Smuts House: Harmony and Peace in memory of a great man

Below a typical Highveld “koppie” in the little town of Irene just outside Pretoria is the unpretentious house that for more than half a century was home to one of South Africa’s greatest and most controversial sons, Jan Smuts.

 

The front of Smuts House

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Art gallery under the trees: The Tina Skukan Gallery

Founder and owner of the Tina Skukan Art Gallery, Thea Nigrini

Nestled on the side of a koppie (hill) to the east of Pretoria is a unique art gallery under a grove of trees.

Started some 16 years ago by Croatian-born Thea Nigrini and named for her late mother, the Tina Skukan Gallery is as individual as its founder.

Thea has been living on the plot (small holding) on which the gallery is situated for more than 40 years, since her mother gave it to her when she was 20.

Passionately interested in art, Thea decided to do something with her love of art and make it into a life’s work – she has made art a business, but with very human dimensions and a decidedly rustic feel in the midst of the bustling suburbia that is Faerie Glen, a elatively-upmarket suburb of Pretoria.

The plot actually forms part of the Bronberg Nature Reserve and is blessed with abundant bird life and an eclectic selection of trees under which one is likely to come across surprises and delights for the eye.

Thea came to South Africa in 1953 with her parents and sister after fleeing the war in Croatia, East Germany and West Germany.She studied at the University of Pretoria and wanted to practice art herself, but ultimately found it more rewarding to assist other artists by providing a conducive exhibition space.

One of the exhibition spaces

The menu is always enticing

After being involved in another retaurant venture she also started a tea garden at the gallery but has since, after doing all the cooking and baking herself, decided to concentrate on the art and leave the catering to another person.

The main exhibition space

The gallery and tea garden offer a wonderfully relaxed and yet stimulating artistic and culinary experience in lovely surroundings.

Interesting pieces are to be found all over the garden as well as in the galleries

A visit to the gallery is definitely a great experience – and you might even be able to have a stimulating and interesting conversation with Thea!

© Text and photos copyright Tony McGregor 2011

Sweet the rain’s new fall

garden-112The 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 garden has become a joyful place, a place of little joys and delights that recall for me the words of Eleanor Farjeon’s popular song “Morning has Broken”:
Sweet the rain’s new fall
Sunlit from heaven,
Like the first dew-fall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden
Spring in completeness
Where his feet pass.
garden-093The grass underfoot has indeed become springy, and a wonderful vibrant green. The trees surrounding the garden have taken on a new look, as though they have put on new clothes in honour of the arrival of summer.
Birds, especially the masked weavers, have become very active in the garden also. The weavers collect long strips from the palm tree leaves to weave into their intricate and beautiful nests, many in a small area, to try to please their picky wives.
Hadeda ibises dig great holes in the lawn in their search for earthworms and other delicacies. And on every leaf and petal shiny drops of rainwater glisten in the sun.
I took out my camera and wandered around the garden just clicking away at anything that looked interesting to me and the accompanying photos are the result. I’m not sure of the aesthetic value of the images, but for me they are eloquent testimony to the arrival of summer.
Tony McGregor
Pretoria
12 November 2008
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