Kruger park

I am sitting on my little patio and a kingfisher hoots in the distance. There is a little forest of Mopani trees in front of the house that overlooks the sandy riverbed. 

We arrived in the Kruger park on Thursday and stayed one night in the Satara camp. On Friday we drove north to Letaba, a camp filled with trees and small tame bushbuck wandering around between the houses. We overlook the sandy riverbed that teems with waterbuck, hippos, impala and elephants. Such peace on earth.

The view out of the patio 

The house we are staying in.

Midwinter Stylecraft

During the course of the past year, I have had a mild case of shopaholic-itis, and the objects of my affections have mainly been vintage silver plated items and crockery.

It started with buying mostly inexpensive silver plated table items... Salt and pepper sets, tea trays that have made their way to the walls of my dining room. At a point I started reading up on the few sets of teacups and saucers that I have that were my granny's. It's opened up a whole world of history. 

One set that my gran owned is cups and tennis plates (the have place for your cup and eats on one plate) made by James Kent in a chintz pattern called "Du Barry".  Since I have been watching, I can see crazy prices being reached for this one pattern... Not sure why except that it seems that have become popular around the world too. 

I have also built up a collection of Royal Albert in a pattern called "Rainbow". A lovely multicoloured ombré set - it has pastel pink, lilac, yellow, blue and turquoise. It's quite fun to scour online waiting for the right shape teacup to be listed and all I am waiting for now is the right pink set to come onto the market to complete my collection of 12 trios (teacup, saucer and cake plate). 

I could blog just about all the things I have my eye on, but this evening three little beauties from a less popular make arrived three months after I bought them. There is a cake plate, sweetie dish and a pretty jam dish with the spoon that rests in the detachable handle. 

They are made by Midwinter and the range is called Stylecraft, and they date to the 60's. They were pretty inexpensive, all three were bought for less than R200. There are some lovely patterns made by the same company designed by Jessie Tait that just scream Midcentury modern. Other pretty ranges designed by Hugh Casson were called Cannes and Riviera. 

It makes me happy to make place and a new home for pieces that were loved long ago.

Day trip to Capri

On the second day we were in Rome, we planned to do a day trip to the island of Capri. 

We booked a trip through Viator long before leaving home.  The link with the details of the trip are http://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Capri-Day-Trip-from-Rome/d511-2390GRET14.  

Because we weren't staying a hotel, we didn't arrange a pick up from our hotel.   The tour company's offices were very close to Termini train station so we used the Metro to get to Termini and then walked one block to get to the tour company. There was a little corner shop near the offices, and we picked up a water and some snacks for the trip beforehand.

Because we were early, we managed to get good seats on the bus and managed to sit together. The bus also took people to the Pompeii site, so was quite full. The commentary was in English, Italian and Spanish and was quite repetitive! I was glad I had downloaded an audio book to listen to during the trip. 

The bus dropped the Capri visitors off at the port in Naples, so unfortunately we didn't see much of Naples, but did get a view of the countryside on the drive out of Rome. We passed Montecasino along the way.

The ferry set off not long after we arrived at the port. Unfortunately the weather outside was drizzly on the day we went, so we didn't get great views apart from the massive ocean liners in the harbour. 

When we got to Capri port, we were advised that the speedboats that usually take visitors to see the coastline and Blue Grotto (cave) weren't running as a result of the weather. We were quite grateful as we had more chance of exploring the island. Our guide perked up at the chance to actually show off the island, which apparently doesn't happen too often!

From the harbour, we took a very small bus up the steep hills and stopped at Capri town. The island is full of lemon tres growing and has such a Greek/ Mediterranean feel which was lovely. 

We walked through the little narrow streets of Capri town and walked through some beautiful public gardens to see the view. 

After stopping at the obligatory limoncello shop, it was off to town of Anacapri for lunch. From the reviews of the tour, we weren't expecting much but this certainly was our foodie lowlight of the whole trip! I would not like to relive the experience. In retrospect for a first time, it was an easy option to take a tour and I loved the island but if I went back I would do the research and do this independently. 

After lunch we had a chance to view the little shops in Anacapri and go on the chairlift to see the island (we didn't do this) instead we managed to find a pretty good gelato shop!

Once our guide had warmed to the group, we found him to be an avid gardener (probably not surprising as Italians seem to be keen on growing produce in the smallest of places) and he was keen to point out interesting fruits and plants I had never seen before. 

The trip ended with a ferry ride back to Naples around 5pm, and a bus ride back to Rome that meant we arrived back at the apartment at around 9pm. A long day but really worth the experience.