A Japanese iris

I painted this, and a few more irises, while out with friends at a small winery in Niigata, Japan – yes, the Japanese make wine too. (And enjoy drinking it, as my friend Ikue would agree.)

We’d spent more time over lunch and lingering at the gift shop than sketching or painting, but it was a good day out. And the resident cat just loved all the attention, coming over to see what we were all painting and sitting in my lap as I sat on the grass with my sketchbook.

Thought I’d read up a bit on irises and discovered that, despite the name originating in Greek mythology (Iris is associated with the rainbow and messenger of the gods) and all the hybridizing and selection, horticulturalists have not been able to breed a pure red (bearded) iris. Most irises are therefore shades of purple and blue or yellow or white.

That little bit of yellow seems to suggest that it’s one of the bearded irises so perhaps not a Japanese iris after all, but an iris in Japan nevertheless.

Ikue painting the garden

Nuria and friend

Gardens

As the rain pelted down today and the wind gusted up, I stood at the window with my mug of coffee and thought I’d finally have to accept that winter was on its way. But when the rain and wind died down, the birds piped up and the squirrels dashed between the puddles under the trees.

And the garden was dripping and fresh.

Last summer I went a few times to one of my favourite places in Cape Town: the Company’s Garden. The garden was established in 1652 by Dutch settlers to provide fresh produce for the Dutch spice-trading ships en route to South Asia. It originally comprised a number of rectangular fields and open irrigation furrows but grew into a well-known botanical garden.

There are many landmarks around the Company’s Garden, including the Houses of Parliament and Tuynhuys (‘Garden House’ in Dutch and the president’s Cape Town office), the Slave Lodge, St George’s Cathedral and the South African National Gallery (SANG).

It’s lovely just to wander through the garden and along the central walkway, the Avenue. It always seems to be green and shady. There’s much to see, including a rose garden, an aviary and a fish pond. The Garden Tea Room has become a favourite with tour groups but, on a summery day, there are still plenty of locals on every bench and lawn, and great people-watching. And there are always lots of birds and very inquisitive – and cheeky! – squirrels...

Egyptian Geese near the SANG

Mark O’Donovan’s interactive mixed media sculpture ‘Man Running from Lion’ (1997/2005?) 

outside the SANG (You turn a wheel near the base to make the figures move)

The South African National Gallery (SANG)

More about the SANG: http://www.iziko.org.za/museums/south-african-national-gallery

And about the Slave Lodge: http://www.iziko.org.za/museums/slave-lodge

Rewind

There’ve been a whole bunch of Eighties bands and singers in South Africa this summer – Rick Astley, ABC, Howard Jones, Go West, Nik Kershaw, Marc Almond, Midge Ure, Sting – even the Village People (who’ve been around since the Seventies!) joined this ‘rewind’ to that decade.

I think some of these guys are getting a bit long in the tooth to still be playing their old hits – again and again...

But I do still love a lot of the music from the Seventies and Eighties because I grew up to it.

I recently pulled out some of the first cassette tapes I’d bought – only to find, of course, I had nothing to play them on.

So I thought I’d look on YouTube for one of my favourite bands – and videos – from the Eighties. 

It’s dated and cheesy but I guess it’s just the kind of thing an 11 year old would dream of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

A little vampire

This little vampire was created by one of my students who was a whiteboard whizz and crazy about manga and anime.

She created a few of these chibi over the three years I taught in the Middle East – at break or at the end of the day, crowded round by a group of younger girls, oohing and aahing their approval.

This little vampire stayed up for weeks and weeks as I was under strict instruction from my form not to erase it. One of my quietest students, always doodling during lessons herself, took it upon herself to personally guard our classroom chibi against any colouring in or scribbles, checking at the end of each day and carefully erasing any mischief-making.

Much later, after I’d left the school, I thought I’d give her something in return. I’d never drawn any manga and wouldn’t have known where to begin but I thought I’d have a go, using her characters to guide me, just for fun. So this is my attempt.

And I had such fun with it that weekend, my niece (who was nine at the time) and I sitting drawing characters for hours together. Who knew what a doodle would lead to?

(And, since all that doodling has lead to my whiteboard whizz studying multimedia design this year, I look forward to seeing what else it leads to...)

A travelling book

Today I set a book on a journey.

All I had to do was register it over at BookCrossing (http://www.bookcrossing.com/), label it and leave it somewhere for someone to pick up and read – and share with the next person. And maybe, just maybe, someone will report back on the website and I’ll get to follow the adventure.

The book I chose was ‘Tennyson’s Gift’ by Lynne Truss. It’s a farce that throws together some well- and lesser-known Victorians – the poet Lord Alfred Tennyson, the writer Lewis Carroll, the painter G. F. Watts and the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron amongst others – on the Isle of Wight one rollicking summer. I thought it was fun and funny, a book to stretch out in the sun with...

Choosing just where to leave it (on a sunny bench up on campus) took some deciding and checking on the website I was delighted to see how many books have already been left at spots all around Cape Town – including Lion’s Head, Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak. Now I wish I’d thought of that..!

I’ll have to choose a good title next time I go climbing... ‘Wuthering Heights’ maybe?