christmas in july festival

This weekend was Hogsback's annual Christmas in July festival. We didn't have any snow unfortunately, but the festivities still carried on if full Christmas spirit. We held a stall at the Butterfly's Bistro market, selling freshly made gourmet toasted sandwiches, boerewors rolls and our very own hand-crafted dream catchers and bamboo pipes; and our friends were all alongside us with their own craft stalls. We cooked on borrowed braais and our decorative lights were solar powered from the sunlight during the day. We camped over on site for the weekend, which was rather cold but lots of fun. All in all it was a great success and a really jolly time! Thanks to everyone who helped us pull this all together, you are champions!

nature's confetti

On Saturday afternoon we had our first taste of snow for the season- cold, soft, small, light and white. There has been lots of rain but not much snow since, so we're ready and waiting. we can see it covering the mountain tops all around though. This weekend coming is 'Christmas in July' so hopefully there will be some more snow to add to the festivities!

 this photo was taken by the lovely shireen freeman

cool friday

today is icy cold- can't really feel my hands! there's snow on the mountains around us and its only a matter of degrees and we'll be in it too. but still, there's lots of activity going on. here's a look at what we're up to in the workshop:

battening down the hatches

 it's getting super chilly up here in the mountains- with snow on the way we've been gearing up for christmas in july which is pretty big up here. we're going to have a food and crafts store- so keep an eye out for that update, it's going to be great! other than that, lots of firewood is getting chopped for roaring fireplaces :) 

let them eat cake!

O, The Oprah Magazine South Africa is celebrating a decade of success, and together with Charly's Bakery they have created the "Live Your Best Life" cake.  This was donated to the MylifE foundation, who convinced them to let it travel 1000km from Cape Town to Hogsback to bring love and happiness to the children of the Plaatjieskraal communuity. We had a few of the children over on Sunday for a day of fun and games and lots of cake, and today we visited the Crabbush Primary School to pass on the goodness.