The Everyday (12) - Christmas Blessings

We stumbled upon a dried Agave Christmas tree at Smitswinkel farm stall, a favourite stop on our regular road trips to my gran.

The Everyday (11) - Stormy summer nights

Storm clouds building up.  We have terrific, electric thunderstorms in Gauteng.

The Christmas tree is in the shape of a baobab, around the corner of one of my favourite coffee shops, Tribeca Standard, where we yarn-bombed a girl on a donkey on International Knit in Public Day.

(And this is what the whole tree looks like)

PS...and this a real baobab, not even a large one.  One of my absolute favourite trees in the world.  This one I encountered near Musunda village in rural Venda, ± 1998.

Tiny me in front of the tree.

The Everyday 10 (Cont.)

Yesterday I posted a photo of our jacarandas dropping.

My city is a beautiful, purple sight to behold

Skies are clearing after a couple of days of welcome spring rain.

The streets are lined with brilliant purple blooms.

It's exam time. Students believe you're lucky if a jacaranda drops on your head.

Purple carpets on the sidewalk, as the jacarandas fall.

...and sometimes, a tree falls .

 School traffic was halted this morning.  We drove the sidewalk to mush.
Luckily, it fell during the night, and was all cleared up by lunchtime.

The Everyday 10 - My Jacaranda City

Early morning walkabout - jacarandas are falling after the first summer rains

The Everyday 9

This little roundabout get a new look every now and then, often linked to whatever is happening  in the city/country.

Snapped through the window while driving round and round and round...

The Everyday 8 - Sentinel

Giant Aloe marlothii  (up to 4m) guard the bushveld near Loskop Dam

The Everyday 7 - A Wrong Turn...

... (after detouring the roads closed for Pres. Obama's visit), took us around the block, and another one, to a dead end, and the world's media, where our previous Pres. Mandela is fighting for his life.

Not so "everyday", then.

Waiting for news at Pretoria Heart Hospital

The Everyday 6 - All in an hour's drive

While quickly stopping at school to exchange chess party treats for a backpack, I met Gibson:

Gibson Muntandare paid a surprise visit to the school gates

Gibson is a well-known figure in the streets of Pretoria, and today he was in the right place, in the heart of Blue Bull country. Parents, kids and me surrounded him for a chat and photo.
(When The Blue Bulls rugby team is on a winning streak, everybody; mom, dad, the kids, the gardener, the gate, the car and the windows are clad in blue.  Then we draw the curtains and hide underneath the bed ;-)

Read more about this colourful man here, here and here.

Onward to pick up the little one from gymnastics...

Mounted police on the way to gymnastics

Just yesterday I read After60's visit to New York and her interesting NYPD sightings, and wouldya know...today I ended up behind our own South African mounted  police, also in the heart of the city.  While we don't have a Central Park, we do have a farm in the middle of the city - the university's experimental farm, just a 100m up the road from where I spotted them.

Almost finished...

He was warm, so he took it off

It's autumn and our mornings are getting cool now, but the middle of the day can still warm up to 24ºC.  

Luckily he had shorts in his school bag, and stripped down to his vest.

And then we turned back, saw a police car with flashing blue lights and an alarm (excited, they're learning about emergency vehicles this week!), picked up big brother and went home.

The Everyday 5 - A pause in traffic

Pretoria autumn morning

The Everyday 4 - Egoli

I drive by this informal settlement every time while on holiday at our little beach house.

"Powertown"is located adjacent to Klein Brakrivier, its residents either unemployed or working in one the beach villages. It started as a squatter camp, it's now a permanent informal township. The more affluent neighbours don't want it here, but they want the labour.

Amidst these circumstances, the residents live their lives.  This little house always stand out to me.  The garden is tended, vegetables planted, a fruit tree or two...and there's always flowers on the outside table.

Egoli in Powertown

And they named their house "Egoli"*.  Dreams of gold?

(*Sotho for " place of gold")

The Everyday 3

Late summer thunderstorm approaching. Please let it rain.

The Everyday 2

Playing at a favourite Sunday-after-church-coffee spot

My Mzansi - The Everyday

Early morning at the highway-stop. A few chickens were prancing around and this rooster just absolutely matched the colours of the Shell Ultra City.