Bring me flowers

Bring me flowers and I will be happy.

My family arrived on Sunday for lunch and gave me these beautiful flowers.

We had a wonderful day together. Table tennis, swimming, dominoes and lots of laughter.

Cosmos season

Cosmos season was about a month ago, but you can still find the odd flower on the side of the road. There is a small holding on the way to my evening classes that has a whole field of cosmos, all in white. So beautiful. The gate was open and I wanted to drive in, but I didn't. And only because I wouldn't want some random person driving unto my property either, no matter their motivation.

Fresh green bouquets

With my garden so overgrown after all the rain this year I have been cutting these big bunches of greenery as bouquets for the house. Quite magnificent. 
Even when I buy fresh cut flowers, like the sunflowers for instance, I add garden cuttings to increase the volume and dimensions of the bouquet.

Leafy Greens Cafe

Jill and I have had been wanting to go for ages, to the Leafy Greens Cafe. Jill is a vegetarian and I enjoy a good vegetarian meal. We had the boys with us and it was a beautiful sunny day. We got there to have brunch but decided to wait for the lunch buffet. Mmmm, well worth the wait. It was so delicious. We each bought their recipe book.

It was so delicious I went back. 

After lunch walked through the fields and saw rows of wonderful vegetables, chicken running around  and sunflowers reaching for the sky. I returned to the restaurant for coffee and a take-away slice of cheese cake. Bought a few things for the pantry in the shop as well.

As seen on Instagram this month

Strawberry ice-cream. As soon as it's summer I make ice-cream. Although I try out all sorts of variations the strawberry remains the firm favourite with everyone.

After a storm, the next morning our table appears to carry the remnants of a great party.

Pretty. Every morning, on the way to work I pass this tree that has dropped its flowers, like a juggler learning his skill, more on the floor than on the tree it seems.

Still more rain. It been wonderful, all this rain, after they predicted the drought would last until April 2017.

Out before dark. In the afternoon the moon is already high in the sky. It is trying to blend in with some clouds, as thin and whispy as them but cannot hide its round shape.

More of the same. Rain. And how beautiful the drops look on my new frangipani.

September snapshots

Meanwhile in my own garden

I have been off to this place and that place (more about that later), meanwhile in my own garden everything has been celebrating spring. Flashing a lot of colour and basting in the warm weather.

Wide open

We got these proteas on the weekend. They are in the kitchen, and while we drink our morning tea we watch as the sun bursts in the window and splashes them with light.
They love the sunshine - look how they have stretched themselves to gather the warmth.

February catch-up

It's March and I haven't even blogged February. So, just a short summary, because really, it's already all in the past. Liam and I baked cookies for Valentine's Day and distributed them to everyone in the office. Then there was the one special Valentine delivery ;-) Went into Newtown to see the development around the Market Theatre - Newtown Junction. I bought a few things at the Work Shop and and lunch at the PotatoShed. We visited the Gwefey Tea House in Sandton City. I baked a cheese cake and topped it with stewed peaches, that Lettie provided. It was delicious, had it for breakfast for a week. Come play with me! BJ could play all day. These worms ate up the entire plant, argh! Went to see Singing in the Rain - wonderful. A bunch of flowers to celebrate payday. Thank you.

And so ends February.

In the garden

And then it rained

Along the ridge, east to west

You know how you drive past a place and you think: I should go there some day and have a look. Then years pass, but one day you do it, you follow the directional boards and you're actually there. So this is how we ended up doing a hike at Kloofendal Nature Reserve on Saturday morning. 

We selected the Dassie Trail because it wasn't the shortest, or the longest. I should have realised that I would need the agility of a dassie, or mountain goat, for this terrain. We only saw one dassie but I am sure many of them saw us. I stop to photograph every little flower, yes I know, so very annoying. That's why we can't hike in a group with others. But the flowers and grasses are all so pretty. Wonderful bird life. It was a great walk and we will be going back.

Thanks for the flowers

Garden path

We are re-laying all the paving for the path around the house. I wanted to show you the path but I got a little side-tracked by the pretty flowers.

Kenton-on-Sea

Reitfontein Nature Reserve

A short little hike through the Reitfontein Nature Reserve before breakfast on Saturday morning. We saw the buck and he saw us ;-)

Quiet moments in the garden

Dried flower arrangement

I cut these day lily and sprayed some white and some cream and now I have an arrangement for my dining room table.

Flower from the garden

Cut some flowers in the garden for a friend.

Bit of this and that, with some grey