Americans in South Africa: It’s Time to Vote
Apologies for this interruption to my regular programming -- I realize Americans in South Africa represent a small percentage of my readership. But I learned some important information about overseas absentee voting this week and I want to make sure everyone else...
Cycling in Soweto With Locals
As everyone in South Africa knows, we're still in the midst of a pandemic and our national borders are still closed. This means no international tourism. While this extended travel ban is detrimental to the South African tourism sector, the ban has created new...
A Delicious Dose of Solitude in the Melville Koppies
Yesterday I spent the morning walking around the central section of the Melville Koppies Nature Reserve. Most of you know I visit the Koppies often, but this walk was special. Winter grass on the Melville Koppies. The grass is taller than me. The Melville Koppies...
Farming With Mama Fifi: Bertrams Inner City Farm
Last week, when I published a post about my cycling tour with Honest Travel, I mentioned our visit to the Bertrams Inner City Farm. I decided that visit was far too brief to give the farm proper justice in my blog. So I went back again yesterday. Walking the Bertrams...
A Cycling and Food Tour Through Berea, Yeoville, Bertrams, and More
On Tuesday, I climbed onto a single-speed bike and took a cycling and food tour through the eastern portion of downtown Joburg. It was a perfect day in the city -- one of those days when all your problems and stresses magically disappear and everything in the world...
A Very Big Haircut (and a Donation to Charity)
I've had long hair -- well past my shoulders -- for virtually my entire adult life. I've always thought my hair is one of my best features, so why not have as much of it as possible? I'm also just not a big fan of haircuts, for some reason. I put it off for as long as...
The South African Lockdown Wind-down
As of today, South Africa has entered lockdown level 2. South Africans can now buy booze and cigarettes (finally!), we can drink alcohol in restaurants and bars, we can go to the gym, we can visit our friends and family (most of us were already doing so but now it's...
Endings and Beginnings for the Melville Food Program
This is a quick post to announce the Melville Food Program, which I've blogged about many times during lockdown (see here and here and here), did its last large-scale food parcel distribution at Heritage Baptist Church today. This amazing group of volunteers, led by...
Five Outings in Gauteng Province
It's a weird time to live in Gauteng province. Gauteng is South Africa's largest province by population and its smallest province by size, by huge margins. And due to the ongoing COVID-19 travel restrictions, all 13 million of us Gautengers are stuck here together....
Things Are Happening in Joburg City
Other than a brief visit to Hillbrow, I hadn't gone to downtown Joburg city since before the pandemic started. Also today is the ten-year anniversary of my arrival in Joburg and I wanted to do something special. So I decided to devote the whole day yesterday to Joburg...
Johannesburg Botanical Gardens and Emmarentia Dam Are Open
When the pandemic first hit and South Africa locked down, the closure of Emmarentia Dam and the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens (two parks that are essentially one -- I will refer to the whole thing as "Emmarentia" going forward) was one of my greatest sources of...
Lockdown Revisited: Fake It ‘Til You Make It
My advice for the week: If you're feeling down in lockdown, put on a (fake) happy face. My new facemask (like an actual face. mask.) from Anouk de Vries Design. I haven't blogged about the lockdown for a couple of weeks, and I feel like I've built up all these...
The Birds of Paterson Park
Last week I participated in a behind-the-scenes tour of historic Paterson Park, on the border of Norwood and Orange Grove, to check out the public art projects in progress there. The park is undergoing a huge renovation, expected to finish in the next few months. The...
#JobsSaveLives: The Plight of Melville’s Restaurants
Today, the South African restaurant industry participated in a nationwide demonstration called "One Million Seats in the Streets", to protest the government's treatment of the hospitality sector during the COVID-19 lockdown. The hashtag for the movement is...
Heather Mason
I’m an American writer/blogger/photographer living a quirky life in Johannesburg. Follow along as I explore Johannesburg, South Africa, and the rest of the world.
