Tag: Stanford Hotel.

The Favorit Imaginary

Time to evaluate the interest in my images and imaginaries since I started this blog 4 months ago. According to the WordPress statistics the imaginary ‘Romancing the flower’ is the absolute topper. It was one of the first postings and also one of my favorites; already designated for online poster sales later this year. The most favorite pictures are those of the recent fires that blazed around this village. Especially the helicopter with the bucket flying into the red as a David versus Goliath scored high. The next posting, BTW, is that of an imaginary of this helicopter. The third place goes to an imaginary of my first photo  model; Karuna with a hat the queen of Holland is jealous of.

Back to ‘Romancing the Flower’. This imaginary consists of flower elements and Clarissa (one of the dolls of the Stanford Hotel) against a mixed background of the sunset and elements of nearby Papiesvlei (farm community). Added with a moon and ‘Brigitte the Butterfly’ of Fabrikk Gassenschau; a unique outdoor theatre spectacle in Switzerland.

With the WordPress statistics at hand I also realized that the number of ‘likes’ does not tell anything about the real interest. The likes are only from other WordPress users who are logged in. The real interest goes beyond that.

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Happy Birthday Card 2

Last month we posted the Birthday Card we send to ‘likers’ (and dear friends) on our Facebook pages. I just made a new Birthday imaginary with elements from pictures I recently made in our garden added with one of the angels of the Stanford Hotel (left). The background is the sky of 6 AM this morning.

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Angels

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Not mentioned in any known travel itinerary is the shop window in Stanford, South Africa. It’s in the main Victoria Street at the Stanford Hotel. It’s there where The Angel of Stanford resides. Every now and than ‘shebeen owner’ Penny van den Berg redecorates the windows with her ‘girls’. And that is quite a process of meticulous fitting the right dresses, the right wigs and the right gadgets for the right occasion. This week Penny is in heavenly spheres and all her thoughts are with angels. Her installations are a true art. She does not only use the windows but also the space behind thus also using the old shopping counter and the cupboard behind. From her childhood onwards Penny has been collecting dolls in all sizes; from a tiny Swedish ‘Pippie Langkous’ to life-size fashion dolls. And there is something more to it as well; every time when a known villager passes away Penny adds a candle behind the window and this candle, accompanied by a picture of the deceased, will burn until after the funeral. For all on a road trip in South Africa and co-incidentally in the area it’s worthwhile to take a turn into Stanford. After about 1 kilometer the window is on the right.

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