Clearly, romance is in the air between this stunning Belgian Shepherd and his new friend, a beautiful Border Collie. They are both about the same age.

Not too long ago, Hollie got the fright of her life when she first met the big golden dog with the incredible jaws – who wouldn’t? But as they have to learn to get along with one another now, I did the trick with the stick, some cookies, some cuddles and, most importantly, me and my wellies always inbetween. Safety first. Hollie wasn’t comfortable at all, though highly interested in having a play- and runmate, not to speak of a playboy! Although… no, let’s not go there!

After having some close and personal talks with the awe-inspiring yet gentle Mojo, he became so incredibly gentlemanlike that I melted away. Completely, that is! Well, there wasn’t much left of me anyway since we met for the first time. Look how he reaches with his giant paws across my wellies,paws-up – I’m all your’s, no hidden agenda, no guns. Pretty rare these days…

No wonder Hollie was totally smitten! Look at her! Well, what would YOU do?

Romance is in the air

Meanwhile, Mojo hid his face and laughed! He just knew it had worked again… he’s just irresistible! It seems, even those jaws were no deterrent  anymore and, definitely, suddenly there was Romance in the air!
And besides, who doesn’t want a strong and protective partner during rough times?

Which was the cue for me to take both on a long hike up into the mountain, where you feel just so much better if you have those sort of jaws around. Just in case… these days, one just never knows!

I just couldn’t resist to share these talking pictures – enjoy!

Original article by © Bianca Gubalke

Finally, the Psychic Delia website is back online, after it had been hit by a terrible hack attack – as so many others over the past year and, especially, month. Psychic Delia O’Riordan is a prolific writer with a large readership following her articles on Psychic Readings, Paranormal phenomena and many other topics so many people get more and more interested in today.

Psychic Delia Website

A personalized “Join me on Facebook” and “Join me on Twitter”  tab has been integrated on the Psychic Delia Website – and all that remains now is to redo the Shop.

Just Ask Delia’s readings are extremely helpful as you can read on the Testimonials page (these are real people that can be contacted!). Please use the Contact page if you want to urgently book a reading and the Shop is not ready yet. Otherwise, I hope I get it done by tomorrow!

Sometimes family and friends are just too close and you need a neutral professional to help with an issue – that’s where Delia O’Riordan can be of immense help!

“Dill from Noordhoek” could become a niche product for me as the plants are thriving so well in my garden! As we are moving towards the shortest day and the longest (and probably coldest) night down here in the Southern hemisphere at the tip of Africa, we have to use every minute of sunshine to get on with all that needs to be done in the garden, planting and transplanting, just before the next storm or rains hit us!

That’s when I also noticed that my dill (Anethum graveolens), which is also called ‘Lao coriander’ when grown in Laos and Thailand, is much higher than the 40-60 cm mentioned in many manuals! It’s not only a very useful culinary as well as medicinal plant and herb, but in my view also pretty decorative in gardens, besides the fact that it attracts beneficial insects. I love the fragrance and use almost everything – the fernlike aromatic leaves, stems and seeds – when preparing delicious meals, especially in winter vegetable soups, colourful healthy salads and fish dishes. It’s unbeatable in mashed potatoes, cucumber pickles  and with smoked salmon.

Here we go again: food! I could go on and on. . . so could you, I’m sure !

Dill from Noordhoek

My other agenda when it comes to ‘Dill from Noordhoek’ is, of course, digital photography! And Dill is so incredibly photogenic! Whether as a plant with its fine twigs and umbrella-shaped yellow flowers or when the seeds ripen! As I’m not back to normal eye-sight just yet, I am starting slowly to get back into swing with my images. The photo below is the original I took about a month ago with my Fujifilm – and I think it’s rather sharp although, at that time, I wasn’t seeing that sharp anymore and wondered why!

But to get back into swing, I worked on this simple photo in ADOBE Photoshop to give it a different look, an antique frame, and playing with black & white values. When seeing the photo, I immediately saw an arum lily as well, and tried to bring this out as a little side note – not that it is important, but it inspired me to work around it! If you squeeze your eyes and look at it from further away, it’s actually quite amazing!

So that’s for today’s article on “Dill from Noordhoek”…. working my way up again after losing all my work since February due to a bad hack – so don’t be surprised by seeing changes in the website soon, too!

Have a happy weekend and enjoy a good meal – with or without dill!

The last visible sunset at Chapman’s Peak is a good reason to send everybody a cheerful “Good Evening from Noordhoek” – in gold !

On its path – depending on who’s looking from where and how of course – the sun disappears from our sight around mid February and returns around mid November. At Christmas we see it sinking into the Atlantic Ocean, right in front of us.

Good Evening from Noordhoek

These days we unfortunately spend more time on cleaning out hacks than enjoying something like a peaceful and serene “Good Evening from Noordhoek” – or grabbing a digital camera and taking photographs.

However, it seems these brave guys have upgraded from hitting normal people to the likes of Facebook and Microsoft. May those entitities deal with them accordingly.

Now for a glass of champagne to celebrate the end of February 2013 – on my sister’s birthday February 29th – forever young! Cheers!

The first March Lilies (Amaryllis belladonna) 2013 greeted me early this morning when I stepped into my garden! The ideal moment for some flower photography: a bright pink bouquet of amazing beauty with Chapman’s Peak in Noordhoek, South Africa, in the background! The perfect “Good morning from Noordhoek!”

First March Lilies 2013

Perhaps it’s a bit early for the first March Lilies, but I am thrilled whenever I see them coming up! It means that it will get a little cooler and – hopefully for Nature and the gardens – the rains are not far away!

First March Lilies 2013

The huge trumpetlike flowers of the Amaryllis belladonna exhude a fine scent and are an unforgetful sight when growing in carpets on a mountain slope. They love rocks and rocky soil. While the seeds are distributed by the wind, they have large clumps of bulbs that can be separated during the dormant season and transplanted. That’s how I transplanted these in a sheltered yet very central spot, close to rocks and agapanthus.

I will have to inspect my garden for all the secret places that may explode in pink within the next days! They will attract honey bees and carpenter bees and I have seen sunbirds hovering over them. Unfortunately, there’s also a black and yellow striped caterpillar – the lily borer – that means big trouble. If I see it I remove it by hand and cut off the infected and damaged parts of the foliage. If I don’t, the little bugger continues to eat its way through and the stem eventually collapses. I’m sure there is other food around – just not these stunning march lilies that don’t last forever anyway!

Interestingly, the longish leaves of the amaryllis belladonna only appear after flowering and remain green and juicy throughout winter. This rather unusual phenomenon is called hysteranthy.

The Ycademy Seminar April 2013 is in full swing, lasting from 20th April to 21st April 2013. With Internet users shifting their attention more and more towards handheld mobile devices – smart phones, iphones, ipads and the like – there is an urgent need for responsive websites, meaning responsive web design.

“Responsive’ here means that our website content in form of text and media adapts automatically to the form and shape of any device.

Hence, the need for a new responsive script arose. After working for years on Semiomantics XO, this month’s Ycademy Seminar focuses on the new release of the latest, the finest and the hottest WordPress based responsive script : XR!

Ycademy Seminar April 2013

Therefore, the motto of this month’s Ycademy Seminar April 2013 is ‘responsive’. It’s more complex than one assumes as we can’t just switch to a ‘XO responsive’! The fact is that a dramatic change has taken place to keep us at the forefront of modern web developments, and the brand-new XR was born.

It’s a new era! A new start! A new challenge!

Fortunately, as Semiomantics experts we already have a good foundation as to what is needed in technical terms and skills. At this seminar we want to deepen and refine it. One needs to learn how to work easily and effortlessly within the new environment. This requires more knowledge and skills in terms of Code, i.e.html 5 and css 3. And, much more!

So here’s to today’s Ycademy Seminar on XR – Theory and Praxis: How to edit, configure, optimize and customize XR.

Based on the full XR developer version, we will go through all the features, learn how to replace our XO, and how to create Child Themes for XR.

Just look as this website here evolves on the newly integrated XR!

Original article by © Bianca Gubalke

“Golden sunset in Noordhoek”, South Africa… a picture worth a thousand words!

Golden Sunset in Noordhoek

“Golden sunset in Noordhoek” – nothing more to say. . .

Perhaps one thing: I so much enjoy my Fujifilm X-E1… each day a little more :)

And this: it’s fascinating how much excellent digital photography actually is out there; an inspiration to try to get a little better each time we go out and shoot!

 
Original article by © Bianca Gubalke

The first thing to do after the Cape Autumn Storm was a round through my garden, here in Noordhoek, South Africa, to see the extent of the damage. Camera in hand, of course!

Luckily, the trees and plants were more flexible due to the heavy rains and, accordingly, we had to spend the day merely to get back some ‘order’ – as far as that is possible and desirable in a wild garden like mine! Nature in the so-called “richest floral kingdom in the world’ is diverse and astonishing enough without too much of our interference, however, regular clean-ups are a must as ‘normally’ fynbos and proteas just burn down every 15 or so years – that’s normal. And then life starts all new again, rising like phoenix from the ashes.

One fire like the one we went through is enough for a life time – so the alternative is to regularly control what’s coming down in the storms or what’s coming up in terms of alien vegetation, especially Port Jackson, rooikrans, myrtle and hakea. Pines and blue gums are also known to suck up a lot of water; hence the need to control their growth and distribution.

The massive stone pine above has already gone through the historic fires that swept through the Cape Peninsula in the year 2000, where everything you see on this picture went up in 30 m high flames! One can still see the marks on the bark. It’s a serene place to simply sit and spend some quiet time, leaning against the stem.

This is where I discovered the plane tree leaf below, all glistening in magnificent autumn colours. Ideal for some digital photography – another exercise!

After the Cape Autumn Storm

Here you see Holly, our border collie, assisting with the clean-up after the Cape autumn storm yesterday! She had a good time!

Within 24 hours, our small dam filled up by about 50%! All it needs now is one more time like this one! We waited forever last year; it just didn’t happen! So finally the earth could absorb the much needed water after the scorching summer days.

Original article by © Bianca Gubalke

Even the first wet and extremely violent Autumn Storms in Noordhoek, South Africa, that literally turned off the lights, did not keep me from putting on my boots and taking a few low-light shots in the garden with my new photo camera, the Fuji X-E1, which has a reputation of being very good at exactly that – contrary to my good old NIKON Coolpix P90.

Well, although such small images are not optimal, the fact is that what was said above – and this by reputable photo camera reviewers like Ken Rockwell – is definitely the truth and the steep difference in price is deserved. In Digital Photography – as in anything in life for that matter – you get what you pay for. I had to wait for a while… but I am very happy now! While this camera is not a high-end one yet, professionally speaking, it’s perfect for my current transition where I am including more and more printed matter (for books, for instance). Besides, there’s a lot of learning and experimenting to be done before this discreet little machine has released all its power and secrets!

Whoever knows our place will certainly immediately recognize the unique atmosphere; be it in the vast serene lines and the diversity within a multitude of little shapes and details. It’s real, it’s authentic – that I like.

Autumn Storms in Noordhoek

Here’s another shot for today’s picture series called “Autumn Storms in Noordhoek”, this time towards the mountain range in the east (Silvermine Nature Reserve), where the sun normally arrives in the morning. Sun? No more sun today – just storms, rains and a gloomy darkness. But Nature needs it and so we are grateful!

As to the X-E1: the finesse in terms of details and the lack of noise are simply amazing …this is a real photo camera!

That’s for today from the Cape of Storms, South Africa!

This original article was written by © Bianca Gubalke

With YORGOO becoming a limited company and soon celebrating a renaissance in a completely new shape – adapted to modern… meaning mobile times – a whole new branding has to be developed. As we work in collaboration – not competition – on this topic together as a team, here are a few of my own first YORGOO Logo Design Ideas with an emphasis on the name itself with an elegant touch and a lying 8, the sign of infinity.

A simple little favicon in 16 x 16 px could look like this, both developed directly from the logo:

YORGOO Logo Design Ideas

Strict rules in terms of the colour scheme – black, white, greys and red only – have been observed in these first YORGOO Logo Design Ideas, whereas the choice of fonts was entirely free. Obviously, this is very much a matter of personal taste, but we have to ensure that these fonts display perfectly both online and in printed matter.

In the above variant I chose a combination of black and very dark grey, perhaps not easily distinguishable here, or perhaps I’m going blind :). The same below, with a tick of red… but not necessary.

…and a totally different feel – I just had to do this and I could go wilder:

How to create a Logo

There are many ways to learn how to create a logo… and it shows if you’re ‘in the zone’ and having fun when doing so! It’s just the beginning that’s hard, when an idea wants to be born and projected into our physical plane!

So just get started with an idea and play and experiment around it!

That’s how I got to the cute little elephant above… right from the word “YORGOO”… in a different font and shape, also playing with RGB colours (as YORGOO stands for “Media Marketing Publishing”) :

…and also integrating our slogan “Together We Are Unbeatable” – which will appear as a fine red line, depending on the size of the logo:

You see: I got started and experimented… and this is how this totally ‘out-of-the-box’ logo developed. A really original and interesting idea… but we won’t stop there, but just continue to improve!

Although everything needs definition and detail work, this logo appears well as a little favicon:

Well, elephants always make their mark; I’ve grown up with them in Namibia, they truly blow you away :)

There are tons of informative articles on the web teaching you what to observe when creating a logo. It is essentially a process where you start with first sketches as I did here (although I do idea scribbles by hand first esp. if not working with a focus on fonts directly), and you add, change, adapt, and produce massively for your dustbin (or delete button) until you just know you’ve got it!

Show it around, ask others what they like or don’t like, and keep going until you are happy – or your client is! Logo development is a highly paid profession – just think of Apple, Coca Cola and IBM for example. And if you look where Apple started and into what the famous logo evolved this process can even take decades!

We won’t have that long, but at least this is a beginning! Hang in there for more to come…

A Noordhoek Sunset with Agapanthus that could well go into my series “Good Evening from Noordhoek”!

Noordhoek Sunset with Agapanthus

On this digital photo “Noordhoek Sunset with Agapanthus” we clearly see the setting sun moving back behind the mountain – Chapman’s Peak – to the right. As from mid February until mid November we don’t see the sun setting directly in the Atlantic Ocean anymore; hence we really cherish the special time when it honours us with its spectacular daily drama!

This picture was taken from my garden a few days ago, and I tested a new filter in Adobe Photoshop…

With the absolute ‘apps mania’ driving, overrolling and haunting today’s digital world, there is no way around the application software that will sooner or later have us say good-bye to Internet browsers. Accordingly, the first YCADEMY Seminar January 2013 focuses on “How to create Apps” and future seminars and workshops for the first half of the year are clearly lined out.  I call it the “Power of Apps” – and it needs our power of the mind. And not only that!

How to create Apps

“How to create Apps” is crucial and essential knowledge to be and stay on top of website development and website design.

Today, we are looking at so many different formats -  iphones, ipads, tablets, smartphones, phablets, laptops and I don’t know what besides the usual desktops -, that responsive web design is the answer, but that’s easier said than done! Preparing and adapting websites for different browsers – Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari etc to name just a few – was already quite a task and often pretty frustrating, but what we are facing now is worse! It may well mean that instead of developing one website for a customer we actually have to develop three or four or even more, depending on where the customer wants his message or shop to be seen!  It could well explode costs!

Thank heavens for YCADEMY Seminars to steer us safely through this labyrinth of new technological developments at such breathtaking pace!

Ycademy Seminar January 2013

The first day at the Ycademy Seminar (yesterday) took us through an in-depth introduction of apps, their value, features, the dangers, the security issues, the cost, native apps versus hybrid (HTML 5) apps and more issues. We also looked into WP-Touch again, that had already established our author blogs and websites firmly on the mobile web since a while. We simply have to be visible on the mobile web – period!

What is the best and most cost-effective solution for our loyal customers and clients in terms of web development and website design?

That’s the main question for “Web Design with Passion” ; I will know more after today !

Testflipping for English Comprehension (Grades 5 and 6) for South Africa is on the way, spearheaded by Cape Town teacher and educationalist Mrs. Esme Solomon!

Testflipping South Africa

There’s much more to follow on Testflipping South Africa – but now first for a good rest after the first day of the YCADEMY Seminar January 2013!

]]> http://biancagubalke.com/south-africa/testflipping-south-africa/feed/ 0 http://biancagubalke.com/south-africa/testflipping-south-africa/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BiancaGubalke/~3/TROZSJ34pII/ http://biancagubalke.com/web-graphics-tutorials/how-to-remove-fine-white-transparency-lines-on-a-pdf/#comments Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:10:52 +0000 Bianca Gubalke http://biancagubalke.com/?p=8634 How to remove fine white transparency lines on a PDF

In the preparation of my Wedding Album in ADOBE InDesign I included many small picture details that I had created on transparent layers in ADOBE Photoshop. When checking these pages and spreads in PDF format before handing the project over to the printers, I discovered some fine transparency lines – on just a few pages of many – and my long and painful odyssey into how to remove fine white transparency lines on a PDF (…or in InDesign or wherever…) started!

Of course, I checked all my pages and layers in ADOBE InDesign first – and there were absolutely no errors.

The joke was, that whenever I moved a picture frame to a different position, and all showed 100% in the Preview or Presentation mode, all was perfect! But when I checked it in the PDF (Acrobat Pro) – here were the fine lines again! And – the weirdest of all: they had not moved! Then they no longer showed on one PDF – hallelujah! – but came back on another! And then various PDFs did not show the same results either plus, some of the pictures looked like sliced up into pieces of a mosaic!  It was something to go crazy and I only give you the short version here!

I consulted the online FAQ’s of the printer, and while it put me on the correct path by directing me to change the settings in Acrobat Pro (recommendation: untick “Smooth Line Art” as per picture here, found under > Edit > Preferences > Page Display on your PDF), this did not help then as I could not untick this in my version! On top of it, their fine text said that IF these fine lines showed in the submitted PDF, they would print! That was just not acceptable for me; everything was to be as precise and perfect as prepared – no errors, no warnings!

However, Blurb has a brilliant customer service and responded promptly to my request (with attached screenshots), saying those lines should not show and asking me to send them the entire PDF to look into …

How to remove fine white transparency lines on a PDF

Once I had gone to all those lengths to find an answer as to how to remove fine white transparency lines on a PDF, I discussed the distressing issue with Yorgo. We looked into basically everything once again: there had to be a way!

And – finally – there was!

Here’s the short solution to help you save hours of research and tons of hairs turning grey and falling out: the corrected settings in my PDF for printed matter as per above:

The big EUREKA was: under rendering, untick “Use page cache”.

Unticking “Smooth line art” had no influence on the above problem at all, although I managed to untick it by first unticking “Use 2D graphics acceleration”.

So I had smelled the rat – the cache – all the time, but I did not know where to find it! It’s all about basics… and we never stop learning! Thank heavens – problem solved!

I could upload the book (PDF) for print and am looking forward to receive a stunning Wedding Book around the 19th February, 2013!

Holly enjoys a Noordhoek sunset from my garden, while the sun has started moving back on its course until it will disappear behind Chapman’s Peak until around 15 November 2013.

Holly enjoys a Noordhoek Sunset

Well, it’s not only Holly who enjoys the Noordhoek sunsets South of Cape Town, South Africa – we all do! We won’t find this year’s fashionable emerald green in the sky, but the finest hues of pinks, purples and blues and often a symphony of liquid gold!

Time to sit on the verandah or right on the rocks or in the soft sand on the beach and watch it sink into the Atlantic Ocean – sipping something cool and delicious and just… Being! Perfect to let go and connect with Nature’s flow – it’s the best we can do anyway!

Good Evening from Noordhoek

Good Evening from Noordhoek and have a Happy Sunday!

Announcing the new arrival on the South African market: Testflipping Comprehension !

New: Testflipping Comprehension

Creating a flyer (or flier) – meaning a simple printed paper pamphlet or ad to be distributed by hand  – was part of our daily Ycademy Workshop yesterday, where we are currently working on how to use ADOBE InDesign.

The new schoolbook “Testflipping Comprehension” to improve the reading ability and understanding of the English language for Grade 5 and Grade 6 kids, was a good reason for me to get cracking with my first example.

The English website to follow soon…

Based on its huge success over the past years in Germany, “Testflipping Comprehension” is a first attempt to assist South African parents and their children in Grades 5 and 6 to improve their reading ability and understanding of the English language.

This is not only important for performance in school but it is becoming a matter of survival in an increasingly competitive world where education is the decisive factor for a future career.

Testflipping Comprehension

Testflipping Comprehension includes a special address for parents of a dyslexic child.

This tastefully illustrated compilation consists of 15 stories with interesting, entertaining and educational content in the form of Standard Comprehension Tests with language comprehension questions and clearly defined solutions.

A realistic point system makes it very easy for a stressed mom – or the child herself/himself – to learn, to understand, and to keep track of progress in a methodologically sound and joyful way.

Testflipping Comprehension Feedback

‘Testflipping Comprehension’ was just published by the brand-new South African publishing company, Cajus Publishing, however, the well-known German Bookshop Hugendubel gave the following feedback regarding the German edition for children in Germany who are learning English: “Your comprehension tests are becoming a true blockbuster!”

Simon, 9 years old, sees it like this: “I think the book is very good and I love to exercise with it.”

Finally, here’s from Andrea L., a stressed mom : “Thank you from an extremely relieved mom and two relaxed kids!”

How to pass your English Comprehension Tests

At the end of the day, this is about how to pass your English Comprehension Tests. As such the goal is to help children to approach exams with confidence and ease – and to have relaxed parents. Brief: a happy family!

As mentioned, the books just arrived and a website is under construction.

Meanwhile, BUY BOOK HERE (limited items left at the moment) or contact me via the contact form if you are interested in acquiring a book. It’s ideal for ages 11 – 13 years old.

Alternatively, you may want to get “Testflipping Comprehension” for older kids (14 to 16 years) directly on Amazon – CLICK HERE.

Meanwhile, I am preparing the website, patience please!

Gold metallic fonts are certainly a classic! Who has not seen those precious leather-bound books with elegant letters printed on them in gold?

Gold metallic fonts

On our screens, we paint with light (not with colour as in the printing industry) – and the effects we can achieve with programs like ADOBE Photoshop (to name one) are astonishing – if one knows how!

Glassy Fonts

To start off another busy year, last night’s Ycademy Workshop focused on creating beautiful effects, starting off with glassy fonts…

…and then applying the golden rims to any word or name – here my quick example:

And a symphony in grey, using a very different font:

For a more elegant font, I personally prefer to reduce the golden rim to a minimum, especially when applying a more handwritten style. It’s not easy to see the fine nuances in such a reduced format, but it may motivate me to get the plugin again that helps to see pictures in a larger format.

Working with graphic programs is no different from playing the piano: one’s got to exercise on a daily basis! Following tutorials or a good teacher is a fantastic way to widen one’s horizon and ‘learn by doing’. Although having an Internet connection helps – which was not my case! But following up with the bits that were sound-recorded I did my version of the exercise and enjoyed it!

This is just the beginning… of 2013 !

Not surprisingly and in tune with the change of vibrations and the shifting of energies after the spectacular planetary alignment experienced just recently at the end of 2012, the colours chosen for the year 2013 have changed from a predominently warm to a predominantly cool palette, i.e. from shades of red (eg. tangerine) to shades of green: emerald is the color of the year 2013. Pantone 17-5641 to be precise in online, marketing and fashion terms. As all colors – it’s beautiful – especially if combined with taste and harmony!

Emerald Color of the year 2013

The choice of Emerald as Color of the year 2013 may reflect our deep hope for peace, unity and renewal – all of which are so desperately needed.

Emerald Green aligns the Heart Chakra

While everyone looks for the world to change, this won’t happen unless we change ourselves from inside. In that sense, Emerald Green is the color used to align the heart chakra, allowing it to open to an abundance of love flowing out to everyone it touches, seeing the ‘you’ in ‘me’.  That’s what “UBUNTU” in South Africa stands for: “I am because you are”.

Go Nature

Certainly, no colour is more related to Nature than green, hence the saying “Go Green!” While more elephants and rhino have been slaughtered this year than ever before to find that elusive ‘magic’ from outside, it only is the fatal road to ‘more’ and ‘more’ and ‘more’ – karma that is. True magic resides within. It starts with being environmentally conscious and caring deeply about Nature – we are all part of it!

As the most calming colour of the color wheel, green stands for healing and hope – and both will be dramatically needed for the tasks at hand in 2013! With challenges being opportunities in disguise, let’s look at the wealth it may bring us this year; you define what that exactly means to YOU!

Time for some gardening in hot, summerly Noordhoek, South Africa, where the above photo of tiny Egyptian goslings was taken!

We have so many varieties of birds in our garden in Noordhoek, South Africa, but it is the Cape Sugarbird  (Promerops cafer) that always accompanies us when the years end – and when a new year starts: so, Happy New Year 2013!

Cape Sugarbird

While I capture the graceful Cape Sugarbird just outside my studio high up on the red flowering gum, sucking nectar, and twittering with other family members all around, I am grateful that – at last – we had at least some rains! Just in time to let the colours  appear fresher and more inviting for the extended family to arrive from Europe, and this with the clear intent to stay!

May the Cape Sugarbird see many happy thrills waiting for us at the horizon and… the promise of a most fulfilling year ahead!