The Peace of Wild Things

Do port and cheese go together?
     It's an easy answer, and best answered by another question. Did Simon and Garfunkel make a good team? Or Tom & Jerry? How about Mac & Cheese, Ben & Jerry or Fish & Chips?
     On Friday night port and cheese went with large dollops of conviviality and fellowship.
     As usual the New Dawn tables were the rowdiest!

No sounds of silence from this table! From left, lifting their glasses, were the Marivates (Fana & Tumelo), Graham, Amina & Ronnie, Paul, Linda & Mike and Judy & Jankees

     The restaurant attached to the Cheese Gourmet can seat about 45 comfortably, according to Brian Dick, co-owner with his wife, Jo, who also doubled up as head chef for the evening. At 41 (from New Dawn, Rosebank and a table of friends of friends of Peter and Jean James-Smith) we made the cut and after a slow start, winemaker Mike Neebe started the formal tasting, first his new bottling of chenin blanc, named Abientem, then his red blend of grapes more traditionally used in port (called Machado, Portuguese for axe), followed by three tastings of his prize-winning ports.

Mike Neebe, winemaker and owner of Axe Hill, introduces his wine

     The first was Axe Hill's unique white port, made from Chenin Blanc grapes, with a rich, layered taste of ripe apricots, honey and hints of citrus, which was clearly a favorite of most of the people there. This was followed by a more traditional Cape Ruby and Cape Vintage (2008). Winners all.
     After the official tasting, accompanied by five or six unique South African cheeses from the shop next door, we were fed a bean cassoulet using Peter James Smith's Toulouse sausages.

The cheese man ... Brian Dick in conversation with Amina and Ronnie.

The sausage man ...Peter shares a moment with Fana and Graham

     There was a queue to buy Axe Hill wines, and cheese was sold in the shop next door as well.
     This was a fun party and well worth considering an annual repeat, but my sense is that we should try to turn it into a fundraising opportunity as well. Any suggestions will be welcome!

Here comes trouble! Jenine, Carol and Amina partying it up

Greg and Debbie show how to drink port

Paul in jovial mood with the Vinks

The star of the night ... with Jenine! Third bottle from the left is the Cape White port

Carol and Nic share a moment

Cheesy moment ... Steve and Greg buying cheese at the Cheese Gourmet

     Of course fun is not all that we do and on Monday, to celebrate Nelson Mandela's birthday, New Dawn made its presence felt at the Radio2000/Channel Africa event at Joubert Park.
     Linda and I dropped in just in time to hear Steve speak on behalf of the club (many thanks once again, Steve!)
     There was a great crowd and for once the park looked clean and tidy, as a big clean-up had been arranged before blankets and food was handed out This included 100 blankets from New Dawn.

Well represented at Joubert Park and dressed up to face the cold!

The New Dawn "Madiba" banner was prominent next to the blankets that Steve collected for us from Sesli

   Interestingly enough, on the way out Linda and I walked round the front of the Johannesburg Art Gallery building. Despite being closed on a Monday, a friendly staffer opened the security gate for us and we were able to go and have a quick look at paintings that I haven't seen for many years, like Picasso's Head of a Harlequin and the superb Gerard Sekoto collection.
     The speaker last week was again brilliant. Dr Jerome Loveland is one of the leading lights in Surgeons for Little Lives, a charity set up by state surgeons to perform sometimes impossible seeming operations on kids from families and communities who otherwise would never be able to afford it. Their slogan is understandably: For little people who need big operations.
     They perform 350-400 operations a month in often trying circumstances.
     It came as no surprise that he had Jenine in tears telling stories about the incredible work they've done.
     The speaker this week is Dr Benny Obayi, the national organizational oversight and monitoring co-ordinator of Child Welfare South Africa. He will be speaking on child welfare and trafficking.
     The following week will be a business meeting and a chance to catch up a bit after a hectic start to the year.
     Dates to diarise: Wednesday, 3 August is polling day, so there will be no meeting. The DG visits us on 17 August, the Club Assembly will be on 27 August and the Golf Day is on 30 September.
     A Thought for the Week: The following poem was given to me on one of my birthday cards and bears repeating. It is by Wendell Berry (1934-) and is titled The Peace of Wild Things:
     When despair for the world grows in me
     and I wake in the night at the least sound
     in fear of what my life or my children's lives may be,
     I go and lie down where the wood drake
     rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
     I come into the peace of wild things
     who do not tax their lives with forethought
     of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
     And I feel above me the day-blind stars
     waiting with their light. For a time
     I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.