Tag: Hout Bay

A Sunday afternoon stroll in Hout Bay Harbour

A visit to Hout Bay harbour is always a worthwhile diversion, especially on a Sunday afternoon. Watching people walking leisurely along the harbour mole gives one a feeling of being at peace with the world.

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Black and white – in unison.

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A myriad of ways – seemingly at rest.

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Red yellow green at the end of the harbour mole.

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Freshly painted for the new season.

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Tightly packed during a weekend’s reprieve.

DSC_7534-60Easy surf and safe beach.

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The stroll home.

A day in the sun, among like-minded people.
Letting the day slow down to a quieter pace.
Let us be here for now,
outside time for a while.

Stellenbosch, 25 November 2015

With love as always from
Colleen & Walter

 

 

 

 

A piece of ocean magic near Hout Bay, Cape of Good Hope

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For hundreds of years the forests of Hout Bay had supplied the East India trade with timber for the repair of their ships. Today a large fleet of fishing vessels serves the local community.

Travelling from Hout Bay, on your daily run to schools, past Llandudno towards Camps Bay, you are rewarded with magnificent views of sea and mountain. Other treasures are hidden from sight. With a bit of exploring you will discover a little piece of ocean magic.

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The boulders – did they once tumble down from the mountain side and came to rest here or has constant wave action left them bare? In the background: Lion’s head from where Capetonians launch their paragliders.
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A secret hide-away once for people on the fringe.
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As if they were resting for a while, yet full of life, waiting.
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Cecilia who shies away from being photographed, with baby Lelethu tucked in on her back.

Our housekeeper, Cecilia with baby Lelethu, another treasure – making our week in Hout Bay, looking after grandchildren, an easy and a joyful task.

With love as always
Colleen & Walter
Hout Bay, Cape of Good Hope,
Wednesday, 12 November 2014

A week’s parenting in Hout Bay

A pair of peacocks – extended part of the family.

 

Our parenting days are well behind us, but every now and then we do a run of acting in loco parentis – and we always enjoy such occasions whenever and where ever they occur – in France, Germany or like now in Hout Bay. It makes us aware of our hard-won equilibrium, makes us rethink of how on earth we were able to keep our sanity more or less intact over all those years and always refreshes our admiration for present-day parents.

Baking ginger bread men and women. The first lot got burnt, unfortunately.

 

Parenting comes as a matter of course, for sure, but it seems so much more demanding these days. In our childhood days we walked alone in the dark to the bus stop for a 40 minute’s ride to school. In Colleen’s case she rode to school on horseback or in a horse-drawn cart. These days it involves complex logistical coordination. Transportation is an issue where appropriate infra-structure is missing. In preparation for hosting the Soccer World Cup in 2010 an integrated rapid transit system was initiated for Cape Town which is up and running and still being extended, eventually reaching Hout Bay.

The morning run to the German School … past Llandudno beach over Kloof Nek Road to Tamboerskloof…

 

 

… alongside the Twelve Apostles mountain range …

 

…. popular with cyclists, especially over the weekend …

 

 

… and part of the Cape Town sightseeing bus tour of course …

Late afternoon – time for a run on the beach – Ike, Max, Lizzy —

… and when they are done …

 

… with their and Lizzy’s  run …

 

…. while a trawler goes out for a night’s fishing …

 

…. and the moon is rising over the bay …

 

… and night begins to fall …

 

… it is time again to go home and ready the house for another morning.

 

With love from Hout Bay
Colleen & Walter
Monday, 4 June, 2012

Bay Harbour – The Market, Hout Bay

An unusual encounter on a market - yet, an expression of the phantasy and vision of a handful of people who turned an industrial place into a living space for people to enjoy.

Globalized marketing has made shopping easy but has also taken the fun out of it. The loss of individuality is the price paid for convenience. You can pick and choose virtually anything anytime anywhere at your leisure from supermarket shelves. Humans do, however, need to have that casual social interaction – something that till operators can hardly provide. And that is where markets have a place in communities such as Cape Town, Stellenbosch and now Hout Bay – bringing fun back into shopping.

A typical French weekend market, here in Tourette-sur-Loup near Grasse.

Well, not exactly. These new “markets” must not be compared with the old-fashioned ones still so very common in France and much loved by tourists. Bay Harbour Market serves different needs. A fish processing plant was turned into a social space to serve the community at large. A re-birth of community spirit through community projects and products, that is what we experienced as core element of this space when we visited it yesterday.

Faces of South Africa. Having prepared rosterbrood and halaal breedies.
Zoë & Dave Brocklebank's smithy from "Rust and Roses" - very much part of the market and cornerstone of turning the industrial elements into aesthetically pleasing works of art.
Integrating the industrial - pipes from a fish processing plant - into ...
... something ... pleasing ...
... and giving it a newly defined commercial ...
... habitable ...
... sociable ...
... and aesthetically pleasing functionality.
Approach road to the market - entrance on the right.
Very much on the seaward end of the harbour. Here looking back toward Hout Bay.
This is how we were greeted on entering ...
The Rastafarian component.
Industriousness of a different kind ... pilchards where processed here ... before
shapes, colours, beads, heads … all counted … 
... celebrating tea ...

... from China with love ...

… free-range flame roasted … 
... or sunshine organic ...
... inviting ...
... an open hearted beautiful space ...
... with a peaceful mind ...



... on the home run.
... and a joyful spirit ...
Dave Brocklebank from "Rust and Roses" - one of the initiators - a gentle giant, blacksmithing things into shape.

An old factory space, creatively adapted to serve the community of the Cape at large and the traditional fishing community of Hout Bay in particular – bringing together the spirit of fresh enterprise, of good commercial sense and community feel – for all to enjoy and eventually to profit from.

With love
Walter & Colleen
Betty’s Bay, Sunday 17 July 2011

Cerebrally Palsied

The wind is hassling us with speeds of 40 to 45 kms/h drying the soil out; the plants are stressing. So are the humans. The air is charged and tempers flare up in a moment, but also die down just as easily

Michaelene and Gary, our cerebrally palsied niece and her boyfriend were stuck on the airport access road in Johannesburg for hours yesterday and missed their flight to Cape Town.


Michaelene in Hout Bay

It is not difficult to realize the depth and extent of the emotional devastation if things turn belly up for them. As if you were on the high seas and your boat capzises and you are about to drown. That is their life. Their life being a disaster, always being on the brink of disaster. And all the joy being with them comes from the happiness they experience and are sharing with you when things roll on okay.

Being with the two is alway such fun. You realize how privileged we all are with our brain and hands and arms intact and how often we forget to enjoy the fulfillment of small tasks like opening a bottle of coke or taking a photograph with a point and shoot camera. Gary does that with such dedication, delicacy and slow moving precision and to watch him in that slow motion brings about a realization of what we all miss in our fast moving ways.

Gary in Hout Bay

They are safe now in our hands in Bob and Nikki’s house in Hout Bay.-

So much for now with love

Walter & Colleen

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