“All you have is now. The measure of our peace of mind and the measure of our personal effectiveness are determined by how much we are able to live in the present moment.”
In August 2010 I was introduced to a Private Nature Reserve on one of the farms just around the corner from us. The Renosterveld is split into many little Reserve’s on witch one is on Mooiplaas on the Bottelary Road. In 2010 I visited it 3 times. That was before I got so busy with photo shoots and editing.
I visited again in September 2011 but due to my workload never finished up editing the photo’s. I edited the photo’s as I needed one for my project My photo’s everyone’s/someone’s quotes. Today while waiting for my clients to arrive I decided to finish up the last 79 photo’s and free up some space on my hard drive.
These photo’s were still taken with my Canon EOS 500D with my EF 18-200mm 1:3.5-5:6 IS. I must be honest I still love my 500D it takes awesome photo’s but I really need to get my shutter button fixed. Sometimes it will focus when pressed halfway sometimes not. But here he was still working perfectly.
When I started editing the photo’s I had flower books all around me looking up names of the flowers and typing it in on my photo’s file name but as my workload increased I just edited. Hopefully one day I’ll have time to do the rest of my name searching. Well I have to if I want to make a book about all my flower photo’s of the Renosterveld. Maybe I must just take my photo’s to Tielman Roos of Mooiplaas and owner of the Private Nature Reserve to help me identify the photo’s. Who knows some of these beautiful flowers and plants may just be weeds…..
Here are just a few collages I compiled of the flowers that bloom in September in the Renosterveld….
One day I’ll write a proper article about the Renosterveld and share some more photo’s.
Oh my word, I only realized now that I never visited the Renosterveld in 2012…. Did it go by that fast??? I’ll better make diary entry for this year. Need to visit it again in August, September and October 2013….
The past view weeks I’ve been having problems with my printer and it’s been very frustrating. I print my own CD’s and DVD’s and the past few times I had to throw away quite a lot of DVD’s . The printer just stop printing in the middle of the DVD and then keep telling me that the printer cover is closed.
I started looking around for another printer that can print direct to CD/DVD. I spoke to one of the store owners and he had a look Canon is the only manufacturer that has a printers with the function I want.Not one store had any in stock so I thought okay it’s not meant to be. Today however I went to the shops to go and look for boxes to put my client’s photo’s in because there are to many photo’s for the envelopes I have. Guess what I came across in the shop a Canon printer that can do Direct disc printing. I was so happy and when I saw the price I was even happier. Now I am the owner of a brand new Canon Pixma iP7240.
I had to print two DVD’s for clients tonight and it took me more than 4 hours to figure out first of all where to go to print direct to disk and then how to get the photo on the disk. I started playing around and found some cool designs. Then when I wanted to print it kept giving me an error. I tried to print like I did with my old printer and it kept telling me to close the cover… I was confused. Then I went to trouble shooting and there it told me that the program will prompt me to open the cover….
I love the new designs for my DVD’s and I just know I’ll enjoy being more creative.
Note to self. To save time go straight to the online manual before trying to operate new equipment….
“If you will make a deliberate decision to develop a positive attitude toward opportunities and obstacles, you are on your way toward having what is the most important quality in education: the power of positive thinking.”
I just had to post these photo’s. These two brothers had the time of their lives on mom and dad’s wedding day. They had everyone’s attention and were real little entertainers. Everybody loved them me included. Took allot of photo’s of these two dancing… Who know’s maybe one day they will be famous… They certainly got the moves….
“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.”
The Word a week this week is Dawn. For more information on this challenge please visit the blog A word in your ear
I took the following photo’s on our road trip in June/July 2010. My parents, the boys and I hit the road for 5 weeks while my hubby was working. We called our tour the World Cup Tour. Everybody went from province to province to follow the soccer games. We went from province to province to do some sight seeing and visiting dear friends….
Every time we went to our next destination we woke up before dawn and hit the road. We saw the sun coming up in allot of different places and each time it was spectacular….
I took these photo’s with my Canon 500D and back then I did not shoot RAW but JPG. Since then I’ve converted and only shoot in RAW.
I still have a lot more photo’s on Dawn that I took on other vacations with my family… Will share all these photo’s in the future as soon as everything is edited. This girl can’t stop when I start pushing that shutter button there are no end only if all my memory cards are filled up for the day….. Looking forward in sharing my travels with you…
“Deciding whether or not to trust a person is like deciding whether or not to climb a tree, because you might get a wonderful view from the highest branch, or you might simply get covered in sap, and for this reason many people choose to spend their time alone and indoors, where it is harder to get a splinter.”
My memories of De Hollandsche Molengoes back many years. We usually visited De Hollandsche Molen with friends and family over the December Holidays. We would wake up early that morning pack the car for our day’s camping and hit the road. We made breakfast and lunch there and of course eat Watermelon and go buy ice cream at the shop. As kids we swam in the pools and walked upstream. We build little dams with river stones and eat our Watermelon while sitting in the river. As I grew up my husband and I still visited De Hollandsche Molen with friends and family. Now my boys are always asking us when are we going to De Hollandsche Molen again. My mom and I went camping with the boys one year. It was so much fun…. Here are some more information on this lovely holiday destination. I got this information from their website… “De Hollandsche Molen is a home away from home for all our visitors who spends their summer holidays here to relax and escape the busy city life. The rich history of De Hollandsche Molen started in the early 1900’s with the Diepering family from Holland. He created a resort which consisted of a swimming pool, camping ground and the renowned Mill. Later in the 1950’s some more permanent structures where built to accommodate the laborers of the Wemmershoek Dam. Lodging was provided for them and the Mill was used as a tea room for visitors to enjoy. The du Plooy family bought De Hollandsche Molen in 1988 and has been involved in resort’s transformation ever since. In 1991 De Hollandsche Molen was changed to a Share block company, which allowed the public to purchase shares in the form of housing and plots. In 1994 the infamous Mill was restored to its original glory and with the turn of millennium the function venue was introduced. Through hard work and dedication the resort has been shaped into an international recognized holiday destination which caters for the entire family…” In January 2013 we introduced De Hollandsche Molen to our friends and we had a lovely day. Hope to spend many more lovely visits to De Hollandsche Molen. Here are some photo’s of our visit….
On Thursday 4 April 2013 I had the privilege to capture this lovely Red head. When I asked her if she knows how to pose she said and I quote… “I have no idea how to pose.”
She was very nervous but as soon as the camera was aimed in her direction she seemed at home. Just as if she belongs there. Oh and it turned out she do know how to pose just needed some minor adjustments here and there.
On 14 March 2013 I had my first visit to Aspidistra Nursery near Stellenbosch. I was not feeling myself but I did not leave my camera at home either. I only took a few shots hear and there. To be honest I think if I took photo’s of everything that caught my eye I’ll still be clicking away….
Willie Schmidt get’s these statues from a man (sorry for the death of me I cannot remember his name) and then he sells it for him in his nursery. Each and every statue is unique and there are not two that looks the same. Willie also brought under our attention that if you look at the statue’s you will see the angels different expressions…
Willie uses anything he can get as a decoration in his garden and he encourages you to recycle your old pots, pans, tins, suitcases, bicycles, baths, shovels and the list goes on and on and on and on…….
When you walk through the nursery you will be astonished by the way the nursery is laid out. His garden is a feast for the eyes, different types of plants, some I can’t even remember ever seeing and some so old I thought they were extinct. Then of course the way that they are presented to you is absolutely breath taking.
There’s also a lovely tea garden and they serve the most divine carrot cake. I will definitely go and visit the tea garden again….
Willie also told us how to make compost for our own gardens. Willie originally studied psychology and worked behind bars with the criminals. After many years of practicing he decided to retire and put his theory that the best way to get rid of stress is to work in your garden to the test. And I must agree I used to love working in my garden for hours on end. It’s the best therapy and free…. But in our busy lives one forget’s what used to work very well. No now I am going to start gardening again my first step is to move all my plants into pots and pans and what ever I can lie my hands on in and around the house… This way I can free my house from clutter, decorate my garden and also save water…. According to Willie you do not need hectares of ground to have a garden, you can have a lovely garden in a pot….
I just fell in love with the above water feature and I am thinking of incorporating something similar at the entrance to my house…
I plan to visit Aspidistra again within the next two weeks again. I want to take some more photo’s of this lovely nursery and ask Willie some questions on indoor plants. My house is not very plant friendly and I so love some greenery in my house…. It’s only my bedroom and sun-room that get’s direct sunlight the rest of the house do not really see sunlight…. Keep a eye out for some more posts and photo’s of this lovely nursery called Aspidistra….
“The dreams I only thought about, the ones I took no action on, well they are still dreams. But the ones that I took action on, they are now a reality.” – Catherine Pulsifer
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