Fragrant White

Hello dear friends. Welcome  to all the lovely new faces in my sidebar keeping me company in the wee hours of the blogging night! Forgive me if I utter some mumblings as I wrestle with blogger's temperamental traits. I would also like to thank all the kind souls who migrated to the new facebook page and "Liked" it again!


As I write this I am hot as can be and should not be complaining but honestly, there has been very little rain here and today there is a warm wind blowing and driving us crazy. This in mid winter...The garden is completely confused as to what season it is currently dealing with...And 1600 kilometers to the north in Johannesburg they are astounded by a carpet of snow!! The last time it snowed up there I was a girl of 19 and that is 30+ years back. Now, now age is secret...

Never the less, Spring has Sprung forth and burst into Song...A whale or two has put in an appearance in the bay and the migrating birds have noisily announced their return in a "Happy to still find you here kinda way"!!

The Jasmine is in full bud and looking promising....

Can you smell it?

A gardening friend says that the Jasmine makes one big brief show and then disappears and he prefers to plant the indigenous variety Jasminum Multipartitum. Also very pretty but not as vigorous. But me...I 'm hooked on this one and love the smell. I break of sprigs and dot them around the house not even putting them in water.

A few days later...

There is a singular bloom on the Moonflower dangling in the breeze...

Oddly enough I prefer the single variety but this one does look like an artful creation...Flamboyant actually!

It too exudes a heady fragrance at night and is most prominent at dusk.

The Nicotiana has been standing erect and stout not needing to be staked at all, and flowered all through the winter!

Off course the fragrance is most prominent in the dead of the night and the blooms make a wonderful show. The nicotiana has colonised this corner of the garden and self seeds every year prolifically.

I will be joining Faded Charm for White Wednesday for the first time today. So hop along for a visit please!
as well as
Bunny Jean's Bunny hop on Wednesday. Thank you so much for the invite and the blog love!!

I hope you are all enjoying a great day. Now lets have a chat below in the comment box. I am still visiting everyone who has left some wonderful comments on my previous posts and thank you for all the chatty emails! Loving them to bits.


Veronica
xxx


all images are my own

Iconic Designers~John Jacob Zwiegelaar

Good morning friends! It is a glorious morning in Cape Town and we firmly have our sights on spring! Although, I guess there will be a number of icy detours to contend with before we abandon our winter woollies.

I would like to welcome you all back here to my little dot in the universe and especially my new followers and those of you who have joined the face book page!

Secondly, I want to thank you all for the wonderful comments on my recent posts. and if I have not gotten back to visit you in return, please forgive me, but it was a tumultuous week of hospital visits and not much blogging going on. However, today I have the wonderful prospect of visiting you all and catching up on all the news. There are loads of you to visit though so bare with me I will roll around to you sooner or later.

I have so many things on my mind to blog about and one of those have been sitting on my mood boards for a while now. Whilst lounging around the hospital waiting room and paging through old magazines Johan Jacob Zwiegelaar provided me , yet again with the most wonderful distraction imaginable! And so, for today, I would like to share some of his genius spaces with you. Some of you might be familiar with him and his layered understated elegant rooms! In any event , do enjoy and try to pick a favourite.

I just love the colours and freshness of this little nook full of interest and eye candy. I just want to flop down with a sigh of pleasure....By the way, I am not much of a stripe lover (although things are evolving...) but I love these.

Now, how in the world do you leave a bathroom like this one? Take a good look at the Nguni on the side.

A room with many layers but still fresh and elegant and comfortable! Oh, and loads of lamp love going on here.

I am really enjoying all the potted cacti in the above rooms, often over sized but such a wonderful accent to use. And of course, I am loving the textures and shape it adds to the rooms. Look below at the focal point and how gorgeous it looks on that wired table!

This dining room is just one of those rooms that you can't get enough of. And every time I take a new look at it I see some new element that I enjoy!

Note the lamp.

This room is probably my favourite one by him. It has all the elements that I love. The colours, busts, glass and of course I have similar painting in my living room. It is cosy and warm but elegant and filled with interest to give maximum pleasure. Okay, I will stop now, so you can enjoy the room!!

 Black and white does not really feature in my home's colour palette, although I love wearing black and white together, quite a lot actually, come to think about it. It can often be overdone and too much but take a look at perfection in black and white.....

I just adore the pillows, well that is apart from all the rest of course which is just stunning!

Jars to die for!! Yes please I will stay the day and might even take a bath.... 

Really enjoying the touch of living green in here....

Love the tree fern...will feel like a Forest nymph....

I have left the best for last!! To my mind this is art. The whole thing!! It is gorgeous and has a rooster keeping court as well. So sorry, but I am not cooking anything for you I am just going to drool and we can phone for pizza and bubbly...



After that kitchen, I am determined to get rid of the "built in cupboard" look once and for all. Mr Zwiegelaar's entire portfolio can be viewed HERE. Do enjoy it. So lets recap...

 I will be joining Mosaic Monday at Dear Little Red House with Mary who graciously hosts us every Monday. please follow the link and enjoy the gardens that Mary posts.

as well as

Savvy Home made Monday Blog Party at Home Savvy A-Z! please join us!

Hope you all have a great week!

Thank you kindly for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I appreciate your input and have the best time reading all the contributions.Now, let have a chat below in the comment box...

Live well

Veronica
xxx

All images are from pinterest and my own scrap books as well as John Jacob Interiors. (Link above)

Roosting About

Hi Friends.  In my travels through blogland I stumbled upon a Rooster Party! Yip you heard it.  A Cock- a- doodde-dooo kinda event! And to boot, I am late in joining it, but no matter we keep it going for a couple of days in blogland, parties that is. It is hosted by Sheila at Note Songs and turned out to be a crowing affair!  I am most grateful to encounter folks with similar inclinations to gather and collect, at times curious things, I'll reluctantly admit. So it was a pleasure to view rooster and chickens of all denominations.

It was never my intention specifically to go out and collect chickeny things. It just happened, and happened because of a bargain basement el cheapo find! These two pictures below attracted me instantly with their vibrant colours. And they cost a mere R19-99 each! Honestly, and they look worth much more than that. I adore them and have put them on the side of my kitchen cupboard.

The great thing is the way the colours change as the light changes in the afternoons and they become even more glowy and warm! I call them my Pleasure for a Pittance Pictures...

Some months later I happened upon these planters . Here it holds a birthday rose from a dear friend in the kitchen windowsill.

Incidentally, the two pictures behind the rooster planter of the fruit were also el cheapo finds from the same store. We're talking R9-99 on the sale each! They have faded a bit from the sun, but I still love them!

....and then I found a matching planter in a different store and of course I knew it was meant to be....

 Love the colours...

I have no idea where I got this metal napkin holder...



My daughter bought these glass chopping boards for me for Christmas, as they were on my wish list. I can't bare chopping on them though and they mostly get used as serving platters or cheese boards. I might actually put them up on display somewhere as well.

When you start collecting in a particular theme you end up buying stuff that you don't really need, as was the case with these two hooks below. But how could I resist? The colours were just perfectly complementary to my collection... and so they came home with me ( also at a bargain basement price) They are however, still searching for a home. I might as well find fabric for the kitchen blinds with roosters on. So far I am going to have to sew together some tea towels that I saw or print them up myself, somehow.....



At this stage it is only a fledgling collection which is sure to grow. I am searching for the ultimate rooster painting with panache! Well apart from the fabric for the blinds that is.

So friends while wer'e roosting about wonder over and see the rest of the collection.

I will also be joining Show off your Cottage Monday at The House in the Roses as well as Creative Bloggers Party Hop at Homemaker on a Dime and Debbie Doo's Newbie Party and lastly Amaze me Monday at Dittle Dattle

Happy Living

Veronica

xxx

Ways with watermelons..

Good Morning Friends. I trust that you all had a wonderful weekend and that Monday is full a spark and positive vibes. I am joining On the Menu Monday over at Stone Gable. Yvonne has a wonderful blog with amazing photography, so do take a look and also visit the other links.


I do realize that it is totally bizarre to start a recipe with which platter or bowl to use... but alas it is the kind of madness that I am given over to in the wee hours of the night when sleep eludes me and my thoughts drift to food. So my favourite bowl  for this salad is a large white platter embossed with fruit on the edges that shows off the colours to perfection. Now, you can just imagine how it looks, with these amazing colours against the white platter, all fresh and gorgeous, red, black and white with a sprinkling of green and a touch of pink onion.... sorry... um use any platter that takes your fancy...When summer rolls around and I make it you will see the bowl.

This is as an improbable combination of ingredients as you can muster to put together! But it works and works exceptionally well. It is both refreshing and compellingly beautiful in the contrast of shape and colour. That, and it hardly amounts to any work at all, that is if you are able to recruit your spouse to "slaughter" the watermelon...

Besides, think of the fun, you are going to have in the watermelon fight smearing each other and then the whole sorry lot landing in the pool... um whose cleaning the pool?

Menu

Sticky Pork Ribs on the BBQ

Watermelon, Feta and Black Olive Salad

Watermelon fight and....A dip in the Pool

Watermelon, Feta and Black Olive Salad

1 small red onion
2-4 limes, depending on juiciness
1,5 kg sweet ripe, watermelon
250 g feta cheese
bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley
bunch fresh mint, chopped
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
100 g pitted black olives
black pepper

Peel and halve the red onion and cut into very fine half-moons and put in a small bowl to steep with the lime juice, to bring out the transparent pinkness in the onions and diminish their rasp.

Remove the rind and pips from the watermelon, and cut into bite size chunks, triangles or cubes. Place in your favourites bowl...

Cut the feta in similar size pieces and place in between the watermelon.

Tear of sprigs of parsley and add more like a salad leaf than a garnish to the salad.

Add the chopped mint.

Tip the now glowingly puce onions, along with their pink juices over the salad in the bowl, add the oil and olives, then using your hands toss the salad very gently so that the feta and melon do not loose their shape.

Add a good grinding of black pepper and taste to see whether it needs more lime juice.

The above image and recipe comes from one of my favourite cookbooks by Nigella Lawson, Forever Summer.

Click here for instructions to make these gorgeous little artful bites of bliss.

I found these lovely ideas via Geek Mom. If you feel like unleashing your inner slumbering sculptor or you have exceptional knife skills!! ( but keep the phone handy and the emergency numbers, please) take a look....

For much more inspiration of what to do with your crop of watermelon,  click here for The National Watermelon Promotion Board ( did you know that such a thing existed?) where the possibilities seems to be endless...

So, for those of you who are enjoying the balmy days of  a summer, break out the watermelon and the knives and have some fun.



I am also linking with Mosaic Monday at Little Red House as well as The Newbie Party  at Debbiedoo's Blog and Creative Bloggers Hop at Home maker on a Dime! Please support the other links as well.

Bon Appetit


Live well


Veronica

xxx

images from pinterest other than indicated.