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Cradock grave yard track – no Harry Potter unfortunately

On my last visit to Cradock I went in search of the grave of Harry Potter.  Harry Potter, you ask? Well, Cradock's cemetery holds the grave of one Harry Potter who was a ‘beloved husband’ and died on July 27, 1910 at the age of 46.  Was he magical? Who knows?  I unfortunately didn't find him.  I did find this scene of this car track through the grave yard that I especially liked.  Since coming back home I have discovered GPS coordinates…

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20/03/2014
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The chocolate water of the Great Fish

The Karoo is generally thought to be a very dry area with no water and in most cases this is true. But... And there is almost always a but.  This isn't quite true everywhere in the Karoo.  If you go and look at some places in the Karoo Heartland you will find that some parts of it is often very green.  A guy like Alan Hobson of Somerset East can even find enough dams and rivers to do Wild Fly Fishing in…

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19/03/2014
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Beach lake at Beaches

I was having a look at this picture wondering what I should post with it.  Straight forward it shows the lake which is part of the Kings Beach redevelopment with The Beaches apartment building in the background.  But does that make it the beach lake at the Beaches or the Beaches at the beach with a lake or the lake at the Beaches on the beach?

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19/03/2014
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St Georges Park Pool

The St Georges Park swimming pool has been a favorite with young and old for like forever.  We haven't been to the pool for ages as we have a small pool at home, but a week or so ago Drama Princess had to practice her swimming for school and we decided to go for an hour or so.  Entrance to the pool is cheap at R8 an adult and R3 a child and the facility was being thoroughly utilized.  Good to see…

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18/03/2014
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I flew in a helicopter

 I'm not a regular flyer.  The first time I got to fly was in a Jac (similar to a Harvard), a flight I would never forget as the pilot did two rolls with this very nervous and acrophobic passenger in the back.  Since then I have become a lot better and over the last seven years got to fly a couple of times a year on passenger planes both around South Africa and internationally.  All that said, I still haven't been up…

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18/03/2014
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Smile, it’s a penguin

I wanted to make this Monday post a bit of a light hearted one to start the week off on a happy note.  Looking at the pictures I haven't posted I decided on this one because, like Libby Sharwood of SAMREC says, "You can't help but to smile when you look at a penguin."

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17/03/2014
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Donkin aloe garden

Some people see gardening as a form of art while others just try their best to keep the weeds out.  Few people know that one of the 67 art pieces on Route 67 is a garden.  Not a pretty arty garden, but a garden of indigenous plants, mostly aloes, saved from sites being developed around Port Elizabeth.

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15/03/2014
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The fishbone on Market Square

You often see chicken bones lying around in public.  More than likely left overs from a KFC meal dropped while eating on the go.  But what if you suddenly encounter a fish bone?  One bigger than yourself?  Well, then you either stumbled on what is left of a whale that washed up somewhere or you are standing on Market Square in Port Elizabeth.  The Fishbone art piece by Imbono FJA Architects is an architectural element intended to visually anchor the…

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14/03/2014
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The Firefly Photo Files is a finalist in the 2014 Bloggies awards

Imagine my excitement when I was told the other day that The Firefly Photo Files has been selected as one of five finalists as Best African Weblog in the fourteenth annual Weblog (Bloggies) Awards.  This is where I would like to ask for some help from you.  Public voting plays a major role in how the winner gets chosen and I need all of you as well as your spouses / partners / moms / dads / kids / uncles / aunts /…

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13/03/2014
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The static Albatross

Every day a number of commercial and private planes take off and land at the Port Elizabeth Airport, but outside the airport there are two planes that just hang around, not going anywhere.  The one is a Piaggio P.166, a twin-engine pusher-type utility aircraft developed by the Italian aircraft manufacturer Piaggio Aero.  In the South African military the aircraft is known as the Albatross and was used by the South African Air force from 1969 to 1993.

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13/03/2014