Picture This! by karin

Lake Como and surrounds

2009-11-09T21:50:00.004+02:00

After a day and a half around Lake Lugano, we decided to cross the border to Italy and explore Lake Como. One of the reasons that Lake Como is so famous is that George Clooney owns a house here. Unfortunately I didn't get to see either George or his house - next time girls ;)

More of Carona

2009-11-05T17:43:00.004+02:00

Lake Lugano and Carona

2009-11-04T21:48:00.004+02:00

So after a few days in and around Zurich, we took a drive to the south of Switzerland where we stayed in a tiny village called Carona high up in the hills surrounding Lake Lugano. My sister told me that we would be entering the Italian part of Switzerland, but I didn't realise just how Italian it would be! Suddenly all you hear is Italian, all you see is Italian, and all you eat is Italian (yum ). The architecture is also completely different and so many beautiful textures and colours - I was in photographer's heaven!

Zurich: Part Three

2009-11-03T20:40:00.003+02:00

This is the last installment of Zurich images - tomorrow I'm moving on to a different part of Switzerland.
These are just some of the smaller and odder things I noticed while exploring this beautiful city.

Zurich: Part Two

2009-11-02T19:20:00.004+02:00

Firstly - CONGRATULATIONS to my sister and Nick who finally got engaged this weekend. I am so happy and excited for them!

Secondly - we had very stormy weather in the Western Cape last week which resulted in my ADSL line being down for the entire week, hence the long absence.

And so finally, here is the second installment of Zurich pics. Are you bored yet?

Zurich: Part One

2009-10-25T11:04:00.005+02:00

Rennette and I spent hours just walking through the streets of Zurich with our cameras. In my younger days I used to devour the guide books on the places I visited and then was sure to visit all the recommended monuments, churches and museums. This time around I didn't even open a guide book and far more enjoyed walking through the streets, soaking up the atmosphere and culture, while studying everything, from big buildings to small keyholes. Here are a few images, trying to capture the "big picture".

Swiss countryside

2009-10-24T17:53:00.005+02:00

So I'm back :) It was a wonderful trip and exceeded all my expectations. It was incredibly hard to leave my family behind and during the entire journey I felt lost and bewildered. But once I saw my wonderful sister waiting for me on the other side, I put on my big girl panties and approached the adventure with the enthusiasm it deserved. It was fantastic to be in Europe again after all these years! I also enjoyed having adult conversations for a full 10 days without interruption and I will never forget the time my sister and I spent together. It was also fantastic to have someone with me who is just as fanatic about photography than I am! We spent hours walking around with our cameras, looking for new and interesting things to capture and the best part was looking at the results at the end of each day. It's still amazing to me how two people can walk in each other's footsteps and seem to aim their cameras in the same direction, but still end up with totally different images.
I'm so glad I went on this trip - it has enriched, energised, enlightened and entertained me. It was a privilege and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity.
Obviously, I took an obscene amount of photos and I'll try not to bore you with too many repetitive images.
We took a trip from Zurich to St Gallen and surrounds and I fell in love with the Swiss countryside. Unfortunately, it rained the whole day, but I was not about to neglect my camera because of a few drops of water!

Off I Go

2009-10-07T22:13:00.004+02:00

I'm off to Zurich tomorrow to visit my wonderful sister. This is the first time that I am leaving the house without either husband or kids. If I can manage to push through the anxiety of leaving them and traveling on my own for the first time in 11 years, I know I'm in for a fabulous time! I plan to take loads of pictures and will surely have lots to show you when I get back in two weeks. I'm hoping that this will give me a fresh perspective on life and teach me some new things about myself. Deep breath....and off I go!

Sea views

2009-10-04T16:00:00.001+02:00

Flying high

2009-10-02T11:58:00.004+02:00

I've been a bit bored with my work lately and have started to experiment more on the editing side of things. It's actually quite amazing what you can create with just a standard digital image. It's a great creative outlet and even though I have started out as a purist (take the picture as you want it to be, with minimal editing afterwards) I've started to appreciate more drastic techniques in changing my images. I'm considering printing this one on canvas to hang in Joubert's room. It looks more like a painting than a photo this way and even though I know it's him in the picture, it could be any boy, anywhere.
Anyway. It might not be your cup of tea, but I quite like it :-)

Petting tortoises

2009-10-01T11:08:00.004+02:00

We saw loads of tortoises in and around Yzerfontein and the kids (especially Emma) couldn't resist taking a closer look. Joubert is a little more cautious around them as the last time he picked one up, it emptied it's bladder all over his hands :-) Emma just loves them and kept on shouting "stop, STOPPP", whenever we approached one. After the 30 millionth time we decided to develop sudden loss of hearing :-)
It was a small miracle that we didn't drive over this teeny tiny little baby - I don't think I've ever seen such a small tortoise!

West coast flowers

2009-09-30T13:28:00.005+02:00

Just a few of images of the beautiful display of wild flowers we saw on our recent trip to the west coast.

Flower children

2009-09-29T10:15:00.003+02:00

The other side of the lens

2009-09-28T14:17:00.003+02:00

We went camping at Yzerfontein this past long weekend and had an absolute blast. On Saturday we went searching for the last of the wild flowers and Henk took the opportunity to snap a few pics of me and the kids. I have almost NO photos of me and the kids together, so even though I despise being in front of the camera, it is nice to have these images and I think Henk did a great job of capturing us!
Might I just add that minutes after these were taken we not only saw a scorpion, but also a puff adder. Nothing like taking a walk on the wild side, heh.

VIews of the garden

2009-09-23T17:14:00.004+02:00

I just want to start off by saying that Blogger is driving me batty. I mean, how slow can you go?? Every single thing from uploading photos to commenting is taking absolutely bloody ages and its really testing my patience. And off course causes me to blog even less than I should...
Anyway. We moved into our new house 6 weeks ago and its quite interesting exploring around the garden and trying to figure out what all the different plants are. It's also beautiful now that everything is exploding into colour and I must thank the previous owners for creating such a lovely garden.

Joubert turns six

2009-09-22T19:43:00.004+02:00

So Joubert turned six last week, which not only means that he is getting scary big, but also that I am getting scary old (-;

After paging through my birthday cake recipe books, Joubert decided that he wanted a pirate party which is such a fun theme and I thoroughly enjoyed planning for it! The party was a great success with all the usual party treats, a pinata, jumping castle and Henk even agreed to dust off his old chest of tricks (he used to earn extra money by performing tricks at parties and restuarants when he was still studying) to entertain the boys. I must just add though that I had no idea 15 little boys could be quite that exhausing to supervise!!! Good grief, by the time the party ended Henk and I were both dead on our feet! But we had one very happy little boy, which makes it all more than worth it.

New toy in the tree

2009-09-09T18:56:00.001+02:00

Emma turns 3

2009-09-09T18:02:00.005+02:00

The "baby" of the house turned 3 on Monday and on Saturday, she had her first real birthday party with all the trimmings. She was so excited and had such a great time, I am really grateful that we were able to do this for her. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by. I know I've said this before, but in many ways I still think of her as a baby. Clearly, that must stop now! And though it's very tempting to have another baby, I realise that no matter how many babies I have, they will all eventually grow up and rather deal with it now than coping with half a dozen children!

Reflections of her

2009-09-02T21:13:00.003+02:00

Funny face

2009-08-30T15:39:00.001+02:00

Adorable

2009-08-26T20:50:00.003+02:00

More days on the beach

2009-08-24T20:35:00.002+02:00

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

2009-08-24T20:12:00.003+02:00

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

2009-08-23T21:00:00.001+02:00

O, die Donkie!

2009-08-23T20:34:00.003+02:00