Hartebeesthoek

“I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.”
- William Wordsworth

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


"Hartebeesthoek" - Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 11" x 7.5" - Maree©

Driving towards Hartebeespoort Dam, we go through the area of Hartebeesthoek (Gauteng, South Africa), where the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory is situated in a Nature Reserve in a valley in the Magaliesberg hills, 50km west of Johannesburg.

The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) is the only major radio astronomy observatory in Africa. The Observatory began as Deep Space Station 51, built in 1961 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States of America. The station tracked many unmanned US space probes. These included the Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft which landed on the Moon or mapped it from orbit, the Mariner missions which explored the planets Venus and Mars and the Pioneers which measured the Sun's winds. ("Hartebeest" refers to Gnu, a species that used to roam the area in vast numbers).

This area is still one of vast open spaces and unspoilt landscapes, green rolling hills and steep gulleys, with wildlife roaming free and sometimes even crossing the road (luckily none of the Big 5!), like Warthogs, Monitors, Mongoose, snakes, tortoises, guinea fowl, hedgehogs, Striped Polecats and small buck. In fact, anything that's small enough to get through the fence. We normally drive through the area at about 60km per hour and I, for the life of me, cannot understand people whizzing past at 120kph, oblivious to the beauty of nature all around.

Daisies infinite

"Daisies infinite
Uplift in praise their little growing hands,
O'er every hill that under heaven expands."
- Ebenezer Elliott ("The Corn Law Rhymer")

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


"One Spider-Daisy" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 11" x 8"- Maree©


The Gerbera Spider Daisy is from the sunflower family (Asteraceae). It has a delicate, spiky appearance and is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds, and deer resistant! (No idea why, Wiki doesn't say!)

It has approximately 30 species in the wild, extending to South America, Africa and tropical Asia and is a tender annual flower.

I just love sketching these daisies - each one has a different personality and seems to fairly beg you to look at them and take notice!

Zantedeschia (Arum Lily)

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.
- Georgia O'Keeffe

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Arum Lilies - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 5.5" x 7.5"- Maree©

A study of some Arums in my garden - this year they have exceptionally long stalks (probably looking for some sunshine amidst all the shade!) and I have been picking bunches for my tall vase for the dining room table - stunning!

Redpoll

“Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.”

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Common Redpoll {Corduelis flammea} - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book 8" x 5.5" - Maree©

I was visiting a friend a couple of weeks ago to see how it's going with the Red Bishop she took over from me - he somehow lost a WHOLE wing as a fledgling in my garden - and I saw this little unknown bird (to me) in her aviary and enquired what it was. Turned out it's a Common Redpoll from the US, which she had bought at a pet shop. If I had my way, all pet shops would be banned from selling anything besides cats and dogs, and even that is a stretch for me.

10-Minute quickie

10-Minute small quickie hot off the brush just to brighten my page - I've been so SLACK today! Besides the fact that I've been unable to get into Blogger, I haven't achieved much except to print out some of my flower sketches as greeting cards. And NOTHING feels right if I haven't done at least ONE sketch for the day!

(I meant to post this yesterday, but Blogger was off-line, so here it is today.)

Watercolour (no sketching) on Ashrad Not - 8.5" x 6"

The Township

"...A community needs a soul if it is to become a true home for human beings. You, the people must gift it this soul."
- Pope John Paul II

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


"The Township" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree© (no sketching)

Not far from us is Munsieville, a township built on the edge of a gulley with the most beautiful views over the ravine and the Krugersdorp Game Reserve (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and as far as the Magaliesberg mountains surrounding Hartebeespoort Dam. This humble little suburb was established by ordinance 58 of 1903 of the Krugersdorp municipality and called "the native location". From the early 1930s to the 1940s, Mr. James Munsie, the white chief sanitary inspector (medical officer) of Krugersdorp, moved the location from a low drainage area to its current location, improving conditions.

In the 1980s, Munsieville was threatened with destruction and the removal of its residents to Kagiso because of its proximity to the white suburbs of Krugersdorp. Munsieville was one of only two black townships that resisted relocation in the Transvaal during that period.


Munsieville overlooking the Krugersdorp Game Reserve

Lover's Rock

“Ancient lovers believed a kiss would literally unite their souls, because the spirit was said to be carried in one's breath.”
- Eve Glicksman


"Lover's Rock" - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - 11" x 7.5" - Maree©

'Lover's Rock' is a family camping resort nestled on the banks of the Magalies River as it wends its way to join the Crocodile River onwards to Hartebeespoort Dam. The scenery in this area is breath-taking, and I'm sure there must be a story attached to this romantic name. The rocks towering over the river and the resort surely must evoke a tale of love and sorrow!

I would like to think that, one day, a long, long time ago, two lovers met in secret in this secluded spot. Sitting high on the rocks, holding one another close, their sorrow was bitter-sweet, as her family did not approve of him, the son of a local farmer and drunkard. "They don't realise what a wonderful person he is!" she thought. "How can they cast him in the same mould as his father?"

But today their meeting was different. He had come to tell her that he was leaving the area, going in search of work in the big city, so that he can prove to everybody that he is worthy of her love, and when he returns, it will be to ask her to be his wife.

She pleaded with him to stay, but his mind was made up. As he walked away, she sat staring into the depths of the ravine below her, tears flowing down her cheeks ...

Dandelion Time

"If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn!"
~Andrew Mason



My lawn (and the fields surrounding our house) is absolutely covered in Dandelions! In one spot it looks like a yellow carpet - wonder what the soil configuration is that makes them so rife in certain spots? I have always picked dandelions for a small vase I have, but it is only upon very close inspection when I was sketching them that I realised what true little beauties these small flowers are, each a masterpiece aster in miniature.

Did you know that Dandelions can be beneficial to a garden ecosystem as well as to human health? Dandelions attract beneficial ladybugs and provide early spring pollen for their food. In a study done at the University of Wisconsin, experimental plots with dandelions had more ladybugs than dandelion free plots, and fewer pest aphids, a favorite food of the ladybugs. Dandelions long roots also aerate the soil and enable the plant to accumulate minerals, which are added to the soil when the plant dies.

(I found this interesting information at "Northwest Coalition for alternatives to Pesticides")

Spaza shop

“The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.”
- Milton Friedman


Spaza Shop - watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour Sketch-book - 8" x 5" - Maree©

This Spaza shop in Tarlton has the most amazing bargains, like the cheapest cigarettes in the country!

A Spaza shop is an informal convenience shop business in South Africa, usually run from home. They also serve the purpose of supplementing household incomes of the owners, selling everyday small household items. These shops grew as a result of sprawling townships that made travel to formal shopping places more difficult or expensive.

"There are at least 100 000 spaza shops in South Africa – with an estimated 40 000 located in Gauteng – with a collective turnover of well over R7 billion per annum. Each spaza shop employs between two and three people, who in turn support an average of four family members. This translates into almost one million people benefiting from the existence of a spaza shop in their neighbourhood.

However, many of spaza shop owners do not hold formal business management qualifications and indeed, a significant number of them run spazas only as a means of survival."
(This info from SPAZANEWS)

Crocodile River in Broederstroom

"Sit by a river. Find peace and meaning in the rhythm of the lifeblood of the Earth."
— (Anonymous)

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Broederstroom - Crocodile River - watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm 11" x 7" - Maree©

Another view of the Crocodile River, as it meanders on its way to Hartebeespoort Dam in the North-West Province of South Africa.