Break for the weekend

The past few months have flown by, mainly because mom has been traveling more than usual. Having her home for the weekend (only one this month), meant we had to do something and off the 3 of us went to Addo for the weekend.

Our first sighting was a the biggest dominant male in Addo, Vallie Moosa. He is a big tusker for sure, even on a distance with a telephoto lens.

From the biggest male to the possibly smallest, Stompie (meaning shorty), a name given to him on account of his half tail. He has had it rough, possibly attacked by predators just after birth.

From one baby to another, we saw but could not really photograph 2 baby Hyenas. The minder/mom was rolling around in the morning sun.

Boeta collected little flowers for mom every time he got a chance.

He was enjoying mom being with us and sharing the experience and he let her know on every occasion that he loved her. Sweet to see.

 

 

From our pup to African Shellduck chicks.

Next, we saw a maybe once in a life-time animal in the wild. The Brown Hyena came out the bushes right in front of us and moved over and away as fast as we saw it. I was shaking, had the wrong lens, but managed to grab a photo. This folks, the Brown Hyena, is 100 times more scarce to see in wild.

We were the only people to see it. We were starry eyed and the excitement was touchable.

Boeta was still sharing flowers.

Our last sighting for the day, more elephant bulls drinking water, but on this occasion the Bull let the warthogs know it was time to move on…

The main image of the post is Nyala mom and baby, I used to create a art piece.

 

Another quick miracle story

This little man was born 2 days early, but those two days saved his life. He was born with a lung virus, which as far as I know they have not identified (not sure). In any case by the Monday, the day he should have been born, the hospital called the family together to say their goodbye’s as the blue boy could not get oxygen and was deteriorating rapidly.

Everybody was praying for him to pull through…

The Doctor then tried as a last resort to use a CO2 machine they use on Adults to pull the CO2 off his lungs. At this time he was hooked up to 15 machines to keep him alive.

The tide turned over the next few days and then the worry was brain damage, which also seems to be negative. When he was 1 month, 2 weeks ago, I offered to take a few shots for them.

Watching his proud Mom, who literally went through hell was great..

She is the only one that can kiss him…she had to wait 2 weeks before she could hold him for the first time – he weighed 1.7kg by then from the 3.6 kg he was born with.

He is back at 3.6 kg and past it. He is a fighter.

He has no comprehension about what transpired and already a mind of his own…very cute too!

Thinking of my dad

I found an old scanned photo of my dad from the 1950’s. I just wanted to do something with it, so for the last few days I painted it, digitally.

The original scan is 56 kb in size and very blurred.

The only way to actually enjoy this was to start from scratch and paint it.

This is the result.

 

Update: My Dad did recognize himself and Mom said this is how he looked when he came to visit riding his bicycle nearly 60 km to her. That was 62 years ago.

 

Settling down to a rhythm

It has been pretty hectic over the last year. So many new things to absorb. We are in a state of continuous flux right now, Little man going to see his new school today, I am continuing the pursuit of my new artistic life and mom is traveling even more.

Boeta turned 4 a month ago. How time flies. He is standing 112 cm tall and weighs nearly 21 kg. That means he is the average length of a 6-year-old right now. By all accounts he is doing well and bilingual enough to go to a English school, although it is our second language in the home.

We did take him on his birthday holiday this year again. We spend a few days in the Addo and then traveled to some other parks and new spots.

In the process we did a few mountain walks to waterfalls, which he enjoyed thoroughly.

So that is a quick update to the last 2 months. Have a great weekend.

 

Collaborations

I have been working on some art in Collaboration with Photographer Gabriel Olude. Using his model shoots (20 eventually) to create art I see with each photo. I am a talk to me type person and looking at the photos I go with the one that gets me going first.

The first image that I used was of a model where the image just said strength, strong, powerful. So I did something that I felt said that..

This is a modern strong confident woman, who sparkle in light, who stand in front of a cat protecting it as much as it does her, she demands respect and the maze indicates that you will have to work hard and earn your way to her heart. The map of Africa is not only her home but some say the heart of the world…

Secondly this image – It said – MYSTIQUE – and I wanted to do impressionism/abstract, which I did not really pull off, but this is the result…

Third and last for this set, I wanted abstract again with a model in the rainy streets..”DELIGHT” – Barefoot in the rain.

This was so much fun, I decided late last night to do another unrelated but similar style image called “Dejected”.

I even went as far as doing a room mock-up to see the result in a room.

 

Decisions…

This blog has in many ways been the about the birth of our family, our life at the coast and development of all 3 of us as we went through the last 3 years. It started with the little man.

It grew from there. Mom’s career developed more and more, the little man went through all the first growing phases and dad grew and made choices that for the first time seems to fit perfectly into his outlook on life and our family.

First I started to develop my photography and this is far from finished and then I got in touch with my artistic side again and started to give it space to grow. I listened to my inner self…

This is leading me on lots of artistic adventures and roads I thought I would never travel. I am now fully committed to this adventure. I want to see where it leads me before my time is up.

I have and am still learning to paint, physically and digitally.

It is a tremendous road of learning and in no little part it is thanks to my wife and boy who supports me so much.

Am I saying this is the end…nope…this is the beginning.

I am trying to figure out how I will go forward from here with one aim, one blog. I will not be able to run all types of things anymore, need to simplify and focus, need to maximize time available. So forgive the slow responses and little interaction from us, we are still here and we will NOT disappear.

We are looking toward the horizon and planning trying to make the best decisions for all 3 of us, based on the here and now. Words into action and dreams into reality.

So as the sun sets on the this day we will be here tomorrow and the next, but with a vibrant new day and a new way of doing things. Thanks for the support over the last 3 years and hope you stay with us going forward…

HE HAS GROWN INTO A FINE YOUNG MAN!

Dry summer

It has been a dry start to 2017. We are in the midst of our summer and the rain is staying away. I am lucky because I planned a garden based on succulents, so I do not have to water in any case, but even the poor succulents are looking for rain now. We have daily fires everywhere in the Southern Part of South Africa now and the smoke smell keeps coming and going throughout the days as the winds shift.

Boeta is growing so quickly, it is scary. He is fully potty trained (we took our time and it turned out to be much less of the issue it is made to be). He is becoming more and more his own “man” with his own preferences and moods. He is our trooper living a life unlike most other 3 year-olds. Mom had to fly again and he was up at 3.30 am and eating croissants and watching planes at 5 am yesterday.

Here he is last night just before sunset, still laughing and enjoying life. You cannot but to admire his spirit.

Have a great day.

Always great at Southern Point of Africa…

We spent the first week of 2017 at Struis Bay, which some of the older followers may know as our most special place, holding deepest of meanings.

As our little grows, it just become more special to us. He is enjoying the space and unique environment there too.

We loved taking a drive, buying fish and chips at our favorite shop and eating it at the beach, sometimes in the car, other times sitting on the rocks.

The real Southern Point of Africa has a whole different feel of ominous danger to it. Many a ship has gone down over the years. This part reminds us very much of our home, the rocks being more similar, but not as sharp and pointed.

 

Happy New Year

Hi, we are back from a trip to the cape. We would like to wish all our friends a happy, wonderful and fruitful 2017.

We flew down to Cape Town, collected Boeta’s Grandparents and set off to Struis bay for New Year.

Boeta got a late present, this was one of my favorite toys as a kid and he now has one too.

As we got to 2017, we popped a few drinks and shared some laughs.

We also drove around a little, exploring and just relaxing as much as we can. My camera never being to far away.

These house were some of the first from 1800’s.

The harbor.

Outlying farm

Boeta running the planks on the many walking areas.

More later…

 

Three years

High guys,

We are back from our quick trip for Boeta’s Birthday. It was a great success. We had a few obstacles to overcome, but all to do with life outside the our family environment, some of which we will share.

The main character turned 3 on Saturday in the Addo National Elephants Park.

We will share with you all the stories, funnies and travel finds (Fauna) over the next weeks. For now I will just share this shot with you and one other…A portrait of Boeta, taken while walking around on the first evening.

Lots more to come….

Walking home….with the explorer!

After turning around, we walked back slowly, still looking for anything interesting.

The sun was going down fairly quickly by now. We still had a bit of a walk back home. Boeta did not care one bit.

Every time I pushed him a little he complained and wanted to walk in the opposite direction, only for the drag of a dad to remind him that it was getting late and we had to go home.

I loved this spot with the green algae to spend some moments here to shoot a few shots, all freehand.

I looked for Boeta who was in his own world, finding another treasure, I am sure. I called him and he came walking toward me pointing at a Oystercatcher flying past and asking what it was.

I again reminded him that we had to move on and he reluctantly joined me as we walked towards home. I took a few shots in that direction. You can just see the houses.

It was a brilliant evening yet again. I could not get enough of the clouds and the setting sun, so every now and then I would get another shot.

As we got closer we saw some fisherman again. Sometimes the ladies join their husbands/friends as they angle in the early evening as was the case with this young man.

Boeta was in great spirits and still throwing rocks, running and enjoying being at the beach. You would never know we were coming to the end of a 6 km walk.

It was too dark now. I was on the built-in flash to get any descent shots. Really time for us to get home.

I took a last shot of the white rocks and the remaining sunlight.This is the last of this series of posts. We hope you enjoyed the full photographic walk with us.

Tomorrow we leave for a short Safari and a few days in the mountains to celebrate our son’s 3rd Birthday. Hopefully we will bring lots of photos of wildlife and landscapes to share next week. Have a great weekend, I know we will.

I looked for Boeta …. he was busy looking for crabs under the flat rocks.

My son – The explorer! Happy Birthday, we are so proud of you! Love you, Mom and Dad!

 

About a toddler

Unbelievably it has been 2 years since we started sharing our rumbling ocean with you guys. Boeta was about to turn 1. Today we are looking at a near 3 year-old…in a month.

In those days I took him to the beach walking down with the stroller, showing him the waves, rocks, beach, birds, boats and dolphins. Today he loves (adores) the beach and on most days, especially in the afternoon after he wakes up his first words are: “Let’s go walk or let’s go to the beach”. He loves throwing rocks into the pools, has to hunt for real crabs, sea snails and most other creatures he can find, only to throw it into a pool.

He now weighs around 17 kg (37.4 lbs) and he stands 1.01m (near 40 inches) tall.

He is a friendly little chap wanting to kiss and hug most people if he is comfortable with them. He laughs easily and we tend to have lots of fun throughout the day.

He is also a toddler with normal “no, no do not want to do this or that” on a regular basis, but never says no to kicking a ball, walking and going to the beach….never. Last time he was sick…one year ago…the flu. He talks a lot, loves to learn, especially from books and counts to 10 in 2 languages, talks mainly in Afrikaans, but also knows colors in english and says the odd sentence in english like, “Are you thinking what I am thinking?” or “You are my best friend” and loves to sing Bah-Bah Black Sheep….When in his element he is a little character…

He loves running, yes toddlers run, but he loves to do cross-country running at the beach…On this occasion it was becoming late..he did not give up and wanted to cry every time I said let’s go home…I flashed the last shots. There is at least a 8 meter (26 ft ) difference between the beach and the top, where I stood. He runs laps in the path and I am yet to see how many he can do, I usually stop and walk home after 6 or 7. He loves it. I am tired after 2 laps….yes 2!

Earlier on this day I took a photo of him riding his bicycle with helmet…he can ride it on flat surfaces by himself, but not uphill yet.

So there you have it. Our little man is growing up, sometimes too fast. We are so grateful for this wonderful gift and we are so very proud of him.

Spending time together…

The aim of this trip was spending time together as a family and enjoying being one. So I will try to give some idea of this through the activities of Boeta for a day at the lodge. After breakfast we sat outside having a nice coffee. It did not take long before Boeta had one and then two friends from the lodge and they played together.

Their mom called them for something and Boeta decided to take mom for a walk as I was also walking around looking for birds to photograph, such as the those in the previous posts.

He was in a running mood and at that moment nothing else mattered to me. I wanted to capture the 2 year-old in flight and I wanted to capture the delight.

Se if you think I managed this…

Before we knew it, it was midday and time to nap. After his 3 hour nap, he was ready for more play on the big lawn at the lodge. We were so peaceful at this stage, totally relaxed. I say we, because I could see mom also felt relaxed.

The best for me was watching them together, mother and child, just being together.

Boeta, being a healthy toddler, does not sit still for too long and as you would guess he was off again, exploring.

He found another friend of similar age and they had a quick play or combined investigation of the wagon behind them.

It was getting late and we had to start planning dinner and bath-time. We spent as much time as we could outside together that day and the day played along even keeping the mood serene right into the evening.

So as the sun sets, you can see the figure of a mother and her son on the grass taking it all in. I soon joined them, taking a deep satisfied breath.

Another project…Boeta, my first finished face!

Thought I would share this project. I have never attempted a portrait oil painting before and this being number 6/7 paintings it is understandable. I attempted my first face using a women (unknown) to learn. It was not a great success, but gave me some needed chances to play with ideas. All the photos were taken with the old mobile.

The face got distorted with all the practice.

I decided I had enough and did not finish her, because I knew she was just an important stepping stone.

I decided to take a chance and paint a portrait photo of Boeta.

I did a 2-tone painting and it looked like I could continue, so I did.

Next was the flesh color and the hat.

I kept building and developing.

Boeta is 9 months old here, has 1 tooth and is wearing his grandfathers hat. This Grandfather is sadly no longer with us, so the original photo had lots of significance as it was taken in his house in Struis Bay. We will frame and put this painting on the wall in that house. So there my first official portrait finished.

Fishing, biking and water ballooning

A few weeks ago we had a sudden change in water temperature due to ocean rip current, which cause fish to scatter everywhere I would guess and some got stuck in the pools in low tide. A brilliant opportunity for the Boeta to do his own fishing. He loved it.

Then came the new bike, his first big boy bike….he really LOVED it….

Finally dad introduced a new game – water ballooning…now this took the cake.. HE REALLY LOVED THIS….

Just some fun moments in the life of our little man who can now put together enough words to explain what he wants to do, where he wants to go or not….

Such a pleasure watching him develop with such an abundance of joy and laughter…We are proud parents.