Fynbos walks and cupcakes.

A wintery chill is in the air. But the wind died down and the sun came out on the weekend so we went for a hike up the Fynbos Walk.

We walked and talked

and climbed and saw some stunning flowers and had a picnic and oohed and aaahed at the magnificent views…

And jumped off boulders like Big Boys.

…well, one incredibly happy body did….

Today, with thanks to the inspiration from Ravishing Rayne, I embarked on making Decadent Cupcake for a Birthday Party order. I first followed the recipe given…but unfortunately for some reason or other they tasted a bit like washing powder(?) so the chickens had an interesting second breakfast. Then I adapted my own recipe (secret one, not telling) and the results were as follows:

<<<cupcakes with creamcheese icing and cranberry and edible glitter decorations     ****       ***Wheat-free rose cupcakes with pink chocolate icing and crystalized lavendar decorations>>>>>>

And Wheat-free chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla centre, choc ganache topping and mint choc ball to decorate.

And here they all are…….

A cluster of cupcakes?

A snuggle of cupcakes?

A comfort of cupcakes?

Well whatever it is, its time for tea!

Bye bye for now…Sweet dreams!

Garden club and lovely Kids of Nature visitors

Business as usual…had another garden club in this past week…

Bergvliet Garden Club. The weather performed marvelously, they had a fantastic talk by Ownerlady while Kingoftheplayground performed tricks in the sculpture tree.

Talks…

And tricks.

And we served them tea and tea and

Rose cupcakes                                                                                 and                               Pecan and white chocolate cake with

My new experiment…Crystalized indigenous flower decorations!!! Yes those are Tecoma capensis flowers on the cake, and Yes – you can eat them!!! And some more tea.

The carrot cake was served and served until and only one lonely slice remained:

Awww shame. And so then I ate it. Yum.

Blooming fantastic in the retail were these beeeutiful Erica’s:

pleased with our morning in the retail, we trotted off home to bake something else.

This weekend our lovely guests at the Fynbos Ecolodge were Petra Vandecasteele and Paul Goddard, esteemed creative writer and brilliant photographer, creators of the books “In Celebration of Fynbos”  and “Enya and James  in the land of Magic” (currently for sale in the retail….get one now!) but most importantly creators of James and Enya…. Kids of nature!

They enjoyed the experience of a weekend in and around Scarborough, including a Guided Fynbos walk and a Fynbos Fusion lunch at the Tea Garden.

And now on a Monday misty morning its raining and damp, just the way the plants like it. There are wet paw prints on the floor, another cake to bake and seeds to sort out and label.

Have a great week!

The Fynbos Family Day!

What a great day we had! Cars were lined up and down Plateau Rd:

There was fun for the kids…and even tigers:)

It was a bit windy with gusts of fresh air, but that did not stop everyone from having an amazing day. All plants were discounted, there was a R40 ea tree section (still on sale by the way) and lots of people must have been planting up a storm this week!

There were delicious eats baked by yours truly (Up untill 3am ) and served with a smile by Mary+Sister#2 and also Florence+Pateka…

We were serenaded by Phillip Nangle’s beautiful african calabash marimba music….putting the vibe into the atmosphere everyone’s step. He is a fantastic musician, instrument builder and artist. www.phillipnangle.com

There were also Talks on Healing plants in your garden by Peter von Maltitz…very, very interesting and informative. He has even written a little book called ‘Natural Medicine for children’  which gives you cures to ailments from earache to when babies don’t want to eat to childhood diseases. its only R50….come buy it at the nursery!

The other speaker was Ivan Groenhof who spoke on his Rim of Africa mountain trails…an awesome presentation with slide show and drums and even lovely Lisa his wife playing the oboe. Shivers down the spine and amazing photos to inspire even the most unfit and unsure to take this spectacular journey on. Find out more at www.rimofafrica.co.za

There were amazing stalls too: Food from the tea garden, samoosas, many beautiful craft, ceramics, clothes, soaps, handmade furniture, art and more.

And that, my friends was that! To those who could make it and joined the fynbos fun – thank you so much! And to those who could not grace us, pop over on our next event (Winter sale I think in the June July holidays) and you wont be disappointed!

I leave you with this mouth-watering display of sweet treats from the Tea Garden:

Count down to Fynbos Family Day event

And so its less than a week till the Big Day -

*x*x*x*Fynbos Family Day event on Monday 5th April*x*x*x*

So much to do…so many public holidays yet so little time. It always ruffles my feathers when it’s so close to an event…Will anyone come? Will too many people come? Will we sell all the plants and have to grow them from scratch? Will we run out of food or will we be eating rooibos cake for two weeks?

Got the display finished today. You can’t imagine the muscles involved in pushing wheelbarrows of plants around. They should really add it to all gyms exercise equipment. Respect to all barrow pusher around the world!

Mabuthi (Or Yourbuthi as Kingoftheplayground likes to call him) did the hard landscaping and I put the pretty flowers in..

and lugged the pretty flowers around from nursery shadehouses to display.

Tough work this flower business.

Especially that 20kg Leonotis.

Then after a quick snack from the Tea Garden

We went home and put on some tunes

And got down to making lunch for the Tea Garden. We have had amazing veg out the garden lately including

and

and carrots, potatoes, millions of herbs, baby tomatoes, aubergines, spinach, leeks, sweet potatoes, onions.

Gosh who needs shops anyway?

So we started making stew

While Expert Chopper-with-the-blunt-knife cut the soft potatoes and cabbage leaves and the dogs were happy with the flying veg that landed on the floor…

All in all delicious and nutritious enough to set us up for the next few hectic days. Tomorrow is more stocking up of the nursery, getting the stall holder space ready and ordering ingredients for the delicacies to be sold on the day.

Goodnight and hope to see you on Monday!

Catching up to the present…

So, a good couple days since the last entry. So much has happened since then…

The Argus Cycle Tour went past:

The nursery was closed that day as the roads were blocked nearly all day. Holiday!

We were in the thick-of-things moving wise and the Real Unpacking started. Still actually in the middle of it. Moving is crazy. Found out I have an old ancestral in-the-war urge in my blood to save old pieces of string/glass bottles/broken pieces of crockery for that Maybe One Day In The Future when I will need it to mend a blind/make some jam/do a mosaic. Three words: Chuck it out. Thank goodness for recycling is all I can say!

We found some interesting headgear in the unpacking:

We either found it incredibly entertaining or the move was taking its toll on our sanity.

What do you think?

To take our minds off cleaning and boxes, we went to the beach with Pretty  Petra and Buzz from Amaza Afrika tours in the Magic Bus.

It did the trick and we were suitably refreshed. Thanks guys!

Back to work…Fynbos Family Day event is in two weeks. Counting down to the D day will be filled with organizing and beautifying the Nursery. And of course lots of checking up on weather forecasts!

See you all on the 5th of April!!!