A lovely morning in Greyton

Gorgeous climber rose in The Post House's delightful garden

Today was one of my favourite kind of days. A day when I had the freedom and time to explore a little of one of my favourite South African villages, namely Greyton. This quaint settlement, so reminiscent of an English country village, is situated in the beautiful mountainous region of the Western Cape. While Greyton gives the impression of being thousands of kilometres away, it takes a mere hour and a half to drive there from Cape Town.

Fountain in The Post House garden

So, what was I doing there? Well, as regular readers of Driftwood Ramblings will know by now, I occasionally get to accompany my husband on 'field trips'. Today was one of those occasions, but with a slight difference. Instead of joining him and all the other specialists 'on site', my husband felt I'd be far happier 'doing my own thing' in the village, while they tackled the hot, dry, barren site. I couldn't have agreed with him more!

I was dropped off at The Post House, a wonderful original old building erected in 1860 as, you guessed it, a post office! Today, it has been beautifully refurbished, retaining its charming history, but serving now as one of Greyton's most luxurious Guest Houses. Since I had not eaten breakfast and it was just past 9 am, I followed my nose to where a wonderful coffee aroma taunted my olfactory sense. After ordering a cup of freshly brewed filter coffee, I sat happily anticipating my breakfast of eggs, bacon, grilled tomato, mushrooms and farmhouse toast with homemade peach preserve. When it arrived, I tucked right in and only after I'd enjoyed the last yummy morsel did I realize I'd missed a photo opportunity.  I did, however, snap a few pictures of the dining room while awaiting my meal...

The next four pictures I'll call "A Study of Old Chairs" since I found the different designs of the dining room chairs rather captivating...

And below, we have a view taken from the street side verandah of The Post House...

After having satiated myself with a second cup of coffee to end my meal, I ambled into the very pretty garden and snapped several more pictures...

The vegetable patch is named after Beatrix Potter's famous farmer and each of the guest rooms is named after a character from her books...

Mr Mc Gregor's vegetable patch.

I climbed the time worn ladder stairway to the loft room in order to get this photograph of the rather tempting pool area.

Each guest room has its own private patio seating overlooking the gardens.

These pretty stained glass windows define the ends of each length of covered verandah adjoining the guest rooms.

These two lovely palm trees tower above the garden providing shade from the hot sun and nesting opportunities for several birds.

I must say, time has a habit of passing all too quickly when I'm enjoying myself and so, after a couple of hours had elapsed, I realized I'd better move further along the road, lest I miss out on taking in a little more of the village scene...

This extra-length chair was placed invitingly on the pavement outside an eclectic shop selling all sorts of things belonging to a bygone age.

One of the colourful village shops. This one was unfortunately closed for business on Tuesdays, so missed out on my visit. I photographed it, because the peacock tails were decorated with mirror and reflected ever so prettily in the bright sunlight.

A pretty garden welcomes one to this particular Estate Agent's offices.

I wandered in and out of several little shops, looked at properties for sale on the boards outside a couple of estate agents to get a feel for the property market in Greyton and then discovered a rather delightful interior decor and gift shop, where I spent another good while gazing at all that was on display.

My iced tea, a brand I had not yet seen, was very pleasant.

Having eaten a hearty breakfast just a couple of hours earlier, I did not order anything to eat with my iced tea, but I did think the menu looked quite tempting for another time

This mosaic water feature was on the wall behind where I was seated. I thought it was very cleverly executed.

By this time, I'd built up a bit of a thirst. Two cups of good, strong coffee has that effect on me, so I trundled across the road and seated myself on a large wooden couch beneath the cooling shade of a vine covered pergola and ordered an iced tea. Once again, my eye was drawn to my immediate surrounding and I couldn't resist snapping another couple of pictures. I'd just finished my iced tea when my husband called to say he was on his way back to collect me. And so ended a perfectly delightful morning!