Life's good, interest rates are decreasing and there may just be light at the end of our tunnel. :) As many of you - and most South Africans - will know, it's been tough going from a financial perspective for some time now. In July of 2006 we saw the repo rate start to rise from a long-time low of 7% to a high of 12% in July 2008 (an interest rate last experienced in July of 2003). What's with July and fluctuations in interest rates? It seems, however, as though Tito Mboweni, Governor of the Reserve Bank, has decided not to have a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (who decide on interest rate fluctuations) in July this year. Perhaps he's trying to break the trend?
Even with the Reserve Bank decreasing interest rates (in an effort to stimulate cash-flow, I guess) South Africans seem to not be spending as much as they were before. From the people I've spoken to, it sounds as though most are diverting as much money as they can into those huge home loans that Kerry-Anne mentioned a little while ago!
I guess we have to remember though that if we cut all our non-essential spending, it will lead to businesses shutting down, which will lead to unemployment, which could in turn lead to more crime. So, I guess what I'm thinking is that we should be wise with our money, but not too miserly.
Pondering this point of feeling like Charlie (in the glass elevator) had me needing a bite of chocolate. Fortunately, I managed to track down four marshmallow Easter eggs from not so long ago... which I duly shared with Kerry-Anne (who is presently cramming for a C++ exam in her office).
The glass elevator that you see in this photo is the one that I've taken on most mornings recently, from my basement parking spot on level -2, up to my office at level +3. The lift slowly ascends out of the abyss (called our basement) to present its occupants with this view. It's fairly pretty, not so? Well, particularly on clear days during sunrise and sunset - today the light was a little greyish-blue and the clouds were mounting, announcing a coolish, rainy week lying ahead.
I perpetually have a debate with myself when I arrive at work in the mornings: take the elevator, or take the stairs? For a long time the stairs won, then the elevator took over its rightful role in my life. Recently, I've started walking the five levels up to my office in the morning again. The trouble is that I often see someone I know taking the elevator, and then that boyish sense of competition takes over and I find myself having to beat them to the top - which I mostly do, of course; but then I have to try as hard as I can to keep my composure lest I breathe too hard and show my exhaustion. :D
Eric Cloete, Cape Town’s very own accordion player
We snuck away from the belly dancing for an hour or so to grab some lunch at one of our favourite spots, Pastis. When I heard the gentle strains of an accordion starting up as we were ordering our food, I almost jumped out of my seat in glee.
If you've read our About Us page, then you'll know that I was inspired to start Cape Town Daily Photo as a result of my many visits to Eric Tenin's Paris Daily Photo. And I started visiting Paris Daily Photo because we'd visited Paris itself in 2006, and had utterly fallen in love with the city.
Eric Cloete has been playing the accordion since the age of 10. He performs at all kinds of events around the Cape, but incredibly, it was the first time we'd seen or heard him. He stopped at our table for a few minutes, and, when we mentioned how much we loved Amelie, he played us a couple of pieces from the movie. It couldn't have been better - perfect weather, lovely food, me all dressed up in my pretty belly dancing clothes, and a surprise reminder of our second-favourite city in the world. Just one more Cape Town experience to file under "Special Moments". ;-)
Craving cake and coffee (and just needing to get out of the house) we ended up at Arnold's Restaurant in Kloof Street. While sitting there, I started to wonder about the flipfile of little adverts dotted on each table: I wondered (a) whether or not other parts of the world have this kind of table advertising, and (b) whether or not these ads really work.
For the first question, I'm hoping that you would assist me; and in the case of the second I have an opinion (and I wouldn't mind hearing your opinion of my opinion...). You'll find these little flipfiles of adverts in many restaurants, but I'd be keen to know from any of the advertisers if they've actually brought in much business; I'm not sure that they do bring in any significant amount. The concept of table ads is a great one, but I think that they generally fail in their delivery - in my opinion, of course.
I found myself browsing through a set of boring ads, putting the booklet down, and not thinking of it again. Sure, if I happened to be looking for a painter, or a plumber, then perhaps I'd take down the number... but then again, I'd just as easily find the info in the yellow pages when I'm home. What I'd like to find in these booklets are quirky, funny, interesting and off-beat adverts that catch my attention. I'd give those kind of ads a second look, give the advertiser credit for their originality, probably chat about the ad, and be more likely to take down the number (or hopefully URL!).
Some time ago we hid a geocache in a super-special extra-clever hiding place right in the middle of a quiet suburb. To be a little more specific, the cache is hidden very close to a dam in the Durbanville area. We go and check on it every once in a while to make sure that it's still there, and still in good condition. While we were trying to find its exact hiding spot again (because it's extra-clever, you see), Paul noticed this little piece of art.
Before you get all excited, I'm pretty sure that this is not the handiwork of real Khoisan artists, miraculously preserved in the middle of a suburban park. I think it's a whole lot more likely that this is the work of a group of high school students from the school up the road. Still, not too shabby, is it?
Wet winter weather, cold days, and colder nights are conducive to enjoying a good potjie (pronounced poy-kie) cooked over open coals. "Potjiekos" is the official term for this traditional meal.
"Potjie" is an Afrikaans word meaning "little pot", interpreted in this context as a cast-iron pot. The idea is that one places the pot over a few coals and adds meat, onion, herbs and spices, letting them simmer until the meat is nicely browned. You can then add vegetables in layers (this allows the vegetables to keep their individual flavour so that you don't end up with veggie-mush), starting with harder vegetables like carrots and baby-marrow, and then working your way up from butternut and cauliflower, through to cabbage and potato pieces right at the end. Keeping the potato near the top of the stack is kinda important - otherwise you'll end up with mushy potato at the bottom of the pot.
Note the following critical success factors:
don't even think of stirring the vegetables
don't peek under the lid until quite some time has passed (like an hour or so)
when you do peek, check that the meat and onion at the bottom aren't burning
you shouldn't need to add water (this isn't soup or a stew ;) )
if the potatoes on top are cooked and there's still a whole lot of liquid in the pot, leave the lid off so that it can boil away
Once the potatoes are cooked, and the liquid (drawn from the veggies) has cooked away, your potjie should be ready to eat. Oh, and like a typical guy, I forgot to mention: remember to cook some rice before the pot is ready... :)
I'd be interested to know if any of our readers have ever tried cooking a vegetarian potjie. Please leave a comment if you have - I'd love to know what one can use as a substitute for meat at the bottom of the pot.
We've taken Tafelberg Road along to the Cable Way many times, but I've never bothered driving further along the road to see exactly where it goes. We decided to take a drive along the mountain road, heading towards the southern suburbs, hoping to eventually get through to Newlands.
All was going well until a few kilometres into our journey, when we suddenly came across what you see in the photo. I mean, really, could they not have warned us that the road was barricaded? I took a look on Wikimapia and found that the road actually does lead down to De Waal Drive, which is a hop, skip and a jump to Newlands.
Ever since James Small, a past Springbok rugby player, opened Café Caprice (on Victoria Road in Camps Bay) we've been meaning to pop in for a meal or drink. There's just never seemed to be space for us, though - we always seem to end up in Camps Bay at the same time as Cape Town's entire population of trendy people! Café Caprice has always been a very popular meeting-place, and I'm not sure that that's just because of the identity of its owner.
We managed to arrive in Camps Bay early (just after 9am is early, isn't it?), and so there was still plenty of space for us to pick a nice sunny seat at the window. So, our first visit to Caprice was pretty good, actually. Our young waiter was sparky and quick to attend. For breakfast we both chose the Madame Caprice (a pocket of French toast, buttered with mustard, filled with bacon and cheese and topped with a fried egg) with coffee.
Madame Caprice was flippin' awesome - except perhaps for the mustard, which Kerry-Anne loved and I felt spoiled the meal a little. I've never been a real mustard fan, and in retrospect I should have asked them to hold the mustard.
Café Caprice's website is one of those annoying Flash sites, but take a look anyway - their menu seems up-to-date and they have a small (though un-maintained!) gallery section with photos from parties held at the restaurant.
Don't you find that you spend far too much time behind your computer screen? Ah, perhaps not you, but I certainly do. Many years ago (as mentioned yesterday) I was painting the town red on my skateboard, with the result that I had pretty okay leg muscles. I've found that over the subsequent years, with plenty of time spent sitting at my computer, these have atrophied and shortened to a point where I now regularly suffer knee and lower-back pain.
I stand in awe of guys like AB De Villers (the cricketer in the photo) - how does a man possibly flex like that? Well, I guess that the answer to my problem is to get off my butt and exercise those muscles. So, although I know that it's not enough, I've begun stretching and strengthening my leg muscles in the mornings as part of my start-of-day routine, and I've also decided to walk up the five flights of stairs to my office instead of taking the elevator.
The challenge now is to keep on doing this. :-/
This coming weekend is jam-packed with things to do. On Saturday we celebrate our wedding anniversary, and Cape Town hosts the Two Oceans Marathon. Sunday we'll be covering what will hopefully be an entertainingly inept group of "cricketers" at our first GeekCricket event, and then on Monday we'll be joining thousands of people at the Coke Zero Fest, which is essentially 10 hours of live music.
Kite surfing is one of those sports that looks so awesome and appears to be so much fun, but can in fact be deceptively dangerous - especially for the foolishly brave noobies who think that it's okay to go out on their own. It really isn't okay for the inexperienced to kite-surf on their own, even if the wind is calm.
The Cape Town wind has a nasty way of arriving suddenly and changing unpredictably. A friend of mine was once lifted several metres into the air, and then thumped down on the sand, severely injuring his back. It took months for the feeling in his lower back to return... and he was lucky. More than once have I heard of kite surfers being dragged around on the beach, slammed into barricades and even dragged across roads. A little while ago I heard a report of a kite surfer flying across the beach, then flying across the road, and finally being slammed against a building.
If you do plan on taking up kite surfing, make sure that you take proper lessons and get in a good few hours of surfing before going out alone. Also, take a look at the safety tips on this kite-surfing school's site. And, just before you're ready to go out and buy your first kite, do take a look at this video. (Warning: The video contains no blood, or visible damage to any person, but could be classed as horrific in nature.)
A weekend isn't really a weekend in Cape Town if it doesn't include at least one braai, is it? We had ours last night, with a couple of really good friends that we hadn't seen for a while.
If you're not familiar with the workings of a braai (which is kind of like a barbecue, just better :P ), here's a fairly typical description of what takes place:
Guests arrive, bringing meat (steak, lamb chops, sosaties and boerewors are the most popular choices) and drinks (beer is almost mandatory, at least for the guys, but red wine is a favourite too, and if you're in the northern suburbs then it's Klippies and Coke, of course). It's customary for each guest or couple to bring a side dish or a packet of chips, or even dessert - and this is usually arranged with the host beforehand. In our case, our hosts had told us not to bring anything, so we took them some easter eggs and sparkling grape juice instead. It's just not polite to arrive empty-handed. :)
Most of the time, you'll find the women in the kitchen for at least part of the evening, while the men are outside... um... tending the fire... or something. They make it seem terribly important, anyhow. It's a funny thing, because I'm sure that most of us girls could braai the meat if we wanted to, but this is one area of our lives where gender roles seem to have stuck. And you know what? I think we're all pretty okay with that.
So the guys cook the meat, while the girls get all the other bits and pieces set out on the table or the kitchen counter (potato salad, Greek salad, noodle salad, corn-on-the-cob, braaied mushrooms, and garlic bread are a few of the most common side dishes you'll see), and once the meat is cooked, everyone helps themselves, drinks are replenished, and we sit down together (outside if it's still warm enough - or, at some of the braais I've been to, even if it isn't) and eat until we can eat no more.
Yes, yes, the wheel clamping sign's interesting and all that, but JUST LOOK AT THE SKY PASSAGE above it! I've had a slightly exaggerated fascination with these building-to-building sky passages ever since I was a little girl. I remember going into the city with my mother, and wondering if I'd ever get to walk across one of these. To my young mind, crossing a sky passage seemed totally magical and mysterious. And to think that some people get to cross them every single day! (Not much has changed, by the way - I still find these passages terribly enchanting, only now I think they'd be a whole lot more exciting if they had glass floors. ;-) )
Abig thank you to those of you who nominated us for the 2009 SA Blog Awards - we were thrilled to discover this evening that Cape Town Daily Photo has been selected as a finalist in THREE categories: Best Photographic Blog, Best Travel Blog and Best Group Blog (a category for blogs with more than one author).
If you've been reading CTDP for a while, then you might recall that we won the award for Best Travel Blog in 2008. This year we have some truly formidable competition in every one of the categories for which we've been nominated, so we're keeping the celebratory wine on ice for now. :)
Of course I'd love you to vote for us, but at the same time I feel strongly that you shouldn't vote for this blog simply because I've asked you to, or because you're my friend, or because you follow me on Twitter: you should vote for this blog if you believe it to be the best in its category. So please visit the SA Blog Awards voting page, have a careful look at the finalists in each category, and then cast your vote for those you feel are most deserving. And don't forget to click on the link in the confirmation email you receive, in order to confirm your vote!
By the way, voting is open to EVERYONE, not only South Africans or residents of South Africa. So even if you live in the USA or the UK, Canada or Germany, Romania or India, or anywhere else for that matter, you can still vote.
AND ONE MORE TIME: Thank you to everyone who took the time to nominate us - I'm not sure that you realise just how much your support, comments and encouragement mean to us, especially when it's reeeeally late at night, and, exhausted after a long day, we suddenly realise that neither of us has posted yet... ;-)
To be honest, I've never seen this brand of coffee before, but I'd bet that if I asked my parents they would remember it from many years ago... possibly before I was even born!
The word "Raadsaal" means "Council Hall" if you translate it directly... which I guess is an odd name for a brand of coffee. Strangely, if you zoom in you'll be able to read that the manufacturer of this traditional-Afrikaans-sounding coffee brand is an old British company, "Brooke Bond Tea & Coffee Co".
This aside, the funniest part of this poster is the phrase "Sterk Koffie!", which means "Strong Coffee!". If you zoom in you'll notice that the coffee consists of 62.5% chicory and only 37.5% real coffee... which, in my opinion, isn't very strong at all! :)
The 58-foot yacht Spirit of Victoria carries passengers on trips around Table Bay, taking them a little way along the Atlantic Seaboard, in fact. At night she lies quietly moored at the north pier of the V&A Waterfront, bobbing about, content after a day of hard work. If you've spent much time looking out into Table Bay you will almost certainly have noticed the schooner's distinctive brown sails blowing in the wind; see another photo here.
Time permitting, Kerry-Anne and I will try taking a trip on the Spirit of Victoria before summer is over, and then report back on the experience.
I learned a fascinating thing about wine-making in South Africa recently.
Winemakers press the same grapes several times. The first pressing gives the best quality wine, and the last the worst quality (much the same as "extra virgin" and "virgin" olive oil). The interesting thing that the winemaker I spoke with said was that by law he is not allowed to throw any wine away - all wine produced has to be sold.
My first thought was one of admiration for the law-makers, as I figured they must really appreciate the value of a good bottle of wine. This naivety was quickly dashed though, as the winemaker elaborated, explaining that it's not for any environmental or other good reason, but because the government wants as much tax money as possible.
A wry smile what all I got when, in an effort to save us all from bad wine, I asked why the last pressing of poor wine wasn't simply skipped. From his response I gathered that plenty of very juicy grape skins are disposed of each year. :)
Kerry-Anne's parents were given a restaurant voucher for their wedding anniversary last year, and kindly invited us to join them in spending it last night at Sevruga, a restaurant close to the water's edge on the V&A Waterfront's harbour pier. If I'd taken a step or two back from where I took this photo, I would have been bobbing around in the water!
We had a pretty good time at Sevruga. The service was friendly and good (albeit a little slow, I felt), and the food was well-prepared and well-presented, and tasted very good indeed. Considering the quality of the food, Sevruga's prices are not bad at all, as you can see on their menu.
Sevruga offers a half-price sushi and cocktail special every day between 2 and 5pm. They have an extensive range of cocktails and a huge sushi menu (I'm not a sushi fan, but Kerry-Anne said that the sushi starter she shared with her mom was superb, as was her seared tuna main course. My steak was excellent - tender, perfectly cooked and tasty.)
All in all, a really lovely experience, and we'll definitely be back to sample some of their other dishes.
Being narrow and lined with tall buildings, many of our city-centre side-streets are reminiscent of the "old Cape Town". A few of our streets are even made of cobble-stone, dating back to the time of horses and carts. In fact, I wonder how many people know that in 1863 the city opened its first fully operational tramway, operated by the "Cape Town and Green Point Tramway Company". The horse-drawn tram service ran from the bottom of Adderley Street along Somerset Road to Green Point. Of course, there are no more tramways left in Cape Town today - they'd cause absolute havoc with the traffic!
I've never been much into fish (as pets, I mean - I'm quite fond of a nice piece of seared tuna :P ). I prefer my pets to have fur, generally. But koi fish seem to have become very popular in South Africa - according to the people at Happy Koi, we have the ideal climate for keeping them.
Probably because I've never been much into fish, I didn't actually know that koi are simply a domesticated version of the common carp. I also didn't know that goldfish are a domesticated version of the Prussian carp. I suppose everyone else knew this, though, right?
This particular koi pond is located at Lovane Boutique Wine Estate, which was the subject of yesterday's post.
While visiting DelVera we discovered a gem of the Stellenbosch winelands, Mama Joan's Farm Kitchen. When one is away on business or vacation, the novelty of eating out at restaurants wears off pretty quickly. For me this is roughly after the second day. :) Kerry-Anne and I were delighted to happen upon Mama Joan's at DelVera - a restaurant where you can still buy "homemade" meals.
Although we only stopped in for a cup or two of vanilla tea, we couldn't help but notice how good and wholesome the meals passing by our table looked. I also noticed that the menu indicated that some of the dishes on offer were made from organically-grown produce only... a sure plus in today's GM-driven world!
We'll certainly go back for a meal some time, and we'll be sure to report back.
Heading in the direction of Stellenbosch, DelVera is located about 10KM from the N1 highway, along the R44 towards Stellenbosch.
We happened upon Chrisna's new farm-style shop at the DelVera estate (just outside of Stellenbosch) today. While Kerry-Anne was tasting all the pastes, olives and flavoured vinegars I got chatting to one of Chrisna's assistants who was busy with the laborious task of removing all the pips from a HUGE bucket of olives. As we chatted, this is what I learned:
Chrisna started her olive business more than ten years ago as a home "project" while tending an old lady's olive tree. Soon word about her amazing olives spread and Chrisna started selling olives, olive oil and olive paste to friends. Things started to snowball from that point leading to her moving her business into her garage at home and by the end of last year Chrisna and her small team were processing about 10 tons of organically grown olives each year! Chrisna and her staff make the pastes and pickled olives, while they outsource the pressing of the oil from the fruit to local... well... olive-pressing-people. (Say, what would you call people who press olives?)
It seems as though Chrisna's made a roaring success from her one-tree beginning. If you love olives and feel like chatting to friendly locals, make a point of taking a drive along the R44 to DelVera - you won't regret the trip.
On 31 October of last year, I posted a photo of the first super-tiny bunch of grapes to start growing on the vine covering our patio. This bunch is one of the fully adult, yet relatively small, bunches of grapes to materialise from the baby-bunches that I photographed in October.
I tasted a couple of the grapes, and while not harshly bitter, they're not exactly the sweetest, largest, or juiciest that I've ever tasted. Perhaps next year's harvest will be more palatable - although best I don't leave it to chance. If you have any tips for for producing a harvest of large, lush, and sweet grapes, I'm all ears. :)
I wonder how many visitors to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens know that there are turtles hovering in the ponds, keeping a beady eye on passersby. Shortly after I took this photo Mandrake (the turtle in question) swam to the side of the pond, giving chase as I slowly, and then slightly more rapidly, backed away.
As it turns out Mandrake wasn't really after me, or my pointy camera. He headed straight past me towards the pathway - for what purpose I'm not sure. It seemed as though even he was perplexed when he reached it! I understand that peak turtle breeding season is coming to a close, so perhaps he (or perhaps she) was just trying to look as fierce as a turtle is able to look.
A bushfire started in the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve just outside the town of Stellenbosch yesterday. Today the fire still rages, and while it's true that Fynbos (the indigenous vegetation of the Cape Province) needs to burn every 12 to 15 years to ensure the long-term survival of the species, incorrectly timed or over-frequent burning can lead to the extinction of species.
Our firefighters have been out trying to keep control of the fire, but with the strong Southeaster fanning the fire who knows how long they will manage this for. I imagine that for a firefighter, fighting a fire with a raging Southeaster wind is much like riding a wild bull!
At the end of last week I mentioned that we were going to visit friends in Royal Ascot for breakfast today and were hoping to get some photos of horses training outside the Gold Circle stables.
On the way to their apartment this morning we heard the radio DJ mention that the J&B Met - only the largest horse racing event in Cape Town - was on today! It had completely slipped our minds. This meant that there were very few horses training this morning, and the photo above is one of the few that I managed to snap of horses working off a little excess energy before presumably being transported to the Met at Kenilworth.
Thanks guys, the breakfast was awesome - but it does seem as though we'll have to do it again some time soon. :)
We went down to Kenridge Dam this evening for a mini-outing, just before sunset. We haven't been to this particular dam for quite some time, and I was stunned to see how tall the reeds have become and how much of the dam is now being taken up by them. They must be covering at least three-quarters of the dam already - I can't imagine that this is good for the dam's eco-system. These Egyptian geese looked quite happy waddling around on the banks though, so I'm guessing it's not affecting them too much (yet).
You might recall us mentioning the Perdeberg Winery in a few of our previous posts. Well, late last year we received a letter asking us to help out in the search for Perdeberg's missing zebra.
Apparently, so the story goes, Merlot the zebra vanished from the winery on 6 December. The next day a ransom note was found, in which the kidnapper demanded one case of wine a week for 12 weeks, or else Merlot stays missing for good.
The kidnapper promised to send through a clue leading to a new drop-off location each week, and apparently he's insisted that the public must get involved in solving these weekly clues. If you solve the week's clue correctly, you'll stand a chance of receiving a free case of Perdeberg wine yourself, plus there are discount vouchers and other promotional items up for grabs too.
So go and read all about Perdeberg's missing zebra, and make sure you get your answer to this week's clue in by 1pm on Friday to be in line to win.
Unfortunately for our international visitors, the competition is only open to South African residents. On another note, can anyone confirm what species of zebra this is? It appears to be a Burchell's zebra, but I'm not too well-versed in zebra identification, so I can't be 100% sure.
According to the Cape Ports website, the Celestine River, a ship just like this one, caused quite a fuss last year when it was anchored off Sea Point, as some people were concerned that it might explode...
According to the same site, the ships that lie at anchor off the coast like this (we see quite a few of them) are in fact empty, and so these fears were entirely unfounded.
"LNG" stands for Liquefied Natural Gas - natural gas is converted to liquid so that it can be transported, and then returned to its gaseous form once it reaches its destination, so that it can be piped.
This photo was taken from the promenade at Three Anchor Bay.
Well, things do look a little different today, don't they? We've been stealthily working on the new version of Cape Town Daily Photo for a few months now, and let me tell you, it's been really tough keeping quiet about it. From the day I saw the first mockups that the wonderful Max Kaizen had designed for us, I knew that this new version was going to be worlds better than our old site.
We've thought and planned and tweaked and played and written and rewritten, and at last we're ready to unveil the basic structure and design of the new site. There's a whole lot more to come though: over the next few weeks we'll be adding quite a number of new pages and features, some specifically for tourists and those unfamiliar with the city, and some that will appeal to locals and regular visitors to Cape Town.
Thank you to everyone who has played a part in bringing this new version of the site into being; I think quite a few of you wouldn't even have been aware of the fact that you influenced our thinking in some way, but it's fairly certain that if I've had any kind of conversation with you about Cape Town Daily Photo over the past five or six months, you've played a part. So, thank you.
Now to the subject of today's photo... remember way back in August 2008 when it was announced that Cape Town had secured enough votes to appear in 3rd spot on the board of the new Monopoly World Version? Well, we finally got to play the new version of Monopoly on Saturday evening, and it was loads of fun, even though I didn't win. ;-) We thought this would be an appropriate photo for the official launch of Cape Town Daily Photo version 2, since we're Passing Go and all (I'm still hunting for the $2M we're supposed to collect, though). If you look carefully, you'll see the Cape Town property card in the front right of the shot.
My parents have shopped at Stodels Nursery forever. Robert Stodel, a horticulturist originally from Holland, discovered the local demand for flower bulbs more than 40 years ago. After selling bulbs door-to-door and even at the Parade in Cape Town, Robert opened the first Stodels Nursery in Kenilworth in 1968, later expanding by opening a second shop in Bellville (close to where we live) in 1973.
Since I was born only the year after, I guess it's fair for me to say that Stodels has been around forever. :) The earliest memory that I have of the nursery is of my parents buying a small Plane tree (also known in North America as a Sycamore tree). That tree is now a huge (and I mean huge) tree directly in front of their house.
So, needless to say, Stodels is still a thriving nursery, with a little restaurant and an assortment of farmyard animals for kids to touch and play with. It's still a fun place to shop, though every time Kerry-Anne mentions visiting Stodels my heart sinks just a little... good plants don't come cheap. ;)
