Another beautiful morning

One of the things I like about this time of the year is the fact that we have so little wind.  Over the last few days we've had some stunning days with striking sunsets, but this morning I swung past the beach before work and got a slightly post sunrise photo.  The start of another tough day in the Bay.

Donation #68

Today's post is a public service announcement.  After putting it off for way too long, I finally had time to pop over to the SA National Blood Service HQ next to the Provincial Hospital to do my second donation for the year, bringing my total up to 68 donations.  It was wonderful to see the donation centre busy for a change and I hope it's a good sign for the future.  Blood is a scarce commodity and can't be manufactured so all blood and blood products used in hospitals has to come from actual donors.  Have you ever donated and if so, are you a regular donor?  If not, why not?    

My first photo on Port Elizabeth Daily Photo was...

While deciding what to post tonight I started wondering what the first picture was I posted on PE Daily Photo.  I went digging through the archives and arrived back at 15 March 2009 when I took over Port Elizabeth Daily Photo from Sue and Max Hoppe and posted my first photo on this blog.  It was one of a sunrise at Hobie Beach.  I think it was taken just after the start of Ironman that year but I could be wrong.  Never the less, it was the start of a journey which still continues today, closing in on 3000 posts done since that first one.  Good thing I checked so looking forward to celebrate in a couple of weeks time.

Cemetery fence at St Georges

The old Scottish Cemetery at St George's Park was established way back in 1854 on what was the western edge of town back then.  These days the western edge of town is all the way over at Baywest.

Friday cloud formation

I know I usually post a video from YouTube on Fridays, but today I want to post a picture I took on  y way back to PE from the Tsitsikamma.  Just outside Port Elizabeth I noticed a very interesting cloud formation and snapped a quick photo.  Not long after a friend posted a picture of the same clouds he took from the Donkin on Facebook.  One of the people who commented on it gave an explanation on what it was.  The clouds are Cirrus Clouds which is the most common form of high-level clouds. Typically found at heights greater than 6,000 meters, cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of super cooled water droplets.  The reason they were making these lines which made it look like the clouds were "leaking out" is wind sheer most likely caused by an approaching cold front pushing the air forward in front of it.  Interesting, isn't it?

A gargoyle and a knight at the Public Library

Have you ever noticed the knight above the old city emblem on the Public Library in the city centre?  Or the figure below?  Although probably a gargoyle but it does look like some mythical forest creature.  

Township take-aways

I was going through some older photos of mine and came across this one I took in New Brighton a while back.  This lady sells roosterkoek and vetkoek from a container near the Red Location Museum (which is currently still closed) and when I worked for Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism and got to go to the museum often I always stopped here from either.  About 5 years back she used to sell the roosterkoek for R1.50 plain and R1.80 buttered.  The mini verkoek was only 20c each and the local kids would come with R1 or R2 and walk away with a hand full.  Writing this my mouth is actually watering and I'm wondering if she's still there.

Red Hot Poker on the Wild Side

The Latin name for the Red Hot Poker is Kniphofia and its also sometimes known as a Torch lily or Poker plant.  According to Wikipedia, it is a genus of plants in the family Xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily Asphodeloideae, that includes 70 or more species native to Africa.  This specific one I found close to Schoenies.

Explore PE on an Amazing Race

If you're a regular follower of PE Daily Photo you would know that my daughter Miggie was selected to the SA Indoor Cricket Girls Team that is going on an inland tour at the end of September.  Even though it's not an international trip it's still going to cost us a pretty penny sending her on the tour.  Money I honestly don't have.  Which means that we're going to have to do a bit of fund raising and the first project is organising an Amazing Race.  The Amazing Race takes place on 10 June and will take teams of four on a route through Port Elizabeth following clues and completing tasks.  The Amazing Race will be a fantastic way to explore PE a little more and the race will take teams to a number of places I bet they have never been or haven't been to in years.  The cost is only R300 per team which is less than it would cost four people to go ice skating, spend an hour at the trampoline park or even go and watch a 3D movie. The idea is to keep the first team busy for at least three hours with the stragglers coming in probably an hour or so later.  With nice prizes up for grabs to both teams and individuals and the opportunity to spend time having fun with friends it will really be worth entering a team.  

If you would like more information, enter a team or is willing to sponsor a prize, drop me a mail at fireflyafica(at)telkomsa(dot)net or jonkerfourie(at)gmail(dot)com and I will get in contact asap.  This is the end of my shameless self promotion.  Regular posts will resume tomorrow. LOL!

Sunrise over the Bay

I'm not an early morning person.  Too much of a night owl.  So one of the things I like about winter is the fact that the sun comes up later allowing me to get the occasional sunrise pic.  This is a recycled one but I'm hoping to get a few again soon.