It always feels great to catch up with an old friend!

Years ago, 25 years in fact, George and I were first decorating our very new treehouses and we were in a bit of a fix about what to do about the bedside lamps. We had beautiful delicately carved red cedar beds and side tables, and the option of any standard run of the mill lighting just wasn’t going to cut it.

In walks Marc Khalifa, a terrific local glass blower who we had previously asked to make the oil lamps to fit into Ralf Driessen’s specially designed blacksmithed brackets of circles and swirls framing the cedar surround of the sunken spas. So, we asked Marc to make the wonderful blown glass lampshades for the bedsides, with special fittings that allow us to dismantle them to clean and replace the bulbs, when needed. It was a brilliant idea!

We still have all those lamps. All of which were done in stunning colours to match each of our luxury treehouse cabin themes. I can still tell the story as if it was yesterday… with a smile on my face.

Well yesterday, after many years… Marc arrived with some examples of his latest creations and we convinced him to let us feature it in a grand display at Secrets Art Gallery. The magnificent glass works reflect beautifully displayed on our glass shelves. They have certainly created a great deal of interest, and many of our treehouse guests and Dining on the Deck visitors are grabbing a wonderful memento of their stay to take home.

One particular set of three vases was called the Midnight Series. This he tells me, was represented at an exhibition at Uluru. These along with others such as the Earth Series, Morning and Earth and Sky are really quite magical.

It has certainly been a while since George and I had caught up with Marc and we were delighted to see him now as all those 25 years ago. In fact, catching up with so many great people is one of the big reasons we love Secrets on the Lake. Whether talking to new people or to those who have been coming for 20 years and more…