No ordinary Monday!

Flowers on the windowledge at Zewenwacht Wine Estate.

This past Monday was no ordinary day...not in the ordinary sense of it being 28 days into the month of March, or in being the day of the week singularly referred to as a 'blue' day.

I did see plenty of beautiful blue flowers in my garden on this particular Monday but it also happened to have been the one and only day of the year that I can legitimately lay claim to as being my own, although when the opportunity presents itself, I do manage to hijack one or two others as well (Mother's Day being one of them).

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Blue streptocarpus in my greenhouse.

Blue salvia in my garden.

Yellow hibiscus in my garden.

Blue indigenous Felicia daisy in my garden.

Hanging basket of blue alyssum outside our front door at home.

Prayer plant in my greenhouse.

White anthurium in my greenhouse.

Streptocarpus blossoms floating in my greenhouse water feature.

Rosemary in flower in my garden...I took all of these pictures on Monday 28th March 2011.

Once I'd outgrown the absolute joy I always felt as a child at the approach of a birthday and realised that the inevitable side-effect of having them meant actually growing older, I found it far more sensible to simply succumb quietly to the day. Do not misunderstand me. I like having a birthday, but I am (truly!) at my happiest when my own birthdays involve quiet pleasures, centred on simplicity and time spent with my immediate family. 


From choice, I have not had a birthday party for a great many years. My best birthdays are being woken with a cup of tea set on a pretty tray with a fresh flower tucked into a small vase...followed by a leisurely soak in a deep bubble bath while my family are concocting breakfast.


My husband has ensured that he spent the last several years with me for the entire day of each birthday. While he was employed, he took a day's leave and now that he's self-employed, continues to set aside this day especially to spend with me. That has always been the most special part of my birthdays. He has always bought me LOTS of flowers for my birthdays. I can never have enough flowers in my life and my husband has always known this. 


In addition to the flowers, he and our children have always taken delight in spoiling me with lots of lovely gifts over the years, but to me, my birthdays are never about the gift-wrapped presents, much as I enjoy receiving them and carefully unwrapping them. What I most value is all the time, love and thought that my husband and our children put into making every moment of my day special.

This year, our son, who had to work on Monday, devoted Sunday to visiting me. He arrived behind a huge bouquet of gorgeous blooms, bearing his customary charm and handsome, smiling face. Our daughter arrived later in the day as she had planned to sleep over and spend Monday with us.

My surprise birthday cupcakes!

After having been woken up with tea in bed, I was instructed to remain in bed and, 'check your blog and email' while she baked a surprise batch of cupcakes and my husband fed the dogs and took them for their morning walk. It was further suggested that I might want to have my bath, as the plan was for my husband and I to go out for breakfast. 

Our daughter had chosen not to accompany us, as she had an invitation to a formal lunchtime event (launch) at a lovely wine estate along with a host of other invited guests from the media and we were going to take her and fetch her afterwards, so she stayed at home to get ready and keep the dogs company while we went out for breakfast...

 

View directly outside our window in the Soverby diningroom.

Each table was adorned with a freshly picked rose from the garden at Soverby Guesthouse.

View looking upwards from the window beside which we were seated for breakfast in the Soverby Restaurant's diningroom.

This was a huge oak tree...I was unable to convey its size in my capture!

The lovely garden in front of the Soverby Restaurant.

My cooked breakfast complete with a sparkler, courtesy of the Soverby management! 

The rose I was given at breakfast by the wonderfully hospitable waiter at Soverby Restaurant.

Soverby Guesthouse is set in the vineyards.

A bottleneck palm flowering in the garden at Soverby Guesthouse

 

It was a perfect early Autumn day! Exactly the kind of weather I like. Not too hot and not a breath of wind. Our location of choice was CLOSED ON MONDAYS! Not what their website had stated. Oh, well, they lost out and we instead found ourselves at the delightful Soverby Guesthouse, which is set in a charming garden situated amongst the vineyards. Quite a number of guests were already seated in the garden. My husband casually explained to the Manageress that, as it was my birthday, we wanted to enjoy a quiet meal together, so we preferred to be be seated at a table indoors. We ordered our breakfast at leisure and took in the lovely surroundings happily chatting. Imagine my surprise when my hot meal arrived bearing a sparkler and I was presented with a long stemmed rose, freshly picked from the garden! Who could fault service like that!

After we had dropped our daughter off for her lunch engagement, we enjoyed a couple of hours driving around close to the area where she was.  As usual, we were unable to resist stopping to photograph many lovely old farm buildings.

In the winelands of the Cape, the preferred architectual style is Cape Dutch.  While many of the buildings are original, many new ones are built in the old style.

Cape Dutch architecture is an architectural style found in the Western Cape of South Africa. Houses in this style have a distinctive design, with the prominent feature being the grand, ornately rounded gables. The houses are usually H-shaped, with whitewashed walls and thatched roofs.

The style was prominent in the 17^th century and has roots in mediaeval Holland, Germany, France and Indonesia.

Rough plasterwork, whitewashed walls and timber framed windows and doors are a feature of the Cape Dutch style of architecture.

This barren little island topped by a single stand of papyrus grass was far too interesting to pass up for a photo opportunity.

By this time, it was our cue to return to where our daughter had been feasting on a lavish lunch and sipping newly launched wines, so we slowly headed in that direction.  We had Romeo with us, as we still aren't leaving him unaccompanied and, to both his and our delight, there was a gorgeous farm sheep dog, named Lily, who was happy to play with Romeo while we waited for the function to wind down.

"Hi, I'm Lily...who are you?"

"I'm Romeo...look at the smart play bow Heathcliff taught me...want to play catch?"

"Yep, I'm game...but I don't hold out very much hope you'll be able to keep up with me, young feller!"

We ended our day at the gorgeous Zewenwacht Estate, another wine farm overlooking a pretty dam. None of us was overly hungry, so we opted for sandwiches which we enjoyed with a glass of the Estate's own chilled Rose and finished up with coffee and cheesecake. 

 

Front of the gracious, historic Zewenwacht homestead.

Sideview of one of the arms forming the H-pattern of the historic homestead of Zewenwacht, now converted to accommodate the estate's signature restaurant.

You're beginning to recognise one of the features of Cape Dutch architecture now, aren't you?  You knew this was a gable!

The gardens at Zewenwacht are very pretty and well-maintained.  Romeo had a lovely time sniffing everything and, to our daughter's horror, discovered he rather enjoyed goose poop...of which there was plenty!

Our view of the dam from the stoep (veranda) where we sat for our evening meal at Zewenwacht.

One of the many geese on the dam at Zewenwacht Wine Estate.  Romeo was fascinated by them!

Smoked chicken, blue cheese and basil pesto sandwiches on homebaked health loaf with salad greens from the restaurant's own garden.

Yes, it did taste as good as it looked!

And now, to all of my wonderful followers and readers of Driftwood Ramblings, I want to say a very special Thank You to each of you who left birthday messages, sent electronic cards, prepared posts especially for me on their own blogs; to the master cake baker who spent hours slaving over a hot stove, so I could be given a wonderful electronic birthday cake and all of those who blogged about my birthday and uploaded posts on their sites, especially to display my wonderful new Blog Button, which was a collaborative gift and, really, the cherry on top of what was an incredibly lovely birthday.  You have all made it even more memorable for me and I have been completely overwhelmed.  I have only been blogging for a little over 4 months in all and it has been an amazing experience discovering the great friendships to be made amongst the blogging community.  Thank you all for making me feel so welcome! 

  

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What!  You too?  I thought I was the only one.' "  C.S. Lewis could have been talking about bloggers when he said this!

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