October - Sam Rogers

Sam's collaged books represent visual diaries and offer meditations on the passage of time. They relate to experiences of travel, loss, family and what it is that binds us together.

September Art - Marianne Braithwaite

Marianne lived for 6 years 100ks North East of Adelaide where she painted the dry, arid nature of the surroundings there. She exhibited in the Barossa Valley and the Murraylands until returning home to Thames NZ where she now paints the semi-tropical surroundings and enjoys being part of the larger artistic community. Marianne paints in acrylic, oil and pastel, but her main love is watercolour. She loves the magical progression and fluid nature of watercolours, which enable her to capture the mood of the world around her, especially the transient nature of cloud formations.

August Art Exhibition

Thames High School Students

This month Sola is pleased to hold an exhibition of work by students of Thames High School.

July's Art Exhibition

Jeanne-Marie

Jeanne-Marie is exhibiting during the month of July alongside the current exhibition of paintings by Heather Chesterman. Jeanne-Marie will be showing original watercolour illustrations from her cookbook French Cooking in New Zealand. Jeanne-Marie will be known to many who visit the Saturday Grahamstown market. She makes and sells French style crepes at her small stall outside Sola Cafe.

Sola's Expansion

We decided that Sola needed a bigger coffee machine to meet demand, especially on those incredibly busy Saturday morning Grahamstown Market days, so it is with much excitement that we have signed the lease on the retail space directly next to the cafe. The extension opened near the end of June.

The extra space has given customers more room and two more public toilets down the back so no more waiting in the queue to go to the loo! The new deli section will allow Clare to make available a takehome dinner selection, either frozen ready to heat or fresh with all the ingredients and instructions required to prepare a special meal at home for all to enjoy. She will also have available her market cheese and pesto range throughout the week in case you cannot make it to the market on the weekend.

Hot Topics

Fairtrade coffee? How many people have seen the doco "Black Gold"? This highlighted the issue of where our coffee is coming from and whether the growers are getting a fair price it. Let me reassure you that our coffee supplier Altezano pay fair prices for their green beans. Richard who heads the family business says their supplier has direct associations with growers. As most companies in NZ are buying small amounts in comparison to the huge companies like Nestle etc, they pay a premium for the beans, most times 30 - 40% more than the fixed fairtrade prices the growers get under contract with Fairtrade. So it was a relief to know that we are not contributing to the corrupt system that the big buyers have created with their huge buying powers.