Friday, November 18, 2022

Elgin Open Gardens - Elgin Vintners and Oak Valley

The next Elgin Open Garden we headed to was Elgin Vintners, which has a deck outside their wine tasting room

and a very competent young violinist entertaining the visitors

The Manor House has recently had its gardens "refreshed"

What are these three looking at? Could they be witches? White witches? Just Fairy godmothers

It's the magical Fairy garden

Enchanting for the younger visitors

A trip through the classic rose garden

All in bloom. We sometimes wish we could import a few truckloads of Elgin soil to Sea Point
so that we could succeed with rose growing. Roses do not like our soil

Time for a dip in the pool?

A large, completely white rose,

a perfect red

and a lovely pink

Old roses climbing up the pergola

and roses for vases

It was time for lunch and we decided to risk going to the Melting Pot restaurant at Oak Valley,
even though we hadn't booked


They very kindly managed to find us a table in the garden and we enjoyed studying the menu
which has lots of "small plates" for small eaters (and large ones too)

A bottle of one of our favourite Elgin Sauvignons blanc, the Oak Valley Fountain of Youth (wishful thinking.....)

The vegetarian Mezze platter was for sharing and was much enjoyed

and a plate of excellently crisp chips to share

A bowl of dim sum Szechuan chicken dumplings in a broth
It came with a very hot and crunchy chilli dip. It did need some  umami soya sauce..

Bun Thit Nong, Vietnamese Pork skewers on a bed of nuts and crisp salad with a chilli dip

Sautéed Baby Squid and potatoes; so tender and full of flavour


The bill for four satisfied customers

As we were enjoying lunch, this freight train came through on its way to Cape Town, possibly full of coal for export

Talented Chef John van Zyl in his kitchen

and on our way out this peacock spied us and decided to give us the full treatment with his magnificent tail
Such iridescence on his body and on the "eyes" on his tail

Truly a spectacle

Next, we headed to the Elgin Market, which is just down the road from Oak Valley;
one of our number had never visited there before
They have a library on the way in and the manager was taking advantage of a quiet afternoon



We had not seen this new covered seating area before

Live music in the main hall

Inside, it is very lively, with lots of different places to buy food and drinks and places to sit to enjoy them and the atmosphere
We were, however, very sad to see that the fruit and vegetable stand was no more
Such a pity, they had some of the best locally grown fresh produce, which we bought often

Onward to Auldern next

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Posted by MENU at 10:54 am 0 comments

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Elgin Open Gardens - A walk through Fresh Woods

Elgin Open Gardens is held over two weekends each year, the last one in October and the first in November
It’s a super opportunity to visit some wonderful gardens made by very skilled gardeners
and this is the season when most of their plantings are in bloom
We asked two gardening friends to join us and had a fantastic day
Fresh Woods was our first and all of us had visited this multi focused garden before

There is a small entry charge which goes to charity and Fresh Woods always has good plants for sale

There are magnificent mature trees throughout the garden, which has many different garden 'rooms' 

The bees were really attracted by this large magnificent raceme Eremurus Foxtail lily
it took several hours to identify this magnificent tall plant. Not a true lily but a rhizome and originally from Asia

In the woods there are lovely mature Rhododendrons and Azaleas, which are in flower at this time of the year
You can see the Foxtail lily in the same bed

Superb roses everywhere and the bees were enjoying them too

Another beauty. One of our friends bought a plant of a similar rose, the Rosa Chinensis Mutabilis,
which is yellow when it opens then changes colour to this rich pink when mature

A plant normally found in Europe, a Hellebore or Lenten Rose

Penstemon plant attracting many bees

The roses and other climbers have been allowed to grow rampant and they twine high up in the trees,
a glorious spectacle of blooms

Cool green woodland glades

The Pine forest with very tall trees

There are many different garden rooms at Fresh Woods
and the one to seek out is the Acer garden, planted with a good selection of Japanese maples

A dark wine-coloured acer with orange tips

Oh, to have a garden like this, full of colour and tranquillity

White with some green variation and the newest growth is pale pink

Fire in the trees

Vivid red leaves of an Acer against a background of bright green leaves

and an arrow of glowing oranges, a red hot poker beneath the Japanese maple

About to flower, a white Rhododendron 

Absolute perfection, a pink dune rose

A bed of red Geum

A matching Azalea

A beautiful purple Iris, Siberian ... or?

Is this the white rose of York?  Doubtful, because of the pale apricot when young

So delicate you can see through the petals of this old rose

A bed of cream foxgloves and blue Larkspurs in a border

Sea Pointers Joe & Kerry Abramowitz taking their ease in a shady nook

Time for tea and scones and they were delicious. R20 for two halved scones with strawberry jam and cream

We sat under a huge pin oak while having tea, a cool green canopy

The Fresh Woods house

Time to head for the next open garden

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Friday, November 11, 2022

In MENU this Week. Breedekloof, A weekend at Seven Oaks, Optimist charity boat race, Ladles of Love Sarmiethon




Bees collecting from Penstamon digitalis flowers

This week we tell you about a wonderful weekend away with friends on a wine farm in the Breedekloof and two very special charity events. Seven Oaks estate is in one of the less frequented but most beautiful areas of the Western Cape and we enjoyed the opportunity to give the Breede River valley a bit of publicity. The Little Optimist is a charity organisation which gives financially and mentally challenged young people to gain mental and physical life skills which will help them. And Ladles of Love is doing a very necessary job, helping the huge number of people who have had their lives damaged by the hardships of the past few years. We are very happy to help them.

A Drive through the Breede River Valley

On our way to the Breedekloof area for a lovely weekend away with friends, we stopped off at the Florida Padstal near Wellington for some additions to our food boxes. They have some quite good temptations and we ended up with crisp syrupy koeksisters, a huge jar of honey and some date loaf. Next was a stop to taste the wines at Bovlei which is the home of Wellington Wines, They had some on-line specials, but we all wanted to taste the wines first. Read on…

A Weekend stay at Seven Oaks estate, Breedekloof

Seven Oaks Wine Estate is near the Breedekloof area and on the way to Wolseley. We were invited by owners Patrick and Jacqui Pols to join them for a special Pop Up lunch and, when we accepted, we were invited to stay for the weekend and bring another couple. We had no idea what fun and entertainment we were in for. Read on…

Tastes and aromas at Seven Oaks

We enjoyed three experiences while we stayed at Seven Oaks. On arrival we were welcomed by Ina Basson their Tasting room manager who had so kindly and ably arranged the weekend for us. They have a good courtyard in front of the tasting room for balmy days and evenings. Patrick and Jacqui Pols were in the tasting room and wanted us to taste some of the Seven Oaks wines. Read on…

The Great Optimist charity race at Boatica, the V&A Waterfront

We heard about Boatica and the Great Little Optimist Charity Race on Cape Talk Radio and decided to go and watch. It was being held in the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront. We took our friend and neighbour Judi Thomas and, chatting, we discovered that between us we turned out to have a few years of boating experience. It was a perfect early summer day with just enough of a breeze to make the day interesting for sailing and the show was extremely popular. The sea was calm and large boats were heading out of Victoria Basin to have a trip in the bay. Read on…

Ladles of Love Sarmiethon

When Ladles of Love calls, we answer that call if we can. They have done such amazing things to feed people during and after Covid, provisioning small soup kitchens, aiding people to plant up small areas with vegetables to feed themselves, teaching how to enrich the soil and making sandwiches. Ladles of Love started as a single soup kitchen serving 70 hot meals at their first official event. Today, they support numerous other community kitchens, schools, social enterprises, and NPOs with much-needed groceries and other goods, allowing them to reach out further and touch the lives of millions of vulnerable people who need it now more than ever. Read on…



All our stories can be seen in the Blog Archive near the top of the column on the right

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