#Johannesburg

I hadn’t planned to blog about the cosmos flowers in Delta Park this year. I’ve already done so multiple times: Once during my #Gauteng52 series and once (very memorably) right before South Africa’s covid-19 lockdown began two years ago. But I went to see the cosmos twice this week and they are so freaking spectacular this year…Or maybe they’re equally spectacular every year and I just forget. Either way, this annual autumn explosion is too good not to blog about again.

Not too long ago, I told you about my new obsession with plants. This plant obsession is of course accompanied by a pot obsession, and I am fortunate to live five minutes away from the best pottery place in Joburg: Liebermann Pottery.

A couple of Sundays ago, Thorsten and I were finished hiking the Kloofendal Nature Reserve and looking for a place to eat. We were in Roodepoort – an area neither of us know well, dominated by big shopping centers – and had no idea where to go. Thorsten drove as I aimlessly searched Google Maps for interesting restaurants.

Last Sunday Thorsten and I went hiking in the Kloofendal Nature Reserve, which is in Roodepoort on Johannesburg’s West Rand. I last hiked in Kloofendal nearly 11 years ago; I know I enjoyed it because I wrote a blog post back then, too. But Kloofendal is even more delightful than I remembered. I also realized this time that Kloofendal has the most spectacular collection of proteas I’ve seen in Joburg.

I recently moved to a new house, and for the first time in nearly half a century of life I’ve become interested in plants. Actually that’s an understatement: I’ve become obsessed with plants. Most of my plants have names. I spend lots of time googling their care and gazing at them, admiring how they’ve grown and lightly touching their soils to determine if the need to be watered.

I don’t have time to write a long post this week. But I can’t wait any longer to tell you about Chappy Vintage, my new favorite Jozi shop.

Chappy opened about nine months ago in Linden, which is fast becoming one of Joburg’s hippest suburbs. I first discovered Chappy in early December and planned to blog about it right away, but then I got covid and couldn’t get back there to take photos until a few days ago. And I needed to do a proper photoshoot before writing this post because Chappy is a ridiculously photogenic place.