And then there was 5

Ernest

Today started much like it did a year ago, rainy and misty but I was not doing the same same mistake as last year and not take any water or be prepared for the late sun on this year's Annual Orchid Count. Ernest joined us this year because last year we nearly stepped onto a Night Jar nest, and Ernest has been keen on getting some Night Jar breeding photographs. You can see he was well prepared to his mid sized lens.

Cherry Spot Moth Caterpillar

About 25 of us counters spread out in a line about 10 paces apart and started walking along the Sugarbush Ridge from the Krugersdorp side towards the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens, then back towards Krugersdorp. We looped back and forth until we cover just about the whole area. We flushed out over 20 Night Jars much to Ernest's delight but never came across any Night Jar nests. Sorry Ernest, they were too well camouflaged. We also saw many other birds and lots of crawling creatures including a young male Mountain Reed buck. Like the orchid that we were seeking, they too endangered. It was good to see them this side of the ridge during the day. 

Albertina Sisulu Orchid

After walking and walking and walking, we finally came upon our first orchid of the day. And soon afterwards in quick succession we found 4 more of these critically endangered orchids. Sadly after walking over 7 km in the veld, we ONLY found 5 Albertina  Sisulu Orchids. With sore feet, sagging shoulders, and my head down, we could only listen to Tony say to us, "it must have been the late rains". Not much is known about these extremely rare orchids so whatever the reason, I can't help myself, and feel down that the last of these are dwindling from 8 last year to a handful today. Only 5, it hurts thinking about it!

Flap Neck Chameleon

Fledging

Keep watching this space as the eaglets are about to fledge. Officially we have formed the Sugarbush Ridges Coalition, a group representing the Black Eagles Project, the Botanical Society of South Africa, the Proteadal Conservation Association, and the Wild Orchids of South Africa. Here we have left to right, Bill from WOSA; Gerhard from the Black Eagles; Andrew from SANBI and Proteadal; Johann from BotSoc; Dawid the videographer and director; and Ernest from Black Eagles and photographer. Of course missing from the photograph is me from Proteadal who took this photo and Belinda from Proteadal who is away for personal reasons.

Anyway we have a new project in the pipeline so watch this space as we historically take flight.

Ernest Kantrel

The branding of our offices continue as our signage department reaches our building today with the glass décor and transforms our fishbowls into a brand. Here are Ernest and Kantrel from branding plying their craft.

It is so Huge!

With the year about to run out of days, eKayaMedia decided to have their year-end function at the Berlin Pub and Restaurant in Ruimsig. Now this establishment specialises in German cuisine and is renowned as the best eisbeins in Johannesburg.

The day was sweltering but that did not stop us from ordering eisbeins and I can now vouch that the eisbein is one of the best I have ever had. The top photo is of Johan and the bottom one is of Denise, both are about to tuck into their huge eisbein. The rest of the photos can be found in my Facebook album Wow it is so HUGE!

3000th Post

Here are my team mates at eKayaMedia gathered together to wish me all the best on my 3000th post. In the front row, left to right is myself Jerome, Kabelo, Noma, Paballo, Sandra, Calvin, Des, and Ernest. At back is Johan, Ilana, Mpho, Ella, Xolani, Mkuseli, Philip, Bridget, Lawrence, Wayne, Viandre, and Jacques. Below are the three special children Rob, Velile, and Gillis, who couldn't make the group photo. Thank you everyone who participated in this 3000th blog post.

Wow to reach 3000 posts on this blog has been something of a ride. What do you expect with all ups and downs of over eight years of a blog post per day till now? It’s nostalgic looking back through all my posts. Some bring a smile to my face, and some make my eyes all teary, but such are these 2999 memories woven into the fabric of what I call a sorry excuse of my life. And now I have one more which takes it up to 3000.

Every one of these 3000 moments are precious to me even the broken pieces when my days were dark as the light, the joy of life just overwhelms everything else. Someone once said that a photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.

Please feel free to browse through all my life posts, right back to the start in January 2007. Yes one day I’ll look back on all this and smile because it was life and I decided to live it.

Be Bold Ernest

It looks like I skipped a few people in the Signage department of eKayaMedia. Take Ernest for example who is shown above, he is a Signage Technician. The name Ernest is derived from the Germanic word meaning bold, vigorous, or resolute.

Be bold Ernest, or italic but never regular.

Tree of Creativity

Here at eKayaMedia we don't like having a bland office environment, not while our offices sit in the lush wildlife garden of Bosasa's Mogale Business Park.

So given licence to fashion our own office space, we created and a tree grew, joining all what we do in the digital realm to the soul of creating something new. Here are Viandre and Ernest applying our Phase One to the bare brown cupboards all the while our graphic designer Ella continues to inspire.

Our theme grew into the Tree of Creativity, it is here among its branches that we allow our imagination flourish and bring new life to Bosasa's New Media. As CS Lewis once said "You never too old to set another goal or to dream new dreams".