Hello Blogland! I'm back in the land of high-speed internet and long, grey clouds! I missed you all with your cheery comments and visits very much.

I had a wonderful trip home, aside from 'flu and work (of course), I spent a lot of time with my family, we almost sorted out the wedding dress (!) and I have 1,602 photographs to show for it. Of course I'm not going to bog you down with millions of photographs (tempting though it is) so forgive me just a little as I show you a quick view of Cape Town in photos ~ I'll keep it down to a minimum, promise.


Can you believe that I went home in winter? That's winter up there in that photograph by the way - not so bad, hmm? I miss the beaches and surprisingly of all, I miss the mountains. I think that's a Cape Town thing and not a general South Africa thing, but still. This (above and below) is Hout Bay Harbour and Beach where you can sunbathe on the sands, go for a swim in the icy waters, or turn around and enjoy fresh fish (if you like that kind of thing) from one of the many fish-and-chips shops along the harbour-side. I don't eat fish, for the record, but I do like the harbour and I especially like ice cream.

This is the beach-side restaurant and take-aways Mariner's Wharf - and that's a boat set into the second level of the building overhanging the parking lot rather precariously.

















On this particular day we sat on the rocks and ate ice-creams as we watched the fishing boats and the seals. There were about seven very large seals romping around the boats just in front of us!

















... Even the rocks are pretty. It might just be my nostalgia and my love of colour continuity, but I like 'em.

Further along the coastline, on Milnerton Beach, we were able to watch the sun go down from my aunt's pretty beach-side apartment.

















Isn't that an amazing view? Imagine waking up to that every morning!

If you zip up the mountain you reach UCT (the University of Cape Town) where the views are panoramic and are particularly beautiful in the hazy mornings:

















I popped in to my old haunts to see my dear friends Isa and Shihaam in the English Department, Tanya in the Rare Books Library, and Jessica, my former supervisor for my Honours and MA dissertations. Much sadness that Jessica was out and about being awesome and touring the wide world as an elite academic, but delighted to see everyone else looking so very happy and healthy.

Even further up from here is Rhodes Memorial, and the Rhodes Memorial Tea Garden.

















... and because I can't possibly put a blog post up here on Bakercourt without referring to food, let me show you what we ate at the Rhodes Memorial Tea Garden:






















Food is served on elaborate, elongated platters. This is my Tikka Chicken Sandwich served with chips and salad. Below, my mom's giant scone served with butter, cream and jams.

















I even managed to fit in a visit to the aquarium as part of a baby-sitting excursion.






















Speaking of babysitting and play areas - things are quite different when you're holidaying with two small children. Meal times are different, meal contents are different, and you have to go to places that will entertain the children for long enough so that you can sip your coffee slowly and nibble on a biscuit if you want to. If you don't choose your places properly, you end up chasing the children around and answering a lot of "but what can I doooooooooooo?" questions. So, one of the family's favourite places to have tea (and to play) is the pretty little Millstone Eco Village in Pinelands.






















It's a large area of land made up of a riding school, a play centre, a bakery and coffee shop, a outdoors play area and a school.






















Plus, there are horses.






















Millstone is the coffee shop serving baked goods (like beetroot and chocolate cake) and breakfasts. You sit on old wine crates around wooden tables in a pretty garden while dogs, cats and occasionally miniature pigs come to visit you for snacks. That, in the picture, is a giant treehouse shaped like a ship. That was enormously popular with all the children, and especially Daniel (my half-brother).






















Finally, before you disappear because I'm boring you with photographs of how wonderful my holiday was (*gush*), have a look at the pretty mountains and dam at Worcester Yacht Club:
















Now, this was a cold day. There was snow on the mountains. We wore jumpers and jackets and scarves and boots. The cloud cover was particularly pretty, though, and it seemed to change all the colours of the scenery to make it more brilliant and stand-out-ish. (Yes, 'ishing' is permissible when words fail you.)

















Just look at that sky! Pretty pretty pretty. I could write here!


Further along the dam you come to a pretty open grass area where campers are allowed to set up tents and children run around delightedly. Makes for good photographs, too.






















Here's Emma enjoying the Worcester Yacht Club swings with her polka dot wellies. This picture is pretty much how I feel about my whole trip home - glee!