Visiting the Diaz Museum - Part 2

The grounds of the Dias Museum Complex are filled with a collection of fynbos and other plants that occur naturally in the Mossel Bay area. Most of these plants were used for shelter, food and for medicinal purposes by the European settlers and indigenous people alike. The museum keeps samples of these flowers from their botanical gardens in vases at the entrance of the complex so that visitors can study the plant samples while they read about them in the exhibit. 

There is also a Braille trail that makes the gardens accessible to visually-impaired people so that they can read about, feel and smell the wonderful collection of plantlife. 

The Dias Complex also includes a shell museum with a small aquarium, which Shelly and Sandy were very excited to explore. There are a number of fish tanks with various sea creatures inside the museum, as well as large shell exhibits. Shelly was particularly fond of this little fellow who hid behind his rock every time we tried to snap a photo of him.

But she was a little unsettled to stand in front of the lobster tank! 

Everybody loved the little Octopus on display and we enjoyed watching him eat his lunch. 

Then we found these bright little spiky starfish. Aren't they pretty!?

The shell museum has lots of beautiful shells of all shapes and sizes on display. The children enjoyed looking through all of the lovely displays and we all loved picking our own favorites in each display. 

Shelly decided that her favorite display was the shell house diorama. She promptly decided that she wants to live in a shell house just like it one day. 

In the center of the shell display, we found the biggest clam shell ever! 

On the top floor of the shell museum, there is a whale and dolphin information section with information and identification charts and dolphin models. 

As you leave the museum, you are greeted by these friendly fellows! It took some coaching and pleading to get all of the kids back down the stairs to the exit, but we thought that these guys were an awesome ending to our tour of the Dias Museum Complex.

Visiting the Diaz Museum - Part 1

While we were on holiday in Mossel Bay, we visited the Bartholomeu Dias Museum Complex and, of course, my furry friends were quick to join in on the fun! The Neptune family posed for some photos so that we can give you all a tour of the facility - you can also read more about the complex and its history on the Dias Museum webpage.

Bartholomeu Dias de Novais was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488 and was the first European known to do so. The museum complex is built on the very site where the European explorers first came ashore and made contact with the indigenous people.
There are also five National Monuments on the museum grounds, four of which dating between 1830 and 1902.

Inside the maritime museum, we found a big hand painted mural of the Portuguese land and sea trade routes. Some of the many items transported along this route, included silks and spices like ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and coriander.

They also have scale models of ships on display in the museum, one of which shows an example of how the decks are arranged inside a ship. Caspian found this very interesting and posed for a photo with one of the models.

They even have a scale model of the ship that Bartholomeu Dias used for his exploration missions around Africa. It is called a Caravel and is a small, fast and highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century. Because of their size, they had limited capacity for cargo and crew, but their smaller size and shallower keel allowed the Caravel to sail upriver in shallow coastal waters.

If the scale model of the Caravel was not enough, the Dias museum also has a full sized replica of Bartholomeu Dias' Caravel on display! The ship is 23,5 meters long and was launched on 14 June 1987, she sailed from Lisabon with a crew of 16 and arrived in Mossel Bay on 3 Fabruary 1988 - the 500th anniversary of Dias' landing. She then sailed to Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Port Edward and Durban as part of the Dias88 Festival, before arriving back at her permanent home in Mosselbay, where she was dry docked and the building closed up around her.

The kids were a little afraid to walk over the wooden bridge to board the ship, so we had to take all of our photos from the walkways around her! Caspian, however, was willing to pose for a photo on the railing and all of the other guests waited patiently for us to finish our mini photo session before boarding the ship again. 

There are also some very interesting items on display all over the museum, one of which is this replica Backstaff. The Backstaff (Or Back Quadrant) is a navigational instrument that was used to determine latitude by measuring the altitude of the sun in the sky.

Nestled between some of the antique and vintage items on the top floor of the museum, we found this very old bicycle. We all had a very good laugh at the thought of having to actually go anywhere on it though!

One of the monuments in the museum complex, is the postal tree. (Only a branch is visible on the top of this photo because the tree is so big!) The tree is a Milkwood tree and is considered to be over 500 years old. In 1501 the navigator Da Nova found a message that warned him of rough sailing near Calcutta, in a sailor's boot under this tree. This tree is considered to be the first post office in South Africa and since Da Nova was so grateful for the message, he built a small stone hermitage to be used for religious purposes - the first religious building in South Africa! 

This is the post box under the Old Post Office Tree, where you can send out postcards and letters. A special frank is used on all outgoing mail to commemorate that South Africa's first post office was this tree. The letterbox is shaped like a boot because the first letters were placed in a sailor's boot under the tree...

Unfortunately when we visited the museum, the postal strike was still going strong and we were advised not to send out postcards from the postal tree at that time. :(


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P.S - I only realized today that yesterday's changes to my website were not as easy to find as I had thought they would be! I apologize for the confusion that I have created and have now updated the home page of my website to point to the "Updates" page that shows what changes were made and when. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, it totally slipped my mind!

The Neptune's Holiday

I recently acquired the Neptune Sea Otter family and as I was packing and getting ready to leave for our December holiday, I accidentally let it slip that we would be spending some time at the coast...
These little critters just begged me to take them with me and after seeing their little pleading faces, I just couldn't resist! ;-)

These little cuties accompanied me (Safely wrapped in a big washcloth, tucked snugly into my camera bag) everywhere we went for the whole holiday. Sadly, we had a lot of very cloudy weather and conditions were not ideal for taking photos.

On our way to Mosselbay, where my husband's parents live, we stopped by another collector friend who gave me a wonderful little surprise....

Little Lucy Huntington has been transferred from the orphanage in Sugarbush Valley to the Timbertop Orphanage in Rooibosch Hill, where nanny Timbertop hopes to find her family soon.

I have been looking for Huntington bears for quite some time now, and although I have a trade for another baby pending, (Thank you post office... :(   ) his little critter is a very welcome surprise! 

For the time being little Lucy will be staying with her cousins, the Honey Bears.

The drive from our house to Mosselbay can be anything between 14 and 17 hours, depending on the amount of time spent stretching legs, the number of fuel stops, traffic, potholes and roadblocks.

For us, it was a little closer to the 17 hour mark this time and after only having cookies, crisps and candy to eat for most of the day, we decided that it was time to have a late lunch at the Three Sisters fuel station.

The fuel station has the name three sisters, because of the three distinctly shaped hills (locally called "koppies") nearby. These hills are topped with dolorite and look nearly identical. Because of the flat Karoo scenery all around, the three sisters stand out and have become a very well known landmark.

Being the mommy, I was of course tasked with taking the little one for a bathroom break. Upon my return, however, I found Shelly and Sandy Neptune happily munching away at my bacon and cheese hamburger that hubby was so kind to order for me! I didn't see much of my pink milkshake either, but at least we had two happy little sea otters for the rest of the way. 

Before we got back into the car for the last stretch of our drive, we had just enough time to take a picture of the famous Three Sisters Weather Forecast Apparatus. This apparatus is 100% accurate at any time of the day or night and requires no electricity, batteries, sun power, wind power or anything else to operate. 

It really is VERY high tech, extremely rare and crazy expensive!

It is also, essentially a rock... A really BIG rock, suspended in the air by a rusty old chain that hangs from three wooden poles that are cemented into the ground and held together with rusty nails. Comparing the weather stone to my previous photos taken in 2012, the addition of binding wire has been made in recent years (possibly as some sort of attuning mechanism for better accuracy?) where the rusty nails have now failed to keep the massive stone in the air... :-)

To help the common person to get some use out of this amazing weather stone, there is a sign post with instructions next to the stone.

It reads as follows:

Happy New Year 2015!

http://sylvanianfamiliesforum.co.za/phpbb/

Today marks the official one year anniversary of our Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters forum!

It has been a great year on the forum and I have been amazed and awed with the creativity of our humble collecting community. I am very grateful for the friends from all over the world that I have made on the forum and all of the support that you all have given me through both the good times and the bad over the past year. But I have also learned so much from all of the amazing members who so graciously share their ideas, knowledge and skills.

Happy 2015 everyone! May this year be filled with lots of love, hugs & Sylvanians. 

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***If you have not yet signed up on the Sylvanian Families and Calico Critters forum mentioned above, please feel free to do so. We have a lot of members from all over the world and we have people from all ages and all walks of life chatting together. It doesn't matter if your English isn't good enough according to your own standards, and it doesn't matter how big your collection is - we love meeting and chatting to collectors young and young at heart both.***

The night before Christmas!

It was the night before Christmas and all around Rooibosch Hill, little critters were sound asleep in their beds, dreaming of the wonderful gifts that would be waiting for them under the Christmas tree.

But in the Tuxedo household things were not as calm as they seemed, for the smallest members of the Tuxedo family, triplets Angelica, Midnight and Pepperment, lay awake in their beds listening for the faintest sounds from the living room.

Angelica and Pepperment had all but given up on their quest, but Midnight was determined to see their plan through and suddenly he was startled from his near slumber by a sound from downstairs. Midnight jumped from his bed and dragged the covers from his two sisters while hushing them at the same time.

The three didn't make a sound as they crept down the stairs and into the living room. As they came closer, the triplets could see the jug of milk and the Christmas pudding that their mother had left out, still sitting on the coffee table. In the fireplace the flames had burnt out a long time ago, leaving only embers smouldering in their wake. 

The triplets felt the heavy weight of disappointment set in. Maybe Midnight had imagined the sound that made him jump out of his bed so quickly. But, just as Angelica opened her mouth to tell her brother exactly what she thought of losing so much sleep on their doomed quest, something amazing happened!

A jolly looking bunny with a big beard, wearing a red suit stood in front of the tree! He had a big bag, overflowing with beautifully wrapped boxes and started placing gifts under their Christmas tree as he softly hummed a jolly Christmas carol to himself.

The Tuxedo triplets couldn't believe their eyes, and watched in awe as the jolly old man stacked more gifts under the tree, then turned his attention to the Christmas cake and milk on the coffee table. They watched for a moment more before the candle in the middle of the room suddenly flickered and went out! 

When Midnight opened his eyes, the first rays of morning sunshine were already caressing the horizon and he found that he was in his own bed. Angelica and Peppermint were both still fast asleep, snuggled up in their own beds and he could still hear his father's snoring floating through the air from down the hall.

And as Midnight thought back at the events of the previous night, he found that the memory was slowly becoming more and more vague until he himself was no longer certain of the facts! But, as Midnight lay his head back on the pillow, trying to make sense of things, a thought suddenly came to him. - Right before he had fallen asleep the previous night, he had distinctly heard the chiming sound of sleigh bells ringing in his ears...

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May this Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a bright and happy new year!

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all the critterzens of Rooibosch Hill!!!

Rainy days are here again! It is time for PANNEKOEK!

It has been such a lovely rainy weekend here in Rooibosch Hill, that the spicy-sweet smell of cinnamon is drifting through the entire villige...

Why cinnamon, you ask? Well, because everyone is baking pancakes of course! :-D In Afrikaans, we call them "pannekoek", and they are deee-licious!

For those who don't know, it is a rainy-day tradition in most of South Africa to bake pancakes and cover them in cinnamon and sugar. (LOTS of cinnamon and sugar!) In fact, no church bazaar, country fair or any other public gathering for that matter is complete without at least one pancake stand, regardless of the weather!

If you have a large family, and have to bake quite a few pancakes, the smell of cinnamon will waft through your house and leave everything smelling sweet for hours after! Baking pancakes on a rainy day is also a sure way to pave your way into your prospective husband's stomach heart... ;-)

Of course South African pancakes are very flat and very thin, and to the rest of the world, they are known as crêpes... So since real South African pancakes differ so greatly from pancakes in the rest of the world, I have decided to share my tried and trusted family recipe for anyone willing to try them.

You will need:
4 eggs
2 cups of cake flour
1/4 cup of sunflower oil
a dash of salt (Yes, I cook and bake with dashes!)
15ml white vinegar
300ml Water
400ml Milk
Sugar (White / brown, it doesn't matter)
Cinnamon (LOTS of it!)

Add the cake flour to a big mixing bowl, then slowly stir in the milk. Then add the eggs, oil, salt and vinegar before stirring them through. Lastly add the water. Mix everything together until you have a lump free batter. (If you do have lumps, simply pour it all through a sieve! Grandma won't know!) 
Your batter should now be quite runny and resemble a milkshake - we are not making flapjacks here, we are making "pannekoek"!

Put the batter in the refrigerator to rest for 10 - 15 minutes. Add a cup of sugar to a clean mixing bowl and stir in a tablespoon of cinnamon. (Or more if you like - If I had my way, I would reverse the proportions, or forgo the pancakes and just eat the cinnamon neat while I am at it!)
Dust the bottom of a serving plate with the cinnamon sugar mixture. (don't skimp!) This will form the base for your stack of pancakes and this first one will likely give you diabetes, but at least you will die happy!

Heat about a quarter of a teaspoon of oil in a non-stick pan. (Yes, I know it is non-stick, but just do it, because grandma says so!) Repeat this every  now and again if your pancakes start to stick to the pan.
Once heated, scoop a large spoonful of batter into the center of your pan, and quickly swirl it around to cover the whole pan. (If you find the batter too thick, feel free to stir in a spoonful of  water before baking the next one.)

Cook the pancake a few seconds until it turns light brown, then lift the edges with a spatula and flip it over to cook the other side. (Don't let them burn, you have to keep a good eye on them!)
Once done on both sides, turn the pancake out onto the prepared plate, then cover with a layer of cinnamon and sugar mix before adding the next pancake on top. Repeat until your batter runs out!
Serve your pancakes by rolling them up one by one and enjoy the spicy-sugary-goodness!

P.S - If a pancake flops, just scrape it out into a bowl, add some of the sugar mix to it and eat it with a spoon in front of the tv later. (No one has to know!)

Lovely Lavender rabbits

It has been so long since I have been able to post anything, that I am ecstatic to get back online to show you the newest happenings in Rooibosch! I have been forced offline for a while now, since my ADSL connection is giving us some problems... Of course, on the better days that we actually had some connection, I managed to set up a nice little post to post itself over the weekend - as you can see, that did not  happen! Oops...

I honestly don't know why I am experiencing so much trouble with Blogger, but hopefully I will sort out the kinks soon. This time around, I managed to delete the whole post while editing it!!! But, at least it seems like my internet connection was at least partly to blame this time around.

So, without further ado, let me rave on about my lovely Lavender rabbits, who have all been photographed out of their box for the first time. :D

How stunning are they!!!? O_O
I have been meaning to do a little write-up about them for some time now, but never quite got around to it. This is the first photo of my whole family out of their box, how exciting!

Since receiving the Lavenders on 27 April this year from all of my friends on the Sylvanian Chat Forum, as probably the bestest best gift ever, I have not had the heart to take them out of the box to photograph them.

Well, that is not entirely true - I carefully cut the tape on the box, removed the inner and snapped a photo of them all strapped in place. Yes, I realize how stupid that looked, but I couldn't take them out of the box!!!

So, one morning not too long ago, I realized that I needed a bit of a pick-me-up, so I decided to take some photos of my little Lavenders to create their webpage for them. The family photo turned into a whole photoshoot and I even did a little story about their snow day on my website.

Since the Lavender rabbits don't have official names, I found it difficult to write about father Lavender or mother Lavender and ended up giving them all suitable names. To be honest, thinking up names relating to purple wasn't that hard, so I ended up with father Carmine, mother Lydia, sister Violet, brother Tyrian and baby Lila. I decided to shorten Lilac to Lila so that she isn't just a colour. Mother Lydia is probably the only one that doesn't have a name that is also the name of a colour, but her name does hold the meaning - woman of purple, so I felt that it fit after all. :-)