Blog
66 Square Feet
http://www.66squarefeet.blogspot.com/
What is 66 Square Feet About? It's about gardening in tight spaces. It's about how to live in a tiny apartment with a tiny terrace. It's about friends, and inspiration and blackspot on the roses. It's about food and cooking over an open flame. It's about wine. And water. And watering...And picnics. It's about Brooklyn. And South Africa. It's about seasons without and within. It's about where I go and what I come back to: a terrace twelve-and-a-half by five-and-a-half feet wide.
250 articles
Picnic at the Beach
From 66 Square Feet, Today, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Above: the packed picnic.A pause before we return to Camping Tales:I'd always wanted to share a picnic at Clifton with my parents, who'd never indulged in one on any of Clifton's four beaches, which are the most cosmopolitan of Cape Town's many, many strands, with a backdrop of an LA-meets-Monaco hybrid of urban-suburban architecture and geography.Despite its context and high-traffic, Clifton remains beautiful. It's the only place outside of the tropics where I can tolerate a palm tree.The sand...
Read more
Interresting ? 0
The toasted sandwich
From 66 Square Feet, Yesterday, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Above: the toasted cheese and tomato sandwich at the Matjiesfontein coffee shop. Made on the bread baked at the Lord Milner Hotel next door ("Phyllida's Bread", which my mother made famous in one of her food editorials in House and Leisure, back in the day). R28 or $3.70.Most South Africans, if asked about their national heritage in food, will talk about braaivleis. About lamb, about boerewors. About bobotie, bredie.How many will mention the toasted sandwich'If you stop in almost any roadside...
Read more
Interresting ? 0
Dawn to dusk
From 66 Square Feet, 2 days ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
After a night which cooled dramatically in the wee hours, we got up early, packed our coffee and rusks, and headed out for a 45km loop drive (all the national parks seem to have 'loops') to see if we might find animals. Night drives are not permitted in the Karoo National Park unless booked in the park's vehicle, with guide, and we hoped, in this inbetween hour, to chance upon a nocturnal animal on its way to bed soon after sunrise.We saw a beautiful dawn as well as zebra, gemsbok, kudu, rhebok...
Read more
Interresting ? 0
Shelterpop lilies...
From 66 Square Feet, 3 days ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Are up at AOL.
Read more
Interresting ? 0
Tortoises at the Karoo National Park
From 66 Square Feet, 3 days ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Above: another tortoise making for the shadeOne of the first things you'll read about the Karoo National Park is that is that it has the highest concentration of tortoises in the world. Five species.One of the first things we noticed when we drove into the campground at the Karoo National Park was the huge tortoises munching on the short green grass of the first few stands. They were unafraid and quite mobile, and we watched them for a while, noticing that one slightly smaller one had had its...
Read more
Interresting ? 0
Karoo National Park camping
From 66 Square Feet, 4 days ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
First stop en route to the Karoo National Park outside Beaufort West was the Huguenot Tunnel's toll plaza. R13 later and we were whizzing up the mountains and through them, and on our way to the hot hinterland.We discovered the first of many roadworks a few hours into our trek, and waited for ten minutes while traffic in the opposite direction was allowed through. By the end of the trip I was assessing local provincial government corruption levels by the state of the roads. Let's just say that...
Read more
Interresting ? 0
Camping Supplies
From 66 Square Feet, 5 days ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Above, after our first shopping phase, the haul.A cursory sifting through my photos from our trip shows that, after deleting about a tenth of them, I have 1,309 left.So, instead of panicking, I will start the story at the beginning, and take it day by day. Some days had many stories in them, even if the whole story was in one picture, or in words because we were too busy staying on the road to take pictures, or too shy; and I will sometimes depart from the timeline and take a story and tell it...
Read more
Interresting ? 0
Flowers at No. 9
From 66 Square Feet, 6 days ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
...in Constantia, in my mother's garden.Above, Verbascum olympicum, self-seeded, and a wonderful, vertical accent.An indigenous gardenia, once our potted Christmas tree, now happier in the garden. It made flowers for the first time this yearEucomis, or pineapple plant. A misnomer.It is March, so it is time for our South African Easter lilies to start blooming: Amaryllis belladonna. Flowers appear before leaves, so they are very striking.Which brings me to The Question: when will the Brunsvigia...
Read more
Interresting ? 0
Rose Gray
From 66 Square Feet, 1 weeks ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
A cursory glance at the New York Times showed me that Rose Gray, one of the founders of the River Cafe (London's Thames, not the rather slimey institution on New York's East River), is dead. She was 71.I have only eaten at the restaurant a handful of times, but it is the 3 early River Cafe books that are part of the backbone of my cookbook collection and whose spirit continue to influence my own cooking. The recipes employ few, fine ingredients, and put them together impeccably. I love them.
Read more
Interresting ? 0
Ratatouille
From 66 Square Feet, 1 weeks ago, Read 0 times. Similar articles
Above: Tipsy holding the aubergine just picked from my mom's garden.I did not always like ratatouille.Then one night in New Haven, Lucy, a pretty fellow waitress at the restaurant where I worked at night, invited some of us over for dinner to the apartment she shared with her doomed boyfriend, the alcoholic and bi-polar barman. Ratatouille and chicken breasts were on the menu. The unctuous former saved the latter from the dessication for which it was destined. I was converted.For Four:8 garlic...
Read more
Interresting ? 0
