Snippets of news from Liz at Lancaster

Posted on 27 December 202421 December 2024

Liz at Lancaster Guesthouse: A welcoming peaceful oasis in a bustling city

Eleven years ago we held a celebration for a 90th birthday of a guest with Scottish heritage. His daughters arranged for a piper to lead Harry and his wife from their room to the breakfast patio. The sounds of Scotland the Brave rang across the property. Truly memorable. And how privileged are we, eleven years later, to have hosted his now widow’s 90th birthday with all her family around including her great grandson on her lap. It is occasions like this that we treasure.

Every week or so, Hutton Motors, a petrol station near Liz at Lancaster, chalks up aphorisms and sayings on a blackboard. This one rang particularly true for all at Liz at Lancaster.

Along with the recent minor refurbs and tweaks, came a tidying up of Liz at Lancaster Awards on the wall behind Liz’s desk in the office. This is but another way of showing how one has to ‘take the stairs”!

Some spring refreshment: repainting; giving away the large heavy arm chairs and a big (but empty!) TV cabinet; shifting furniture around to make for a less cluttered “airier’ space; and some recurating of artwork. And we especially love the Houtlander coffee table

We have been endorsed by Birdlife South Africa as a birding establishment. A Crested Barbet found our nesting log and spent over a week clearing the sisal from the log, in preparation for breeding. Here an inquistive Glossy Starling takes a look before being chased off by the watchful home-owner. There was also a brief visit from a Lesser Honey Guide (they parasatize Crested Barbet nests). Hopefully she was not inside long enough to lay her egg/s.

And to end a glorious warm early summer day – a dramatic sky ablaze with lavender blue and fiery orange.

All guests agree that Joburg has the world’s best climate. Sublime still summer evenings – deliciously cool after sunny days. Nothing to beat sitting outside listening to the night calls of Dikkops (now called Thick Knees) and the occasional fruit bat.

Thank you to all those who have made our work-lives so worthwhile over the last three decades!