Ivor Markman

By Ivor Markman.

Jansenville is not one of those places you’d expect to find a creative artist - or so I thought. 
While on the approaches to the small rural Karoo town, the rumblings in my stomach grew stronger, indicating a need to restock my intestines. 
I really wasn’t in the mood for more biltong and droëwors, having already consumed a substantial amount. 
It was time to traverse the dusty streets in search of something appealing. 
Coming from  the Graaff-Reinet direction I turned right at the four-way stop, the only one in Jansenville, and checked out the buildings. 
A dusty building housing a butchery was spotted but that equated to biltong - not today, China. 
Then there was a hardware store - definitely no place to find food.
“Ah ha,” I thought as I spotted a building that looked like a hotel, but it turned out to contain the local municipal offices.
Then I looked at a small semi-detached cottage set lower on the edge of the street and was amazed to see rows of kettles hanging from the eaves above the stoep.
Better still was a sign reading “Copper Kettle Coffee Shop and Art Gallery”.
“Are you open?” I called to a man in the garden. After replying in the affirmative I trotted down the garden steps and was instantly transferred to another world.
Staring at me on the cement banister were the remains of what had once been a pair of shoes.
Growing out the shoes were some attractive and happy looking succulents.
Now I know Jansenville is in a low rainfall area, but first prize needs to be awarded for the most imaginative garden feature I have seen for a long time.
“Those are my shoes I used to wear,” said Neels van Tonder, the man I had just spoken to.
“They’re a bit old now and the sun and the rain have ruined them.”
To me, the shoes appeared to have developed a mouth.
“Yes, it looks like teeth coming out,” laughed Neels.
As we chatted in the garden, Neels’ wife, Louise, came out the house. She was the artistic force behind the house’s unique decorations.

“Louise planted the succulents in the shoes,” said Neels.
My curiosity whetted, I asked Louise where she received her inspiration to create the decorative kettle effect.

“When we first came here we often walked in the veld,” said Louise.

“In those day I raised two orphaned lambs.

"We took them out to the veld in our 1956 Daimler and walked with the lambs through the veld so they could eat small bushes.

"It was then we saw these things,” she said.
“I found many of the kettles on the old rubbish dump.

"About 108 years ago, across the river, was an old English army camp. The oldest kettles were dug out from under those trees."I found about eight there. Also, the locals found out that I collect kettles and gave me some. 
“You know the people of today want modern stuff, they don't want these old things,” she said. 
Louise admitted she brought a few kettles with her when she moved to Jansenville from Bloemfontein three years ago. 
“But those kettles are inside because they are still in good condition,” she said. 
There were many different types of kettles hanging from the eaves and when the wind blows, it brings new meaning to the term “wind instruments”. 
“It makes a heck of a lot of noise,” said Louise. 
Another eye-catching feature in the garden is what can only be described as Jansenville's Christmas tree. 
The “tree” consists of the top portion of a fallen sisal plant stalk inserted into a large drum and packed securely with stones.