Prince Albert is preparing for visitors.  Just like I did a couple of days ago when I heard that my playmate, Jan, was coming to visit.  He scored major Brownie points (not that we have such a thing, of course!) by making the 4 hour motorbike trip to see me in my new environment.

It was great fun showing him all the nooks and crannies and finding some new ones too.  We also enjoyed our favourite haunts from our first here trip visit a month ago when we came found the perfect place for my writing retreat.

We had a delicious nostalgic breakfast at the Prince Albert Country Store. The Country Store was my very first stop in town when I arrived on Sunday and is absolutely famous for carrot cake! I have yet to sample this treat. I settled for the apple crumble with thick clotted cream. Yellow and yummy .. from Gay’s dairy, no doubt!

Fred welcomes one to the Prince Albert Country Store

I love all the antiques in the shop and the permanent fixture: an ancient basset hound, Fred, immortalized on the bin outside the store.  He even has a welcome mat shaped in his image.  Very loved, he is … As is all the merchandise in the store. I was exceptionally good.  I only made one purchase – a beautiful soft khaki- coloured broad- brimmed sun hat lined with a Sanderson linen type floral fabric which stole my heart. The range is called “Cinnamon” and is made by local ladies.

Colleen and William Penfold have a beautiful outside courtyard with a typical Prince Albert stone and cement dam/reservoir and luscious vegetable garden with herbs and the most spectacular granadilla hedge. A gracious garden they call it on the board out front. So one eats in a perfect garden with cutlery and crockery reminiscent of days of yore…. Sigh… What more could a romantic girl ask for?

The breakfast was scrumptious and the service friendly and personal. The home made bread was so fresh – it didn’t need to be toasted. Fortified, we ventured further down the main road. We were appalled to find that some of the black bands protesting fracking in the Karoo, tied around the giant trees lining the main road, had been cut during the night.

We spent some time retying the bands – lamenting human nature. I could hear David saying:” There has to be space for those who don’t agree too”. Sure… I know, but it was so clear that great time and effort has gone into decorating the trees and even some buildings with black ribbon bows and wreaths with touches of black.  Anti-fracking slogans are painted in white on the bands – some of them very witty.  It seemed to us that the town donned its mourning and protesting rags for the visitors who have started arriving for this weekend’s Prince Albert Art Festival.  Luckily the town of Prince   Albert has things well organized – we soon saw an official meticulously re-applying the decorations in time for all the visitors.