Ailsa’s Travel Theme: Peaceful

Some of my favourite peaceful beaches for Ailsa’s travel theme.

Beaches can be peaceful places, and you will probably have guessed by now, that I only really enjoy them if there’s nobody else around.

I really approved of this little island near Phuket. A beautiful expanse of white sand with not another soul in sight.

In Charleston SC, this beach was also totally deserted, and our deck chairs were ready and waiting.

This Bali beach in Nusa Dua wasn’t overpopulated either. Maybe I frighten people away. 😕

Here on the French Polynesian island of Bora Bora, I could sometimes imagine that we were the only people there. This is also where my hammock pic was taken.

Back at home, we have a really peaceful place to sit watching the waves.

To see more peaceful posts for Ailsa’s theme, just click on the link.

A perfect autumn day in paradise.

Some of you who haven’t seen me on your blogs, might have been wondering what I’ve been doing for the past couple of days. Well, the weather here has been absolutely perfect, around 26 C, humidity in the low 50’s and wind speed only about 8 km. This is the best time of year here on the south-east coast of South Africa.

On Tuesday I had to spend some time traipsing around our local ‘Theatre of Shopping’, as our nearest big mall is described. I was looking for suitable presents for my mom and sister who both have birthdays within a day of each other. I found mom a lovely duvet  set, but do you think I could find the elusive turquoise top that my sister wants. Not a chance, so when I see her today, we’ll go searching again at a different mall.

Yesterday, after playing piano for two hours at our local shopping centre, I definitely needed to get out and breathe in the fresh sea air. Our shops are full of winter boots, jerseys, jackets, scarves and woolly hats, but this is the best way to dress for our wonderful climate.

The beach wasn’t very busy, except for a few fishermen on the rocks.

There was also someone doing a bit of spear fishing.

I didn’t see him spear anything, I just saw his flippers disappearing under the water.

In a couple of week’s time, these aloes, of which there are many along the beachfront, will be blooming bright orange.

I was delighted to see that the missing piece of plaster at the top of the lighthouse, had been repaired and repainted, although the red doesn’t quite match, as the original paint has faded. I think they should have splashed out and repainted the whole thing.

Of course, not everyone here is on holiday, and these window cleaners were busy on one of the apartment blocks. Their platform was swaying around quite a lot, and I was really glad it wasn’t me up there.

There was one little snag here in paradise. The tractor which is used to launch the boats at Grannies Pool,

seems to be somewhat out of action. I wonder how this happened.

I’m off up the hill to meet my mom and sister for lunch, and then I’m bringing mom back to stay with us here in paradise for a few days, as it’s her 88th birthday on Sunday. We’ll probably be out and about quite a bit, so I may not be on the blogs much, but will endeavour to catch up as and when I can. Have a great weekend.

Word a Week: Clouds #2

One of my favourite songs is this one, and it seemed rather apt for Sue’s challenge.

Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all  ~ Joni Mitchell

Here’s my second take on Sue’s ‘Word a Week’ Cloud challenge. Yesterday I got a bit sidetracked by the sweet little love birds, but today I’ve decided to give you some serious clouds. Just click on any photo to get a slide show.

Free State, South Africa

La Paz, Bolivia

Sunset Beach, Hawaii

Bora Bora, French Polynesia

Machu Picchu, Peru

OK Corral, Tombstone Arizona

From my backyard in Florida

Phuket, Thailand

Delray, Florida

Venice Lagoon, Italy

Round Hill, Jamaica

Montego Bay, Jamaica

Umhlanga Rocks, South Africa

I hope you enjoyed my cloud pics. To see more, just visit ‘A Word in Your Ear’, by clicking here.

Looking up whilst checking out our beach.

Marianne at East of Málaga featured me in her photo challenge this month. The theme is ‘Looking up’, and she has posted some awesome photos taken from down below. As some of you may know, I’ve been away from my beach house for almost a whole week. Today was a spectacular day weather-wise, so we just had to take a stroll to get our fill of healthy sea air, and check out the beach. The lighthouse beckoned us  from a distance, as we walked along the promenade.

When we got close, I looked up, and this is what I saw. Do you see that chip out of the plaster right at the top?

There were quite a few people around, and I was wondering which one of them was the owner of this car.

I don’t like to get too close to “nut-cases,” and anyone who would pay good money to secure this car registration plate, must surely qualify as one. 🙂

This next photo definitely won’t do for the challenge, because it was taken ‘looking down’ from the end of the pier. You can see why this seaside resort is called Umhlanga Rocks. The ships really do need that lighthouse.

A bit further along, I looked up at the quite recently built ultra-expensive apartment blocks which now block out the sun from the beach, for the best part of the day. 😦

Here is a shot looking up at the sun through this tree filter.

Now for a totally unrelated couple of ‘looking up’ photos. First one is of hubby doing his trapeze act in Phuket a couple of years ago. I was utterly ‘gob-smacked’ as I looked up at him merrily swinging away upside-down. My very own Tarzan!

Anyway, as some of you may have already seen, I got my own back when we were there this year, by insisting on trying out the parasailing over the bay at Patong. I don’t think he could quite believe that it was his scaredy-cat wife flying around up there. 😆

Now I have to feature two blogs, which I follow.

I have chosen Gunta whose blog is called “Movin’on.”  She posts the most awesome photos, mostly, but not exclusively, of her beach on the Oregon Coast. I have been following her for a while now, and always look forward to each new post.

Second up is Lisa of the “I write what I like” blog. She is from Durban, South Africa, but is now living in France, where she runs her own chalet.  She skis in winter and hikes the Alps in summer, and posts the most breathtaking photos, together with tales of her adventurous life there.

I do hope that you will take time to visit these two blogs, and enjoy them as much as I do.