About Me

In Africa, in the shadow and shade of the ancient, near-magical baobab tree, people would gather to hold court, discuss village matters, buy and sell wares, get educated or express their faith, but most of all they would come to listen to stories the elders would tell about their forefathers, their history, and their heroes. For the baobab is the tree of life, the tree that provides and creates a personal perception for storyteller and listener alike.

This is my roman fleuve from under the baobab tree. The tales of my meandering walkabouts, the places I travel, the photos I snap, the art I appreciate, the vistas I imbibe and the thoughts that interest me or rack my brain. It is a personal perception of the panoramic world around me, its cultures and their food I indulge in, and the beauty of life that surrounds me.  

I was born from French and Saxony (modern Germany) immigrants who were Dutchified and then became Afrikaners, and I was bred in the south, the deep south of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, the land between Table Mountain and the vineyards of the Boland.   

So my blood is blue with white hoops and fragranced with cabernet, pinotage and brandy, a splash of fresh grapes and peaches, a healthy helping of creamy fish curry, bobotie and snoek and handfuls of Karoo lamb chops from the coals. Add a generous drop of blue skies, lots of sunshine and white beaches, a pinch of salty sea air, and several vistas of proteas, fynbos and vineyards, and let it all be swirled together by the ever-blowing southeaster.

Once I discovered and read The Drifters, Tales of the South Seas and several others travel-related classics I knew my destiny included not only Cape Town, and South Africa, but all the beautiful places in the world. But as always, life intervened while I was dreaming and it was not until the nineteen nineties when the winds of change blew through South Africa, bringing the prospects of lower prosperity and a decline in safety that the opportunity arose to chase those dreams of traveling to and living in faraway lands, listen to foreign tongues and taste exotic foods and spices.

And when opportunity knocks...

I work as a technologist and business manager and I live with my family among the green and gentle rolling hills of the Bluegrass, just south of Lexington, Kentucky, on my treasured Lily Rose Ranch, a wooded enclave surrounded by cattle farms, where the thorns of the locust trees and the wild pasture roses hooked and grounded me. Here I can breathe clean fresh air and listen in daytime to a cacophony of chirping and singing from black, yellow, blue, red, and multi-colored songbirds, the machine gun drumming of the woodpeckers and the honking of Canadian geese. At night the odd owl, frogs in spring time and cicadas all summer long provide the night time sounds. Here I toil the soil, grow herbs, fruits and vegetables, gather freshly laid eggs, experiment with Mediterranean cuisine and live on simple Provençal dreams.

I hope you will enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy writing it.  

Restless, but happy transplant.
BluegrassBaobab