MMXIV

No one likes goodbyes. Least of all me. But after 670 posts, I have decided to call it quits. And what a journey it has been. Together we have travelled to the four corners of the globe, uncovering architectural gems. Voyeuristically peeking through cracks and crevices, into windows and behind doors, all to find the illusive phenomenon known as Style.

To ring in 2014, here are fourteen of my favourite and more personal postings:

1. The Legacy of Utata Mandela (here)
2. Alphaville on the Esplanade (here)
3. Chandler House (here)
4. By the Rivers of Babylonstoren (here)
5. S.O.S. (here)
6. Three months in Cape Town: A Snapshot (here)
7. Our House at the End of our Street: Finale (here... and more here)
8. Searching for Sugar Man - Tribeca, New York (here)
9. New Year's Eve: Seen and Heard at the Stork Club (here)
10. Passage to Africa III - Stowe (Part I) (here)
11. In the Ring with Brooklyn Circus (here)
12. On Location: B'More (here)
13. My husband said I should call this Buying at Brimfield with my Husband's Money (here)
14. Quagga (here)

To all those who journeyed with me and offered input and appreciation, thank you and an enormously happy 2014.

*

Here is my last and final posting. My home in Cape Town...

No good deed goes unpunished

I saved this little chandelier from certain demise after discovering it hidden in a dusty box at the back of an antique store. Then I lugged it all the way from Baltimore to Cape Town. Now, short of replacing the candle "nozzles" (which would sadly alter its perfect proportions), I am unable to find the right bulbs. What's a poor girl to do?

Christmas

I feel very remiss in not having wished all a wonderful holiday season. Heat-wave aside, we have had a lovely time here in Cape Town, gorging way too much, but relishing time spent with family...

The Life of a Cat

Enviable...

Photo by Philippa Berrington-Blew

Insta-Gratification

A really enormous thank you to everyone who offered suggestions for the "Exceeded Quota" blog crisis. My dear friend, Mia, who faced the same conundrum with her Number 19, wrote me an e-mail entitled IFIGUREDITOUT. And she sure did... go to Google PLUS and upgrade profile, and then all previous problems simply dissolve. Whew! Here are some Instagram photos taken recently...

Window at Velk, Church Street

Greens in the kitchen

Crackled walls

Detail on an Anatomie Illustration

Bust at Treasury

Vogel, Woodstock

Apothecary, Delos

Delos

Detail, illustration at The Power and the Glory

My desk

Shiny, happy...

Faces

Can you just make out Greta Garbage? Look bottom center...

Display

CU of the Freemasons metal cabinet

Light

 Follow me here

Jinxed

It has been a rough winter, stormy and destructive. Coming home (after a weekend away) is never fun when faced with a collapsed arbor, the beams split and the lantern hanging precariously close to the ground...

Or... waking up in the morning and noticing a large black something in the pool. Half-frozen with fright that it may be one of the cats... it was almost a relief to discover it was a porcelain urn which had cracked in 70 pieces, thanks to another falling beam...

And then, after another night of the unrelenting Cape Doctor, the creeper (poor thing) finally gave up hanging by one twig and took its final bow (for entirety). Took us a whole morning to dispose of the branches...

Going slightly CUCKOOOOOOOOO...

Three Months in Cape Town: A Snapshot.

Here are just a few of the daily wonders encountered since returning to Cape Town...

Biscuit Mill, Woodstock

A brightly-coloured row of buildings in Woodstock

Kalk Bay photographed from Boyes Drive

Penguins on Boulders Beach, Simonstown

Boats, Simonstown

Whale season in Hermanus (husband and daughter on the promenade)

Breakfast at the Alphen Hotel (moi and daughter)

Home

A partially obscured Table Mountain as seen from Kloof Nek Road

The extraordinary Drakenstein Stud

Drakenstein Stud - reminds me of a Goyard stripe

Victoria and Alfred Waterfront

Spring has sprung. Bella braves the chill.

Government Walk looking a lot like Rome from this angle

Some of our other children

The blinding white beauty of the Swellendam Church

Drakenstein Stud at sunset

A rather startling encounter in Riversdale - our pug, Persephone and Warthog

Cape Town has fab coffee - skull in your latte, anyone? @Truth

Cooking in the kitchen

Kitesurfing in Kommetjie (not me!)

Sunday lunches with friends

Normally, I would not be seen dead in my PJ's with zero make-up, however, this is a typical morning in our household (before tea). Notorious B.I.G on top of me and Persephone in my arms. Happiness is...

Photos by Philippa Berrington-Blew and Craig Strydom