PROJECT 365: Part 10

Quite  few photos today, I've let them pile up again.  I'm trying to look at things differently and take photos from different perspectives.  I think these latest photos are a bit better.  Not wow, just not completely boring.  So lets see if I can keep improving.

Day 81: Lonely tree

I took this while working at the farm museum.  I was working in a very cold boardroom/research area, where they keep all their books and had to get up every now and then just to keep the blood circulating or try to find a patch of warm.  FYI there are no patches of warm in that entire building.  I kept going to look out the window as there were school buses driving in or tractors watering the sand roads or birds or cats to look at.  My eyes kept on being drawn to this tree with these poles in front of it.  It looked so out of place.  I know it looks like the other trees are surrounding it, but relative to the other trees, this little tree looked so isolated.  With only those 10 poles for company. Poor little tree :(

Day 82: Steaming mug of vanilla chai tea

Again, this was taken in the boardroom/research area of the farm museum.  Feck it's cold there.  I was writing notes when the movement of the steam off the tea caught my eye.  I didn't capture it precisely, it was far more beautiful in real life.

Day 83: Yummy! Veggie soup, here we come.

 

My first homemade soup of the season.  Well, I bought the veggies in a ready chopped and mixed soup pack.  But I cooked em up myself, that counts right?

Day 84: A barrelful of naartjies.

These are the same fruit in the photos of days 56 and 78.  I just had some help picking these.  The tree is not neatly pruned and has been left to grow wild, so most of the fruit sits at the top of the tree which is far away from where I can reach.  Under my Dad's supervision, my sister and her fiance (and me) managed to pick quite a lot.  Well, I say pick: actually they shook them out of the tree so my sister and I picked most of them off of the ground.  My parents and my sister left with a shopping bagful and I packed another bagful for my boss and the lady who comes to clean my house every 2 weeks.  And I still have a load.  If I get around to making jam (I found a recipe for naartjie marmalade) I'll be sure to take a photo.

Day 85: Reading

This is my Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  I have the most beautiful set of Harry Potter books.  Guess what I'm reading at the moment...

Day 86: Winter morning sky

Another weird winter sky. I love the sky... *sigh*

Anyway, as I was leaving for work on this morning, I looked to my right and this is what I saw.

Day 87: A most excellent dawg!

 This is a very poor photo of Shilo.  I was lying in bed (as I often do, it seems) and he looked at me like this.  I quickly snapped this photo with my phone, and tried to edit and improve it as far as I could and this is the result.  While Penny is awfully cute, Shilo is simply the best dog.  He's a dog's dog; a people dog; a handsome dog; a dog without issues.  Simply excellent!

Day 88: The eye of the Penny.

Again, I was lying on my bed.... And I decided I needed to capture Penny's eye colour for posterity.  Penny has the most beautiful colour eyes!  In fact, one of the reasons why I chose Penny for Shilo (after all, she is his dog, not mine) was that her mother had the most beautiful colour eyes.  I told Penny the day I brought her home that if she did not end up with the same eyes as her mother, I was taking her back.  I don't think she believed me...

Penny is a total girl and has her fair share of issues, most of which we have worked through.  I love her to pieces, and she is so different from Shilo but they are perfect for each other.  Shilo's eyes, which you can't see in the photo above of him, are so dark, you generally can't distinguish his iris from his pupil.  He has beetle black eyes, which in no way stops them from being very expressive!

Day 89: Emergency chocolate mug cake.

Nuff said, really.

Day 90: Rock cakes. Yum!

I have only ever found these at one supermarket in my area.  Ok, two, but the second one only had them once.  I love rock cakes.  They are sugary, raisin goodness!

Day 91: Tug of war on the move.

I love this photo.  This is basically how the two of them are. All. The. Time.  When they're not sleeping of course.  Look at their ears! Silly doggies.

Day 92: New boots.

Thanks to my sister!  I wouldn't have any shoes if it wasn't for her.  I hate shoe shopping.  She LOVES shoe shopping.  So it works out well.  But I now have far more shoes than I ever wanted!

These are super warm though and nice looking to boot!  And I need warm on my feet.


I am still driving around in my Mom's naturally air conditioned beetle (Read: freezing).  Keep fingers and toes crossed that I get my car back this week.

PROJECT 365: Part 9

ONWARDS!

Day 74: Agricultural books



 My current task at the Willem Prinsloo Agricultural museum is going through their small library to learn something about agriculture, agriculture in South Africa and the history of agriculture.  So I am slowly going through each of the books you see above.  Hopefully, once I've done that, I will be able to think up an exciting new exhibition theme.  And have some clue as to what all the strange implements, which are part of the museum collection, are.

Day 75: Strange winter weather

Overcast weather is not something we see often in winter on the highveld.  Apparently it even rained a bit in some parts!  And it was bloody cold.  This sky was moody and beautiful though.

Day 76: It may look lovely and sunny but it's bloody freezing!

Our winter skies generally look more like this.  This was taken in my back yard.  I took the picture quickly and then hurried back inside to sit in front of the heater,

Day 77: New winter linen

Another purchase from the shopping day.  I love winter linen!  It's so snugly. 

Day 78: from my garden.

This is the citrus fruit that was pictured on Day 56.  It's called a naartjie (narchie) over here, and according to Wikipedia is "also known as cold hardy mandarin, satsuma mandarin, satsuma orange, Christmas orange, and tangerine".  Which really confuses me because we get tangerines too and mandarins and occasionally satsuma's and they all taste and look slightly different.  Anywhoodle, this naartjie comes from my garden and is rather tasty!

Day 79: Portrait of a Bedside Table



A peek into the messiness that is my life.

Day 80: Traffuck.

I was late for work again this morning.  But today I have a valid excuse.  And photographic evidence!

My animals are sadly missing from my recent photos.  I think I need to remedy that...

PROJECT 365: Part 8

A spectacularly boring couple of weeks, with the exception of shopping and Snow White and her Huntsman.

Day 61: Carriages. Many, many carriages.

This is at the Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum, where I should spending a few days every week from now on.  Agriculture is not my thing, but a change is as good as a holiday, right?  The museum also has an exceptional collection of wagons and carriages, as you can see.

Day 62: Two Haws shopping.

SisHaw decided we needed a girl's day out.  And for her that means shopping.  I don't generally enjoy shopping.  I like to go in, get what I need or want and go out again.  No window shopping, no trying on clothes, no fuss.  Generally though, I can't do that, as either I can't find what I'm looking for or I don't have the money.  But this time I had a bit of spare cash and there was some stuff I needed.  Winter linen, clothes to fit my ever expanding proportions, books, a fluffy blanket with cozy words written all over it....  Stuff I really NEEDED!  All in all this was a very bad idea.  I spent way too much money and so did SisHaw.  And we bought stuff for each other as well.  Oh well, we don't do it very often so I won't regret it.

This photo was taken at Mugg & Bean, the coffee shop/restaurant where we had lunch: quesadillas with herbed mushrooms. YUM!  I may have a quesadilla problem thanks to Lori Otto.  We also had a new drink there; warm apple juice with cinnamon and cloves and topped with cream and caramel syrup.  Delicious.




Day 63: My whimsical purchase.

When I was a little girl, I did a lot of dancing.  For our one dance concerts, my tap class dressed as flappers from the 1920's, feathers included, and we each had a string of pearl beads around our necks, knotted at the bottom.  I seem to remember we danced to a Glenn Miller number...  Anyway, I loved those beads and when I was too cool to wear them around my neck, I wound them around my wrist.  They must have broken or something, because they have been out of my life for many, many years and I often find myself wishing I had them.  So when I saw these, I had to buy them!

Day 64: Museum break-in.

When I got to work on this Monday, I was told that the museum had been broken into over the weekend.  They through a rock through the window to get in.  Fortunately, after going through the museum with all my inventories, I confirmed that nothing was taken.  Which, according to my good friend BookwormBaby25, proves that they were looking for a place to have sex.  Eeeeuw.

 

 

Day 65: Official Twitard. Thank you Amy!!!

 I won a giveaway on Twitarded! TwiKiwi, who is getting more and more svelte with every passing day, found that her Forks 2011 t-shirt was too big for her.  I, on the other hand, am experiencing quite the opposite to Amy, and I don't have a Twitarded shirt.  I bought SisHaw one for her birthday last year, and I got myself a book bag, but no t-shirt for Nikki.  So when STY mentioned TwiKiwi was being so generous I JUMPED at the opportunity.  And above is the result.  All this has made a very happy Duck!

Day 66: Snugly

The blanket I purchased as mentioned above.  It is so snugly and warm and I keep discovering new words!  And it's reversible, so depending on my mood, I can have blue words or brown words.

Day 67: A stitch in time

I knit.  Yes I do.  Not prolifically but still.  I have recently discovered this weird yarn.  It's more like a piece of woollen lace that you knit with.  Anywhoodle, I can make nifty scarves in a couple of hours, which is really great when boredom hits.

Day 68: Winter supper.

One of the many things I have learnt from reading fan fiction is that a 'thing' in America is grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup.  This is not a 'thing' here.  We have tomato soup OR toasted cheese sandwiches.  So, living on the edge as I do, I decided to give this a whirl.  And it is rather good!

Day 69: #SWATH day

Meet CheeseHaw.  Yes, once again they took me to see a movie I wanted to see.  They are good at taking instruction.  And where did we go after?  Mugg & Bean to introduce the man to herbed mushroom quesadillas!

Oh, and I really enjoyed Snow White and the Huntsman.  I enjoyed Chris Hemsworth far more than I thought I would.  And I enjoyed Kristen with green eyes.  We did giggle about the many Twilight-like moments though, and I have continued giggling with friends on Twitter.

Day 70: the days menu...

This Harry Potter box set was my birthday present from CheeseHaw.  And I still haven't finished watching it.  There is so much to see on a BluRay dvd.  On Sunday I got through the special features of The Philosophers Stone through to the special features on The Goblet of Fire.  I haven't even got to the actual movies yet!

Day 71: Catalogue

Part of my job at the moment is to sort out the mess of documents in the Kruger Collection.  And while doing this I realised that the catalogue card system for the collection is also in a mess.  So I'm tackling one thing at a time.

Day 72: Rearview

Notice anything about this pic?  That is the rearview mirror of a beetle.  Yes, I am still driving my mother's beetle.  The car whose air-conditioning consists of windows that don't close properly.  And here we are in the middle (almost) of winter.  It has given me a new appreciation of my car.

Day 73: Found lollipop!

A few weeks ago I tweeted very excitedly that I'd found a lollipop.  I was truly excited, as anyone would be.  I was looking for something in my work bag and lo and behold, a cherry lollipop!  Oh Happy Day.  Well, guess what?  The same thing happened today!  It's not a cherry lollipop but still, it will do nicely.  I think my work bag has some magical lollipop properties.

And the centre of the lollipop is filled with sherbet!

The Kreativ Blogger Award

My good friend Lori Otto nominated my blog for the above award! My first blog award.  I could be all self deprecating, but I'm not going to be.  I'm just gonna say THANKS LORI, and then follow the rules for receiving this prestigious nomination.

And look how pretty the logo looks on my blog!



Rules for the Kreativ Blogger Award:

1. Thank the person nominating you for the award. Check
2. List ten things about yourself. Check - See below
3. Nominate six blogs you think deserve the Kreativ Blogger Award. Check - Also below

Ten things about Nikki:

1. My given name is Nicole. But nobody calls me that.
2. I have an MA degree in Heritage Management.
3. I used to dance. I got my Pre-elementary certificate in ballet. There were pointe shoes involved.
4. I enjoy birdwatching.
5. My first job was behind the counter at a fast food joint.
6. I am the baby in my family. Last child and last grandchild.
7. My favourite colours are blue and yellow.
8. I don't hate my feet.
9. I got my first speeding ticket a month after getting my drivers licence. In my yellow beetle.
10. I can restore ceramics. And I really enjoy it!

My six nominations:
http://authorlorilotto.wordpress.com/
http://kristenstewartwantsit.wordpress.com/
http://earplugsnotincluded.com/
http://thebookhookup.com/
http://louisvsrick.com/
http://www.twikiwi.blogspot.com/

Thanks again to Lori for nominating me. Go check out her blog and books here, and listen to the playlist for her Emi Lost and Found series, right here on my blog, on the right! ----->

PROJECT 367: Part 7

We are heading into winter here and things are getting chilly. Expect to see pictures of socks and warm drinks and blankets and snuggly things in general.  I do not like the cold.

Day 53: Downward spiral

A staircase at a hospital. Why was I at a hospital? Because PopHaw is a stubborn bugger who refuses to look after himself properly. GAH! Lets not talk about this.

Day 54: The very centre of the city of Pretoria.

I have it on good authority that it looks just like downtown Philadelphia! We don't have 'downtown' and 'uptown' here. It's kinda sad. If I had to say to someone, 'let's go downtown' they'd probably think I was singing the lyrics to a song.  If I was lucky.

Day 55: Doggy bathtime.

Shilo LOVES to bath.  He loves water any way he can get it.  He just jumps in the bath and sits and waits for me.  Penny is still not so sure, but it's great having a happy go lucky guy like Shilo as an example.  This time I decided to see if Penny would jump in too.  So after saying "jump in!" to Shilo, and him doing it, I said the same to Penny and she did! She DID jump in. Then she jumped out again, and we had some fun and games getting her back in, but still.  Now her favourite game this week is 'lets jump in the bath willy nilly.'  She's gonna get a shock if she does it and the bath is full.

And, predictably, a few hours after this photo was taken, Shilo had rolled in sand again and was brown.  And I dunno, he some velcro fur or something coz sand just stays on him.  It's bad in winter because it's so dry here (we are a summer rain region) so there is just sand and dust everywhere for him to roll in.

Day 56: My garden is citrusy...

This is supposed to be portrait not landscape.... Oh well.  So there is fruit growing in my garden! This is one I can identify.  Well, half identify.  I mean it's some sort of citrus fruit... Can't wait to try them, but they're still a bit green.  There's some other weird stuff that grows on a palm tree looking plant in summer.  No idea what that is.

Day 57: Winter bloom.

Another incorrectly orientated photo. Aaargh Blogger!!!  After a very brief google search, I think this is a type of double poinsettia.  I originally thought it was a coral tree, but I was wrong.  It's pretty, and adds lovely colour to the winter garden at the museum.

Day 58: Today's place of work.

The DITSONG National Museum of Cultural History.  Say that three times fast!

Day 59: New pyjamas

I probably have more pairs of pyjamas than I need.  But I don't really care.  A change of season means you need new pyjama's, right? RIGHT?  And doesn't that cow look so happy.

Day 60: Vintage driving.

Driving MaHaw's Beetle today, while PopHaw uses my car.  I love Beetles.  I had a yellow one for my first car.  It got stolen outside the university.  I then got a beautiful blue one, but nothing can replace your first eetle.  And they have their own smell!

Love ya.

PROJECT 365: Part 6

This is going to be a looooong post.  I've been a bit sick so I haven't really felt like blogging and the photos have piled up. 

The last few weeks I've tried to take photos from my everyday life as Dangrdafne requested and not just abstract things, so I hope I've managed.  There is still some everyday stuff to share so that should come up soon.

However, I don't lead a terribly exciting life, especially when I'm home sick, so this has resulted in not terribly exciting photographs.

Day 36: Hi ho, hi ho it's off to work I go

This is one of my more seldom used routes to work.  Although I have used it far more over the last few weeks.  I think it might be because of the waterfall on the other side of the hill on the left.  That waterfall is in the photo from Day 9.  It kind of makes me feel that I'm somewhere else, on holiday.

Day 37: Where I live

I live on church property.  Yep, I really do.  Fortunately the church does not insist that you join them in order to rent from them.  This is good.  It's a funny church and while I do consider myself spiritual, I have not yet found a religion that suits me completely. Yet.  Anywhoodle, my house is one of five, all joined like townhouses or cluster homes, but it's just the five.  They were originally supposed to be for the pastors but I dunno what happened to the pastors.  I originally stayed in Flat 4 (as far as I can make out 'flats' are like 'apartments'), a one bedroomed, one bathroomed, small kitchened, small living roomed, small gardened bit of perfection for someones first 'on their own home'.  After 2 cats, one puppy and an ever growing collection of books and music I decided if one of the bigger flats became available and was affordable, I'd get it.  I also wanted to get Shilo, my dog, a companion.  Flat 1, where I am now, has a big kitchen, huge living area (for me), 3 bedrooms (now 2 bedrooms and one study), 2 bathrooms, a big backyard, a big front courtyard AND a separate laundry.  It also has cockroaches.  But I don't want to talk about that.  Also the garage has been converted into another room, so while my car has to live outside, I now have somewhere to set up a proper ceramic restoration studio.  If I ever actually get around to that.  In this photo, my house is the first one on the extreme left.  Each peaked roof you can see is the garage for each of the five houses..

Day 38: Where I work

I've taken a few photos of the Kruger Museum already.  This is from the street.  Currently restoration work is on hold while we wait for a permit.  The brown plastic sheeting you can see on the edge of the roof is there to protect unfinished work on the gables.  It's all very frustrating.

This small Victorian house was the official home of the president of the Transvaal Republic.  Quite modest, no?

Day 39: My shop around the corner

This is not where I do my monthly grocery shopping.  It is, however, where I stop many evenings after work, to get the odd essential or not so essential.  This centre also has my video/dvd rental store and a pizza place that makes most excellent vegetarian pizza's.

Day 40: My giant cupcake birthday cake

Yes, 4 May was my birthday.  And it was an extra special birthday thanks to all you tweeps and your ducky avi's.  That TwiKiwi is a sneaky birthday avi organiser, I tell you!  So this was the birthday cake my sister made me.  She bought an actual cake baking pan that looks like a cupcake!  It was delicious.  The two old fogies you can see in the background are Pop- and MaHaw.  Oh, and my candle sang Happy Birthday to me!!! Confused the hell out of Shilo and Penny.

Day 41: Birthday lunch with family and friends at my sisters house.

The day after my birthday, my sister invited my best friend, the HawFolks and one HawAunt for lunch.  She made the best chocolate cupcakes in the world.  And there was so much other yummy stuff.  She really went to a lot of trouble.  For lunch we had a braai (more commonly known as a barbecue) and everyone ate way too much.  Going around from the left is: The male half of CheeseHaw, lets call him DHaw, then MaHaw, AuntHaw, SisHaw, bestfriend, bestfriend's husband (between them somewhere is their four year old pixie daughter), and ending with the PopHaw's pip.

Day 42: Autumn leaves

Yes, it is autumn in the southern hemisphere.  And getting too chilly for me.  This was taken in my backyard.  As you can imagine the dogs are having a great time running through the leaves.

Day 43: A pretty birthday present

A scarf from my friend.  It is very pretty.  The other half of her present was Disney on Ice!  She's taking me and her four year old to see Disney on Ice on 30 June.  It's easy for her coz whatever her daughter will like I'm sure to like, toys included.  Although.... the daughter is in her Disney princesses phase. Me? Not so much.

Day 44: Fizzy green juice aka cream soda

Hi, my name is Nikki and I'm a cream soda-holic.

Day 45: The driveway

It is a long driveway.  This is heading towards my house.  In spring/summer these trees are full of purple flowers.  You'll see, I bet I take a photo of it later in the year.  The property is situated a ways out of town, and all around are small holdings, plant nurseries and churches (I don't even know).  A few kilometers down the street is a busy well known road, full of shopping malls and every kind of shop you can think of.  So I have the best of both worlds: civilisation down the road while I'm living in the complete peace or the African bush.  The bird life is amazing and I've even seen a small antelope on the property once.  And I'm sure I hear jackals at night.  The downside is....there are ticks.

Day 46: Another pretty birthday present

This tiny flower arrangement came from AuntHaw.  Don't you just love getting flowers?  It's such a frivolous gift, as they don't last, but there is something special about it.

Day 47: A lovely cup of Milo before bed

Hi, my name is Nikki and I'm a Miloholic.




Day 48: Back to bed

I mentioned I've been sick.  I've been spending a lot of time here.  Good thing it's so comfy.

Day 49: My bedroom door at my folks house. Teenage artistic urges at their best.

Somewhere around 14, I decided to this.  My friend and I got some poster paint and some illegally smuggled alcohol and created this masterpiece.  It has been added to over the years and stuff has also been taken away.  The black smudges are where I spray painted over boys names who were no longer.... desirable.  Spot the Penny!

Day 50: The Haw House



Ah, the old family homestead.  And yes, I have been known to answer the home phone like that.

Day 51: Reaper, the museum cat.

Reaper just wandered in one day.  He is very used to humans, although he does smack me every time I walk past him.  He actually spends most of his time in my boss's office, but sometimes he graces me with his presence.  Like when my boss isn't at work.  My boss's son named him Reaper after some video game.

Day 52: One corner of Church Square in Pretoria

Church Square is a very well known tourist spot in Pretoria.  I wish I could get more of it in the picture.  Maybe I can another time.  This square was the centre of Pretoria a hundred years ago.  The old Council Building or Raadsaal  is the reddish building on the left.  That is where the seat of the Transvaal government was.  I think it is still used as government offices today, but my present-times knowledge isn't that good.

That's it for this round.  Tomorrow I'm off to the farm museum so hopefully I'll get some interesting photos for all y'all.