Quick update

My apologies for being off screen for so long. I've been on my travels again, this time to South Africa via the U.K., where I spent two glorious spring days earlier this week. I'd forgotten how profuse the blossom is there, the branches thick with pink and white. And the trees burgeoning with new green leaves, or pale orange in the case of the copper beeches. Then there are my beloved magnolias... ah well, we live in a beautiful world.

There was more beauty in Cape Town, just beginning to feel autumnal. The interesting thing is that the local, indigenous trees get new leaves at this time of year. Strange hey? So I visited with old and dear friends, attended an exquisite wedding, the ceremony held at the end of a wharf where the locals were casting big fishing lines into the ocean. As my friend, the mother-of-the-bride said, the wedding was set for 4.30 and the spring tide was for 4.20! All was well, however, and none of us got soaked, although I did enjoy a slight ocean spray.

A road trip east through the winelands towards the garden route brought up happy memories of days gone by, and renewed delight at the old Cape Dutch buildings in Swellendam, surely one of the loveliest towns in the country. A night at an ostrich farm, and then I was deposited in Knysna to stay with family for my mother's death day. It felt good and blessed to be there, where she died a year ago.

Part of the reason for my travels was business. I did some of that, although it was complicated. I had thought this would be my very last visit to the country of my birth, but it seems there'll have to be another one because of said business and a lot of interest in my parenting book :-).

Spurred orignally by the wedding invitation, my initial thought was to get all travelling done before I take up grandson day-care duties in a few weeks time. Now I'm wondering if all the flying miles would add up to a round-the-world trip. No, I'm not going to do the math.

I got home on Thursday, a red-letter day for our family because our eldest son got married. That's all four of them now. This so-welcome and happy event took place on the beach in California. It was my dearest, oldest friend in Cape Town who offered an interesting point of view on the trend towards outdoor weddings. She said she thinks its because the young people want to be close to the elements for this life-changing and affirming event.