Because my table seats only six, I pulled up the little, green painted one that sits in the corner, and brought in a few extra chairs I store in my shed, and use outside in the summer. We stayed at the table till the wee hours, eating a very home cooked meal of roast chicken with rosemary and lemon, basmati rice,steamed broccoli and a big salad of mixed greens, hothouse tomatoes and baby cucumber, accompanied by plenty of wine. I served coffee with a chocolate (kid's - one candle) cake I baked, with whipped cream, infused with vanilla beans and some other decadent chocolate confection, the birthday boy brought over! Above is the table right before I went to get ready. The freesia was my gift to the guest of honor and that's the cake hiding in the cupboard!

October Light

The pictures of my kitchen window and bedroom were taken by my friend Amanda, when she visted in October last year. The Autumn light was so beautiful that day and I think she captured it perfectly!

Best Friends

Best friends are the true treasure in our life. A friendship that develops over a lifetime is the most precious of all. I'm lucky enough to have one of those; a sister spirit who is closer to me than anyone else. She and I met in our early teens in Cape Town and our paths have dovetailed and connected ever since. We have sailed through smooth and stormy waters together; inflicted wounds on one another and yet have forgiven, made amends and deepened the bond. Working through our collective wounds has played a great part in each of us becoming the women we are now. We have grown and we have learned to bend like trees in the wind. When we met, we were two free spirited hippie dreamers who rebelled against the white privileged shelter of our respective lives. She was singing in a band and I was working in fashion and film as a make-up artist . We have since married, had kids, made records,videos and movies, written songs, books, poetry, painted and we have kept dreaming. We have traveled and read and broadened our perspectives. We've divorced, lost fathers and mothers and we have become grand mothers with two grand daughters apiece. An extraordinary journey that hopefully has brought us each a small measure of wisdom! Amanda is an inspiring woman; multi talented, she is firstly a brilliant singer-songwriter, yet she is so much more She's been dragging a camera along with her for as long as I've known her. The photograph above was taken from my back deck last October.