The Restory Retreat Centre

Collage of photos of a weekend near  Groenvlei, Wakkerstroom As you set out for Ithaka* hope the voyage is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians and Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them: you’ll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laistrygonians and Cyclops, wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you. Hope the voyage is a long one. May there be many a summer morning when, with what pleasure, what joy, you come into harbors seen for the first time; may you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind— as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars. Keep It...

My father with the four of us, at some beacon somewhere on one of our excursion, back in around  1969. When we were little, Pa took us to the places he discovered during the course of his working week as an electrician. It sometimes took him deep into the bushveld and later into the rain forests around Tzaneen. We even did a spell of six months down in Cape St. Francis where he worked on the electrification of a brand new 5 star hotel.       We lived in dire conditions in a little house we called "the train house" and I hated going to school in the nearby town of Humansdorp. Mainly because there were no grass playgrounds, only concrete and we traveled by bus, leaving home in the dark and wet of the Cape winter mornings. Accustomed to the dry, mild winters of the Lowveld,  we felt truly miserable.  But I rem ember best how we used to run up and down the corridors of the hotel, the smell of brand new carpets and a newly thatched roof. Looking through ...

Photograph by George Angus Wakkerstroom is in the middle. Not of South Africa. That spot is usually reserved for Bloemfontein. It is in the middle for us. Matilda loves the warmer, wetter northern part of our country. Tzaneen, Magoebaskloof with its mountains and forests. I am more of a plains person. The vast expanses and far off horizons of the Karoo stir my soul. We meet each other somewhere in the middle. Wakkerstroom is not warm, but it is wet. It does not have forests but we’ve discovered klofies 1 with beautiful streams, shady spots under big Ouhout 2 trees, larger than we’ve ever expected them to grow. Mist often covers the landscape, making everything silent and soft. On clear days you can see for miles on end, across vast valleys that are held by gentle mountains and hills on the edges. During the cold winters frost turns the delicate greens into all shades of brown, yellows. I have seen the grey gr...

Photograph by George Angus The men were eager to get started and engage in the work.                                                                                               Exodus 36:2 (The Message) Last week I finished the Versailles planter (some call it a Versailles tub as well) I made for a prospective client through the inspiration of our friend Sonja . I used Saligna for its durability and stability. The design is a fine example of complicated simplicity. The end result exhibits these elegant clean l...

“He’s at the door again, Honey.” “I know. He’s been there all night. Making that high whining sound.” “We have to do something. The phone has been ringing non-stop. I think his presence was the only thing preventing the neighbours to come over in person and complain about his presence. You can’t blame them. His rear must be in, I would say, Ostrich Ave, and his wings stretch from here to the primary school on the one side and the traffic circle in Dan Pienaar Dr on the other. What a mess!” “I am sorry, Love. I never should have mentioned how lonely he looked there on the tarmac after we’ve landed. It was just that I wasn’t that aware of him during our flight. But seeing him from outside and all the people leaving him in such a rush after travelling together for that distance... They didn’t even look in his direction. It just felt right to say thank you.” “Shhh... It’s not your fault. How were you to know that he was going to follow us home? We just have to stay ...

Discovering Prague's delights Writing my recent post  Any pair will do , reminded me of one of the most memorable summons we've had to a bookshop and the cache awaiting us there.     During our visit to Prague in December 2011, Linda showed us around the city just before Christmas. As we crossed the famous Charles Bridge, she showed us one of the sights we were heading to - the Franz Kafka museum.    But she had a few surprises up her sleeve and one of them was                                                            Shakespeare & Sons As far as we know, it is the only second hand bookshop in all of Prague dealing in English books! Being in the part of the city called The Old Town, the building is many centuries old and coming in from the icy cold through the huge wooden door on street level...

In May 2010, George and I attended a workshop led by Richard Rohr in Cape Town at the Schoenstatt Retreat and Training Centre . One afternoon, in our free time, we decided to visit the historic wine estate of Groot Constantia, which is within walking distance of the retreat centre. It was rather chilly with heavy clouds hanging low, but we donned our rain jackets and ignored the faint drizzle that had started to come down. I am so glad we did: We were due for a very special perfomance that we knew nothing of in advance, but wouldn't have missed for all the world if we did.  In the comments following George's post,   Whistle while you work ,   he reminded me of an Afrikaans piece I had written shortly after this very special encounter. It touches on what seems to be a golden rule: To whistle or sing heartily while working is not depended on the circumstances. But it greatly enhances the lives of all and sunder. I can only agree with my friend Elmi's comment: " Durin...

Red-headed weaver Photo by Matilda We spent the weekend with old and new friends at a game breeder's lodge between Brits and Thabazimbi. It  is in the North West Province of South Africa and slap bang in what we call the bushveld. As children of Africa it takes quite a lot to amaze us. Impala, buffalo, gnu (wildebeest) and sables are nothing new to us, even though we might not have seen them more than once or twice in our lives. Even a lion's roar at night might irritate more than awe us when we wake up to it deep in the night. But an Egoli Gnu and a Midnight Impala, now that is something to cause a stir among us. These are line crossings and much sought after because they are so rare: a caramel coloured gnu with a golden mane and an impala that seems to be in the shade even though it is running in the full glare of the early morning sun,  those are subjects to talk about, blog about, and to try and capture on film.  My attempts at that failed miserably. I d...

Photographed by Matilda It seems strange that a bird of between 104 and 110 cm tall and with a wingspan of up to 200 cm can perch in a tree! I suppose it helps that they weigh not more than 4 kg. They are also the only cranes able to do this because of a long hind toe that allows them to grasp. All this I gleaned from the internet after having had the pleasure of the company of a pair of Grey Crowned Crane -  Balearica regulorum regulorum (South African) and also called Mahems because of the sound they make- coming to roost in a tree close to our cottage in Wakkerstroom every evening. I also learned that the "crowned crane is the most primitive of the living Gruidae. Primitive species of crowned cranes date back in the fossil record to the Eocene period."   http://www.savingcranes.org/grey-crowned-crane.html The photo I took was the closest I could get to them and it doesn't do them justice at all. But I knew they came calling for a reason when I first saw them...

Photograph by George For the few days that we’ve been in Wakkerstroom, we did not have electricity, we did not watch television, didn’t listen to the radio. We sat until late on our chairs just outside the door of the cottage, looked at the meadows and the hills and talked the sun into setting. We read by lamplight, we stood in the quiet moonlight and listened to the Crowned Cranes calling to each other. We were rich and lived the good life. George

We are spending a couple of days in the tranquility of Wakkerstroom on the South Eastern border between Mpumalanga and Kwa-Zulu Natal. This is the view from our cottage which sports only the bare necessities, which does not include electricity. So we are having lunch at the Old Station, recharging batteries and having the best hake and chips in South Africa. This feels like a place where we could live and work. Matilda and George

Much truth in the following Unfortunately, it is not the whole truth. We can add another frame: How the majority lives in South Africa  with a picture of a squatter camp or informal settlement. Here, often the most basic services are lacking. South Africa is one of the countries with the biggest gap between the rich and the poor, a major factor in our high crime rate. We still have a lot to do and a long way to go, living in South Africa. For us who love our country and live under the maxim God in all things,  the challenge is somehow even greater. George

We arrived in Grahamstown after dark, having travelled 1000+ kms; leaving home at 05:00, our car and trailer heavily loaded with sculptures, tool kits and gear for the two week duration of the National Arts festival. We had allowed ourselves two days in which to set up the exhibition before the official opening on 28 June 2012. This would ensure that we locate a hardware store, printer and stationer in case of an emergency.  Since it was our first experience of exhibiting at an arts festival, we didn't really know what to expect, but with all the bravado of the uninformed, we believed we would be able to handle any situation. Gracious Grahamstown We didn't then know that we would also need a haberdashery when Eylene (my daughter and fellow artist) ran out of buttons and pins or a milliner's shop to buy metres and metres of black fabric to create makeshift covers for the plinths on loan that were a most unbecoming shade of brown. Staying with our dear friend Doreen, a ...

Amongst the many sculptures in Prague there are a few that can be described as .... different. You will almost always be correct if you were to guess that they are the works of well known, often controversial Czech sculptor, David Cerny.   High above one of the streets of the Old Town (Stare Mesto) is the Hanging Man sculpture. It can just as well be called Hanging On. The man in the precarious position is Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis with its focus on man’s inner workings. He is the one person who should know that central to the human existence is the choice to hang on or to let go. The impact of the sculpture is all the more striking if you stand with a tour group in front of the former headquarters of the communist Secret Police where a good deal of torture and interrogations took place. Then, almost as an afterthought, just as the group is about to move on,  the guide draws your attention to this work of Cerny, suspended in mid air,...

An intriguing phenomenon- the curio trade.  A tourist destination offers a range of items, often made in China, as being representative of its people, history or natural beauty. Who decide on the products that will have the honour? Has every popular city or site its own curio committee that convenes regularly to determine the stock for the tourist season? That will explain the absolute duplication to be found in the different shops. Why do tourists buy them? Do locals also buy curios? To remind them, not of having been there but of being there? “Who are we, Darling?” “We are South Africans, living on the African continent.” “You don’t think we should buy a picture of the Big Five to indicate that we have been to South Africa?”  “We haven’t been to South Africa. We are in South Africa.” “But will people know that without us having the curious to prove it?” “You have a point. Throw in an ostrich egg and an African drum and I believe we have ourselves a state...

As Matilda has already indicated, one of the most difficult things to do after you’ve visited a country is to return and convey something of what you’ve experienced. How do you show a city’s many faces, introduce its inhabitants? How do you tell of the effects a history has on people and of a stance towards life that can actually not be translated into words? In the case of Prague, it is very helpful to have someone like Jara Cimrman. ~ ~ v ~ ~ Petrin Hill, on the left bank of the river Vltava running through Prague, is in many ways a site worth visiting. Climbing the 299 steps of the Petrin Tower, inspired by the Eiffel Tower, gives you one of the most beautiful views of the city. But by going down into its basement, you enter into the psyche of the Czech people. Here, quite unobtrusively, is the museum for the “ Genius, who has not become famous ”. Matilda and I almost stumbled onto it by chance and as we went through the exhibition, our amazement over this brilliant ...