If you’re new to this blog series and don’t know what’s happening with South Africa’s 21-day (now 35-day) lockdown, my first post has all the details. Or read all my lockdown posts.
It’s Day 25 of lockdown. I bring you yet another garden flower.
“Monday” is a very uncreative post name but it’s all I can come up with.
I feel more down than usual, because it’s Monday but also because I’m finding it hard not to dwell on the fact that there is no end in sight to this situation. I won’t bore you with the intricacies of my anxiety and fear — I’m sure it’s much the same as yours. But it’s fucking difficult.
I made brownies today, which was fun, but they didn’t turn out right because there was something wrong with the butter I bought. This makes me very annoyed. I usually never do this but I’m going to take the second butter block I bought (which also smells weird) back to the shop tomorrow and complain. Wasting (expensive) butter is just too sad right now.
In other news, I came across this old picture of of myself while working on my never-ending photo archiving project. Jon shot it while we were in Hogsback, during an extended road trip through the Eastern Cape, in 2011. I really like it.
I just remembered that if the pandemic hadn’t happened I would be road-tripping through the Eastern Cape right now. Today I should have been on my way to Bathurst, which would have been the fifth town in my #10SouthAfricanTowns project. I’m sad about this, too.
But in the grand scheme of things, bad butter and missed road trips are pretty small problems to have at the moment. So I’ll leave it at that.
A Photography DIY Project
On a much brighter note, I’m excited to show you some stunning photos by my photographer friend Mark Straw.
Mark is the founder of the Joburg Photowalkers, which I blogged about extensively in the early days of 2Summers. (Here’s a post about my first-ever Joburg photowalk in Hillbrow in 2011.)
The Photowalkers obviously aren’t able to go out and walk around the city taking pictures, as they normally do. So they’ve been participating in daily at-home photography challenges during the lockdown.
In Mark’s words:
“I’ve been taking photographs at home every day as part of two photographic lockdown challenges. There is a lot of community spirit with all the photographers partaking on the various online groups.
“A few themes we’ve had to photograph include: ‘Books’; ‘Fruit’; ‘Whats in the fridge’; ‘Mirror’; and ‘Pattern’. Yesterday’s theme was ‘Something Frozen’.
“I froze flowers in the freezer on Sunday night to photograph the creations in the morning. They were inspired by beautiful land art by Erica Lüttich, which I have photographed at numerous Jozi Land Art events.”
I saw Mark’s “frozen” photos on Facebook and they immediately brightened my day.
I don’t know if I’ll do as good a job as Mark did, but I’m totally going to try the frozen flower project later this week. I’m running out of basic flower photos and this seems like a great twist.
If you’re keen to get involved in a daily photo challenge, here are bunch of Mark’s suggestions:
Joburg Photowalkers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/710081799017014/
Foto Fanatix: https://www.facebook.com/groups/257666824262052/
Photo Factor Photography Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/photofactorclub/
Rietvlei Nature Reserve: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rietvleinaturereserve/
Today’s Worthy Cause
JoburgPlaces is now offering virtual storytelling evenings.
I’ve written about JoburgPlaces, a walking tour company/events venue in downtown Joburg, many times. Gerald and Charlie are both great storytellers — they describe Joburg’s crazy history in such an engaging, digestible way. And while it’s a bummer we won’t be able to hear those stories in person for a while, virtual storytelling is the next best thing.
A couple of months ago I would never have considered paying money to log on and watch an event/concert/storytelling performance online. But I did exactly that last Saturday night (not with JoburgPlaces — it was a live podcast called Risk!) and it was surprisingly enjoyable. It’s amazing how we change when we have to.
Learn everything you need to know about JoburgPlaces virtual storytelling here.
These frozen flowers photos are incredibly beautiful! Please try that, I’m sure your pictures will be just as stunning.
Yes, amazing! I don’t have that many flowers to work with but let’s see what I can do 🙂
Those ice flowers are so pretty.
Bummer about the butter. Very irritating.
So irritating.
Love the ice photography. And well, all your photos, that goes without saying. Those brownies look good! Maybe have them with ice cream?
Ah! That’s a great idea. Need to get some ice cream.
Beautiful frozen flower pictures–what a cool idea! Gratitude takes away my fears and anxiety.
Yes gratitude is always a good strategy.
Funny that, my “umKhombe” was being packed for a road trip to Bathurst (I had a gig at the book fair there), then on to East London, Wild Coast and Durban, when lock-down came… Where will our lives pick up our lives be when the reboot comes, just “skip 2020” or the months bump into one another, I wonder?
It’s a very good question that unfortunately has no answer.