My good friend Lindi is celebrating her 50th birthday and we've all relocated to a house right next to the beach in St Helena Bay. It feels like we're on holiday in an exotic destination. The kids are swimming and canoeing, the seagulls busily foraging the shallow waters of the bay.
It rains buckets on Friday. But on Saturday morning the skies start to clear, and by sundown the weather is perfect. We all gather around the fire in front of the house with our toes in the sand, the waves gently rolling in with musical regularity in the background.
"It sounds just like Greece," someone says, "the waves lapping softly." Indeed, these are not the crashing waves we're accustomed to on the Cape coast, where the South-Easter whips the sea into a frenzy.
Unexpectedly, a message comes through: loadshedding is due at 22:00. We scramble to get everything ready for dinner. Everyone takes a seat again, stoking the fire to provide light and heat.
At precisely 10 o'clock the town falls dark and silent, yet it's magical. At that exact moment, a sliver of moon peeps out above the horizon. Gradually, its light becomes brighter and before long the night sky is illuminated, the moon full and round. How to describe such a moon? It's as if it is freeing itself from the ocean, drifting higher and higher in search of the stars. If it were a fruit, I could've plucked it!
In the glow of the moon, the darkness gets lighter and the striped reflection on the water becomes a glistening track that ends at my feet in the wet sand. If I could follow the light, it would surely be a shortcut to the night sky...
Which makes me wonder: what if the moon were a window in the darkness. What would one see on the other side? I think to myself: how serendipitous, the synchronicity of nature that greets loadshedding with a light so bright that the entire town and bay are illuminated.
In this issue we celebrate summer, and holidays. Wherever you spend this festive season, may a light also shine for you, a full moon if it's dark. And may 2022 be a full year: full of hope, full of peace and full of the good things in life.
Good news! We're launching our very own tablecloth range! There are (for now) three designs from which to choose. Visit the online store at xleventsgiftboxes.com and order your favourite. If you struggle to get it right, send an email to editor@homemag.co.za and we'll assist you!
And don't forget our special issues that are still available at a store near you:
For word game enthusiasts: Home's second puzzle booklet with crossword puzzles, sudoku and plenty of brain teasers.
For the well-organised: Our Home notebook and diary with beautiful photos from our archives, seasonal gardening advice, calendars and more.
For avid revampers: Home Renovations, featuring entries from our annual Fix it with Flair competition in partnership with JoJo - for water, for life!
