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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Posted by MENU at 11:38 am 0 comments

Thursday, November 10, 2022

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

This time it was to support their effort to make 100000 sandwiches in one day in a 6-hour Sarmiethon Challenge, hosted by the V&A Waterfront at Makers Landing and at The Edwardian Society in Houghton, Johannesburg. The call went out to corporates and to simple volunteers like us. This is what we saw when we arrived. So well organised. The Sarmiethon coincided with World Sandwich Day, also celebrated that day

Corporate tables and individual volunteers, working fast to make as many sandwiches as possible

Team Smile Makers with their funny hats

The 'music' and management station. It was the one criticism we have, they just played thump, thump, thump noise for most of the session. How good would it have been to get people singing along to inspiring tunes? Songs to spur their efforts like Happy!, Feed the World, He Ain’t Heavy, The Macarena, Rain in Africa, and the song we all danced to during Covid: Jerusalema. We are sure that we could come up with a great list. On the right, Lynne waiting to get stuck in when the shift changes

Everyone had their own strategy. Shake out a loaf from the packet, all supplied free by the Blue Ribbon bakery. Lay them out in rows, take a spoonful of the peanut butter and jam mix and dollop it onto the slices, spread as quickly as you can, then cover with another slice. When you have 10 sandwiches, carefully put them back into the bag, twist and seal and put into a crate to be counted. Start again......

You get a good rhythm going, no matter what your method. We managed two hours and we made 40 loaves between us in that time. Inspiring, exhausting and exhilarating. Lynne had a chair to sit on, as she is not good at standing for hours, but could make sandwiches as fast as anyone

It is very sticky work! Rhodes Fruit Farms provided the jams

The man who started Ladles of Love, Danny Diliberto. The Ladles of Love soup kitchen for the homeless was founded in 2014 by Daniele (Danny) Diliberto on the basis of an ancient Sanskrit word Seva, meaning giving of yourself, wanting nothing in return. You can read all about Ladles of Love on their website https://ladlesoflove.org.za/, on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ladlesofloveZA/ and on https://www.givengain.com/c/ladlesoflove/about. They welcome donations of money, groceries, or of time and they love people to raise money for the organization. You can read about their current programmes here https://ladlesoflove.org.za/our-programmes/

Cleaning up afterwards!

Some of our crates, nearly filled

The leader board. We were assigned to the Kindness team and it looks as though we came third

When all was clean and tidy, we headed outside to hear the results,
combining both the Cape Town and the Johannesburg figures
We were offered a cool drink or a glass of wine
Thanks to Ken Forrester, we really enjoyed a glass of his Old Vine Reserve Chenin Blanc

“Lite” beers - not really light at 4% alcohol

Teams gathered together to hear their figures and we chatted to other volunteers

Time for the results
We were surprised that the MC still had a voice, as she had been the cheerleader during the Sarmiethon,
 egging us all on to work harder and faster


Second prize went to the Blue Ribbon Bakeries team for making 6780 sandwiches

They did a little dance of joy when they heard that they also won the prize for the best Gees (spirit) during the event

Accepting their prizes

and posing for photographs

Danny announced that the final total of sandwiches made in 6 hours was 91 538, just short of the target
If we had worked another hour or two, we may well have made it
There was a time constraint as the venue was needed for another function

Then, as a postscript, 17500 sandwiches came in from individual supporters after everyone had gone home
This brought the total production to 109540, significantly beating the target of 100000

This was the Team Smile Makers team, here accepting the award for first prize
The same team of eight worked all day and made 6980 sandwiches

With their prizes

The South Easter was beginning to blow a tablecloth over Table Mountain and it was time to head home for a shower
Our team "Kindness" came third with 6358 sandwiches

The prize for the Smile Makers team

and “thank you all”, says Danny

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

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