One Thursday in December Wil and I remembered we had been married for eleven years and discovered or rather re-realised that we had known each other for twenty.  Being together for two decades, and at that point almost being at the end of a decade, we decided to celebrate. After dropping the girls off at…

Salamanca and Sweet Celebrations

A new year doesn’t quite feel like a new year in the northern hemisphere, I guess mostly because everything gets jump-started in September after summer. The good thing about that is is the whole new year’s expectation-thing sort of loses water. Which ironically is my New Year’s resolution, no more expectations, they hurt my heart…

Raf Tomato

And there she goes! Speeding by with no intention to stop. The past year has been jam-packed, almost as packed as a tomato festival in Spain but more of that later. Thankfully though, the summer has been easy breezy. The first week of July we had some family visit us and for the rest of…

Dragon fruit

As the sunlight fades earlier with each passing week and the smell of coconut tanning lotion slowly dissipates, summer draws its last breath. Okay, not quite as dramatic. Temperatures are still dancing around 30 degrees, but the daze of summer has been replaced with a get-up-and-go buzz. Schools have started, meetings have been had, races…

Joybells

Today’s blog is somewhat of a South African affair. The South African grape industry has a new ringtone, called Joybells and people are quite taken by it. This past season, Joybells received unanimous praise from top UK retailers, Morrison’s and Marks & Spencers, after technical tasting and exclusives sales in their outlets. Impressive! Even though…

Tango

We’ve been in Spain for just over two years now and this month it will be five years since we’ve left South Africa. The time has flown by and clearly has no intention of slowing down, although there were times, many times, where it felt like someone had pressed pause during all the suffocating parts.…

Pomegranate

There is something about an overcast sky and the silence it brings. Sitting by the open window with winter looking back at me, summer seems a lifetime away. The seasons have never been as defined as now. It feels like the seasons are more distinguishable in Valencia than in Cape Town and definitely more so…

Sweet Sapphire

Last November, after collecting our single Reddy Robin in Belgium, we found ourselves in Delft, where we stayed for a day and a night, before spending the weekend in Oldenzaal with some of the most kindhearted and real people on this planet. Delft is a beautiful little town, although, after our short time there, I am…

Wild Strawberry

In Spain, summer is slowly but surely approaching and after a festive and fiery March we are all looking forward to a peaceful beach-lying-sun-soaking-season. During March, the Valencian Community in Spain, celebrate their biggest and most unusual festival, Las Fallas. The main theme of Las Fallas, meaning torches in Valencian, is the construction and burning…

Pitaya

The last three months have been rather busy.  It was the end of our first year in Spain, we moved for the third time since arriving here, my sister came to visit and we finally got our act together and made a tangible effort to obtain our Spanish driving license (carnet de conducir). There is…