The Road Less Travelled

There are two roads that lead you to Nieu Bethesda from the N9.  

The first is when you travel on the N9 from Middelburg to Graaff-Reinet and you take the first turn off. This route is a winding dirt road.  The second route is when you are travelling on the N9 from Graaff-Reinet to Middelburg and this one is a winding tar road.  

I always use the tar road because I mostly drive to Graaff-Reinet.  It is a winding route to drive, up up from Nieu Bethesda and through the Rubidge Kloof, but the best part is coming back to Nieu Bethesda, the last 10 km all you see are these mountains in front of you and where Nieu Bethesda is, is like a mystery.  

It should be near, but where is it?

The last 2 km when you take the turn and down there in front of you lies the most beautiful landscape with the river flowing through it.  It is quite breathtaking for me, every time I drive around that bend... especially knowing that I live down there at the foot of these mountains.  And everytime I think to myself... it is one of the most beautiful sights ever...

Oh what a beautiful sight knowing I live right round the bend

Yeah I'm home...

 

But then on the odd occasion when I go visit Ganora Farm or have to go to Middelburg I take the dirt road to the N9 and everytime I do, I think that for me this is the road less travelled, but oh so breathtaking to drive.  When you come back on this road and you are nearing Nieu Bethesda it is the most awesome sight in the world for me, the little village lying there in front of me at the foot of the Compassberg, the trees, a glimpse of the old houses and the old church.  And then I think oh no, this road into Nieu Bethesda is the most beautiful one...

The road less travelled

Whichever road is the most beautiful one, the one I travel regularly or the one that is the road less travelled... it doesn't really matter. To me it will always be the most beautiful thing driving back into Nieu Bethesda knowing that I live in this gorgeous and serene village...

Back to Business

After yesterday's airy fairy post, let's get back to business. The answer to all the questions asked are - "Patience is a Virtue"... or so they say. Except when patience was handed out I was probably somewhere running after a butterfly or chatting away with an angel. Today I saw this poster:

Enough said about that.  In all honesty and maybe the irony of it is that living here in Nieu Bethesda is teaching me to be patient.  And totally off the topic, have you noticed that I succeeded in loading the poster.  Yeah me... except still battling with the photo's.  I won't give up... patience.

So I have been battling to get a quote from the builder, it's been six weeks now, so I've given up.  My husband reminded me of the saying "do what you can with what you have where you are" and so in the light of the fact that my shop will be small and will have a rustic feel to it I decided to work with the existing features in the garage.  I still need to do some renovations though and have contracted with my staff member who works in the garden to do the needed work, he is in fact a carpenter by profession and able to do what I require. He will be starting immediately after the easter weekend and hopefully I will be able to do the decor by the end of April 2012.  Have already secured an old counter with which I am very pleased.  Love it !!

In the meantime I'm keeping myself busy with finding suppliers and ordering stock, working in my garden, catching up on reading, doing some craft projects, life in the village, walking and relaxing a bit after 30 years of work. And off course the normal day to day tasks of doing the washing, tending to my house, my daughter and my pets.  

Do I miss the city, city life, my job, my old life.  Seriously?!  No.  Isn't that one of the fears that hold us back from making big changes to our lives, what if I miss what I have, what if this is as good as it gets, what if it isn't what I imagined it to be, what if what if what if. I do miss my family and friends. But I am happy here where I am today. And that's good enough...

About Lavenders & Rose Gardens

Many moons ago when I was young... when things didn't quite work out, my mom would say "Nobody Promised You a Rose Garden". I guess these words stuck with me. I am a fairly spiritual person and sometimes operate in a very symbolical way, so for many years I didn't like roses at all.  Although nobody promised me a rose garden, I wouldn't get discouraged or give up when life or the world got in my way, I would get up, I would fight back and become the person I intended to be, I would realise my dreams.  As a symbol of my warrior spirit I planted Lavenders in my gardens, everywhere I went.  It was symbolic, if nobody promised me a rose garden and life didn't intend on giving me one, I wouldn't want it, I wanted Lavenders and I planted them everywhere I went.  So there... right back at you "nobody"...

And over the years and with loads of hard work, blood, sweat and tears... lot's of fun and a cup of mercy every day, I did realise my dreams. I didn't need the roses or the rose garden afterall.  Then last year I made the decision to quit my corporate job and move to Nieu-Bethesda, it was time for a new dream, new challenges and new adventures. I moved here beginning of 2012. And oh yes, the garden of my old Karoo home was definately one of those challenges as it was neglected and in a terrible state. It needed loads and loads of hard work just to get it to look neat again.  I was up for the challenge and I thought to myself, once all the old stuff has gone I'll plant Lavenders. Or so I thought.

Two weeks ago I was sitting on my back stoep after planting some seedlings, looking at the back garden.  My back garden is divided in two sections by a low stone wall and I was thinking about what I was going to do in the back part. And suddenly it hit me!! The back part of my garden is - wait for it - a ROSE GARDEN.  Neglected yes, but it is there, a rose garden.  I didn't ask God for a rose garden, I didn't look for a rose garden.  I asked God for a house in Nieu-Bethesda and after already having bought the house, moved in and cleaned up the garden, there it was right in front of me, a huge rose garden with about 55 rose bushes.  I was amazed.  I was so blessed. This was a gift from God.  A gift I certainly didn't deserve, for a saint I am not.

I decided then and there that I would restore this rose garden to it's former glory.  I have in the meantime planted 20 new rose bushes and there is now 75 of them.  I am planning to plant another 80 rose bushes over the next year and I have a long way to go in getting the roses healthy.  To me they are already beautiful, each and every rose I love. But by summer the rose garden will look spectacular!! 

So Mom... yes the world owes us nothing, but when we ask and we believe and we work hard God always gives us what we need.

True Story

GOD is legen... - wait for it - dary!!

PS: those of you who love the sitcom How I Met Your Mother as much as I do will recognise the barney talk :)

Thank you, Miss Helen

The biggest lesson humanity can learn from the legacy of the troubled Helen Martins' life is this:  Treasure your Outsider Artist.

There was a time when Miss Helen, as she was known locally, was at odds with her neighbours in Nieu-Bethesda, a tiny Mid-Karoo hamlet that snugs into the Sneeuberge, a settlement that just slumbered on unnoticed for decades.

There are many varying reports and dissections of her unhappy life, which eventually led to suicide.  And when you walk around her Owl House and Camel Yard today, you'll hear different reactions to her work and visions.  Some don't get it. The cement forms, friezes and eccentric collections in the house don't resonate with them.  Then there are those who think it is all a great work of genius. Others find it downright creepy.

But in a world of look-alike lives, globalisation and identical condo developments as far as the eye can see, there's nothing quite so special as your Outsider Artist. Defined as "raw, or visionary art", it is work generally made by people living out of the mainstream of modern existence.  In other words, work performed by, wait for it, real individuals.

And today the reason most people have heard of Nieu-Bethesda is The Owl House.  The village thrives around the legacy of the sad lady who worked in cement and ground glass with her devoted assistant Koos Malgas.  She loved light and colour and saw beer as the way to bliss.  

Bless you Miss Helen, you were The One...

(From - Karoo Keepsakes by Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit)

The First Day of Autumn...

Today is the first day of Autumn... I can see the change in the colour of the sky and the leaves starting to change colour and drop to the ground. The change of season always makes me happy, I love winter and this year I know I'm not going to miss the snow in Nieu-Bethesda. This year my Life Story is going to be "A Winter's Tale" but not just another winter's tale like in the song by David Essex, which I used to listen to when I was young. It's going to be "My Winter's Tale".

I am sitting on the stoep of The Karoo Lamb, watching the tourists go by, almost like watching the girls go by in Paris :) Feeling grateful that I don't have to leave the village, knowing my house is just around the corner. Feeling very happy and alive, I'm waiting for the quote from the builder to renovate my garage. Can't wait to get my little shop going.

This afternoon I will be visiting a friend, Hester, at Ganora Guest farm. Am so excited, they are currently rehabilitating a baby Meerkat named Timon and I'm hoping to meet the little fellow. They are so cute, but unfortunately not fit to be kept as pets. People take these babies and on realising they are not ideal pets, abandon them. And that's how they end up at Ganora.

I met Abraham Casper on Monday afternoon, gave him a lift into Nieu-Bethesda. He was born here in the village and have lived here his whole life, he is now 43 but looks 60. He makes the cement owls that they sell in front of the Owl House and he sells them over holiday periods, the rest of the year he works on the surrounding farms when there is work. A hard life, but he says he is happpy and content. He told me all about the surrounding farms and who lives where, about all the village folk who has died in car accidents on that treacherous road from the N9 to Nieu-Bethesda. He told me about growing lusern and when to take them off the fields.  We talked about life in the city vs life in a rural area. I want him to teach me to work with cement so I can make my own creations. hmmmm... We will have to see what comes from that...

I love the rural life :) but I also love my blackberry and my i-Pad, it keeps me connected and enables me to read my magazines and all the latest books... so many books, so little time.

So let me read further...

PS: as soon as I get my computer from Jhb or figure out how to post photo's from my i-Pad I will start posting pics, promise

Jules love & hugs <3

Life and Death in Nieu-Bethesda

Mita is dead... a sadness and cloud of mourning hangs over Nieu-Bethesda. Mita committed suicide. She was 21 years old, they found her dead with her  9 months old baby sitting next to her. Mita was a cheery and happy person, or so it seemed to everybody, no one knew she was not coping. But then, nobody ever really knows what goes on in other people's lives, hearts and souls. Mita's baby won't ever know his mother or remember her and will for the rest of his life only know that she deserted him and left him alone to grow up and find his way in this crazy and beautiful world. I didn't know Mita, but her death and the baby she left behind reminds me of one of my favorite poems, also the saddest poem... this is for Mita, from her baby...

Funeral Blues (W.H. Auden)

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message She is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the necks of the doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

She was my North, my South, my East, my West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Mita will be put to rest tomorrow, Mita may you rest in peace...

And yet life goes on, even in Nieu-Bethesda. The roosters start crowing at 6 and the birds chirp from early in the morning. People get up and go their way, walking to work or opening their doors for the new day. Tourists come and go, unaware of the cloud hanging over Nieu-Bethesda. Life in Nieu-Bethesda is intense and real. The dogs still walk around, as if the streets belong to them. The horses roam free and dust still hangs in the air everytime a car drives in or out of Nieu-Bethesda. Woman knock on my door to come say hello and bring me flowers, decadent quiches and glorious jars full of handmade jam... The stars still shine bright in the night and fills you with amazement  everytime you look at them, making you feel so small. It is warm during the day, the wind blows in the afternoon as if there is no tomorrow. And for Mita there isn't...

And as it is in life, even without Mita, Nieu-Bethesda is still a magical place... As it was
before I came to live here and as it will be after I go one day...

Life Stories and Time Travel

The decision to give up my life and career in the city was by no means an easy one. Being stuck in a comfort zone is easy, moving out from that zone into the unknown is difficult and scary.

"Thinking" !! Something I do to much, I am told, was what I did a lot during this process of decision making. And praying, looking for guidance from God. My health forced me to go through this process and this struggle got me to Life Stories. 

I wrote down my whole Life Story, from where I had memories up to November 2011. I wrote about everything, the good, the bad, the happy, the sad, that is what Life is, after all... a journey consisting of high's and low's and what I call in-betweens, the bits where life happens while you are busy.

Reading my Life Story aloud afterwards was an experience which gave me perspective on my life. On the things I chose to be part of my Life Story and the things I didn't choose, choices made by parents, husbands, employers, family and friends that I had to live with and built my life around. It wasn't an easy experience, reliving some parts of my life, others brought back happy and positive feelings. I looked at it holistically. As a journey, a journey of growth and learning, a journey that brought me where I was in November 2011, a journey who made me who I am today. And I felt content with who I am...

Then I went time travelling... I went to ten years from now and I looked back over my life as if I had already lived the next ten years. And I wrote my Life Story for the next ten years, as I would like it to be. Liberating indeed !! 

Making the decision after that was easy. Writing down my Life Story made me realise so many things - That life is truly a journey... That the choices you make everyday, or the ones you don't make, gives way to what will form part of your journey, your Life Story a year or two or ten down the line and at the end of your journey. 

So here I am...

Slowly but surely creating my Life Story and searching for Muchness... One day at a time...