For steam train enthusiasts one of the most enjoyable things to do in Pretoria is to go on an excursion of the Friends of the Rail (FOTR) organisation. FOTR has been running excursions and working to preserve the steam train heritage of South Africa for more than a...
Sometime in the early 1960s I went with my friend James Southern to Cape Agulhas where his parents had a holiday cottage. One day while we were out exploring the area we came upon some dilapidated thatched huts, which James informed me were called “kapstylhuise”. I...
Have you ever heard the term a “warm fuzzy” and wondered where it came from? Well here is the answer for you! I have added a new page to this site containing this absolutely wonderful modern fairy tale by renowned Transactional Analysis founding father and...
In his short, sad life he was controversial. More than 100 years after his death, he seems not much less controversial. But he still manages to weave a spell for anyone interested in art, particularly Art Nouveau and the art of illustration. Aubrey Vincent Beardsley,...
A list of ten top jazz albums chosen by Tony McGregor
The contributor of this piece is jazz activist Ron Washington. Besides being a stalwart jazz diehard and tireless observer of the scene, he is proprietor of Ron “Slim” Washington Productions, which provides jazz and other music for festivals, clubs and...
“A picture is worth a thousand words” – this is a popular and frequently-heard saying. And yet it cannot be taken at face value. Philosophers and artists have during the past hundred years or so argued about the purpose and content of art, ever since art...
Recently I spent a week with my family at a resort on the shore of the Hartebeespoort Dam, that lovely stretch of water in the valley of the Crocodile River in the North West Province of South Africa. It is a beautiful part of the country nestled in between mountains...
The past few days in Pretoria have been rainy, not the torrential rain that has plagued the Western Cape and caused such disruption, but good rain has fallen nevertheless. As always, such rain brings new life to a garden, new leaves and flowers and insects. Our small...
“There is nothing – absolutely NOTHING – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” From Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows One of my favourite books as a young child was The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. My father...
