My Guest House Life – Fairview Homestead

Isolation -from hero to zero

The basic shopping has been done, the house has had a spring clean of note and at Fairview Homestead, we are ready for the 21-day lockdown. As we are going to be joined by two of our children and their families, one inevitably wonders about self-isolation in the case where one family member gets flu-like symptoms.

A very good article on self-isolation advice can be read here.

It is still strange to come down to my office in the morning and have no queries to answer. I have a dreadful feeling that the hospitality industry is not going to recover from this anytime soon. But we choose hope and not fear. Thank you for choosing us when you were looking for accommodation in the Garden Route in the past and please support us again once this is all over. Stay safe.

George – the home of Wonki Ware (Di Marshall Pottery)

When our daughter moved into her first flat the two of us went to the factory shop in York Street to find a few basic items in their little ‘reject’ room. She was sitting flat on the floor, sorting the Wonki Ware into little piles of four. Di Marshall happened to walk in and gave her an amused smile at which the 18 year old, not knowing she was speaking to THE Di Marshall, started telling her what amazing crockery this was – pointing out the artistic designs, beautiful colours and delicate, yet durable quality of the items.

One of their bestsellers is called the lace design. They make this plate by pressing real lace into the soft clay before the plate is fired in the oven. Then, as it is placed in the oven, the lace design burns off, leaving behind a ghostly pattern. They are manufactured from non porous clay and the glazes are non toxic and lead free ; chip proof, oven, microwave and dishwasher friendly.

Her tableware is also used by the Swedish and British Royal families. The business also have outlets in UK, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and Ireland . So there you are all the South Africans in London – go and look at the Wonki Ware in Harrods when you get homesick! You can also go to their website and order your items prior to coming to George. Address: 42 York St, George South, George, 6530.

Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 8.30 am to 5 pm.

e-mail: info@wonkiware.co.za | Tel: +27 (0)44 884 1883

Pair of woman's hands holding cutlery eating a fresh healthy raw spring salad with butternut pumpkin squash at a casual outdoor dining meal location

Woman hands holding vanilla bundt cake dessert with icing glaze topped with mixed berries raspberry blueberry blackberry

10 days to Christmas…

9 people sharing, 8 people asking, 7 agents phoning, 6 guests a-parking, 5 children swimming, 4 telephones ringing, 3 drop-ins knocking, 2 couples asking, 1 call for multitasking – and no golden eggs.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again…

You have to understand – as much as I hate the start of blaring ‘Jingle Bells, jingle bells,jingle bells’ rocking in my ears while I’m shopping for our daily bread, eggs, bacon, mushrooms… IN OCTOBER! As much, do I love the advent of Christmas.

I light my 4 candles in anticipation of the last candle – one on each Sunday and the last candle we light on Christmas eve. I hang an advent wreath on our front door, I use my navy blue cloth napkins with the golden stars that my children helped me to stencil on when they were small. There is always a small Christmas tree – often one concocted with thorn tree branches. In Namibia (where we lived for 13 years) this is quite a traditional Christmas tree – the thorns are perfect to hang the tree decorations from and I also find the thorn tree symbolic of the thorn wreath that was put on Christ’s head during the crucifixion.

Our friends in the northern hemisphere probably find it incomprehensible that we can have Christmas without snow, but yes that is our reality: Christmas day temperatures average about 27 degrees Celsius. Some people do the whole hot meal with turkey and gammon, others prefer to go the more sensible route of salads and cold meat or salads accompanied by meat grilled over the coals (a braai).

This year we will be spending Christmas on the Namibian coast, leaving Fairview in the capable hands of Thereasa. We will be accompanied by our two Namibian born children and their small families. Most of the time will be spent on the coast – a week in Walvis Bay where Desmond can windsurf to his heart’s content and a week in Swakopmund where the children can play in the rock pools and the parents can laze under umbrellas.

And on that note we would like to wish all our guests (and potential new guests) a blessed Christmas season.

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Why are we so adverse to bartering?

As a Guest House, I joined an accommodation bartering site called Swop and Stay. I love their website – the swops work on a point system (you do not have to stay with the establishment that you host) The automated swop process, once you have accepted the swop request, makes the process of gaining or losing points so much easier.

Swapping accommodation with fellow accommodation providers makes so much sense. Not only do we get to stay for free, but we also get to establish network opportunities and we get to learn from each other.

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The Fairview Homestead Garden

In July 2018, three days before my 60th birthday the green-fingered doctor became a patient. As I sat next to his bed in the intensive care unit, watching him fight for every breath, I knew that I had to do something about his garden.

I phoned a landscape designer, whom I knew he trusted, to come to Fairview and prune the roses, prune the trees, do whatever he thought necessary to ensure that the garden would be in shape for whenever Desmond would be discharged. Ten days in intensive care was followed by a six week recuperation period during which time he sat on the back porch, looking at his beloved garden and “gardening” by giving orders!

More than six cubic meters compost got worked into the soil, a new vegetable garden was planned, the raised beds built and the vegetables planted. Gradually he regained his strength and started physically gardening again. This summer I can honestly say that our garden has never looked as good – and let’s face it, it has been pretty awesome all along.

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Flowers from the garden

By guest blogger Anja de Klerk.

I have known the Benkensteins and their Fairview for my whole life (literally) and during a recent stay found myself creating a slightly excessive collection of arrangements from the garden of the beautiful and carefully constructed second ‘home’ , the wonderful Guest House that is Fairview.

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About blogging

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Before starting my guest house blog I had planned to start a blog where a few guest house owners could share stories and recipes, but it turned out that I was the only one who ever posted!

Because I blog regularly I changed to a blog-based site, where my blog posts form an integral part of my website content. I have kept the Blogspot blogging going even after the development of my new blog-based guest house website as it attracts a different readership. I am still humbled by the number of people who read my blog posts – my monthly unique visitors are a constant surprise to me.

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Guest House children

Our children were all three still in primary school when we moved into Fairview. Within months I received my first paying guest and our children had to learn a new set of rules: ask before you take fruit out of the fruit bowl, tell me when you finish the juice or milk, no sport equipment lying around, no loud music, no loud shouting and the one that drove them to distraction – no telephone calls on my dedicated guest house telephone number! This was prior mobile telephones and even though we had a private number too, their friends would phone on the guest house number and that would not be tolerated as their teenage calls could go on for hours.

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A winter garden

Even in the midst of winter we have green lawns and flowers to brighten the garden. It does look less luscious and green with many of the trees dropping their leaves, but there is still beauty to be enjoyed – the winter bulbs, Arum Lilies,Irises and camellias are out in full bloom. Local photographer, Cathe Pienaar took these lovely photos of our winter garden.

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New kids on the block

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Twenty-one years ago, just before we bought Fairview, we made an offer on another heritage property in George, but the owner decided to withdraw Whispering Oaks from the market. We were quite heartbroken, but then we found Fairview – and the rest is history…

I am happy to announce that our daughter Nelleke and her husband Michael just bought Whispering Oaks!

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