#Shopping

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.

Ludwig’s Roses, a huge rose farm north of Pretoria that has been running for more than 50 years, had been on my radar screen for a while. Several people told me I should visit, but that I must go at the height of summer when the roses are all in full bloom. Somehow the summers kept passing and I kept forgetting to put Ludwig’s in my “to-blog” list.

My friend Ryan recently started a thrifting side business. She travels around, visiting second-hand clothing markets and charity shops around Joburg, picks up quirky and fabulous clothes at rock-bottom prices, then advertises her best finds for sale on Instagram at @ThreeDogsThrift. (The account is named for her three tiny dogs: Jozi, Bobby, and Dash.)

I recently went with my friends Manuela and Gail to Diagonal Street, a historic Joburg shopping street. Diagonal Street – known for its fabric, blanket, and muti (traditional medicine) shops – is so named because it runs on a diagonal for three blocks between Albertina Sisulu Road and Kerk Street. Manuela wanted to shop for fabric; Gail and I came along for an excuse to get out of the house.