I just had a trip to Cape Town with some friends and found something I've never come across before - ShweShwe. Here's the history. It's discharge printed from etched copper rollers onto cotton and comes in a heavy smelly wax to preserve it. On a great tour of Khayelitsha township I asked to find a fabric shop and managed to buy some.

The traditional way to use it is in a panelled skirt, some of the fabric was ready marked in the panels for easy sewing. Below are a few examples of ladies wearing their superior creations. After washing the wax disappears and the fabric softens up.

On arriving in Berlin for the first time, Aggie and I went straight to the flea-market at Mauerpark. It was a beautiful but very chilly day. We found this photo album which may have inspired our next trip. I can't quite decide if they flew all the way to Nessebar on the Black Sea, or whether they drove, but either way, the photos show such an interest in modern architecture as well as a gorgeous couple on their Eastern block hols. Why was the album got rid of? It's made me so interested in these people that just turned up.

This one is a bit of a mystery, I can't find an airfield called Stoppelfeld - it seems to mean Stubblefield.

I got up at 6.30 this morning to try and see the eclipse of the moon, but it was cloudy. Should have stayed in New Orleans a little longer because it was impressive.

I am sorry, I have been a hopeless blogger and haven't added anything for 2 months.(sorry Lucy and Liza) On top of that I've found that my last post was wrongly named as being in New Orleans so I just had to go there to see for myself. Quite right, I didn't find any dancing, not like that any way, but I found lots more to show so here is one little story. The Backstreet Museum in the Treme district was very photogenic and interesting.[slideshow id=3]

It definitely wasn't all work.

it's not all work on a hot trip to NY

Spring was sprung a few weeks before here in Ibiza, what amazing weather.

A little plug for James Giuseppi, he started me off on Yoga 6 or 7 years ago and I've been on 3 yoga holidays (or retreats as we call them) since. This one was at Atzaro in Ibiza somewhere and it was really lovely, very chi chi too. Here's Keith, my trusty travel mate, lounging on his sun lounger.

As spring finally starts to take a hold and I picked my 2nd bunch of flowers from the garden this weekend, I can't help thinking of a holiday. I don't know if I'll ever get to the Yemen, but it sure looks amazing. Tim Mackintosh-Smith is the knowledgeable Brit there. Apparently they love a bit of high rise in Sana'a and these are up to 400 years old.