Lennon vs Lenin

The Lennon wall in Prague goes back to 1980, shortly after Lennon’s murder, when young Czechs painted an image of him, along with some political graffiti and Beatles lyrics, in a recess in this garden wall that backs a 14^th century churchyard belonging to the Knights of Malta …

Western pop songs were banned at the time by Communist authorities, and expressing anti-government sentiments was a dangerous business carrying the risk of imprisonment.

But despite repeated whitewashing by the police, they never managed to keep the wall clean. It became a political focus for dissenting Prague youth, an outlet for exposing injustices ... this despite its location in this quiet, well-heeled embassy district of Prague …

French Embassy, directly opposite the Lennon Wall, and the Mala Strana canal, around the corner

Lennon marches that started to take place on December 8^th, the anniversary of John’s death, gradually became linked to Human Rights Day protests (December 10^th), the early marches developing into running battles with armed police – in a movement ironically dubbed Lennonism – up until Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution.

Today the Lennon Wall has lost its counter-culture edge and original spirit as a forum for political dissidence. The graffiti is often inane, most likely to be added by the thousands of Western tourists who visit it each year to have their photo taken in front of it ...

My daily routine in Prague last week took me past the Lennon wall at least four times a day - which is how I discovered first hand the extent to which this is an evolving work in progress. Each day as I walked past, some image or piece of graffiti I remembered from the day before had been painted over, and occasionally I saw an artist in action ...

Mostly I pondered on the wall and its history right around the corner, at  the lovely Cukrkavalimonada (can you pronounce that? I can't, but it means sugar, coffee, lemonade) ...

Cukrkavalimonada, Lazenska 7, Mala Strana, Prague


... coffee and pastry being one of the best ways I can think of to put the world to rights.

Prague Spring

In Prague this week I'd hoped for warm spring weather as a break from the unrelieved awfulness that has been English weather for the last eternity. No such luck - I hit the week it all went chilly there too.
Here for a conference, my days were mostly tied up - annoying how work can get in the way of more interesting pursuits like exploring or shopping. 

Freed up in the evenings, with light until late, the tourists that throng the Charles Bridge and Old Town in large groups during the day seemed to have magically disappeared - sucked into restaurants and hotels? - and many parts of the city were strangely quiet and deserted. Where were the locals?

In the park on Kampa Island I saw a few Praguers walking their dogs ...

the only sounds coming from a group of students quietly playing guitars on the grass ...

the park benches empty, where you might sit and contemplate the nearly 700 years of history that this stone bridge (the Charles) has seen ...

The park on the bank of the Vitava river is also home to a museum (the Kampa) of central European modern art that I'd heard was worth visiting ...

though these were a bit of a surprise ...

The giant crawling babies are probably the tamest of Czech sculptor David Cerny's wacky creations. More of these slightly creepy faceless babies also crawl up the sides of Prague's television tower, and for his other weird installations see here

On the other side of the museum, Magdalena Jetelova's giant chair perches precariously on a low, narrow wall in the Vitava - a little precariously perhaps, since this is a replica of the original chair that washed away when the river flooded in 2002. 

and nearby a line of neon-yellow penguins (made of recycled plastic bottles by the Italian Cracking Art Group) marched along luminously ...

Just the start of many visual contrasts I saw in this beautiful city ...

A house, a dog and an elusive cat

Living on a wine farm is a dream, but I'd just as happily live in my friend M's small townhouse in Cape Town - a formerly ordinaryish cottage that she's converted into stylish perfection by creating open-plan spaces, raising the ceiling to a light-filled vault and bringing the courtyard-garden inside through big picture windows and doors.

This is the gorgeous creature who gets to share this space with her ...

I invited myself for lunch in M's garden ... you would too, if you knew what an artist she is in the kitchen ...

And here is one of my favourite features of Cape living - the outside shower. Hot water, mind you, no spartan freezing-your-buns-off, with all the accessories nearby for a pampered soak, as you stand naked smelling the garden under the stars. (Can you tell I used to have one of these? Sigh)

Someone else I'd been wanting to see was notably absent through lunch, but a pair of ears sticking up from a warm spot on the roof eventually gave her away ...

We lured her with a piece of biltong - that was lip-smacking good ...

Fully awake now - what else have you got for me?

Living Down South

Southern hemisphere living is about bright light and space, open-plan style, and  a life lived in the outdoors as much as in the inner spaces. These days I live this lifestyle vicariously only, through visits to friends' homes down south. While decor and home interiors are not normally what I do here, in this and the next couple of posts I'm sharing a few glimpses from happy snaps I took on my visit to Cape Town last month of homes and gardens that reflect what I love about this way of living and why I'm mad about Cape style.

Visiting special friends who live on a wine farm in the Franschhoek valley is always a treat, beginning with the sight of the long driveway up from the road ...

to these views ...

A lot of living happens outdoors around the pool ...

Comfy sofas live outside on covered porches year-round. 

the pool reflected in the verdigris metal wall lanterns

Eating happens outside too, on the terrace looking over the dam towards the mountains ...

or inside in the kitchen, where it's not about grand entertaining, but always about eating and drinking well, generosity and friendship.  

Tiny the Great Dane is not left out of the party


And it's only a short walk to the cottage on the river where we spend the night

My post title is borrowed from one of my favourite books of South African homes, now in a second version, along with some others that show the individuality and creativity that I love about these homes, on all kinds of budgets ...

Down South, Down South Two, Home Cape Town, Hot Afro

Rainy day wedding

What lovelier setting than this for a late summer wedding in the Cape? Planned down to the last detail, the marriage ceremony and the reception were all to happen outside in the sunshine between the vines. 

But planning did not include the possibility of rain, and when grey clouds descended over the mountains and the weather turned overnight from summer to 48 hours of pelting rain, some drastic last-minute changes were needed.

These huge doors open to a cellar ...

where chairs were arranged in between vats of wine, with candles for lighting

... and bride and groom adapted with good humour to a different ceremony altogether. No matter that the bride arrived half-soaked by a torrential African downpour - there were happy spirits and plenty of champagne. 

The reception now indoors, cotton pashminas were laid out in bundles to warm and dry guests caught in the rain ...

a generous abundance of food appeared on giant wooden platters ...

 ... European traditions meeting Africa in these interiors 

while outside the green vineyards welcomed the rain as the transition to a cooler season

though two days later it was back to heat and sunshine, as though the deluge had never happened. 
They say it's lucky to have rain on a wedding day ... there must be plenty of blessings in store for these two.