Flower Feedback: Franschoek 8, 9, 10 & 11

Some flowers just seem to attract more attention that others.  

This one in Franschoek generates lots of feedback.

The first photo comes from Adam Kramer, Morgan Hunter and Lara Contu.  Three Rhodes students on their way back to Grahamstown from Johannesburg.

The next photo comes from Corinne Weiland. 

She says: I've been to South Africa end of September and October together with a friend of mine and saw your message on a bench next to the Huguenot statue in Franschoek. I am a girl from Luxemborg in Europe and I absolutely love to travel. South Africa is great and it was my second time there. I would love to go back in 2 or 3 years for a longer stay and maybe help out on an animal farm or an animal sanctuary.

The next photo is from Stacey. 

She says: Me and my daughter came across your flower in Franschoek and I have attached a photo of us.  We live in Cape Town and visit the Huguenot monument twice a year. Our family takes the trip and spend a few hours there in memory of the loved ones that have passed away.

The next photo comes from Denny. 

Hi, I am Denny (right) and Constantine my older brother visiting the Huguenot museum in Franschoek. Our mother is a descendant of the Du Plessis family who were part of the Hugeunot's who arrived in South Africa. We were here to see artefacts from our Great Grandmother who was Hendrina Francinah Jakoba du Plessis as well as visiting our aunt who lives in Franschoek.

Thank you to everyone who takes the trouble to send me their messages.  It always strikes me how places like this bring people from across the world together. We each have a story to tell. Thank you for sharing your stories with me.

Flower feedback: Witsand 3 & 4

These two families were brave enough to take on the summer heat in the Kalahari.

Sharon and Carl van der Merwe sent me this photo, taken on 23 December 2012,

and I received this photo from Roelien.

This is Rohan (10) and Anja (9) Oelofse from Heidelberg, Gauteng.  

They were on their way to Kakamas to visit family when they decided to stop over at the roaring sands of Witsand. This photo was taken on 29 December 2012.

Flower feedback: Malgas 4 & 5

My friend Magda sent me these photos from Malgas. Here parents have a weekend house next to the Breede River and while spending a weekend there she found the flower on the pontoon.

I also received a lovely message from Ariane.

She says: I am French and in love with South Africa. Happy New Year!

How fantastic is that?

Flower Feedback: Blood river 1

I am so thrilled to receive the first feedback from Blood River!  I thought the flower was removed...

Hi, my name is Louise Currie and I'm 16 years old. I live in Dundee, KwaZulu Natal. I found this flower at Bloodriver, on a bridge. It is our yearly camping experience for our cultures camping adventure, where the Boere won the battle against the Zulu's in the 1800's on 16 December. It is called 'Geloftedag'. On the photo from left: Eliska Vermeulen, Karla Muller and me, Louise. We went for a walk and found this :)

Thanks.

Thank you so much, Louise and friends! You made my day.

How to paint with no paint

My daughter is four years old. She has just recently moved halfway across the world with us to settle in a new country.  Part of moving to a new country is throwing out lots of stuff. Unfortunately her water-colours were one of the things which ended in the bin.  It was old and well used and needed to be replaces in any case.

Now we have settled in the new house, we have unpacked all our stuff and she wants to paint. No paint. 

My excuse of waiting till we go to the shop to get new paint, didn't go down well. She wants to paint now. She will make her own paint.

Here's here plan:

She cuts out small pieces of paper, colours them in with her colouring pencils and then soaks them in small amounts of water until the water turns to colour. Then she paints with the coloured water. 

No problem.

How's that for problem-solving skills?

Flower Feedback: Three Rondavels 4 and Mac Mac 13

I received an email with several photos from Paul and Elsabe Finch. They are from Rietfontein Farm in the North West Province. They came across my flowers at Mac Mac and Three Rondavels.

It was such a nice surprise to get a stack of pics.  Thank you for sharing.

Flower Feedback: Mac Mac 8, 9 ,10, 11 & 12

It seems Mac Mac is a favourite flower spotting area...

My name is Hanita and I am with my family and friends at the Mac Mac waterfalls. Our story today is about taking time out to appreciate the finer things in life - enjoy the company of our friends and family and recharge our souls.

A short message from Dorette and David Pienaar:

  Passing by on a cloudy day.

A lovely message from the Netherlands:

We are Iris & Pieter from the Netherlands, traveling around SA for 3,5 weeks and enjoying wonderful nature, golf, SA wines, etc.  Really enjoyed Blyde River Canyon and spotted your flower at Mac Mac falls viewpoint.

And a beautiful story from North Carolina:

Hello! My name is Amy Martin and I am a 38 year old single mother from Durham, North Carolina, USA. I visited South Africa in mid October with G Adventure. Although I was with a group, this was my first time traveling abroad alone, and it was the longest period of time I'd ever been away from my three children. My experience on this holiday will be forever embedded in  my mind. Someday I plan to bring my children to South Africa so that I can show them this amazing country.

When visiting Mac Mac Falls, I saw your flower and read the note and thought it was a very cool idea. I had  a fellow traveller take my photo so that I could send it to you.  I wish you best of luck with this project!

Aslam Watson send me this pic of their beautiful family. There was no message attached.

I find it so cool that people from all over the world are connected by the flowers. A chain indeed.

Flower Feedback: Franschoek 5, 6 & 7

Whoo-hoo! THREE messages from Franschoek!

My friend and I came across your flower and I've attached a picture of us. I'm Tamsyn Jethro (left) and my friend is Fahtiema Ohlson (right) both from Cape Town. We met at work two years ago and became firm friends. We share spontaneity and a love for our province. We've done the Route 62 and Garden Route trip together.

When we both moved to other jobs, seeing each other became difficult. So we planned a 'reunion' date and nothing was more fitting than a road trip. So we followed the road signs and found Franschoek and your flower. Really amazing. 

Regards Tamsyn

What a great story.  Road trips are the best.

We escaped to Franschoek on a relaxing weekend getaway. It was a beautiful, warm day. We ran for shade and that is when we discovered your flower. Happy Spring!!

M Raath

We currently reside in Port Elizabeth. We were on a family holiday and sight seeing trip. I am originally from Cape Town but my boys had never been (not what they can recall, that is!) Jarryd, the fairer of the two is 13. Chad, on the right, turned 12 in Cape Town.

Tanya Cuthbertson

Happy birthday Chad!

Flower Feedback: Three Rondawels 3

I received this wonderful photo of two sisters from Brazil. 

We're sisters from Brazil, and we were visiting a family of friends in South Africa and traveled all over the place this September 2012!

We took this picture next to the Three Rondavel viewpoint, and I just realized that it was on my birthday, September 11th!

It was a really great experience to finally visit South Africa and discover so many incredible places... I can't even tell you how many thousands of pictures I took! LOL It's gonna take FOREVER to sort it all out and edit it from print.

I thought it was a really cool thing to do this! Hope many other people sent you their pictures!!

Cheers!

Tais

Flower Feedback: Witsand 2

I am still getting great feedback from the African Flowers.  I am so happy to know at least some of them are still up there!  This one is from Witsand.  I only had one previous message from there so I assumed the flower had disappeared. I was wrong.

I am Irma Roets. On Monday 19 November 2012 my husband, Sarel, and I came across a crochet flower at one of the view points at Witsand in the Northern Cape.  We are from Kimberley, the Diamond City, in South Africa. A three and a half hour drive from Witsand.

Thank you, Irma!  When we passed through there in August, it was freezing. It looks like you guys had a bit more sunshine than we did.