Mars

Mars is at its closest in January this year. We did our best to photograph the planet last Saturday but it was rather a 'wobbly' night sky so the image wasn't that good.

Astronomy evening

Last night's star gazing organised by the locally based Orion Observers Group at the Taal Monument in Paarl went down very well. There were over 327 visitors!! Our 12 inch Dobsonian telescope was beaten by a 14 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain! There were long queues of interested people who saw Mars, Orion with its great Nebula, the Large and Small Magellanic clouds with the Tarantula Nebula and globular cluster, Tucanae 47 and many other wonderful sky objects.

Hotter

I got it wrong! It was 44 degrees Celsius yesterday and not 41 here in Paarl!! Aah, a cooler day today after last night’s rain. Even the birds in the garden are feeling more relaxed.

A sweltering day

It was a sweltering day yesterday at 41 degrees Celsius! The temperature in the car read at 34 deg at 1830.

Just before Christmas, I met up with my friend Cheryl in Cape Town. She suggested having coffee (that’s what I thought) at Mount Nelson Hotel and we landed up having Morning Tea (a miniature size version of Afternoon Tea). It was fabulous!

We ventured out for my treat of late lunch at Bistro 1682 (my friend’s choice) at Steenberg wine estate in Constantia. It was packed to the brim even though it was nearly three o’clock.

The first course was Asparagus di Parmigiano. Fresh, sautéed green asparagus with parmesan gratin but the main course of Mushroom Risotto was average, nothing like the first-class version at Le Petite Ferme in Franschhoek. Having had a bit of sandwiches and cakes in the morning, we skipped dessert and just had coffee to finish off. It came with petits fours, nice touch.

Back in Paarl, Ron and I went searching for 2003 wines for our son. A good selection found at Backsberg and Vrede-en-Lust wine estates. Thank you, Anthony Smook, the winemaker who did the research for us. And we found another one - a Coleraine bottle at Marc’s Mediterranean restaurant.

On another note, two of our guests had a great time at Bosman’s.

It appeared that the sommelier was so much better than their previous evening of food and wine pairing at The Tasting Room at Le Quartier Francais. We ourselves did not have the opportunity of wine pairing, but the five course meal was absolutely outstanding even with our own choice of wine!

The Killers concert in Paarl

The Killers concert at the beautiful Val de Vie Wine & Polo Estate in Paarl next Sunday, is proving to be a problem for many spectators as they search frantically for accommodation. We believe there will be around 20,000 spectators!

We have been informed by the wine estate that this organiser for the concert is making sure that there will be more than one entrance/exit and that people are able to park inside and outside the estate. Let's hope so for the sake of our guests' safety.

Swimming pool

Oh, last night we were in the pool at 2100 hours and the temperature was still at 30 degrees celsius!! It was like bath water. Really amazing for November.

cakes

Baking is a hobby of mine so I volunteered to make some cakes for the AGM's Drakenstein Heritage Foundation this weekend. I am making yummy Chocolate Loaf to go with cream cheese, Mini-Pavlovas with fruit and cream, taking my 20cm Christmas Fruit cake, soaked with brandy! The latter was made a month ago so now all ready for the marzipan and icing. As yet, I have no idea of the number of people attending, but at a guess, possibly around 75. So busy few days ahead apart from looking after guests.