Dakota

Yes, as 'weird and passionate' the hosts may be: Soekershof is the greatest adventure I have ever experienced. worthwhile to take a trip to south Africa; via Atlanta (American Airlines) to Cape town and from there less than 2 hrs in a rental car. The website of soekershof is also outstanding. Next year I'm going again.

John Hooters

Soekershof is the best maze we've ever been in.
Especially the 'weird' objects and all these stories.......
Not to forget the different succulent gardens and the amzing philosophers garden. It's a discovery of life in South Africa.

Ann

Dear John and Ann - It's lovely to hear from two who have been there. Are you related? I shall go through the Soekershof website with a fine tooth comb on your recommendation, and contemplate a visit, though seventeen hours on an airplane makes me cramp into a fetal position just thinking about it.

Many thanks

Dakota

Hi,
You have an interesting website. One of our previous visitors e-mailed me that Soekershof turned up in Dakota. I'm one of those "weird but passionate hosts" of Soekershof and really it's worthwhile the trip as an increasing number of Northamerican visitors experiences. We love it!!
We also do a bit of magic and yes, visitors have to fulfill a quest in the Klaas Voogds Maze. It seems a bit morbide to search for the last remains of a legendary personality but don't worry, we have nicely cemented the flattened (by an elephant) body of Klaas. Anyway if you're here you definatily have a good laugh about it.

Dear Herman,

It's simply aMAZing that you heard about my mention of Soekershof via email, and not googling (do folk google in South Africa?) Ahhhh, I am flooded by appreciative feelings for the Cybermaze.

I now take back my shallow contention that a maze is only a game. It seems like Soekershof is a place that generates creation and co-creation in multiple, complex, fanciful, delightful, hilarious ways; in my opinion, the best kind of spiritual experience. A pilgrimage is in order.

I shall picture you in your spectacular, but understated, cactus costume. Thanks so much for touching down. D

Hi D.

This is growing into quite a correspondence and I like it.
First of all: you are very welcome but make an appointment first so me and Yvonne will take all the time for you.
But there is a weird (funny) story I want to tell you; not without a reason. Every time when a visitor uses the word 'shit' we tell him the story about the hypnotist which recently performed in the community center in Klaas Voogds, the area where Soekershof is located. The proprietors had to close the place for 3 weeks after this performance. What happened? The hypnotist was swinging his watch in front of his ordeance (it was full house, most of the people were standing). Suddenly the chain broke and the watch broke into a 100 pieces. "Shit", said the hypnotist.
What I want to tell you is this: a maze is also interactive.
When a visitor uses that other 4-letter word which starts with an F we tell a variation of the same story. "Have you heard of that baby-boom in Klaas Voogds, some years ago"......

Merry greetings,

Herman
(& Yvonne)

Ahhhh... such a fertile field for creation.

See if you can get to my entry today where you are again featured.

Merrily as well D

Hi,

Yes, Klaas Voogds is very inspiring and, (considering that 10 to 20 percent of the coloured people in a large part of the Western Cape have his blood) very fertile indeed........
And, yes, I've seen your today's contribution and I'm getting to like you more and more. Keep on doing the writing. I really like it. I don't have many favorites on my computer but yours is bookmarked from now on.

And we all in Klaas Voogds are still merry ...

Herman

Dear Herman-
I consider it a great honor to be bookmarked. I will continue to write, and you must continue to propagate succulents and the multiple merry myths and manifestations of Klaas Voogds.

Who made those hats? D

Good morning Dakota,

The 'hats' are made by a great photographic manipulator. Her name is Inez Lenders and she lives in Nijmegen in The Netherlands. You find her e-mail adress at the bottom of our homepage (http://soekershof.com).
You should see our solar umbrellas ...........

Merry as always,

Herman

Dear Herman -

I looked up Inez, perused her work, and wondered just where her three dimensional photographic sculptures could be found. This is the long retired costume designer in me. I pictured Inez, scissors in hand, cutting up cloth onto which she had xeroxed different dimensions of cacti, then sewing them together and plumping them out with cotton batting. How concrete can a girl be?

NOOOWWW I get it. Inez visited you, photographed Soekershof, went home, and sat in front of her adobe photoshop with all those options to cut and paste and crop and color, and made flat little photo "hats" for your flat little photographed faces. Too bad. Have you thought about hiring at-home knitters to duplicate them. They would sell like hotcakes, especially here in the colder climes.

I had lots of fun searching for stuffed photos.

Merrily, merrily D

Good day Dakota,

First of all the climate here is too warm for such constumes. But the idea is nice, especially for Halloween (only in North America I believe) and carnaval in the South of The Netherlands.
Inez hardy works with photoshop. She is usually working with scissors making 'cuts' which she 'pastes' together. In fact these are real 'hand-crafted' photo-assemblings. You should see the work Inez exhibits in galleries etc. etc.. She is manipulating the world in a manor George Bush jr. can only dream of............

Merry, very merry greetings,

Herman

Dear Herman,

Manipulating the world with art is indeed a worthy endeavor - I had a little trouble finding the creme de la creme of Inez' work on the web, but I did the best I could.

I'm going away to an unplugged place for the weekend, so don't give up on me.

Merrily, Verily D

Merrily, Verily Dakota,

Herman does not give up that easy as you might have guessed in the meantime. This morning I looked into your 'personal details' and my idea of how you look like, more or less, complies, also more or less, with reality (as far as I could see 'through it'. Look also into your other mailbox.

After a long period of drought it just started to rain aigain here in Klaas Voogds; making the place even more 'fertile' as it already is.

Merry as always,

Herman

Dear Herman -

You have been very patient indeed. I hope that you are most succulent from all the rain there in Klaas Voogds. Maybe rain hats,--- we could print them on rubber. Check with Inez.

Thank you for her wonderful self portrait. I published it as best I could (without passing it off as my own).

My own self portrait, was not labor intensive. It involved nothing more than finding the right place to stand. It was recently pointed out to me, however, that I look a little fragmented.

Merrily fragmented, I hope

Dakota