If a picture is worth a thousand words…

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then here is 10,000 words of what we have been up to this wintery month…

Endings and new beginnings

Things have been changing a lot around here. Namely the entire business. ‘Roger Gray trading as Good Hope Nursery’ comes to an end as from today.

However, Ownerlady and myself will be re-opening as Good Hope Nursery Gardens Nursery and Farmstall and Taskmaster will really come into his name with the opening of his very own landscraping business – Good Hope Gardens Landscaping. …really a continuation of his amazing work since 2004. The nursery and farmstall will have a grand opening in August and untill then, we will only be open (Nursery retail and Tea Garden) on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The landscaping will be continuing in its usual all-day every-day fashion.

There is a lot of reshuffling going on and changes to be made. I was about to embark on emails and start on a mile long list of things-to-do when loud mental barks were heard outside.  When out to check only to discover daddy goat OUT the paddock and was eating garden veggie no.3 and Bella the dog IN the paddock barking at mommy goat. mmmm. Fetched rope and food. Put goat back in paddock and chased dog out. Decided to feed the chickens and ducks while I was on this feeding mission. Came out with more food to find daddy goat out again eating a tree. Rope, food, curse. Wondered why we have a farm life again. Settled goat in different paddock. Went to feed chickens and found three warm eggs…happy farm feeling returned. Then stepped in some dog poo….Score:  Farm- 3 farmers wife-1 *sigh*

Yesterday we had a farewell staff braai…sad but delicious.

So keep warm till the next update … of Good Hope Gardens in Cape Point!!!!

 

A wedding cake, an olive tree and three feral chickens.

Early in the mornings we hear the cackle, scratch and crow of our three feral chickens. Always roosting in a new place – never to be seen.

To cut a rather long and gumbooted -in-the-dark story short, after a false wringing of one chickens neck, he let his two buddies know their pot luck fate and they never came within three metres of us again.

Yesterday, however, they were tired and hungry and sneaked into the chicken hok. But Taskmaster was on spy mode. He saw them out the corner of his eye through the passage the window, jumped out the window and closed the door on them in one fluid movement. Ninja farmer skills. Kingoftheplayground has inherited said skills and captured 4 songololos the other day while I was cracking eggs for breakfast.

The Fynbos and Food event is getting closer and closer….a confirmation of more stallholders today who will be selling organic apple juice, farm honey, gluten-free bakes, unsulphered dried fruit, kids fun stuff, crystals and gemstones.

We are lucky lucky lucky to have three pretty ladies playing guitar and singing for us on the day. Shady tree and lunch anyone? Aaaaah.

Here is our olive tree:

This is the first year is has bore us/fruited/produced/developed olives. (Must look in John Seymour’s book for correct term..that book is constantly open in this house) We picked these: It may looook like a little – but you try doing yoga moves in a pokey olive tree and then say “Small bushel” or whatever the collective for olives are. A host of olives? A hoard of olives…a press of olives? hmmm. Anyway, here:

A gloriously decadent Rooibos and pink buttercream icing wedding cake was made last week for a wedding in Stanford. Please note: If you are delivering a fully iced and decorated cake some three hours car ride away…its best to buy coverup goods for the unforeseeable meltdowns….in my case in the form of meringues and strawberries Oh and drink chamomile tea to calm the jagged nerves. …Think we stopped about 17 times to check it was still fine. So not too much tea or more stops, which means more checking up. Which counteracts the chammomile. Ahem. CAKE PLEASE!!!!

So concludes this post. Off to jump in the Ecolodge jacuzzi and then water the animals and veggies too. We jamming this week, and preserving veg, so any spare glass jars you have lying around – recyclers/hoarders/bottled produce lovers …. I would love to use them! Pretty please

Fynbos and Food event on Family Day!

Our next event is happening next month on the 25th of April…on Family Day – the Easter Monday public holiday.

So from 10am – 4pm, bring your friends and family to enjoy the entertainment and special fun at the nursery.

This time we are incorporating more of a farmers market type vibe, with fresh and cooked food stalls. Examples of stalls you will find here on the day:

Freshly baked bread, baked goods, wheat free cakes, nuts, organic fruit and veg, organic berries and eggs, homemade ginger beer, crunchies, rusks, preserves and jams, herbs, savoury foods, recycled crafts, natural beauty products, art, and more.

For the kids there will be pony rides, facepainting, claywork, a jumping castle and a playground.

Musical talents entertaining us through the day will be Amy Tjasink followed by Greer Bell and Zaria. Lucky us, because they have voices from heaven!!!

A free Guided Fynbos Walk will be led at 11am and a talk on Small Fynbos Gardens will be happening at 1pm.

And of course….last but definitely not least – ALL the plants in the ENTIRE retail area will be on sale at less 20% on the marked price…. with many extra specials here and there.

Join us – it will be amazing! Stock up your kitchen, your garden and your belly See you there!

***Poster created by Safia Stodel of Ilundi Designs***

When goats do roam my fynbos does moan

Hi. I’ve been a bad blogger again – but life has been busy busy busy!

Our baby goat AKA Greeny (dont ask – Kingoftheplayground named him) has been running around the nursery and getting into trouble. With me. Cant really dicipline a goat though, so just trying to feed him up so he gets too fat to escape through the fence. And eat more of our garden. Again.

The daddy goat gets stuck in his fence at least once a day:

Which is quite funny except then you need to go and get him out which is like wrestling a mountain with horns and yellow devil eyes and you stink like manky goat for a while after. Lovely.

Our veggies are coming along ….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And King of the playground is enjoying helping…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some pics of the Fat of our Land:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Ecolodge has been fully booked every weekend (Lots of flower arranging and meeting happy faces) and the landscaping has been non stop. But no matter how busy we all are – we still always make take time out to go for meanders on the Fynbos Walk…

At our next event  (Details in next blog entry) we will be giving a free Guided Fynbos Walk so be sure to be there and come experience our nature!!!

 

Pics from December and happy holidays

Our Fynbos Summer Sale was fantastic:

A bustling retail and mouth-watering wheat-free tea garden treats…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a free guided fynbos walk and lots of amazing arts and crafts on sale…

 

The kiddiewinks were rather happy with the activities available…

 

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Other Fynbos fun included Fynbos Gardening talks, Fynbos food, music, new faces, lots of plant specials and of course, the stunning surroundings of the nursery. Remember that we have these events four times a year…hope to see you at the next one!!!

In the meantime, happy holidays and safe travels. Please note that the nursery will be closed on 24,25 and 26 of Dec as well as  Saturday – Dec the 31st and Sunday – Jan the 1st 2011 ….as much as we love having you – we need to have 5 selfish days of the year to have the nursery all to ourselves will post pics in the next blog!

Happy New Year 2011 to you all!!!!!

Fynbos Summer Sale and a bad bad blogger.

The time has come for our Summer Sale. Our Fynbos Summer Sale on Dec 16 – 10am – 4pm!

It has been so so busy here at the nursery. So busy I forgot to blog in months! In the space between my last blog entry and now, we adopted 10 baby chickens (Township lovelies, i swear they say “Hy wena” or worse every time I walk past without feeding them) and two goats who had a cute cute little baby kid we named Girl Goaty (Kingoftheplayground named it) but actually a few days later it turned out to be a boy. Billy the kid? Naaaythan? help us out here…

We also have Samson and Max, our two rescue dogs – but have had them for a while now. If you come to visit us and are bowled over by a thin snake on legs with fur and a brown frown face with ear-splitting woofs – that’s them. We love them even after eating three chickens (the baby Redhill ones – no funeral, Kingoftheplayground was asleep) and chicken eggs (Samson bites holes in the sides and sucks out the insides…WhipetXeggeater?) They are the best watchdogs and will bark at anything even the sprinklers and the wind.

Not sure if I mentioned before, we also adopted Henry the Rooster from the Cape Farmhouse a while ago. He has a rocky history and was even in the local papers…small people stay away from him? But he has his 3 chicks (our 3 chickens) who are completely henpecked. Oh. Except for chicken #2 who got slicked by a genet cat. Rude.

So life has been farmy to say the least. Its fun, but hard too sometimes when you upstairs trying to catch up on admin and you hear shouts from the garden. Make sure Kingoftheplayground is fast asleep still and go downstairs. Find that Billy goat has escaped and is eating the veggie garden. Everyone drops tools and the  chase begins. Let me just stop here and mention that goats can run ridiculously fast. So catch goat. Goat scrapes hand with horn. Bite tounge. Put goat back in pen. Feed Goat. Walk past chickens who start swearing at me in Xhosa. Fetch chicken food. Henry the Rooster sees chicken food and struts fast towards me. I stumble backwards (I’m very scared of Henry) and bang head on recently pruned tree branch. Swear loudly and have to go and slam garden gate a couple of times to feel better. Feel better. Think pure thoughts. Feed chickens. Go back upstairs. Turn computer back on just before Kingoftheplayground wakes up and shouts for cereal with the runny honey.

Taskmaster is completely landscaped out what with everyone who is anyone wanting their garden finished before Christmas. A few roof garden in the mix and even time to build more goat pens. Ownerlady is full steam ahead in organizations for the Summer Sale…big tree clearances, getting all the flowering plants ready and filling up the retail. All staff working hard:

We will have succulents for sale in decoupaged recycled tins – a Thank You Kitty range, as most of the tins are from our cats food cute hey.

The Tea Garden is going well too, with fab new staff and a home cooked meal on the menu every day.  Fresh organic produce continues to feed us and the Tea Garden from the veggie gardens, we even had the most amazing artichokes the other night.

The figs are out and homemade fig preserve will be on sale at the Summer Sale – best eaten at once with red wine and a selection of cheeses…mmmmmm.

I’ll leave you with this pretty pic of an Agapanthus almost in bloom….and hope to see you next week at the Sale!!!

 

Photos of Springtime

Hello Spring!

Bringing mixed weather – sunblock and beach sand in your hair mixed with rainy days by the fire and gale force winds bringing down shadehouses….welcome to Cape Point!

Here are some pics of what we have been up to this month:

Succulents ablaze

 

Our Annual King Protea in flower on the koppie

and Fushia Vygies                                                                                                                                         Oppie Koppie

Chickens and landscaping

Vegetables from the garden. We now only use garden veg and flowers for our salads. As one customer said this weekend: “Ooh, its like a garden on my plate!”

We constantly are being asked the super secret recipe for our carrot cake…

So watch this space  – I think I will have to share the simple delights fo how easy and “moisty” this carrot cake is to make on my next post.

In the meantime to whet your visual appetite: below are some chocolate truffle filled wheat-free chocolate cupcakes.

We are having quite a lot of kiddies parties at the nursery lately..there is a convenient open space behind the playground and the kids pretty much entertain themselves which is great.

Jay&Lotta’s Dreamweaver web chairs   are possibly The Most Comfy to lie in after chasing your three-year old around to get him to drink some water to counter-combat all the jellytots eaten off the gingerbreadmen…and of course for using as a climbing frame as demonstrated below

Spring into Fynbos Sale!!!!

Sorry about no posts in a very long while…the nursery team and myself were working like crazy to get everything just perfect for the sale. It was great!!!

We had horserides, a jumping castle, the playground, facepainting and fabric painting for the kids…

A talk on Permaculture by Omigodwhoisthat (Thats what most girls say when they first catch sight of him) and a Free guided Fynbos walk by Wowheknowshisstuff Rupert. Not related to the bear.

There were beautifull stalls with stunning wares displayed, mouth watering food stalls, the tea garden Fynbos Cakes stall and of course the nursery looked absolutely AMAZING.

A fantastic jazzy band set the atmosphere….

There was a beautiful wild flower display from our mountain and even some cut flowers on sale.

Treats on the Tea garden stall were colourfull and had a bit of Fynbos fusion going on in them….

Ohhhhhhh yum.

Bikes were popular with the cool kids…blue for boys and pink for girls!

Altogether is was a fantastic day full of fun, laughter and, of course, fynbos!!!!Fynbos jou lekker ding!!!!

Spring, champers and the awesome flowers

We have been having amazing weather…sun sun, blooming awesome flowers and the first snake of the season slithered past me. Shudder. I still get icicles down my spine if I see one. Actually to tell the truth I dropped everything I was carrying (a packet of empty tins..lotta noise there) and a girlish shriek just popped out my throat.

The tea garden was festive on Saturday with scrumtious goodies on sale:

From left to right…wheat-free chocolate cake drenched in wild mint syrup, rose cupcakes with lemony cream cheese filling followed swiftly (into my mouth) by Meringues filled with cream and topped with a fresh strawberry. Oh.

Oh yum.

But wait. Theres more….   Something for the savoury hearted….vegetable quiche with a tomato fan for show. Yummie.

Then we had a really, really lovely booking early one Saturday morning…the weather was purrrfect – no wind, happy sun and *IM REALLY SORRY* but I lost the piece of paper that had these wonderful people’s names on it…

Nevertheless one friendly couple bought their couple friends over for a surprise Anniversary champagne breakfast (their glasses and champers) ,,,they were even wearing masks so they had no clue where they were! Love it.

Here they are having The Best Time Ever:

CHEERS!!!!!

Happy Anniversary!!!!