Enamel

If you grew up in Africa, then there is a high possibility that you were raised at least for some time with enamel cups and plates. And some of your childhood companions might still be with you today. It is hard to outlive their super trouper hardcore durability.

For Sale - Second Hand Impressions From Gonubie

Man has a strong desire for structure. Structure offers some sort of security to many men and women. But man has also created and there is not enough room for all the creations of mankind. There is not enough storage for the creations of centuries. The memory is full. And the point comes when structure has to break apart

When this point is reached and the door opens, then life and its memories come on sale. It is irrelevant whose memories.

New patterns are created

and in the overall chaos new alliances are formed,

unlikely alliances sometimes

 

One side may be illuminated and the other rests in the shade.

There is no way back,

Things that have been of oh such a great value

loose their value all together

 and become tramps

with that loss their right of existence is challenged

but that is just the cycle of life

and the eternal law

that after a period of extended structure a wave of chaos has to come

 that will change things drastically

without great sentiment

It can be a painful experience

The great masters say:;" The only way not to feel pain is not to get to attached to something or someone. To overcome the ego, that has collected, loved egoistically and horded things and people for many years."

But that is difficult for man in his earthy form

If You Like, You Can Repair My Pantihose

When asked, it is often difficult to say for people why they collect certain things. They just have to have them. I collect a wide variety of things. And I can say, the common denominator amongst most of them is that they come from a time or an era that has become extinct now and that they were used in activities that people do not do anymore. This links directky to the fact that I am absolutely fascinated by handmade things and traditional crafting techniques. When art was daily bread!

Stranded Darning, specially prepared for your fine silk hose! Found in East London in a second hand shop.

I remember hearing my grandmother say, that she was taught as a child by her mother how to mend a pantihose or silk stockings..

That must have been around 1920.

An Empty Plate Is Never Fun

A while ago I wrote about a cat who lives in an Antiques Shop in Quigney. The shop consists of three old colonial houses and for the cat it must be truly paradise. There should be a lot of mice and rats under the old wooden floors. But obvoiusly even in paradise one can get lazy.

And an empty bowl is never funny !

A man who works in the shop said to me : He makes people come closer and stroke him. But when you touch him, he bites you. A true Quigney cat ! "

Look Here Old Things Come And Spent A Moment

The Antiques Shop in Bedford-Please feel free to make an offer if you see something you like

Look here, Old Things, Come and Spent a Moment.!!!!

This is something that you simply should not say to me. Not in such a brutally open and merciless way. There is no rehab for this costly addiction. I can say this with certainty because I have been fighting it for many ways. 

We did spend a moment and looked thoroughly and it should cost us a little time and a little more petrol later on. Me and my brother got lost in Bedford !

A "calm" street in Bedford

Well, Bedford looks like this - on a busy day.

The circle in Bedford

Bedford is a town (I'd say village) in the centre of the Eastern province of South Africa. It was established in the mid-19th century when Sir Andries Stockenstroom sold portions of land from his farm Maastroom to raise funds for the restoration of his library, which had been burnt by British soldiers mistrustful of his attempts to broker peace in one of the Cape Frontier Wars

It is located on the southern edge of the Winterberg mountain range, in the smaldeel (a narrow strip of grass land running laterally from Fort Beaufort to Somerset East, renowned for its sweet grass). 

The town suffered a major decline in fortunes in the latter half of the 20th century before reviving itself around the turn of the millennium. It is regarded today as an artist's haven and retirement village.

( When I start sounding very formal you must know by now that the Wikipedia is involved again ) 

Beautiful old porch of a colonial house in Bedford

The thing about the artists haven was a bit hard to believe (forgive me Bedford artists). The "retirement village" I could imagine quite well.

There is not really something that would keep me there today if I had not any emotional or psychological ties or fallen in love out of some strange reason with a man in Bedford. 

Love can make you do strange things some times. But this was not the case this time. 

Except there was this little Antiques shop at the side of the main road. That was indeed a reason to stay there for a while.

Seduction at the side of  Bedford's road

with it's infatuating dirty nasty little sign board !

Antiques and Collectables aligned under the old corrugated iron roof of the old Antiques shop in Bedford

Two hours later with an enormous thirst, a couple of boxes of old grammophone records, German Majolica bowls, some rotten and badly mounted trophy horns and things I don't want to mention, not to compromise myself entirely, we left the hunting ground. The excitement was enormous, more for me than for my brother.

And then the unthinkable happened and became thinkable !

The public library in the Karoo Town of Bedford

On our way out we saw what must have been Sir Andries Stockenstroom's library. Fascinated we came to a circle with a monument and we circled around for a while, still looking at some gorgeous old palm trees and a very idyllic corner of which I had to take a picture. Unfortunately we circled out of Bedford in the wrong way.

After approximately 170 km we did not arrive at our destination in Graaff  Reinet from where we wanted to drive to Nieu Bethesda where a friend of ours was waiting with a delicious roasted chicken. But instead we entered Grahamstown again but this time from behind (only symbolically speaking), where we had been four hours ago.

To our defense we have to say that there was not one single signboard on the road for 170 km. If you think, that you have to say now, that this is not a reason, please keep it to yourself. The lunch became a very late dinner.

DAILY LIGHT

MY DAILY LIGHT

Old, New and the Unexpected

Old, new and the unexpected is what you can find in my shop. I had a little shop inside an Art Gallery in town. But after many years the gallery owner got tired and rented the whole place out to a Chinese restaurant. No more paintings, instead sushi and sashimi.

Now I have my own little, slightly crazy shop. I have renovated some old store rooms in my house and voila! This is how it looks like.

Vinyls are sooooo sexy and the good thing is, hey they are comin back ! Yeah! And you can find them in abundance. Rock'n Roll!

Yes oversized sunglasses, so much in demand now. And the mannequin dates back to 1930, has still a handpainted face - and because of her I nearly went broke. Only nearly. She is unbearingly cool.

I always get asked: How on God's earth do you find these things. I don't . They come to me.

A watercolor painting of a coral tree.

A German half bisque doll from 1880, her face is hand-painted and she is a flawless beauty.

Africa mixes with victorian. What's the name?: Eclectic

Old worn silver, with a patina of decades.

Can you see the constantina on top of the Imbuia display cabinet and the little dolls-bed in the front of the picture. Together they are 200 years old.

DownTown

The devil lives in Mexico..or down-town

There are some pretty weird shops in down-town that attract me magically.

And one of them looks like this

Witnesses of times gone-by times behind glass.

Old glass bottles dug out from the sand, grinded by the sea - they have taken on the color of the ocean

A nearly hundred year old Five Roses tea advertising board

Not driven anymore, stored in a barn........

Amongst other things, at least there is company, nothing as bad as being old and lonely...

The inside of an old colonial house is now a shop. I can imagine that sitting there on that veranda must still feel pretty good.

Not young either...

 

This is the view over the beachfront when coming down from suburbia. Love that place. Windy and stormy sea today. Misty sky.