jan, 12th - the power and the glory....

day 679:

another morning in Cape Town and another great breakfast spot. The Power & The Glory was walking distance from 'our' cottage {see day 670}. it's open till late and i can see why you would be quite tempted to stay there all day.....watching the would go by and drinking the amazing coffee.

we ordered the eggs.....and i loved the way that they came.....so simple, yet so effective. brilliant idea. although, i've always had a love affair with egg boxes......the endless possibilities for gluing together 'masterpiece' creations as a child has never quite gone away......so this made me grin with childlike delight.

and Limi was fairly chuffed with her sprinkles on her babycinno....yes, people do say, what is the point of a babycinno......well, not sure except for the fact that it generally let's you eat your breakfast/ drink your own coffee uninterrupted and it makes her happy....which is good enough for me.

and it means that she can make a milk-beard which ahem.....is not encouraged but makes us laugh.

so, The Power & The Glory gets added to the breakfast collection. it's a great place to start (and I imagine end) the day......

The Power and The Glory 

Corner of Kloof Nek and Burnside Road

Cape Town

South Africa

jan, 11th - letter to limi....

day 678:

Limi, i love that you make me laugh on a daily basis. you fell in love with this chicken in South Africa and wouldn't let him go. so we had to buy him from this lovely shop in Cape Town. 

we named him criss cross and you carried him around on our travels for days. 

we're starting to feel pretty bad that you don't have your own pet and are having to resort to a beaded chicken. we'll have to fix that soon. 

i fell in love with this corner shop on the way to Babylonstoren {see day 657}. i never drink coke but i've been craving one ever since.

so i did a clumsy collage of these two great loves together.

jan, 4th - grand cafe on camps bay beach....

day 672:

after a day at the beach, what could be better than a big bowl of ice-cream and chocolate sauce....

jan, 3rd - haas collective....

day 671:

breakfast is always worth some effort in Cape Town, it's a town that takes its' coffee fairly seriously (a friend of a friend's coffee blog) and new places spring up all the time looking to attract the meeting-over-a-coffee entrepreneurs that seem to make up much of the city's population. we always look to Loula {see day 437} to point us in the right direction of what's new and inspiring. 

i'm not sure that Haas is that new but it's not a place that I've tried before....... Haas is the Afrikaan's word for hare/rabbit.......and this place definitely has a bit of the pull-the-rabbit-out-of-the-hat magic about it. It may be the tophats that the waitstaff wear or the oversized chairs that made me think of Alice in Wonderland.....although it is certainly the collection of beautiful objects and art that create a gallery space within the lounge area. 

i had a red cappucino (which is made with local rooibos herbal tea) and a baked egg and tomato flatbread followed by a browse of the wares. loved the space, the staff and sheltering from the belting rain outside. 

Haas is definitely one to keep in mind for next time, especially after I found out that these buck hooks came from there. 

jan, 2nd - home away from home....

day 670:

we stayed in the same lovely cottage in South Africa on this trip {see day 436 and day 470}. the De Waal family are becoming our adopted home in Cape Town......well, we're adopting them with full force.....not sure that they feel the same way :)

ps. the full wireart quote on the wall is 'and did you know your stairway lies on the whispering wind' from the lyrics to Stairway to Heaven.

dec, 20th - babylonstoren....

day 657:

Babylonstoren is a beautiful place. Like its name suggests, it does have the bountiful Babylon about it. i've seen pictures of it from afar and been very keen to experience it for myself. the creation of Karen Roos, ex-editor of Elle Deco SA and her husband, Koos Bekker, it is a farm that combines Cape Dutch history with a solid backdrop of nature and a good dose of contemporary sophistication and style.

we tried to find a spot in Babel, the restaurant, back in November but it was already fully booked for the whole of December (not a surprise that people are flocking to enjoy this spot) but we were fortunate to be able to attend the opening of the new Babel Tea House last Friday with my friend, Loula {see day 437}.

As with everything else on the farm: the holiday cottages, the vast food gardens, the restaurant, the rolling hills of vines.......the new Tea House is spectacular. It is situated around the impressive greenhouse (which will be glorious in the cooler months) although on such a bright day we all enjoyed the tables and cool breeze under the trees outside.

unsurprisingly, the attention to detail is amazing and the focus is firmly on nature. our drinks were a choice of red, yellow or green that all tasted deliciously refreshing and as Loula said 'as if we were doing something good for our bodies.' we ate generous portions of carrot cake and shared a decadent chocolate cupcake.

Babylonstoren is a hard place to leave. And Limi's favourite part......

the giant tortoise.