Cocktails at the Protea Hotel Marine

A couple of the hotels along the Port Elizabeth beachfront have some great bar and restaurant facilities where one can relax with a meal or drink outside in the sun on a cool winters day.  I was invited to lunch at the Marine Hotel recently and my companions very quickly realised that this blogger doesn't let any opportunity go by to get a photo.

Shining flag

The giant South African flag on the Donkin Reserve in Port Elizabeth

Visit Skywatch to see some more sky photos from photographers all over the world.

Cheering on the soccer players

Construction at the Donkin Reserve is at an advanced stage with a number of workers involved in the construction of walkways, landscaping and other things.  Walking around on the Donkin Reserve the other day, the construction workers were playing a game of soccer during their lunch hour.  From this angle it looks like some of the figures in the Voting Line art piece was cheering them on. 

Madiba on the Donkin

The Madiba figure, part of the Voting Line art piece, with the Donkin Memorial (Pyramid) and lighthouse in the background

Getting wet in winter

Today's post is a continuation on yesterday's showing the water pushing between the "foothills" of the sand dunes at Sardinia Bay.  No amount of threats could get the Rugrats to stay out the water and yes, Chaos Boy got his pants wet at this moment.

High tide

We spent all our holidays with my grandparents in Paradise Beach near Jeffrey's Bay when we were small.  When is was spring high tide we used to play on the beach and run away from the water as it pushed high up on the sand.  Visiting Sardinia Bay last weekend I noticed that the tide was unusually high and those memories came flooding back.  The water at Sards was pushing right up to the Sardinia Bay Surf Lifesaving Clubhouse and the Rugrats was doing exactly the same as we did all those years ago.

Badminton match

People always tend to notice the big kinds of sport like rugby, cricket, soccer, golf, athletics, and so I can go on.  For the last 15 years (well kinda on and off at times) I've played badminton.  Some people may play it for fun on the lawn with an over sized shuttle, but the real thing is another kettle of fish.  I played my first game of the season the other night and as always had my camera on hand so I decided to snap a photo of the match on the court next to ours.

Raindrops on my windscreen

We had some good rains lately although a lot more is needed, specially in the catchment areas.  I was sitting in traffic on the way home the other day, enjoying the rain, when I decided to take an impromptu photo of the rain through the windscreen of the car.  At one of the traffic lights I lined up my shot and waited for the car in front of me to pull away when the light turned green to get this.  Luckily there was nobody behind me so I could wait a couple of seconds.

Huh? Where's the road?

Its been a while since we've been down to Sardinia Bay, so on Sunday I bundled the family in the car and off we went to Sards.  One of the reasons I wanted to go was to see how much of the road the sand dune has eaten up already and was I surprised.  Over the last couple of years the sand dune next to the access road to the bottom parking area has moved towards the road very quickly and there has been a lot of controversy surrounding it.  As it stands now the Sardinia Bay Surf Lifesaving Club has no access to their clubhouse and is housed in a container at the top gravel parking area.  There has been a lot of people calling on the municipality to clear the road and keep it clear while others say that the dune should be allowed to takes its natural cause.  Looking down from the top of the dune the road is (under the sand) between the bush and the dune.

Pink Winter (not Spring) flowers

Looking at the grassy areas around town one would hardly say that today is (officially) the first day of Winter.  After all the good rains we've been having lately there has been a lot of little pink, white and some yellow wild flowers blooming all over town.  I found this patch in a play park in Charlo and, unlike fellow photographer Luc Hosten, I didn't have mommies from the nearby school look at me funny for crawling around the flowers with a camera in hand and their kiddies mere meters away.  Why not? Well, firstly I took Drama Princess along as my alibi and secondly I was there on a Saturday.