PeteandLauren.com

On Wednesday two weeks ago I started building a bed for Kayden.   He and Kyra are now sharing a room and his little cot is just too small for him. So the build commenced. This was going to be a bunk bed type design.

When I built Kyra’s bed I had in the back of my mind that we might want the kids to share a room so I designed her bed to be square and modular so that I could add another on top of it at a later stage. Naturally design came first, most of the hard work was done during the build of Kyra’s bed so it was just a matter of sourcing wood and getting it cut to size.

First, I started off marking up all the pieces of wood. This is where the furniture screws and dowels would be placed to keep the whole thing together. I am a bit hopeless when it comes to this aspect of the build so everything had to be checked and then checked again. After about two or three hours I had all the pieces marked up and it was time to start drilling. A good few hours of work and I was ready to dry fit the frame together. By nightfall of day one I had most of the frame assembled.

The next thing to come was the ladder.  Strangely enough it took forever but by  the end of day two I had it all clamped together and glued.

The next two days were spent sanding all the pieces of the bed to a smooth, fine finish.  At night while the sanding was going on I started planning colour schemes.  First I took a picture of the beds in their stacked position and then used photoshop to see how the colours would look.

Once the colours were decided it was time for masking off the different parts with masking tape and then we started painting.  The paint we used was Plascon Double Velvet and had names like Granny Green, Nabula Red and Crazy Daisey Yellow and Greek Island blue

Eventually it was all done and the kids love it to bits.  Pictures can be seen in the Gallery under the Bloody sweat and tears folder in the Kayden Bed section.

We decided to have another family outing 2 weeks ago. This time our destination was Mitchell Park in Durban. We’d been there before, but only had a picnic and looked at the beautiful gardens and let the children ride on their bikes for a bit.

This time we decided to pay the “whopping” R4 (rand) entrance fee and decided to go and look at all the animals. I was most surprised to see how much further the park extended. The park comprises mostly of birds and of course the vervet monkeys running around loose, which I think will potentially become a problem, due to their numbers. But we were fortunate to see raccoons – a first for me. They also had tamarins, marmosets, meerkats, flamingos and as I’ve  said, an array of other birds too. The crocodiles they used to have are no longer their unfortunately. I looked up the history of Mitchell Park, which was named after Sir Charles Bullen Hugh Mitchell. It used to be an ostrich farm which is hard to believe, if you look at where it’s situated in a, now, densely populated residential area. The ostrich farm venture was unsuccessful and they converted it into a zoo. I’m told that there used to be a greater variety of animals than there are now, which included lions and leopards and of course the crocodiles that I mentioned earlier. The most famous animal, presented to the city council by the Maharajah of Mysore in 1928, was Nellie the elephant who would woo the crowds with her tricks & intelligence.

Today the magnificent gardens, rolling lawns, enormous trees that provide ample shade and the large play ground for the children attract many families to the park on weekends.

You may have to keep a watchful eye on your food, as the vervets have no  qualms about helping themselves to snacks left lying around unguarded. They’re harmless enough, but if you don’t like sharing, then keep your food close to you or hidden.

With so many people, these days, living in upstairs apartments or flats, or even a family just wanting a change of scenery, I would definitely recommend Mitchell Park as an ideal spot for any family to spend the day outdoors.

Hi Folks It has been a while since I have posted to our blog so I thought I would ease myself into it with a trusted favourite.  1990 – The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs. It is hard to believe that this piece of kit is floating around us. Most of us don’t even have cars that old and yet it is still there sending back great pictures of places we will never go to.

1927 – Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours. Obviously there was no ash cloud to worry about then.

 1506 – In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.

 As for Birthdays today, it is Cher’s . She was born in 1946 making her 64 years old today. Thus demonstrating that the bunny huggers are not wrong, plastic really does last forever. 

And last but not least, today two years ago the great Frank Sinatra died.  As it turns out Frank Sinatra died on the 14th of May 1998.  So he doesn’t belong in this post at all.  Ain’t that a bugger!!!

I have been going to the Durban Botanical Gardens for many years now. But I’ve only recently started appreciating what it has to offer in the form of a relaxing afternoon with your family. I took the time to read up on the history of the gardens and summarised as follows: The Durban Botanic Gardens is the oldest public institution and the oldest surviving botanic gardens in Africa. It’s located on the lower slopes of the Berea ridge. Its existence came about when some locals met in what is now the Royal Hotel in 1848 and wanted to re-establish the Kew Gardens in England, so as to establish a series of botanic gardens across the world. They wanted to introduce plants of economic value, and which would also supply Kew botanists with plants, new to science. The site originally selected for Durban’s first botanic gardens was some 4kms from town, besides the Umgeni River, near what is today Quarry Road. In 1849, the curator at the time, Dr Charles Johnston, began work on planting out plots. Dr Johnston was superceded by a Scot called Mark McKen. In 1851the botanical gardens were relocated closer to town, to its present site. In the years that followed, few visited the gardens, with the exception of the school children who made their way across the vlei to pick mulberries when they had ripened. Despite the lack of interest shown in the gardens by the public, there was however, one time in the year when the town came to the Gardens for the annual show. All the towns folk flocked to participate in the games, agricultural competitions and to enjoy the goods on sale and in the evening a grand dinner was held at the Royal Hotel. From 1872 the Durban Botantic Garden suffered many negative events, among which was the death of the professor, surviving a drought and the Anglo Boer war. Yet fortune smiled on the gardens in 1882 and a local trade store owner, John Medley Wood took on the task of curator with quiet determination. For 31 years the gardens enjoyed a golden age and by the 1890′s it boasted being one of the greatest botanic gardens of the British empire. However in 1913 Wood retired, but not before it earned its place in botanical history in the field of indigenous KwaZulu- Natal flora. This was a time of political change, the Boer War approached and botany was not at the fore of everyone’s minds. Medley Wood passed away on 26 August 1915 and was succeeded by William Keit on 27 August 1916. An era had passed. The gardens were transferred to the Durban Municipality. The Gardens’ herbarium was transferred to the state and run from Pretoria. The gardens declined into a mere public park. Despite all odds, the botanic gardens survived and it’s largely thanks to men like Frank Thorns and Ernest Thorp, and later to Kenneth Wyman and Errol Scarr. As the years have progressed & improved, it has seen the renaissance of the Botanic Gardens, Christopher Dalzell as curator, a Trust and ‘Friends’ have ensured new hope. Today it’s one of Durban’s top tourist attractions. Families enjoy picnics, occasionally groups perform for the public and family and friends gather for a snack at the tea garden situated on the premises. We often take Tristan, Kyra and Kayden to kick a ball around and just to enjoy the outdoors. When one walks through the gardens, it’s very hard to believe that one is in the middle of a city. It’s all thanks to the people in history who took the time to make the gardens what they are today.

Today 6 years ago you were waiting for your bride to arrive at the chapel  But just when you thought your nerves couldn’t take it anymore, I arrived.

I will never forget your face as I walked down the aisle towards you. You had an expression of absolute love and adoration. We were both jittery but excited too and as Liz gave the beautiful ceremony, I just lost myself in you. We said out vows  and confirmed our union with a kiss. I was so proud to walk out of Falcon Crest Chapel as your wife, Mrs Bowen.

Pete, I love you more each year and miss you more with every trip that you’re away. But nothing can change how very much you mean to me.

Happy Anniversary,

With all my love

Your rabbit