The Restory Retreat Centre

Photograph by George Angus Photograph by George Angus Next on our renovation list is the small scullery. That will be done through upcycling and the use of appliances that became redundant when friends renovated their homes. To borrow from Ernest Rutherford: “We don’t have money, so we have to think.”  In other words, be creative. To install the upcycled sink, I’ll have to reroute the plumbing. But in order to do that I must remove the old dilapidated cupboard that’s currently doing service in the scullery (It was previously in the bathroom, but we moved it when we created two new bathrooms). But in order to do that, we must find storage space for the linen we keep in there. And in order to do that I had to build a new cupboard for the kitchen.  It’s like operating on tonsils by pulling toe nails. There’s method in madness. That’s where “ Oupa George se kas ” (Grandpa George’s cupboard)  comes in. It must be at least 65 years old, built in t...

Photograph by Matilda Clifford Pray as you can, not as you can’t.                                                                         Abbot John Chapman For a while now we have had a certain discomfort with our prayers at meal time. Set prayers become words of habit. My grandfather used to pray in Dutch, in all probability because his father, who might have actually known Dutch, prayed that way. My father prayed the same prayer before every meal as my grandfather did, but only in Afrikaans. Something might be said for tradition but somehow too much is lost in the process. In that sense an informal or f...