Bangkok street at around midnight near Soi Cowboy.
F2.2, ISO 2500, SS 1/15th sec – we were walking at midnight after a few beers and I didn’t realize at the time that my Canon 6D could have handled ISO 6000 giving me a faster SS / more clarity.
Tag Archives: mother
Tanya
“Sadness flies away on the wings of time” ~ Jean de La Fontaine
Today (16 August 2015) is Tanya Vermeulen De Vries‘s birthday. She is a kind caring soul who is the Mother of all Mother’s. Highly capable in the home and at work, and now resident overseas. She has had to carry the unbearable burden of an incomprehensible loss, and I sincerely hope that today and from hereon she is blessed tremendously – and will now start to reap the benefits of her goodness.
This photo was called “Another Blessing”. I made some cosmetic changes this morning and version 2 is called “Tanya”.
Canon South Africa 550D, 5 sec, ISO 100, F22 –Sigma South Africa 10-20
5 Star Durban SA-People – for South Africans in South Africa and expats I Love Durban Durban2022
Never Give Up
“Never ever give up; be strong, very strong” – Margaret Harvard
My mother Margaret shared a load of wisdom with me over the years and what she said above was stated more fiercely in her last few months of living.
“Mom, all your effort with me over the years is still paying off; I made it into the Saturday newspaper with a few photos Lol 🙂 ;). I love you lots, thank you” ~ Andy
That quiet place at the bottom of the garden
“Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner.
All is well. Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!” ~ Unknown
“Margaret Rose Harvard, You carried me for months and then brought me kicking into this world, tenderly held my screaming face and wiped the little sweet tears.
Fed my hungry and drooling mouth, and provided that first bright red toy. Fetched me from school, took me home to a healthy meal and warm cosy bed. We had little to begin but worked our way up.
You enriched my relationships with others and kept me on the straight and narrow at times, but allowed me to learn much needed hard lessons to grow. You led by example and so many things suffered by you were later encountered by me, your loving son; I was thus armed and ready to face them. My beautiful mother had shown me how: she had suffered for me.
When death for you was a certainty, you gave the final lesson of thousands whilst on this earth. You never ever gave up but did rest at times. You confounded your critics and disarmed them completely. You looked death in the eyes with strength and challenged it.
Then, knowing for sure that the time had come, you embraced death with great confidence and surety. If any person has ever departed this world in such an elegant and composed manner, then it is you. The single tear you shed before your final breath was surely the frustration that you had not done just that little bit more to help the many people you had always so unselfishly served; for you truly lived your life fully in the last few years and given so much of yourself.
You used your abilities so well that it was often to your detriment. That tear no doubt also carried the worry that your loved ones would not cope fully without you being there.
However, you certainly ensured in the last months that your son at least was in safe hands.
To say you are one in a million is an injustice; you are truly unique and a guiding beacon of hope and unconditional love to all living beings.
I have taken your last advice, and I speak to you more now than before. That quiet place at the bottom of the garden, as you said it would be, is serene and a wonderful place for us to catch-up and laugh about the days gone by. This will always be ours and will never weaken or diminish.
You have taught and prepared your son so well, and he will keep on passing your love and wisdom around.
You were and always are right!” ~ Andy
PS: Mom as you would have recently seen; you’ve also blessed me with some really wicked (wonderful) photographic skills, on camera and off – I love you deeply.
Happy birthday Mom
Dear Mom,
I have just spent the last three hours preparing your birthday presents. They are photos of the Grand Bazaar and a look across Sultan Ahmet Park in Fetih, Istanbul.
The photo of the park, shown first, was not an easy exercise. I had to wake up before sunrise, run a kilometre to the edge of the park, set-up the tripod, change the camera settings and then shoot.
A pack of semi-wild dogs were running around madly and my only companion in the whole park was a Japanese photographer about 300 metres away.
My HDR photography blending skills are much better than when you saw me trying so hard at the hospital but failing so brilliantly. However, I still seem to pick up the usual defects although Photoshop does help somewhat.
“Margaret Rose Harvard, You carried me for months and then brought me kicking into this world, tenderly held my screaming face and wiped the little sweet tears.
Fed my hungry and drooling mouth, and provided that first bright red toy. Fetched me from school, took me home to a healthy meal and warm cosy bed. We had little to begin but worked our way up.
You enriched my relationships with others and kept me on the straight and narrow at times, but allowed me to learn much needed hard lessons to grow. You led by example and so many things suffered by you were later encountered by me, your loving son; I was thus armed and ready to face them. My beautiful mother had shown me how: she had suffered for me.
When death for you was a certainty, you gave the final lesson of thousands whilst on this earth. You never ever gave up but did rest at times. You confounded your critics and disarmed them completely. You looked death in the eyes with strength and challenged it.
Then, knowing for sure that the time had come, you embraced death with great confidence and surety. If any person has ever departed this world in such an elegant and composed manner, then it is you. The single tear you shed before your final breath was surely the frustration that you had not done just that little bit more to help the many people you had always so unselfishly served; for you truly lived your life fully in the last few years and given so much of yourself.
You used your abilities so well that it was often to your detriment. That tear no doubt also carried the worry that your loved ones would not cope fully without you being there.
However, you certainly ensured in the last months that your son at least was in safe hands.
To say you are one in a million is an injustice; you are truly unique and a guiding beacon of hope and unconditional love to all living beings.
I have taken your last advice, and I speak to you more now than before. That quiet place at the bottom of the garden, as you said it would be, is serene and a wonderful place for us to catch-up and laugh about the days gone by. This will always be ours and will never weaken or diminish.
You have taught and prepared your son so well, and he will keep on passing your love and wisdom around.
You were and always are right!
Happy birthday, your loving son, always” ~ Andy
The loving warrior is beautiful
An old photo of my mother, a loving warrior. True inner and outer beauty.
Tribute to a loving warrior 2
Another tribute to my mother, a loving warrior, following a previous post. She continues to care for the animals she so loves. This commemorative plaque is at Kloof SPCA, kennel 54.
Tribute to a loving warrior
A tribute to my mother, a loving warrior, below:
“Margaret Rose Harvard, You carried me for months and then brought me kicking into this world, tenderly held my screaming face and wiped the little sweet tears.
Fed my hungry and drooling mouth, and provided that first bright red toy. Fetched me from school, took me home to a healthy meal and warm cosy bed. We had little to begin but worked our way up.
You enriched my relationships with others and kept me on the straight and narrow at times, but allowed me to learn much needed hard lessons to grow. You led by example and so many things suffered by you were later encountered by me, your loving son; I was thus armed and ready to face them. My beautiful mother had shown me how: she had suffered for me.
When death for you was a certainty, you gave the final lesson of thousands whilst on this earth. You never ever gave up but did rest at times. You confounded your critics and disarmed them completely. You looked death in the eyes with strength and challenged it.
Then, knowing for sure that the time had come, you embraced death with great confidence and surety. If any person has ever departed this world in such an elegant and composed manner, then it is you. The single tear you shed before your final breath was surely the frustration that you had not done just that little bit more to help the many people you had always so unselfishly served; for you truly lived your life fully in the last few years and given so much of yourself.
You used your abilities so well that it was often to your detriment. That tear no doubt also carried the worry that your loved ones would not cope fully without you being there.
However, you certainly ensured in the last months that your son at least was in safe hands.
To say you are one in a million is an injustice; you are truly unique and a guiding beacon of hope and unconditional love to all living beings.
I have taken your last advice, and I speak to you more now than before. That quiet place at the bottom of the garden, as you said it would be, is serene and a wonderful place for us to catch-up and laugh about the days gone by. This will always be ours and will never weaken or diminish.
You have taught and prepared your son so well, and he will keep on passing your love and wisdom around.
You were and always are right!
Happy Mother’s day, your loving son always” ~ Andy
Isipingo Mariamman Temple
We woke up early on Saturday the 30th of March and the ladies set about preparing a large sumptuous pot of vegetable biryani.
At about 11:15 we arrived at the Isipingo Mariamman Temple and attended to prayers before returning to the vehicle to feed approximately seventy members of the public (the pot emptied quickly and I have already threatened to return next year with a pot at least twice the size).
Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside the temple but I will try and convince the guardians there to let me in one day to take some “free” photos for their use and mine (on this blog only).
The inside of the temple grounds and prayer building is beautiful and well worth a visit.
Ulwazi provides the following information:
“The celebration of Easter is generally associated and related to the people of Christian faith, however in Durban with our mixed cultures of diversity, Easter also marks an important period for local Durban Hindus. It is referred to as an annual pilgrimage and brings hundreds of Hindus together to pay homage to the deity Goddess Mariamman at the Isipingo Mariamman Temple on the south of Durban or the Mount Edgecombe Temple in the North of Durban as tradition.
The tradition of paying homage to the temple during the Easter period was started by the Indian indentured labourers who had the opportunity to visit the temple when their white sugar cane plantation owners went overseas during the Easter holidays.
The other reasoning is that at this time Hindus pay tribute and gratitude to the Goddess for good health and prosperity. It is believed that the goddess blessed and healed sick people in South India during drought and an outbreak of measles, the visit to the temple also co-relates to the porridge prayer festivals done at home, it is the same deity that is worshipped during the porridge prayer festival.
It is only during Easter these temples are open to the public and it is more a tradition that was passed on from generation to generation. The Mariamman Temple in Isipingo rail was a private owned temple built by Mr Narainsamy in the early 1860s. It is said to be built over a puthu or a mount that is believed to be a home of a sacred snake goddess that is a form of Mother Mariamman. For Hindus, forming a temple on these sites would be more auspicious.
The temple at Isipingo was taken over by Narainsamy’s wife and son when he died in 1914. The festival was held over the Easter weekend and drew around 13,000 Indian labourers by train only. They would offer chickens to sacrifice, money, fruits, milk and eggs to the puthu. They would also bath the idol of Mariamman in the temple and perform hourly prayers. The temple use to be open for 24 hours at that time. The same rituals applied to the temple in Mount Edgecombe which was built by Mr Kistappa Reddy who came to Durban as an indentured labourer.
The trend still exists and every year in Durban presently, during Easter Hindus make a trip to the Isipingo temple to pay tribute and worship Mother Mariamman. The worshippers buy fruit and milk and little idols that represent a male or female and place them in a basket.
The idols are used to ask the goddess for good health. Some devotees offer saris, eggs or chickens to sacrifice in addition. The people that offer chickens have it turned around them and thrown onto the temple roof, where it is later sacrificed and the blood offered to Mariamman to appease her. They go around the temple three times and join a line that leads into the temple.
Before they enter the temple they offer the decorated puthu the milk and proceed into the temple to perform their final worship. The sacred cobra, a form of the Mariamman is said to be inside the mount and does not reveal its presence and the person that sights the cobra if it comes out, is said to be fortunate.
The temple environment is buzzing around this time and there are people who cook food and feed on the temple parking premises as a means of charity. There are also now stalls at the temple with people walking around and shopping for both clothing and edible items”.
A Mother’s Love
“A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path” ~ Agatha Christie, The Hound of Death
Cats, dogs and other animals were loved in the same way.
Margaret Harvard 3 August 1949 – 6 February 2013
Andrew Harvard Photography 