Have a fab New Year!

As we ring in the new year, I'd like to wish all my blog watchers a fantastic New Year, and may 2008 bring only good things to you and your families.

Enjoy all the partying tonight, but don't get up to too much monkey (or Gorilla) business...

As for tomorrow, well, wouldn't this hammock be great! For me only, that is, I wouldn't like to share it with this Spectacle Bear, even though it does look rather cuddly!

These 2 photos are from our trip to the Johannesburg Zoo today.

Green Thumb Sunday - Australian Flame Tree flower

We have a beautiful Australian Flame tree growing in our garden. It was hit very badly by the frost in winter, and is only starting to recover now. It's show of flowers is not as magnificent this year, as it was last year; but they're still beautiful.

I love ice-cream

Well, not me, but K sure does. I took the boys to a mom's gettogether/playdate this morning, and this is my favourite photo from the "meet".

Thumbelina the puppy

Thumbelina is a 7 week old boerboel puppy. Isn't she the cutest?! She's one of the many dogs at the stables (Bradley went riding today again).

More from my garden

We did go out today, but I forgot to take my camera! So, instead, I took photos in my garden again.

Vygie. I love these little indigenous creepers. They're such colourful little fillers that are so easy to grow and maintain because they're succulents.

Cape Thatching Reed

Orange Rose - no ideas about the name of it though, the previous owners planted it.

Hebe - these flowers are actually very small.

Butterflies and Dandelions

Butterfly drying it's wings after being rescued from the pool

Butterfly on my mom's hand
Dandelion

Freestate scenery

We drove to Parys today to visit my mother-in-law. Today I decided to just take photos of the scenery. Even though the Freestate is mostly flat (in fact very flat), it looks quite pretty especially at this time of the year when it's green.

All these photos were taken on the main road to Parys (R59)

I love this part of the trip, the rolling hills in this area are just so pretty, even in the dead of winter.

I had to include a rural ruin for the day too ;).

Christmas Day

The day started really early today... Bradley woke up at 4am!! LOL! It was fantastic to have his excitement in the house!
I can't possibly choose only one for the day, so here are a few...

My parents and their grandchildren. We don't get together very often so we always make use of the opportunity to take family photos.

The Wazooka's were a hit today, 5 minutes after this was taken, CJ and Bradley were chasing each other around the garden and getting very wet!

CJ - she's my children's cousin's cousin :)
Connor

I just had to add these 2 because they were so sweet. Erin trying very hard to put the ball in her mouth, and then succeeding at it :)

Milk and cookies

Bradley has been planning this plate for Father Christmas all day. We even bought some cookies this morning because Bradley decided that mince pies were not good enough. LOL!

I hope everyone reading this has a wonderfully fantastic Christmas tomorrow with their families and friends.

Don't mess with this pirate!

First he didn't want me to take a photo...

And then "arrrgh" was all I got out of him :)

"Take a pic-cha of my dog"

Bradley went horse-riding today. This is Abbi, she follows me everywhere when we're at the stables, asking to use my camera and showing me what to take photos of.
I didn't want to move too far from Bradley today in case he needed water (because of his skin condition at the moment), so Abbi decided that I needed to take a photo of her and her dog (one of the many).

Baby in a truck

I attempted to use a prop for the first time today (I copied Kami's idea because I recognised the truck she used in 2 of her photos). Apart from my gorgeous subject I can see a lot wrong with this photo, tell me what you think...

I can see the following problems:
1. The background is the wrong colour - it's a cream wall. I really need to start using a backdrop when I try things like this. Maybe a sheet?
2. I should have taken the photo as a landscape
3. The lighting was bad, so I had to photoshop the photo a bit to lighten it... the flash made it look terrible.
4. I need to have more patience and a faster camera to stop the movement in his arm.\

LOL, clearly I need a lot of practise and I really want a better camera now.

Canna flower

Cannas are not one of my favourite plants, mostly because they disappear in winter because of the frost we get here. However, I love the vibrant colours at this time of the year.

Hydrangea in my garden

I can't resist posting this photo too. I just love hydrangeas, especially the blue ones. This bush in my garden (actually 3 next to each other) looks spectacular at the moment, and I love the colours. They can't decide whether they're pink or blue, so almost every flower is slightly different shades of ice-cream colours. I think it's because they get some of the pool water when the pool gets backwashed.

Santa train

This gorgeous Christmas decoration is one of the many in my mom's house. It's a train with 3 carriages and each part holds a tealight candle.

Face painter at Sandton City

I went shopping at lunchtime today at Sandton City. I tried to get a photo of Santa, but he wasn't too happy with me and my camera. LOL! So I took some photos from the first floor balcony instead. Maybe I'll try again tomorrow - I'm going again - this time with Madi.

I wasn't very impressed with their Christmas theme this year actually, normally it's magnificent. This year most of the space is taken up by a stand for Build-a-Bear workshop, and there's hardly any room for the traditional storytellers, facepainters and Santa display. As far as I'm concerned it's a money-making racket this year, the centre is obviously making a fortune renting the space to the Bear workshop (and that part was completely EMPTY).

Fun with water

After a rainy and miserable morning, the sun came out, and it ended up being a scorcher of a day! Sarah and her boys came for lunch and the kids all ended up in the pool, and then they had a ball with the Pooh water spray.

Nix and Bradley playing in the water.

Chasing Bradley...

Team work...

Green Thumb Sunday - raindrops on the agapanthas

We, yet again, had a rainy Sunday, so we didn't do much today. Not that I'm moaning, my garden needed the shower :)

Connor's first haircut

Bradley and I took Connor for his first haircut today at Chop-it at Lifestyle.

Before... he wasn't too sure what was going on.

He was very good actually during the whole process (Bradley used to scream!). But I think it's because she gave him a lollipop to suck on (his first one), which he absolutely loved. I eventually gave him his dummy because he was sucking the lollipop so hard it was going down his throat :). After... saying bye-bye to the birds in the sky.
" Oh mom, please put that camera away now!"

Christmas at the Children's Home

We held a Christmas Party at the Childrens home I wrote about a few weeks ago. I've written more about today here. It was great to see how excited the kids got, especially when they realised the presents contained new things with labels still attached. I can't possibly choose one photo from today, so here are a few of my favourites.

Monalisa... she's a very sick little 2 year old. I cannot begin to describe how small and petite she is (she wears size 3-6m clothes). It was so amazing to see her laugh and smile today.


Princess... hasn't she got the most regal looking face? Such a pretty child.
Pallessa - she's gorgeous, and so full of energy. I think the day was a bit daunting for her though, as she wasn't as smiley as she normally is. Prince... boy, he's talkative. He was chatting away about school.

Red Cadillac

We went to the ten-pin bowling alley in Cresta today for a team-building thing. It was great fun (and the Business Analyst team won ;) ), but I found the place quite dingy (as bowling alleys go). I'm assuming they tried to make the theme American, judging by the cadillac parked in the middle of the area. But apart from the car, there was nothing else that was American about the place.

Christmas in Sandton

After I had lunch at the Bull Run in Sandton today (opposite the JSE), I took a walk down Maude Street and took these photos of the Christmas lights. I think they're very funny. They are just a whole load of figures on the side of the road made from rope lights... men watering gardens, hanging out washing, sitting around, walking and even weeing in plants!!
They must look quite good at night (when there is power in the area of course).

Woodlands Office Park

I went on a course today at LGIT. Their offices are in the Woodlands Office Park in Woodmead. What a gorgeous place! The office buildings surround a wildlife park which includes a wetland management area.
Luckily I had plenty of time to wander around taking photos because of the power blackouts. So, there is no way I can choose one photo today.

Swan in the wetland area.

Springbok... there were so many of them wandering around, including a tiny baby. And they were quite tame so I was able to get quite close to them.
I just thought this was the funniest. LOL! It didn't take them long to cross the bridge.

Supper at Spur

There were rolling backouts in Joburg today due to "load shedding" (Eskom's way to try and stop people using electricity - bizarre but true!). So we joined Madi, Marlise and their families at the local Spur for supper (they have a generator and a cool play area for the kids).

This isn't exactly the most riviting photo I've ever taken, so I tried a trick with the colours.