Stroll through the garden

Wonderful rain

We had so such rain in early summer it was fantastic and turned everything into paradise, or perhaps a jungle. As you can see my garden loved it.

English breakfast at No. 5

So there are no images of the great English breakfast because we didn't want to share it. It was yummy - fried eggs and bacon, toast and marmalade, coffee.

Anyhoo, then we sat outside on the patio, chatting, enjoying the crisp winter morning.

Took some photographs and I said I was going to put them on my blog. Trish said it was fine, I said: they're my photographs, she said: it's my house. Fair enough.

Here are the pics with kind permission of Trish ;-)

Klipriviersberg nature reserve

What a wonderful day. Got home exhausted but felt great.

This is a great reserve to walk/hike at. There are many people and some are faster than others but everyone is enjoying the great outdoors. I only did some of the trails, the brown one, bit of the blue, red and green but a mish-mash and in a loop to get back where I started from. Crossed over on the pipeline and avoided the steep and rocky hills because my intention had been to go for a leisurely walk. But five hours later when I ran out of water I really wanted to call it quits. I started chatting to this guy and the went right past the exit so I had to go all the way back again. Argh. Ha, ha!

Adapt

When your pottery project doesn't quite turn out the way you envisaged it becomes a lovely pot for a plant.

Early morning, in the garden

1. Piggyback. 2. He loves me, he loves me not. 3. A banana leaf unfolds in the rain.
4. Here come B----J---. 5. Borage. 6. More rain, yay.
7. Miss M waits for me to catchup. 8. New rose. 9. Rain, again.

Land reclaim

I realise that nature is trying to reclaim the space my house is occupying in bolder moves. It started off slowly, and I left it because it looked so pretty but now the more I try to push it back the more aggressive it is in claiming the house.

Have you noticed how quickly an abandoned house breaks down, how quickly nature covers all trace of its existence? ;-)

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.

So much rain

There has been so much rain since October. The garden is loving it but my ground cover is now the same height as my lavender bush. Can you still see it?

MH signage recycled

About 3 years ago they changed the logo of the company, so all the signage was replaced. I couldn't bear the thought of the large sign that had been in reception lying on a landfill, disregarded and rejected, so I took it home. OMW, it lay in the ground for a while like a pimple on the earth, then it was propped up against the wall. Spiders spun undetected webs and mice hid from the dogs behind it. It was a great size for a fire pit, but the wrong material, certainly more of a melting pit should you start the fire. Eventually it was just annoying me and I thought it would be delivered to a rubbish dump after all, but I turned it over, filled it with soil and asked my nieces to transplant whatever they liked from the garden into it. Ta-da! I think they did a great job. They even added rose quartz for the finishing touch.

A hop, skip and a jump

A hop, skip and a jump from September to November, it's almost as though October never was. So here is just a short recap for October. If there are any typos in the text please forgive me. No need to highlight them and send me a message, like all good mistakes, I cannot go back and undo them.

September snapshots

Summer in a crate

Found this crate in the basement, home to a dried-out paint roller, and thought: hmmm, I know what you could rather be doing this summer. So, onto my patio and a whole lot of plants dumped into it. Love it!

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.

July snapshots

In order of appearance, from left to right.

For Mandela day 27 PrettyUglys volunteered at the Johannesburg Children's Home. Hope it makes the children happy. Love the swirly, twirly design of this creeper, at Nirox. Revisited the Mosque in Midrand. I really wanted a meal at the Turkish restaurant but one look at the menu made me think I would be disappointed. The food didn't look anything like the food I had in Turkey. Such sadness about all the happenings there lately. Goose, flowers and child bought at the Field and study market. I love the attention to detail, that they put as much effort into the price tag as in the hanging of the artwork. Got these flowers and they never opened for a week and a half because they thought they were still in cold storage. I had to move them close to the fire to get them to open. A fire almost every night, we have burnt most of our split tree we chopped down earlier this year. At Wits Art Museum they asked the group visiting to comment on the African Art display. This card asks you to speak to the security guard to speak about his favourite piece. inspiring. A new quilt that I have started, African in every way. Yippee, yay, the sun is travelling south again. Our the earth is turning, I think the sun is still in the same spot. A moment in the garden before work. It's aloe season, love it. And then it got really cold, rained and hailed. And ice on my windscreen. Pretty table display at the Irene market. Ceramic display at Irene market. Wire cactus at the Irene market. inside the Clay Oven Cafe. Would like to go back there when it is not a market day to explore it properly. the stone elephant at the Big Red Barn. Made these twins for a baby shower, Saami and Salma. Yes, the lady is having twins, a boy and a girl. the party is almost over, the kitchen at the Artists Studio. A nice display at the Studio Collab exhibition.

Another Saturday morning, another nursery

We had no real plan for Saturday morning so when we found a post for Schläfflers on Facebook and they have a tea room we decided to go there for breakfast. Nice ambience, warmed by a fire and wonderful niknaks and paintings. Under the trees, it's called. Good services, good food. Two Jack Russels come around, greeting everyone, making sure everyone is happy, a big smile and wag of the tail.

Afterwards we walked through the nursery - selected two tickey creepers and another plant I like the look of. I helped myself or stole, depending on your view, a cutting from a lovely creeper on their wall. It's in water now where I  hope it will sprout roots and grow.

Snapshots

blowing in the wind

I tried to photograph the Blackjacks but the wind was blowing them about all the time. So I overlapped the 4 pics I took to create the movement.

In the garden

Late afternoon at the nursery