My Slice of Heaven

-A view of my slice of heaven-

Maybe it's when your laid back watching the sun set whilst cruising on a 100 million dollar white yacht  and you are listening to some soft jazz and enjoying a 21 year old bottle of Glenfiddich as you let the ocean breeze take you away, Or maybe it's standing atop the lion mountains of South Africa and feeling like the king of the world for a moment, or maybe it's simply sitting at your favorite restaurant, downing a tall glass of milkshake coupled with that blueberry cake that always seems  to melt in your mouth, or maybe just like me it is simply being at home, because home is just so beautiful, calm, warm and yes homely .. wherever it is we all have that place we call...  '' My Slice of Heaven"

So let me begin by saying. Its been more than a year with my 600D. We've grown together and we've understood each other better. We now make better pictures and from that last post of "the golden beauties'' i now have quite the  collection  of photos that I would love to share.So lets start with crossing quite the number of bridges, going past rice fields and driving on roads that make you dizzy because of how much they wind and finally going  through the Mt Kenya forest and finally getting yourself to Meru. That one place I call home as well as my slice of heaven and here is why....

-The journey across the rice fields in Mwea, en route to Meru-

-The journey across the Mt Kenya forest, en-route to Meru -

- The sunrise looks this amazing in Meru-

-The days are even more amazing with the clear blue skies-

-I cant still believe I grew up here! It's so beautiful-

- And as the day winds by you simply can't ignore the beauty and yes the symmetry-

-And then you finally get to chase the sunsets-

-And the chase on most occasions ends with beautiful results-

Well that's all from me and my slice of heaven. I hope you all enjoyed the virtual trip and for the video check out My Slice of Heaven

The Golden beauties

     

 So as quoted "my undoubted love for cooking" begins with this post about the golden beauties; this tasty, fluffy, tantalizing Mandazi's.
Well back in the day there was no better way to wake up on a Saturday morning than to the smell of Mandazis getting fried up in the kitchen, some nice warm tea with milk and of course the cartoon shows like Winnie the pooh, Sonic the hedge hog and my all time favorite, Tom and Jerry.
With that said, lets fast forward to today where I'm all grown up and with a little bit of skill on how to prepare them. Take some flour, a mixing bowl, eggs, milk, sugar,lemon, magerine and baking powder and hope that my recipe works for you.

 We will start with measuring 3 cups of flour onto a mixing bowl, and don't worry, it's not a must mixing bowls be silver. Glass and plastic also works as well.

 Then to spice up your mandazi take a unripe lemon and grate its outer skin onto the flour. For this step you can use Iliki, Cinnamon or perhaps let your imagination run wild with Tea Masala or any other spice you would prefer. ( I personally love lemon) 

 Crack up your eggs

 Toss them into the mixing bowl with your flour and lemon

 Then add your Sugar, Baking powder, Margarine and soften it all with some milk as you knead it into dough

Then roll the dough out  and spin it into a ball and cover with a wet cloth or alternatively put it in a plastic bag and toss it in the fridge

After an hour or so roll out the dough again , cut it into your favourite shapes, then fry up your shaped mandazis and there you have it.

These are the mandazis when done and 

If you would want proof of how good they actually are ask Eva, her taste not only runs supreme in fashion (Eva in me) but she also enjoys good food!

                                     For the video please check out The Golden beauties. 

A beautiful kind of calm

-10th May 2015-

It was on one of those fine Sunday afternoons, the kind that have you laid back on a couch listening to some good old country music, the likes of Kenny Rodgers as you wait for that sundowner and of course brace yourself for Monday morning. I mean the hustle to wake up early, the traffic and walking through town half asleep…..  I think you get the picture. So it’s in that bubble of laziness and dreading Monday that the colours from the garden outside caught my eye. Soft, subtle and all so serene. I mean those kind of colours that make a photographer pick his or her camera and go in for a closer look.

         So what did I see? what did I shoot? To everyone else it might just be flowers or trees or leaves but to me it was the calm side of nature. The beautiful kind of calm. Take it in and lets have a look…..

-the honey bees make is a most memorable kind of sweetness- 

-the kind of shot that makes you want to take in a deep breath-

-rosemary-

-they are simply a memory of biology back in high school-

-another memory of how it felt when we weren't tall enough to get to those mangoes-

-nature is beautiful and delicate-

-nothing says i love you more than a red rose-

and yes thank you for the love and the support everyone, i wish you all a brilliant and blessed week ahead and you can view the video on a beautiful kind of calm

Crowning love in the month of love

-21st Feb 2015-

February is the month of love. So how exactly does one crown love in the month of love? with a wedding of-course and it should definitely be followed by a honeymoon where its just him and her in paradise, lost in the bewilderment of love and irreplaceable happiness.......
Well lets not get carried away with the lovey dovey stuff here, rather lets see how my second shoot went and how well I froze those breath taking moments at Mr and Mrs Kaberias wedding(I know the groom. So no! I did not gate crush this wedding)
and with the kit lense which is a 18-55mm wide angle lense and a little more confidence with making adjustments on my camera, I began to tell a tale of a day all so special.

-I wouldn't have put it any better myself-

The first thing that caught my eye was this post cast on a wooden plaque that had a message that I wouldn't have put any better myself, indeed ...we are one. Then not far from the post was the beautiful wedding cake decorated with amazing African motifs and colours as well as a soft touch of flowers.

-the wedding cake-

Then there was the food and dessert of course. I will only post the dessert photo since my portions for the main course were .....ohhh well.... but don't blame me, the food was super amazing!

-the dessert... yummy!!!-

                               So after a hearty meal it was time to shake a leg, to feel the moment, to celebrate the most amazing of days.And by shake a leg I meant the couple and the rest of the crowd, I have two left feet so any time I am ever asked to dance I normally point at the camera and go like.... I'm taking photos.. Anyway lets see how the couple dazzled the crowd with their moves! 

 -she definitely had fun dancing-



- and he definitely also had fun pulling off his moves-

The ceremony carried on with more amazing moments, moments that the couple will cherish for a lifetime and to crown it all they cut their wedding cake and popped the champagne bottle and made a toast to a happily ever after.

-live, love, laugh-

And there you have it... Its a wrap and congratulations to Mr&Mrs Kaberia, may God bless your union abundantly.

       -Mr&Mrs Kaberia

       
And for the video go to:crowning love in the month of love 

                            

My First Shoot

8thFeb 2015  -instameet-

It so happens that on Feb the 8th Siegmund (he is and has been a photographer for a while now) gives me a heads up that there was an Insta-meet, and having purchased my Canon 600D the week before,I couldn't resist taking it out for a try.Well the controls were mind boggling to say the least, I was used to shooting with my XPeria Z which you literally just had to point and snap and now there was aperture,shutter speed and ISO that i had to deal with. Of course I would have taken the easy way out and turned camera to the Auto mode but no, I was a tad bit too ambitious.
Having juggled with the adjustments for quite a while, and also having missed quite a number of amazing moments I still did manage to take a few shots that I am proud of and here they are.

-architecture is music frozen in time-

-sometimes there angles that just need time to sink in-

-stand tall so that even in the darkest of days you can find the sunlight-

                         

-its all about height-

-the six-eighty hotels busks in the glory of the afternoon sun-

                       

-teleposta towers famous for the johnny walker advert that hangs from it-

     -this shot feels like it's straight out of a movie scene-

   -man down... just one of those daring poses people decide to pull off in the middle of the road-

                           -masks don't hide who we are they create who we are- 

For the video of my first shoot go to:    My first Shoot