In November 2020, a couple days before Jess and I got married, my aunt came to visit us at my parents’ home in Plett. She had her granddaughter – also Jessica – in tow. Together, they delivered a large wooden box and a tree sapling. Within the box, there were many cards, with messages about […]
The post that I lost on 7 January has been found. It was published as a whole page instead of a post on my blog. Between CONTACT and BLOG, there appeared the title of the blog, Hat Head, as though it had enough clout to warrant a top tab on the website. I copied the […]
Years ago my dad met a guy in the bush who told him he could find honey. Keen to go find the honey with this man, my dad asked him, “when will we be back at the lodge?” “After we find the honey.” Photograph of the day: A piece of advice sometimes does the rounds […]
There is a fine art to digging a hole on the beach in the right place – too high up and it doesn’t get any water running into it. Boring. Too close and you might as well be swimming in the sea. Today, for the first time this holiday, I nailed it. Every now and […]
It’s hot tonight and when we sat down to dinner we left the balcony doors wide open in the hope of a breeze. A cicada saw the gap and came right on in to see what all the light was about. “That’s what happens when everything’s open and the lights are on,” my mom said […]
Every third Christmas my friend – let’s call her Terry to provide some anonymity since I’ve highjacked the story and it’s too late to ask for permission – goes on holiday with her husband’s family in a remote spot near St Francis. It’s a private nature reserve with no electricity, two lone houses, lots of […]
Tonight we heard some really awful news about a friend. There were so many joys today, before the news; so many moments I could focus in on and write about, but my heart feels heavy this evening. Writing about any of that joy feels false in the wake of my worry and the gut punch […]
Two minutes ago I lost my writing for today in a wifi issue while I was trying to upload my photograph of the day. I think I’ve been working on Google Docs for so long that I thought WordPress would also automatically save drafts. I thought wrong. I’ll rewrite it tomorrow. For now, I’m too […]
Today, at the lagoon (maybe that’s how the next week’s blog posts will all start)… Anyway, today at the lagoon, I saw a family with 18 boiled eggs for snacks. I know there were 18 because they had placed them back in the carton. I’m not judging it. I respect it. As a family (the […]
Framed photographs cover the one wall in my parents’ home in Plett. Kit stares up at them and most days, once of us picks her up so she can see them properly and we tell her who is who in her family. Some of the photographs are old. We point to a four-year old boy […]