Seeing and remembering – My trinkets and Memories #15

4 Challenges in One Post

This week my own Trinkets and Memories Challenge worked in beautifully with Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Sense of Seeing and her Habits Challenge. It also worked in well with Ed’s Sunday Stills Challenge Happiness is ……. Which is kind of ironic as sadly it his his last challenge in a massive seven year effort to host the challenge! He has now deleted his link to this long running challenge. Thank you  for your time and effort Ed

For me Happiness is travel, the people I meet and the things I see. Photography is a big part of any journey I take. As you have probably gathered by my challenge it is also my habit to pick up at least one small trinket from each country I visit. Sometimes they are just something cheap and sometimes I am happy to spend for something that is good quality and is hand made and special to that country.

My trinkets take me back down memory lane and allow to see and envision places I have been to in my mind’s eye.

So without further adieu here is my 15th trinket,

A Crystal ring set in Silver – Cape Town, South Africa

My first trip to the continent of Africa was in 2007. I took an overland truck safari from Zambia through Botswana, Namibia and arrived in Cape Town, South Africa after 3 weeks on the road.

Every time I wear this ring, vivid images of the port side area of Cape town, where I bought this trinket with stunning Table Mountain in the background as dramatic clouds roll down over it like nature’s table cloth unfurling come to mind. The purple hues of the ring remind me of sunset and the mountain as it cools in the evening

I remember going up to the top of the mountain, the cold biting wind and view out to the Cape of Good Hope.

I did a fun cycling trip to The Cape and saw the penguins, I never knew South Africa had its own penguins! They are often called Jackass penguins as their raucous call sounds like a donkey braying. I can see these funny fellows waddling in their awkward way to the sea and they suddenly transform into sleek streamlined torpedoes slicing through the ocean at speed.

I have visions of slum townships on the outskirts of Capetown. The living conditions were sparse and poor yet people took pride in their small shantys and made an effort to have flowers, paint their home and have colourful fabrics adorning the windows or beds.

This vision of poverty is contrasted by the wealth of the wine growing area in Stellenbosch just out of Capetown with its stunning wineries and rolling hills covered in vines and purple grapes.

The range of colours and sparkling crystal in the ring remind me of visiting Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated. The surrounding ocean was powerful and had so many different hues as it surged and smashed on the surrounding rocks.

So when I see this trinket, I not only see a beautiful object that I find ascetically pleasing and enjoy wearing but I also see my journey, the places I visited, the people I met and the activities I did.

South Africa

It’s my equivalent of a crystal ball that I can carry on my finger!

Yoroshiku Onegai shimasu

Leanne