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COME ON IN–THIS IS OPEN HOUSE!
With those words a radio program from my youth called ‘Open House’ started week after week. I remember nothing of it, I guess there was a visitor who then shared stories and favourite music. Anyway –...
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In need of TLC
I awake in the middle of the night, without reason, and gradually descend into an anxiety attack, something which happens to me much less often than it ought to. So I get up and write this. A visitor...
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OCTOBER FEST
A whirlwind dance, snapping away on Monday as the sun dropped low; an awareness all week that the true beauty of spring was now upon us; a longing to share the spirit of my garden in this mid-October...
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Part 1 COME LIVE WITH ME AND BE MY LOVE
This is the season above all other when the feel of “isn’t nature perfect, let’s just ignore the world and its worries and be outside” is dominant… Besides, I have other reasons to be thinking of this...
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Part 2 IN FOLLY RIPE IN REASON ROTTEN
Marlowe’s poem which formed the subject of my previous post might never have been as famous as it is, had not Sir Walter Raleigh – he of the tobacco and other taurobanding adventures – not written a...
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Part 3 DIE ROOI GEVAAR
“Die Rooi Gevaar”: Afrikaans for ‘The Red Danger’, the threat of communism taking over our beloved country, the refrain I grew up with. In fact, it was really ‘Die Swart Gevaar’ – the black danger –...
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WFW on BB
An experiment. I was going to ignore wildflower Wednesday this month. But a hawkweed stopped me in my tracks. Could this international weed be called a wildflower? I believe I have done so before on my...
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END OCTOBER=SUMMER ROSES
This ought to be a photo essay, or better still a detailed post telling all about the unusual and often historic roses in my gardens beginning to bloom with all their might now, but there simply is no...
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THE ROSE AND I – Part 1
Let me introduce you: Yours Truly – aged one year and possibly some days, posed with my birthday presents: one of those pyramids of ever smaller brightly-coloured do-nuts you pack onto a shaft and...
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THE ROSE AND I–Part 2
I begin this post with a picture from Gwen Fagan’s book Roses at the Cape of Good Hope. It is not a rose I have, but one I want; for Francois’s mother always remembered it fondly in her garden. And I...
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THE ROSE AND I – Part 3
As I write this, the house is ready for the arrival of Louis: cupboards cleared, and space for his furniture. By the time I publish it, he will be here. Strange then that the Rondel Garden, tribute to...
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EARLY MORNING EVENING PRIMROSES
My marking is done. I have a few more hours of school work left. (Actually I’m posting this now – as an ex-teacher.) The magazine was due to go to the printers yesterday. We are a week behind schedule...
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CELEBRATING WITH MRS OAKLEY FISCHER
I walked into the office an hour late this morning. I decided that tidying-up would be a priority – but only after I had posted to my blog. I fired up my computer and the internet instantly came alive....
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THE ROSE AND I–Part 4
What better way to overcome my mid-holiday inertia – after meeting deadlines at school and with our first edition of the magazine, before welcoming visitors staying in the cottages over Christmas –...
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A BRIGHT AND SUNNY NEW YEAR TO YOU!
After a rather dull festive season, the New Year dawned bright and I gathered a few photographs in case it all clouded over again. However, today – the day many people return home to start the new...
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A BIT OF BOTANISING
When does sight-seeing become botanising? Especially when you are showing visitors around your mountain? Two trips over the last two weeks made me think of the link between birding and botanising as...
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THE WILD BLUE YONDER
I promised a post on a spot nearby where the Agapanthus inapertus flower in sheets at this time of year. Here it is. I am cheating a little, for these pics are five years old. I was there last week and...
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FROM WETNESS INTO LIGHT
Every few years a tropical cyclone – sometimes downgraded to a tropical storm – affects our weather for a few days, bringing incessant but unstormy warm rain. We’ve just had one, which brought a total...
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Crossandra across the main road
Two days ago I screeched to a halt, made a U-turn and went back to investigate a few spots of soft orange along the national road which I had never noticed before. When I went back to photograph them...
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THE HAENERTSBURG GRASSLANDS
The Haenertsburg Grasslands are very much on my mind after a recent talk I attended on this small, unique and threatened biome, and after discovering the Crossandras I posted about earlier in the week....
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