Sunday, 30 July 2017
LINK TO OUR AIRBNB ACCOMMODATION
We have some really very nice AirBnB accommodation at our home in Capri on the Southern Peninsula in Cape Town ........... please take a look and let your friends know.
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/15754956 (Copy and paste into your browser)
Saturday, 29 July 2017
KAGGA KAMMA - A singular place
During the first week in June of this year we were fortunate enough to be invited by Hugh and Gail Gurnell to join them in the Kagga Kamma where they were taking up a timeshare option. As this is a 'closed' nature reserve it is not a place that one gets to visit as a matter of course. We had previously spent 10 days at Die Mond a little to the north of Kagga Kamma - and have enjoyed a great many visits to the Cederberg over the years. Kagga Kamma is really very special, and time spent on the reserve and in amongst the rocks that surround the resort will remain with me always. In almost every rock lurks an image of sorts, and your interpretation makes it special to you alone. You very definitely enter Durrell's world of landscapes here where each one whispers "I am watching you ...... are you watching yourself in me?" Move around with the eyes of the spirit wide open ......... tune in without reverence - idly ........ but with real inward intention. Extract the essence of the place and its Spirit will envelope you.
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
NOSTALGIA - A little bit of Macro - Circa 1971
Some of our favourite 'breakaway' places when we lived in the UK during the BC (Before Children) period in the early 70's were Devon and Cornwall. We had one memorable trip down that way with Rob and Laura when I spent a lot of time taking "almost" macro pics of all sorts of things along the beaches. All shot with the Pentax Spotmatic and developed and printed by yours truly, they really gave me a whole lot of pleasure - and when I look back now they weren't too bad all things considered. They certainly bring back cloudy memories of non-specific places - but all places that infected us all with a sense of their 'Spirit' at the time.
Thursday, 20 July 2017
NOSTALGIA - Stonehenge in the early 70's
As I recall in the early 70's we were able to simply walk onto the Stonehenge site - I know that we used to visit there each time we passed it when we were heading west out of London for a Bank Holiday break. At the time - as it is now - there was no definition of how or why Stonehenge came about or was positioned where it is. I do recall that I viewed it as a place of wonder ................. someone, sometime must have had very good reason to create this quite remarkable stone monument. When I took these pictures all those years ago it was quite deserted - certainly not subject to the hordes of tourists which I believe descend upon it these days. The quiet allowed us to contemplate its origin - its reason - and the source of the rocks and their means of reaching the site. We were certainly fortunate to have experienced it then rather than now and to have experienced just a little of the Spirit of Place that I believe its founders intended.
Wednesday, 12 July 2017
NOSTALGIA - Pavillon Le Corbusier - Zurich
In the late 50's a Zurich art dealer, Heidi Weber fell in love with Le Corbusier's artistic creations - his furniture, paintings and sculpture - and tracked down the aging architect to his French Riviera vacation cabin, the famous Cabanon (He was Swiss). She persuaded him to sell his works at her gallery, and then urged him to return to Switzerland to build an entirely new structure to house his oeuvre for future generations. He accepted the challenge. Writing to the French cultural minister, author Andre Malraux, in 1960 he said, "I am 73 years old, and this is the first time that country has shown me the slightest courtesy. What a surprise!" He wrote another friend, "This house will be the most audacious of my entire career."
Our visit there was a revelation, an opportunity to see a large number of the great man's artworks in one place - a place designed specifically to house them. Still as beautiful today as it was over 50 years ago when it was built, it serves as a shrine of sorts to a man who contributed hugely to the spirit of a great many places around the world.
Pat measuring up to Corb's "Modern Man" in 1973
Pavillon Le Corbusier (Zurich)
One of Corb's enamelled artwork panels on the exterior
Trying hard to measure up
More views of the Pavillon
Monday, 10 July 2017
NOSTALGIA - Maison de la Culture arts centre in Firminy, France - 1973
Youth and Cultural Center, Firminy, France - Le Corbusier - 1961-1965
The concrete ‘House of Culture’ was built on a hill, on a former stone quarry. The situation contributed to the majesty of the structure. The most striking detail of the design is the curved roof. The inclined façade resembles an athletic complex. The building was conceived directly after the period of constructing the convent of La Tourette, and some similar architectural elements are recognized: the Corbusier theme of the architectural sequence through a series of spaces, and the way rooms are illuminated. Together with this Cultural Centre, the nearby church Saint-Pierre and sports stadium form an entire Corbusier complex.Constructed between 1961 and 1965, this was the first completed part of the arts and sports centre intended to complement the new neighbourhood of Firminy-Vert, which was launched in 1954. The only arts building completed by Le Corbusier in Europe, it is an outstanding work of art, with its daring architectural form, its curved roof, its slim profile overhanging the cliff, and its façade with undulating glass panels, the Maison de la Culture arts centre is the only building on this site constructed during Le Corbusier's lifetime, between 1960 and 1965. It has been a Listed Historic Monument since 1984. This living heritage of the 20th Century pushes back the technical boundaries of architecture.
The concrete ‘House of Culture’ was built on a hill, on a former stone quarry. The situation contributed to the majesty of the structure. The most striking detail of the design is the curved roof. The inclined façade resembles an athletic complex. The building was conceived directly after the period of constructing the convent of La Tourette, and some similar architectural elements are recognized: the Corbusier theme of the architectural sequence through a series of spaces, and the way rooms are illuminated. Together with this Cultural Centre, the nearby church Saint-Pierre and sports stadium form an entire Corbusier complex.Constructed between 1961 and 1965, this was the first completed part of the arts and sports centre intended to complement the new neighbourhood of Firminy-Vert, which was launched in 1954. The only arts building completed by Le Corbusier in Europe, it is an outstanding work of art, with its daring architectural form, its curved roof, its slim profile overhanging the cliff, and its façade with undulating glass panels, the Maison de la Culture arts centre is the only building on this site constructed during Le Corbusier's lifetime, between 1960 and 1965. It has been a Listed Historic Monument since 1984. This living heritage of the 20th Century pushes back the technical boundaries of architecture.
A Le Corbusier Art Work captured in off-shutter concrete at the Maison de la Culture arts centre in Firminy, France
A Detail
Another Detail
Friday, 7 July 2017
NOSTALGIA - Europe revisited
Back to 1973 - we saw so much - visited so many places that still present themselves as if we were there just last month - or last week. Isn't it funny the tricks that time can play on the mind? As mentioned a little ways back, this particular trip had as its centrepoint a pilgrimage to as many of Le Corbusier's buildings as we were able to visit. One building of course always stands out - the Chapel at Ronchamp (deserving of out of the way visits on three different occasions), and irrespective of one's religious persuasion (or lack thereof), when one enters this amazing space God belongs entirely to you. Corb was of course an atheist, yet the Catholic church commissioned him on a number of occasions to tackle projects which have become landmarks in the annals of modern architecture, and which ultimately celebrate Mans' highest achievements in various expressions of the arts. Here are a few pictures taken at Ronchamp all that time ago, which I will follow up with details from more of his building over the next few days.
Ronchamp was constructed largely from the rubble of of an earlier church which stood on the site, but which was severely damaged by bombing during the liberation struggles of 1944. The first traces of habitation on the hill where the chapel stands date to antiquity. During the Middle Ages a parish church of Ronchamp and the neighbouring villages was dedicated to Our Lady of September. In the 18th Century it became a pilgrimage chapel and was then called Our Lady of the Heights (Notre-Dame du Haut). During the French Revolution the chapel was sold as a national property, but in 1799 forty families in Ronchamp decided to buy it to restore its original spiritual vocation. Since then the chapel has been private property, attached by convention to the Diocese of Besancon.
Initially Le Corbusier resisted the commission, but after visiting the hill, the history of the site and the surrounding landscapes allowed him to be convinced.
"I wanted to create a place of silence, prayer, peace and inner joy" said Le Corbusier on the day of the inauguration on the 25th June, 1955.
Ronchamp was constructed largely from the rubble of of an earlier church which stood on the site, but which was severely damaged by bombing during the liberation struggles of 1944. The first traces of habitation on the hill where the chapel stands date to antiquity. During the Middle Ages a parish church of Ronchamp and the neighbouring villages was dedicated to Our Lady of September. In the 18th Century it became a pilgrimage chapel and was then called Our Lady of the Heights (Notre-Dame du Haut). During the French Revolution the chapel was sold as a national property, but in 1799 forty families in Ronchamp decided to buy it to restore its original spiritual vocation. Since then the chapel has been private property, attached by convention to the Diocese of Besancon.
Initially Le Corbusier resisted the commission, but after visiting the hill, the history of the site and the surrounding landscapes allowed him to be convinced.
"I wanted to create a place of silence, prayer, peace and inner joy" said Le Corbusier on the day of the inauguration on the 25th June, 1955.
Approaching Ronchamp from a distance
Ronchamp in winter
Roof Detail
Roof Detail
The Altar
Pulpit
Outside Pulpit
Rainwater spout
Thursday, 6 July 2017
ST. LUCIA - 2015
Driving North through Kwa-Zulu Natal from the Hluluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve via Pongolapoort and up to Jozini in September 2015 proved to be an education I could well have done without ........... one, that had it been related to me and not experienced first hand, I would never have believed. From the turn-off on the N2 at the southern end of the Pongolapoort Dam the Pongolapoort road up along the side of the mountain to Jozini presents ever more amazing views down over the dam the higher one gets - up to a point!
About 20km from Jozini all thoughts of the view are quickly eradicated by the build up of litter and rubbish along both sides of the road .............. not the scatter of plastic bottles, bags and paper to which we have become so accustomed throughout South and Southern Africa, but mountains of sundry household rubbish of every kind piled 2 meters wide and at least two meters high on both sides of the pass road for the entire distance to Jozini.
At various times during our travels over the last few years we have experienced the degradation of towns since 1994 almost to the point of no return in places such as the once beautiful and thriving copper mining town of Musina on the Zimbabwean border, and Kokstad in the Eastern Cape, where on our last visit in 2014, raw sewage was running in the roadside gutters. But I had never experienced anything quite like the litter and filth that pervaded the pass up to and including the town of Jozini. Once through the mountains of rubbish either side of the pass road, driving into the town came as even more of a shock. All of the pavements, up to and including at least a meter or so into both sides of the road verges, were totally over-inhabited by traders of every kind, their various wares spread everywhere in amongst the detritus of their original and days old packaging - cardboard, plastic, bubblewrap, whole and broken timber palettes, plastic and glass bottles of every description, old discarded and rotting vegetables, and worst of all, here and there heralded by an all pervasive smell, little piles of human excrement.
What, I wondered, allowed people to descend to this level of utter and absolute degradation? Not far away, in amongst the beautiful hills of Northern Kwa-Zulu, the traditional villages remain generally clean and well kept despite the fact that litter everywhere has become an all pervasive scourge to which the people seem almost entirely oblivious. Seeing all this I can't imagine it taking less than a generation to clear the mess - and that only if the will is there ............... in the meantime it is only going to get worse unless both National and Local Government institute the necessary policies and fines to begin turning things around.
Strangely enough, in amongst all of this "uncaring" there is an oasis of hope - a place where those in charge have made a move to end the litter and introduce a modicum of self-respect amongst the people who abide in the immediate vicinity, creating a very definite "Spirit of Place" which I believe is felt by all who pass through there. That place is St.Lucia and the Reserve up to Cape Vidal. Well done to all those who have managed the turn-around.
About 20km from Jozini all thoughts of the view are quickly eradicated by the build up of litter and rubbish along both sides of the road .............. not the scatter of plastic bottles, bags and paper to which we have become so accustomed throughout South and Southern Africa, but mountains of sundry household rubbish of every kind piled 2 meters wide and at least two meters high on both sides of the pass road for the entire distance to Jozini.
At various times during our travels over the last few years we have experienced the degradation of towns since 1994 almost to the point of no return in places such as the once beautiful and thriving copper mining town of Musina on the Zimbabwean border, and Kokstad in the Eastern Cape, where on our last visit in 2014, raw sewage was running in the roadside gutters. But I had never experienced anything quite like the litter and filth that pervaded the pass up to and including the town of Jozini. Once through the mountains of rubbish either side of the pass road, driving into the town came as even more of a shock. All of the pavements, up to and including at least a meter or so into both sides of the road verges, were totally over-inhabited by traders of every kind, their various wares spread everywhere in amongst the detritus of their original and days old packaging - cardboard, plastic, bubblewrap, whole and broken timber palettes, plastic and glass bottles of every description, old discarded and rotting vegetables, and worst of all, here and there heralded by an all pervasive smell, little piles of human excrement.
What, I wondered, allowed people to descend to this level of utter and absolute degradation? Not far away, in amongst the beautiful hills of Northern Kwa-Zulu, the traditional villages remain generally clean and well kept despite the fact that litter everywhere has become an all pervasive scourge to which the people seem almost entirely oblivious. Seeing all this I can't imagine it taking less than a generation to clear the mess - and that only if the will is there ............... in the meantime it is only going to get worse unless both National and Local Government institute the necessary policies and fines to begin turning things around.
Strangely enough, in amongst all of this "uncaring" there is an oasis of hope - a place where those in charge have made a move to end the litter and introduce a modicum of self-respect amongst the people who abide in the immediate vicinity, creating a very definite "Spirit of Place" which I believe is felt by all who pass through there. That place is St.Lucia and the Reserve up to Cape Vidal. Well done to all those who have managed the turn-around.
Road through the St.Lucia Reserve
St.Lucia Riverine Forest
Lake St.Lucia
Waterbuck on Lake St.Lucia
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