Ladies

I've been in Cape Town for a month and my goodness, there are some amazing looking people here! I thought I'd do a little project for fun, of gorgeous women. I've so enjoyed it.

Trees please

I like that when you go to somewhere new, all the little mundane parts of an environment seem to take on new meaning in their subtle differences to your own. Here the trees have a different look, sometimes contorted by the wind, known as the Cape Doctor, blowing away dirt from the city in a particularly south-easterly direction. Whatever the shapes and colours, it's a beautifully green lung of  place thanks to these natural forms.

Natural History

 

This week I visited the South African Natural History Museum, and it was incredible. What a collection, just amazing to look at, and even better as you're allowed to photograph. Some were plastic replicas, especially the fish (would be a bit smelly if not I imagine), but the stuffed animals were  breathtaking, albeit a little upsetting. Standing next to an adult hippo and being able to see its huge teeth, and seeing a stuffed African elephant killed over a hundred years ago within touching distance was bizarre. 

Anyway, it's the kind of place you could visit again and again, but these were a few snaps I collected on the day. So many furry, tentacled, boney, beaky things to see!

Save the Date

Just a few ideas for a wedding job I had on lately that were fun to do. The theme was vintage luggage labels with an Austrian flavour. 

Wild flowers

 

Yesterday was just amazing. We drove out west to the West Coast Nature Reserve to see the flowers that appear in this part of South Africa as if by magic every spring. I have always wanted to do this, so it was a real treat. 

The reserve is on the Atlantic side of the Cape so is very different to the previous coastal photos I took at Hermanus, on the Pacific side. Although that was a rough day at sea, and yesterday a particularly calm sunny one, the Atlantic side tends to be wilder and more rugged. In any case, it was stunning. 

In the reserve we saw zebra, buck (various local deer), bright lime green weaver birds, huge yellow-billed kites, flamingoes, a snake, and tortoises all going about their normal business in the wild. It was beautiful. And the flowers were just incredible. I don't know how many times I said 'lovely', but it was a lot. Swathes of colour greeted us from the very beginning of our drive, and in many places it looked like someone had sprinkled confetti all over the fields. Many of the daisies I remember from our garden when I was little, my Mum must have brought seeds over when we moved to England, and it was so sweet to see them again.

Arrived in Cape Town

I've been in Cape Town for two days and I'm having such an adventure already!

I arrived on Thursday evening after quite a tiring journey via Dubai and have been out and about with my amazing hosts since. On my first day we went out to Hermanus, the most stunning seaside town where we did a bit of whale-spotting. The sea was really rough and we had to run for cover as a cloud broke over us, but it was a magical first day. It's winter here so quite cold, but lovely to see the landscape in the off-season.

Yesterday we went to Woodstock, and had breakfast at the Biscuit Mill, which has been transformed into a buzzing collection of stalls selling artisan foods and handmade goodies. Some of the permanent shops like Kat Van Duinen's, contain some of the most beautiful clothing. There's loads to explore outside the Mill too, with a host of antiques stores selling quirky furniture, from repurposed old suitcases turned into padded seats, to traditional colonial wicker tables, and stuffed animals. It's quite an amazing mix.

I'm here for three or four months so this is just the beginning of a very exciting time! I hope to try out life here properly for the first time since we moved to England when I was a toddler. My passport and ID books arrived just last week, so I'm now officially a SA citizen, so I'll be hunting down some freelance work while I'm here too. I hope you'll join me as I find my way about, and give me any tips for things to do too.

Back soon!

Leaving Cambridge

My time in Cambridge is running out, and I'm starting to get nostalgic.

Having spent so long here it's easy to take for granted the stunning surroundings, as I trudge to work or battle through the swathes of tourists and language students on my lunch break. But it is an amazing city, and recently I had a chance to capture some of it for a little film I made for work. It was to show a European audience who'd never visited Cambridge what it looks like, so it's a little heavy with University stereotypes, but I'm afraid that's just what it's like here. Some days you feel like you could have stumbled into a film set.

I cannot take credit for all the footage, some was shot by colleagues at the University, but edited by me.

Midwives magazine

I've been totally neglecting this blog, but I thought I'd pop my head in, to post a couple of bits of work I've done for the Royal College of Midwives magazine. I've really enjoyed it.

I'm currently moonlighting in the Communications office at the University of Cambridge and it's really fun. I answer the phone to the press, and get to promote all the exciting research coming out of the University. Unfortunately it's not going to last forever, because I have a very exciting trip planned for the end of August.. I'm going to live in Cape Town for a few months! I can't wait. I'm going to do lots of illustration while I'm there and can't wait to see what a new environment does to my work.