The new VISI

Minki Mans came to visit us from Namibia, to meet a new boyfriend. After reading the new VISI she had no more interest in new boyfriend and booked a ticket to London to hang out with VISI’s new cover girl and her crowd.

             While our own dog, Kleintjie Brink, didn’t know what to make of this fancy

             madam and her smart reading habits.

Boontjies vir Braam

I love

• These big ripe tomatoes, still on the vine, that I found in Kloof street a few days ago.

• Tessa Kiros’s Baked giant butter beans recipe from Food from many Greek kitchens. Tina-Marie brought me giant butter beans from Greece recently and
  she said it reminded her of the Herenbone that Braam used to get from the
  West Coast.

Just before the rain came

We had a late lunch at the new glass house at Babylonstoren 

I love

• the fresh table setting
• the gigantic garden in the grey light



Halfaampieskraal

One year later… for Johan’s birthday again.

 I love

• the new painting in the entrance, the pink drapes and the peacock
• the crazy air plants above the clock
• the “peace in the home” lusher than ever 
•  my dear friend looking relaxed and happy

Johan loves

• Crowns and Queens!

Epic Journey

A While ago Wilke and I made the epic journey up North to take our dogs to their new home in Augrabies. On the way we saw some very strange place names. After the 10 hour journey the dogs could have their first swim in the Orange River. Although we miss them terribly, they now wake up with smiles on their faces every morning.

Heart plate

I love:

• These beautiful heart plates Elsje Burger designed. They will be perfect for our mussel dish at our pop up restaurant in Betty’s Bay. Hopefully we will have a few for you to buy!

• The minute nest left on our doorstep by a Die Burger reading bird. Strips of the local Afrikaans newspaper are masterfully woven into the nest, alongside twigs and leaves. I would like to meet this little bird, maybe he or she would like to read the papers with me?

Excited about Hawk

I must have been mad to agree to do a pop-up restaurant in our half finished weekend house in Bettys Bay. But then, I will do almost anything for Lien Botha!

Wilke had the house painted, cement outside, white inside and this weekend Cara and I packed out all the books. We arranged some candles and started panicking all over again,
 but we will be ready.

Here is more information about the Hangklip art week

and click here to book a seat for our Kogelberg Feast

Kerskoekies

I love:
Cara’s Christmas cookies.

•  Annemarie brought the cookie cutters back from Singapore and Cara baked these beautiful Christmas cookies for the Freeworld Coatings Christmas Market.

• Sadly not many people bought them, which was great for us because now we have a wonderful cookied Christmas tree at home. How are you solving your Christmas tree dilemma?

                                                               Happy Christmas!

Pelargoniums for Braam

I love:

• the work of Dietlind Wolf. She takes styling to a different level. I used a shoot she styled with pelargoniums as backdrop for an installation we did for Braam above the fire place. He loved collecting pelargoniums on his many walks in the Cape mountains.  We cooked Mexican food, drank a glass of rose and remembered all the special times we had together.     

Artichokes

I Love

• Artichokes. Cara bought a box from the Epping market and all of a sudden they were affordable to experiment with.

• The way Louis Jansen van Vuuren showed me to serve them. Place a cooked artichoke on a plate and with another plate on top press down slowly till it   opens up like a lotus flower. Dip the leaves in your favourite sauce and enjoy.

•  Vegetables from an Italian Garden published by Phaidon. I’ve never seen so many ways to prepare artichokes in one book.

Everyone does animal print at some point in their lives....

I Love

• This picture of me and Cara, taken 22 years ago by my brother Corrie Hansen. Yes he has taken a zillion pics for Huisgenoot, You and Drum over the years and his pics normally have a byline “foto geposeer” .

• The animal print baby grow Susan made for Cara. Braam made the bangles and bought the zebra stockings in New York.

Pink

I love pink

• Not pastel or baby pink but the colour of the pink flower above. The plant was a birthday present from Sue last year. It makes beautiful flowers for two weeks and the flowers last for only one day.

• When Braam and I first discovered the work of Mexican architect Luis Barragan we were so taken with this shade of pink that we painted our lounge and courtyard pink. You can see it on the first issue of VISI that I edited in 2001.

•  Years ago when I worked for Jane Raphaely on Cosmopolitan I told her that pink is my favourite colour. She looked at me in a very odd way and said “But why do you always wear black?”

Macarons

I have always loved:

• Lisa Firer's almost see through porcelain pieces. Recently I bought some more chunky plates that she decorated with doilies.

Although I wanted to get some black macarons for the picture Cassis has never heard of a black macaron.

So I got the yellow ones for VISI’s art director Etienne because they are the exact shade of yellow that he loves.

The pink ones are for Laura, TASTE’s online editor, because she is determined to teach us all to say macarons and not macaroons because that is “daardie klein klapperkoekies wat ona almal geëet het toe ons klein was”

Blue

I love

• the blue VISI. In anticipation of summer Cara froze some of ouma’s Delft ornaments dreaming of blue days.
• the modern Delft inspired cup made by William Martin. 

Some more blue moments.

Spring's first roses especially for Sam

I love

• these roses that appeared in our tiny garden this week. Unfortunately they don’t smell like anything but make up for it in sheer beauty.
• Ulrich Knoblauch’s polaroids. The pale blue colours remind me of all the summer holidays of my childhood. They will be on show at the Toffie dinner Cara and I are hosting on Saturday night. He will also be publishing them in a book soon.