Sorry about the saturation of penguins, but Mouse simply can't get enough. These are the last penguins for awhile, posted for her mom. Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Mouse and her mom have been enjoying a lovely beach vacation, which last night included a luau with an open bar and over the course of week featured four different occasions of seeing whales from our window. Wheeeee! More news about the lovely sea and all its spiritual fuel next week.

Also, don't forget to enter the Good Mouse, Bad Mouse and Paperwink giveaway if you haven't already--this is the last day, and I will announce the winner on Monday. 

Have a fantastic weekend!

A few more African penguins to get you through the week:


Xo, Mouse.

Dear Michelle: Hell Yes! I love the new hair.*

*And the long necklaces. And the dress. And the expression of goodwill and interest in your fellow person. Swoon, swoon.

(From here, where they also have more Michelle slideshow.)

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, just outside of Cape Town, South Africa. Did you know that the Baobab tree* is the world's largest succulent? It also has hordes of guinea fowl roaming the perfect, astroturf-green lawns. It was lovely lovely and Mouse spent awhile laying down in the grass.

*Not pictured. I don't have a wide-angle lens and couldn't get it all in one picture.

South African houses:
High official's house, off the Company Garden, downtown Cape Town.
Thatched-roof cottage, Cape Flats.
"Studland," beachfront home, Simonstown.
Apartments, edge of District Six, Cape Town.
Unofficial homes, Crossroads Township.

The theme of today's South Africa photos: wherever you go, there you are. Here is a shuttered old movie theater called the Bijou. Having done many road trips through the American heartland, this struck Mouse as familiar. (Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa)
This building is called "Balmoral," which is the name of one of the streets on Mouse's preferred route to the grocery store in Chicago. (Muizenberg, South Africa)
This is a building in the colors of Mouse's kitchen, in front of which we find the sort of car in which Mouse was driven around by her babysitter during one long, hot summer when she was very small. (Long Street, Cape Town, South Africa)
And the reminder that home is out there, somewhere. (Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa)