All posts by Claire

About Claire

Wandering (and wondering) development professional and aspiring aid worker. Contact me on anticipationofwonder[at]gmail[dot]com

Butterfly World and Fairview

Adventures, Western Cape, , , , ,

A couple of weeks tack, I flew down to the Western Cape to spend the weekend with my family. I haven’t seen the family in months so I was pretty thrilled. Particularly because I won’t be around for Christmas. But, of course, we didn’t just do family catch-up stuff, we also visited two places I’ve been wanting to go to for ages.

The first was Butterfly World. Butterfly World is outside Stellenbosch on the Klapmuts road. It is, as the name suggests, a centre focused on butterflies. What they do is import crates of butterfly pupae and then place them in the special tropical butterfly enclosure. The enclosure is full of plants and fishponds and the butterflies hatch in flashes of bright colours and spend their happy little lives flapping from plant to plant. All the butterflies are imported, apparently, and there are some gorgeous colours and shapes. We also saw one butterfly take an unfortunate dip in the fishpond where it became a quick snack for the fish. But for the most part, it was a room full of beauty. I particularly loved the gauze-winged butterflies that collected on plants or around food – like a butterfly tree.

Butterfly World also has other things. In a second room, we spotted the brightest red-orange parrots huddled with their heads hanging upside down on a branch, an iguana sitting regally in a high-up iguana house and a couple of blue duikers. Another room has all manner of strange lizards and the cutest, tiniest tortoises in the world. Yet another has love-birds and parrots and guinea pigs. Some of the guinea pigs were ordinary-looking and some had babies – first time I’ve seen a mother guinea pig suckle her young. There were also some that looked a little like they had been crossed with a Pekingese dog – all long fur but instead of being smooth and silky, it was ruffled and sticking out and made them look a little insane.

When we were there, the place was full of children who, in spite of the signs asking them not to, were attempting to pick up the guinea pigs. All of a sudden, one of the fluffy-haired ones that had been lying there playing dead decided he’d had enough, jumped up, scaled the little wall, took off across the path and hid under a bench. Of course, everyone could still see him, but I’m guessing he wasn’t the brightest of guinea pigs and was happy to go with the ‘if I can’t see you, you can’t see me’ theory of escape. In the final room, we met the manic marmoset. My mother had been here a few days before and one of the marmosets had become quite attached to her – sitting on her shoulder and refusing to get off – and succeeded in following her into the spider room (the less said about the spider room, the better). When it saw her again, it happily jumped onto her shoulder and settled down as if it had known her all its life. It really looked like it was completely ready to go home with her. And when she tried to get it to climb off, it hopped onto my sister’s shoulder instead.

Eventually we managed to leave the marmoset behind and headed one last time through the fluttering beauty of the butterfly room and back to the car to head to our next stop.

This time we were going to Fairview. Fairview is a wine and cheese estate near Paarl. They’re particularly well-known for their goat’s cheese and their wines are gaining recognition over time. The first thing we noticed when we arrived was the goat tower. The goat tower is pictured on many of their products – most South Africans would probably recognise it – and it looks just like the picture. When we arrived, there were no goats outside but we could see horns and tails in the house at the top.

We left the goats to sleep and headed inside to taste some cheese and wine. Very intelligently, Fairview has set up their pricing so that you can pay to taste 6 wines and 6 cheeses or just the cheeses – so that non-wine drinkers don’t suffer. The wine tasting involves selecting from a list. It was lovely. We tried several different wines from three of the Fairview ranges – all red – including the delightfully named Goat Roti Syrah Viognier, a La Capra Malbec and the 2006 (Reserve) Beacon Shiraz. There was another we tasted (and I wish I had kept the paper because I’m not sure I’m right but I think it was the Fairview Mourverde) that was fascinating – they gave us two different wines, one their own, one the Spice Route version of the same wine, to compare. One is produced in the much dryer West Coast area of the Western Cape, the other in Paarl and the difference is significant. It was fascinating.

From there, we headed off to try the cheeses. My sister’s description of the goat’s milk feta as tasting hairy is pretty accurate but the camembert was good and I really enjoyed one of the last cheeses we tasted, which was a cross between a camembert and a blue. I’m not normally a blue cheese fan but this was really interesting.

After picking up some wine and cheese to last us the weekend, we stopped at the tower. The goats had decided to make an appearance and were posing obligingly for the tourists. Really, they’re very photo-friendly goats, even if they do smell awful – quite a lot like the taste of the cheese my sister had been criticising inside. From there, we headed back to my brother and sister’s place in Somerset West, with a short stop at the strawberry farm along the way and settled in to a weekend of family, catching up and a little bit of shopping.

Still learning to fly

Adventures, Ideas, Travel, ,

Last week I bought a ticket to Uganda. I’ve never been much of an adventurer, a risk-taker. At least, I never used to be. My instinct is to lean towards control and order and stability. I worry a lot. I find the admin associated with big change and travel overwhelming.

Yet, I’ve moved house annually (at least) since I was 21 and I’ve had 9 jobs in 10 years. Stability and security are as attractive to me as they are to many others, but a combination of circumstances and a restless desire to be doing something real have led me a merry dance in a completely different direction. Stability and security are nice ideas but probably not for me.

I’m still learning how to live this life, how to be a nomadic soul, how to fly, and frankly I’m not always that good at it, but it is the life I’ve chosen. And if I’m going to be constantly moving and changing, I’d like to make the most of it.

So last week, I bought a ticket to Uganda. The plan is to travel with a friend and a couple of other people to Northern Uganda and the DRC for a few weeks in December. A lot of people seem to think it’s a strange way to spend a holiday. Some people to whom I’ve mentioned it think I’m stark raving mad. I’m excited about the trip. From what I hear it’s an absolutely beautiful part of the world.

And sometimes doing seemingly-crazy things turns out to be well worth it – this time two years ago I was running off mountains and learning to fly.

Arkansas Art Centre

Adventures, Arts, Little Rock, USA, Why, ,

I am torn. I am torn because I’m not sure what to do with the idea that here there is enough money here to build and maintain and pay for a spacious, elegant, modern art centre design specifically to display a great collection so that people can come, for free, and look at art. I’m torn because it seems to be normal here. Part of me wants to feel that it is frivolous and that there are better ways to spend the money. And then I spend a hour there and I feel the emotional response – the tug, the richness, the soul-nourishing rejuvenation – and I can’t want it to stop. All the intellectual self-righteousness is still valid. It shouldn’t be possible. Part of me feels guilty for enjoying it so much. But is such a pleasure.

The Arkansas Art Centre is just a few blocks away from my hotel. It is all of those things – large and spacious and elegant and modern and the collection is wonderfully varied. Some abstract, some modern, some realism. I didn’t have much time, but I took a break between proposal-writing that afternoon to go and see it. I needed a break and this was likely to be the only chance I would get.

It’s difficult to describe an art exhibition in words. The experience is emotional, rather than cerebral, at least for someone as untrained as I am. I  love walking around art galleries, though. As a colleague put it, spending time with the art. This art centre provides plenty of space and time to do that. There were other people in the galleries, on and off, but most of the time I was alone. It was peaceful and quiet. The ideal environment.

The collection is not small. So many distinctly different pieces. So many faces, too; some obvious, some hidden, some without emotion, some with so much emotion. Even many pieces that at first seemed to be of something else, after a while resolved into faces. I couldn’t live with all those faces, but they’re fascinating to visit.  I was particularly drawn to a piece not related to faces in any way – a pencil drawing called Male Back by an American artist. Another piece, called Quit, also caught my eye me. Several of the pieces held my attention for ages. The colours, the lights, the distance, the dimensions, the feelings.

As I walked back to the hotel, I tried to get my head around it all. I’ve not visited many galleries in South Africa. Those that are not selling art tend to charge high prices and are sometimes difficult to find. What does it mean? How is it different to live in a place where art is some sort of public good, just there for the looking at?