My hometown has been a war zone for the last few days, my heart is sore and the adrenaline has been bubbling just below the surface with everyone in fight or flight mode. Normal everyday tasks seemed meaningless and irrelevant with the dull thud of tear gas explosions and distant screams in the background. And […]
Dear people of Cape Town, the deep seated ache you feel for rain right now is a constant longing and ever present ache for those of us who live off rainwater. We’ve been living solely on rainwater for the last 10 years, so being keenly aware of water usage has become second nature for my […]
Maybe it’s because of fairy tales, but children gain a keen sense of adventure when you head over any kind of mountain, perhaps they have this vision of another land opening up before their eyes when they crest the last rise. And it’s true, when you wind your way up the Outeniqua Pass, leaving the […]
Lisl Barry, Stories from a Rural Home, Gamkaberg Reserve, Klein Karoo A Fine Artist and author of “52 Ways To Grow Creative Children” Lisl lives on the CapeNature reserve which her husband manages with their two daughters aged 12 and 14. Their closest town is Oudtshoorn. My quest to reduce my landfill waste came […]
Going Plastic Free in July has been an interesting and eye opening experience for many of us, so I thought it would be really valuable to have all our stories in one place so we can recognise the similarities in the difficulties we face when attempting a plastic free lifestyle and share solutions and ideas […]
You know you have come to a good place to rest, unwind and let your gaze softly adjust to the horizon when the lizards sunning themselves on the deck are so at ease with your presence they almost shuffle up to make space for you, even though you have your very own and inviting […]
Waves For Change, founded by Ashoka Fellow Tim Conibear in Masiphumelelo in 2011, is a project that provides surf therapy to young South Africans from violent communities. These are youths who are exposed to a myriad of problems, and who suffer from acute emotional/physical stress, which in turn fosters learning disabilities, behavioral problems and […]
Dumisile Mqadi and I sat on the rooftop terrace of Happy Hippo, the funky eco-friendly backpackers in downtown Durban. Dumi has been working for Happy Hippo and its sister lodge, Hippo Hide, for more than 6 years. She started off as a cleaning lady, but that was only the beginning. “One day, I […]
A few years ago I noticed a funky new wine brand at the bottle store; a red wine with a very interesting label called Live a Little. Quirky on the outside, this wine was produced by Stellar Winery, South Africa’s largest producer of fine organic and fair trade wines. At the time, Stellar was […]
Lying in the warm winter sun overlooking the organic olive grove, the aloes is full amber flower and the majestic Swartberg mountains with the wide Karoo sky reflected in the fresh water pool the words that floated through my head were ‘This is bliss. This is beauty’. And it is, both blissful and beautiful to […]
