Delphiniums from the garden

DeOudeHuize

Delphinium Blue Butterfly

“There is no blue like the blue cup the tall Delphinium holds up”

De Oude Huize Yard 

Delphinium (Larkspur) meaning shows to Boldness, Open Heart, Big Hearted, Fun,
Ardent Attachment, Airy, Lightness and Levity.
It is the July Birth Flower

A beautiful painting done by Alexi Zaitsev
Known as Delphiniums and Sky 

Putting up a beautiful show in the garden.
Delphinium is a stately, elegant perennial that is a standard in English cottage gardens.
Mounds of dark green, glossy foliage are adorned with huge spikes of showy, spurred flowers
in early summer. Another common name is larkspur, although this name usually
refers to annual varieties.

Delphinius in a blue pt as painted by Joan Thewsey 

Delphiniums are glorious plants with flower spikes that can grow up to 180 cm tall.
Normally, they are a range of blues, but are also available in white, pinks, and purple.
They are standouts as background plants.

Our garden are home to hummingbirds that come
To seek the tall delphinium

Another name for Delphinium is ‘Larkspur’.
These beautiful blooms add a touch of grace to any garden and make a wonderful
 bouquet of cut flowers that will last several days in a vase.

Delphinium originated, according to legend, during the Battle of Troy.
Achilles' mother requested that her son's armor be given to the most heroic Greek Warrior.
The armor was given to Ulysses, although the brave Ajax expected to be chosen, and because of his dejection, Ajax killed himself.
The small blue larkspur began to grow where the blood of Ajax spilled.

Delicate and beautiful 

During the growing season is filled with blue 

Standing tall 

Thanks for joining us on a short walk between the beautiful Delphiniums. 

Sending Lots of Love from South Africa 

Sandra 

A Stroll Thru Life; A delightsome life; Craft Berry Bush; Crafty Allie; 

Create with Joy; China on a shoestring; Confessions of a Plate Addict; Elizabeth & Co; 

Embracing Change;  Fishtail Cottage; Funky Junk; Have a Daily Cup;Imige-in-ingblog; 
Ivy and Elephants; Katherines Corner; Knick of Time; Life on Lakeshore; My Romantic Home; 

My Salvaged Treasures; Miss Mustardseed; Rooted in thyme; Redoux Interiors; 
The Dedicated House; Shabby Art; Savvy Southern style; Sweet Bella Roos; 

The Shabby Nest; The Jenny Evolution; Too Much Time  

A day filled with color and joy

DeOudeHuize

We believe that you can approach any piece of art with boundaries or rules.

I think respect is a very important thing, but we discover as we go along the way and that is really important. 

Thanks to Theunis for this very special photo of their home

We had the wonderful opportunity to visit Thelmi and Theunis at the home in Harrismith. 

The home has no definite areas for office or art gallery or art studio 

Their story is shared by the host of De Oude Huize Yard

The welcoming committee in the garden 

Thelmi arrives with coffee and rusks 

All the little details in the garden 

A wonderful walk in the garden 

An Aloe against the wall

A special painting on the stoep 

The color enriched entrance
Lemoene vye en skilderye (Orange figs and paintings)

The dinning room where there is an beautiful white Wedge wood display 

A special painting with a text from a poem "Halwe Engel" written by Breyten Breytenbach 

Thelmi's studio and look-out for the angle in the wardrobe

Angles in Thelmi's paintings 

“Creativity takes courage.” 
Henri Matisse 

The courtyard is filled with surprises

A painting of a wind pumps matches the curtains in the kitchen 

Laatnag kuier - Late night visit 

Self-Portrait by Willem Pretorius 
“To be an artist is to believe in life.”
Henry Moore 

The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.Piet Mondrian 

Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life 
Pablo Picasso 

This map measure distance in the traveling time on horseback 

The ever presence of Platberg 

What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas,
but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough 
Eugene Delacroix 

To soon it is time to leave 

A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at every attitude…

I hope that you have find  this visit just inspiring as we did  
Lots of Love South Africa  

Sandra 

Thank you for all the wonderful friends sharing this story!!!

A Stroll Thru Life; A delightsome life; Craft Berry Bush; Crafty Allie; 

Create with Joy; China on a shoestring; Confessions of a Plate Addict; Elizabeth & Co; 

Embracing Change;  Fishtail Cottage; Funky Junk; Have a Daily Cup; Ivy and Elephants; 
Katherines Corner; Knick of Time; Life on Lakeshore; My Romantic Home; 

My Salvaged Treasures; Miss Mustardseed; Rooted in thyme; Redoux Interiors; 
The Dedicated House; Shabby Art Style Sisters; Savvy Southern style; Sweet Bella Roos; 
The Shabby Nest; The Jenny Evolution; Too Much Time 

The Castles of the veld

Blockhouses that look like fanciful little castles of the South African War in 1899-1902

They were all intended to keep the ever-mobile Boers from accessing British supply lines. 

On a road trip through South Africa you'll often come across these little castles, 

standing in a field or on the outskirts of a town or on a hill overlooking a highway. 

Life in a blockhouse generally consisted of a few British soldiers under a hot tin roof. 

More than 90% of their time was spent in boredom. 

The soldiers kept themselves busy with gardening and the cleaning of equipment. 

Then there was that 10% of white-hot action, when the Boers came visiting.

For the purposes of this blog post a 'masonry blockhouse' is a structure of mortared 

stonework or concrete, one to three storeys in height, with a roof of timber and 

corrugated iron, with rifle ports, windows and doors protected by loopholed 

steel plates and with or without steel machicouli galleries.

 A machicouli had a ‎Post-medieval use for through objects onto the enemy 

It took 30 Royal Engineers all of 30 days, on average, to cut the stone and
construct one at a cost of £900. 

Royal Engineers built a total of 441 masonry blockhouses through out South Africa during the War.   

We would like to introduce you to the Reservoir Blockhouse at Harrismith

The Reservoir Blockhouse exhibit a gabled roof, with vertical corrugated cladding on the gable ends and the roof is cut back over the machicouli galleries. There is loopholes on each side of the entrance at first floor level. The small monopitch roofs and vertical cladding covering the galleries on the Reservoir Blockhouse at Harrismith represent another original variant to the design.

The oldest photo we could find of the Reservoir Blockhouse after completion 

A photo taken during the War of the Blockhouse and its occupants.
They kept animals for companion and planted gardens 
You can see this soldier and his dog  

Today the blockhouse is a National Monument and it can be reached by foot in the 

Platberg Eco Reserve.  It is almost a 2 km walk  

A sign showing the way 

A steep route of up and down to the blockhouse 

A sign asking for respect 

The Gallery 

A little bench to sit an take-in all the detail 

Close-up of a rifle portholes

Some of the graffiti on the walls read

J Rickup 4 M. Riffles 

David Hunter Brisbane 

F W Difield 

C Clark 1037 

The roof construction

I hope that you have find something interesting in the history of South Africa  

Lots of Love 
Sandra