In my August vase

What's in your August vase? - Noelle the azplantlady asks for her monthly meme. The lavender is lolling over the path. No access. When we went walking today we passed a garden where they had hacked back a wheelbarrow full of lavender clippings. Packed in bags and off to the dump - how ungrateful and ungracious. Even if it goes to compost or mulch - what a waste!

Lavender and Marguerite

Then there is the white marguerite daisy, planning on being A Tree next year. The cuttings of scented pelargonium I shoved in, in desperation, around the plums are also blocking the path. Yesterday I cut an armful and put the vase in the bathroom. Says himself - that's a waste, no one can see them.

August vase

Today I cut another armful, but these are for the living-room. I wanted it loose and exuberant, not the twee little rose-bud I usually have, when the roses are in full swing. Some flowers set back, some coming forward. Looks good to me, but I struggle to get the camera to focus on a layer that appeals to me.

August vase

A little frustrated with learning to see what the camera sees. Looking at the last 3 posts of bloom-where-you-are-planted-Jen-bloom at Muddy Boot Dreams, what Jen achieves, composing and framing her pictures. And the bijou still lives by Ingrid at Of Spring and Summer. Lime green of her hops echoing Hazeltree's 'fair maiden of the woodland'. He in turn echoes the lavender and gravel paths but with oh so much more grace and charm! Oh well practice makes perfect. I'll keep trying.

August armful

Against the deep blue wall in the kitchen

Just a quick post this time. We went to Clanwilliam to see spring flowers and that I will share later this week.

Pictures and words by Diana of Elephant's Eye

Winter August flowering into Spring

What flowers are in our garden in August? Still winter, but we have had rain and the winter snow grows as I watch. Sometimes in quiet horror. That handful of gravel is all you can still see of this path, which is next on the list for weeding and cutting back. For clearing, so the cats can still get thru. They make it quite obvious when they are not satisfied with their garden service.

In our kind and temperate climate, mid-winter rolling into Spring Day on the 1st September, the ash trees are already covered in fresh lime green leaves, luminous against the blue mountains in the distance. That white marguerite daisy has pretensions of becoming A Tree next year. Covered in flowers and buds.

I pruned the roses at the beginning of August. They have russet bunches of healthy new leaves, fat buds, and the first generous flowers are coming. We have a rolling wall of self sown nasturtiums around the gravel turning space outside the garage.

I love bulbs. Freesias are coming into bloom and I bring the best pot into the living-room, where the fragrance wafts over me in the evening. Lemon yellow and pink striped Oxalis, with friend thanks to my new Canon. Tulbaghia. Orange and yellow Chasmanthe which have such large heavy flower heads that the plants keep keeling over. Should have planted them deeper.

We’ve done the august-daisy-chain-walk blooming their little hearts out. An earlier generation of naturalists would pull out a magnifying glass, we use the macro and gaze in wonder at the details that emerge on the computer screen. Little lives lived out beneath our unknowing gaze.

On our Karoo Koppie most of the aloes have faded, but the next wave of flowers is coming. Burnt orange Cotyledon orbiculata for the sunbirds. Euphorbia mauretanica bought for these magnificent lime green flowers, sulked in the rose garden, too hot. Was moved here, then sulked some more, Because You Moved Me. But now at last I have the flowers I was waiting for. Crassula called Pink Joy. And Lampranthus in yellow and yellow and pink (and purple and white and red, but not here).

Indigenous sage. Burnt orange Salvia africana-lutea, and a very soft and gentle pinky-mauve Salvia dolomitica.

Turn to Paradise, the rose garden. Begin at the dark side. Autumn Fire. Red colours. Prunus nigra planted for the dark leaves, is doing Lighten our Darkness. Scarlet pelargonium flames in the darkness.

Then to Spring Promise. Any colour, so long as it is pink. Lavender Jade miniature rose coming into bloom.

And Winter Chill. With yet another of my favourite pelargoniums. Nutmeg scented. Someone was looking for a pelargonium with a leaf like gingko? Pelargonium fragrans 'Nutmeg'  

And ending with Summer’s Gold. Yellow Dimorphotheca jucunda. A Tropical Sunset striped rose.

It is green. There is lots of colour and it is growing like mad. Ungardening Pond is holding water and the wagtails are delighted to be able to putter along the shore foraging for dinner. The raucous toad is honking in my ear.


As most of my plants are indigenous to South Africa, except the obvious (roses, lavender, nasturtiums, ash trees, flowering plum and marguerite daisies) this is my bit for Gail at Clay and Limestone who does a Wildflower-Wednesday

Pictures and words by Diana of Elephant's Eye 

Rain gardening

Gardening to deal with winter flash floods. June 2007, just after we moved in. Floods! We have heavy clay soil, and the swamp monster will get you! Can I have my foot back, please? 

July 2008. Floods, again. But now we have a buried drainage pipe to clear the driveway. We have gravel paved paths, and the flood waters recede quickly. 

The raging torrent across the picture is the road. That water flowed down our driveway and into our garden.

Paving and floods 

Nature wants the rain dispersed – not collected on a roof, with gutters, and then directed into an overflowing storm water channel. Overflowing because it is either blocked with garbage, or simply overburdened. That the rain can sink into the ground, which is not covered with hard paving – think of tarred roads, and concrete slabs. That the rain can sink in, because the ground is not baked hard with an impermeable surface like concrete, but covered with mulch, so the soil is friable, crumbly. Let your garden soil be a sponge to absorb rain, as nature intended it to. If you can’t get your trowel or spade in, then think of the plant’s delicate hair roots trying. Paving (gravel or loose slabs) needs to let through as much as possible of a sudden downpour.

Rain water tanks 

Nandina

The Ungardener said, why water tanks? They’ll soon be empty. Why bother? But the logic is, that you catch some of the excess, and then ration it out for the thirsty plants. Especially with the first of the winter rains, when the plants are all yelling “I said, I’m THIRSTY!!!!” What is kind of frightening is that about 10 mm, in half an hour, can fill our two 500 litre water tanks. So yes we agree it is worth it. Besides the cats prefer to drink rainwater, none of that nasty chlorine. 

Swales 

What is a swale? A hollow in your garden designed to take the overflow of a downpour, until it can distribute itself. Our house is square. First side drains straight into the pond, which overflows into Plum-Creek, which overflows in turn into the swale at the giant/Spanish reeds – and eventually finds its way into the town stream. Second side goes straight to the reeds, and joins the (can be frightening!) overflow down the driveway. Third side goes to the rainwater tank, and overflows into the pond. Last side to the second tank, then Apple-Creek.

2008

Apple Creek swale was dug out on the 3rd, and those floods came on the 6th. 

Ungardening Pond 

pond-1 pond-2 pond-3

The pond. Which leaked. Has been drained and repaired. And is slowly filling again with rain. The Ungardener carefully relocated dozens of frogs to the two creeks. Today I see at least two frogs have found their way (back) to the pond.

Pink rose pelargonium, with raindrops. The white one I didn’t plant. Suspect it is a common or garden … someone tell me. Has very fine filigree leaves. It is obviously part of the daisy family, but our indigenous daisies have petals of substance, like a lettuce leaf. This is like tissue paper. And ours have petals that are petal shaped, these, have two or three teeth. Susan in the Pink Hat says Cosmos. (Cosmos bipinnatus from Mexico, kosmos - Greek for beautiful) The new camera has captured spoons on the Clerodendron that the naked eye can only imagine. And finally, the water lilies have buds, despite being out of the water for weeks. Just the roots are in water. Plants are in the shade. Going back into the half filled pond today. Then we hope those buds will realise their promise.

PS Mystery flower is Cosmos - thanks Susan. Greek kosmos means world/people/universe - thanks Ellada our Greek blogger. Serves me right for blindly quoting what I read. And the OED says kosmos is order/ornament/world. Only the OED could tie those three words together. So - Mexicans - the flower is an ornament? Or is it - see the world in a grain of sand?

William Blake's Auguries of Innocence

To see a world in a grain of sand, 

And a heaven in a wild flower, 

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, 

And eternity in an hour.

Pictures by Jurg and Diana, words by Diana of Elephant's Eye

Bird Island, Lambert's Bay

Down Monday’s Verlorenvlei-spring-flowers, past Wednesday’s train, we are going to see the birds at Lambert’s Bay. Our Wild Card got us free entry. There used to be penguins here, but now any arriving birds are passed on to SANCCOB for relocation to an existing colony. In 2002 there were still 50 breeding pairs on this island.   

Lambert’s Bay is one of the West Coast’s traditional fishing villages morphing into tourists and holiday homes. These are the fishing for fish boats. Bird Island is connected to the shore by a causeway. Easy for the tourists, not so great for the birds.

Penguins were made to keep warm while fishing in cold water. Nesting on hot land is hard to do. They used to dig burrows in guano, when there was a layer of guano to dig into. Now they seek shelter from the sun, and their enemies, for their eggs and chicks.

Guano, a Peruvian word, was called White Gold in the 1800s. In 1843 three ships came from Liverpool to collect guano. The first was wrecked, the second turned back, and the third didn’t get a full load. Yet at ten British pounds a ton, it still made a profit! Britain gave Namibia to Germany, keeping the guano islands. Then in the 1950s – artificial fertiliser.  If you use guano in your garden – do consider how ‘green’ it is, for the sake of those penguins.

Kelp gulls will steal eggs or chicks from the other birds if you are unkind/careless enough to disturb the parents. They feed on the discards from the potato and fish factories in town. See the red spot on the beak? The chicks peck here, and dinner is delivered. Coming up right now …

Seals were a big problem, terrorising the birds to such an extent that they abandoned the island to them. In June 2006 gannet scouts came. By the end of July most of the birds had returned.  Now nature conservation staff chase off the seals, when the birds are breeding. But it is shocking to suddenly recognise those dark shapes on the far rocks, as … seals!

Bird Island is mostly about Cape Gannets. The North Atlantic and Australasia have each their own species of gannet. This is ours. Stretching around the coast of southern Africa, from the Spanish Sahara on the West, to Mozambique on the East. They have been seen in Kenya, Australia and Scotland too.

Since Cape Gannets nest in guano (not collecting material as other birds do) they are tightly packed together. As they fly home, bird’s eye view, they know exactly where their nest is – 15A Main Road. Frightfully polite when coming home, they circle low, and warn the neighbours and spouse – 

15A coming H O M E! 

A few more circuits, and polite warnings, and only then, they land. Then again to warn the neighbours – 

I’m pulling out of the garage now 

– they skypoint, before leaving for the next shift.

To ease the stress of living on top of the neighbours, pairs practice bill scissoring, a ritual dance, along with mutual preening as with any couple.

This colony was formed in 1912. Predators coming over the causeway are an ongoing threat to the birds. Young male Cape Fur Seals develop skills at attacking and killing cormorants, penguins and gannets. The threat of an oil spill is ever-present, but unpredictable. Both the Cape Gannet and the African Penguin are in competition with the fishing industry for Sardine and Anchovy. Guano scraping has been discontinued, but human disturbance remains a threat. Please stay on the paths on the island. From UCT

And in closing, if you really want to demoralise yourself about the iffy quality of your photos … look at this  wildlifephotography.nl 2009

Pictures by Jurg and Diana, words by Diana of Elephant's Eye

Fishing for diamonds

This is the only dirt toll road in South Africa. A stretch of the service road for the Sishen Saldanha railway. From Eland’s Bay halfway to Lambert’s Bay. You can stop to look at spring flowers without a fence excluding you from the farmer’s fields. There is a salt pan with water birds Verlorenvlei-spring-flowers. And no traffic, so you can keep stopping for pictures.

Iron ore comes from Sishen in the Northern Cape 861 km to the port in Saldanha Bay. Opened by ISCOR in 1976 and passed on to sister Sarah (SAR&H - South African Railways and Harbours) in 1977. These are the longest trains in the world – 

From Route27 Sishen In 1989 a world record was set when the longest and heaviest train ever assembled covered the distance. The entry in the Guiness Book of Records read as follows:

• Length of train - 7.303km
• Gross mass of train - 71 210ton
• No. of loaded trucks - 660
• No. of locomotives - 9 electrical and 7 diesel
• Distance covered - 861km
• Maximum speed - 80km/h
• Average speed - 38,04km/h

You don’t want your B&B near the railway line, CAN’T SLEEP! Sadly for the Ungardener we didn’t see A Train this time, but, we did once see it, from Rocher Pan. Here is a train photo, not ours 

We were going to Lambert’s Bay, one of the West Coast fishing villages. The air smells, no longer of cooking fish, but of chips (French fries) made from the locally grown Sandveld potatoes. 6 out 10 South African potatoes grow here in the Sandveld. Remember the threat of the Moutonshoek mine – as you order your fish and chips!

And the little boats, some of them, fish for diamonds. Divers are sent down to find diamond containing gravel in depressions on the sea-bed. Then a vacuum cleaner goes down, and the diver hoovers up all the diamond/gravel. That gravel is sorted on board, sealed in bags, then brought ashore in Lambert’s Bay. Divers work only six days a month – at depths up to 20 metres, in cold water, with strong waves, and in poor visibility.

‘Diamonds occur on wave-cut platforms, along the coast near Vredendal and into Namaqualand in the Northern Cape. They are currently mined from the surf zone. Also north of Vanrhynsdorp in palaeogravel of the Swart Dorings River.’ From geoscience.org.za But, sadly ‘The gem quality of the diamonds is lower than in the Namibian waters.’  Over the past 90 million years the rivers have washed diamonds down to the Atlantic. Waves, ocean currents and winds are continually redistributing those diamonds.  

One of South Africa’s claims to fame is the invention of dolosse. Concrete blocks to build breakwaters and hold back the sea. And I always thought dolosse was a French word!  But it is an Afrikaans word for the knuckle bones of sheep or cattle, which once children played with as toy animals. Or for sangomas to throw the bones to foretell the future.

Invented in 1963 by M E Merrifield, a harbour engineer in our East London, and Aubrey Kruger. Cape cormorants like to nest on dolosse. As falcons will use city office blocks for cliff faces. 18 ton dolos are cheap and stable compared to 37 ton concrete blocks swept away by 8 metre waves in a storm. The interlocked dolos did not even move.

They work by dissipating, rather than blocking, the energy of waves. Their design deflects most wave action energy to the side, making them more difficult to dislodge than objects of a similar weight presenting a flat surface. Though they are placed into position on top of each other by cranes, over time, they tend to get further entangled as the waves shift them. Their design ensures that they form an interlocking, but porous, wall. They are often numbered so that satellites can track their movement. This helps engineers gauge whether they need to add more dolosse to the pile. 

Cormorants

Sometimes when we are putting in Susan's windshield-time we see a truck with ONE dolos, and a second on its own trailer. Imagine how many truck miles to build a breakwater! We however were heading for Bird Island (Friday).

Pictures by Jurg and Diana, words by Diana of Elephant's Eye

Verlorenvlei spring flowers

We came to live in  Porterville to be nearer the West Coast spring flowers.  Namaqualand is a little further north.  Along roadside verges, at the edges of fields, and in abandoned fields. Winter rains came? Right time of day, 10 to 4? No breeze or cloud to close the fair weather daisies? You have your back to the sun, looking into the flower’s faces? Oh YES!!!

Come thru the gate with us. In a good year the rain daisies are spread so thick they look like a snow drift. Just to confuse you, bottom LEFT is a sand dune. Dimorphotheca pluvialis

We visited Moutonshoek, where a tungsten mine is planned. This is 60% of the catchment area for Verlorenvlei, verloren meaning lost. A Ramsar wetland. In my ignorance used to think it was RAMSAR, an acronym for a conference or an international agreement on wetlands. Ashamed when I discovered it is a place name. Ramsar lies on the Caspian Sea. There are hot springs, really hot, radium, uranium and thorium hot! And the residents live long, healthy lives. Here you will also find the vacation palace of the last Shah. Ramsar, Mazandaran, Iran.

Verlorenvlei

Vygies, succulents come in every size and colour you can imagine. Creeping along the ground,  on low or high shrubs.

Wild melons. There is a traditional Afrikaans speciality --   Waatlemoenkonfyt – melon preserve. Only once in Porterville did I find out that isn’t made from watermelon rind, but these tsamma  melons. Citrullus lanatus. This plant is essential to wildlife further north in the Kgalagadi, as the principal source of water between the rainy seasons. An annual with a long trailing stem. The melon is 90% water. Melons were grown as a crop by the Egyptians four thousand years ago. Your watermelon is descended from this South African plant.

I like to call these Lemon Butter Flowers. The yellow has an acidic touch of green – lemon. And the petals shimmer – butter. Grielum humifusum with a white centre. A distant West Coast cousin within the rose family.

Remember my daisies? Euryops? We have 2 this is the large third. Euryops speciosissimus – Clanwilliam daisy, but ranging to Piketberg. The exuberant yellow flowers are carried proudly, high above the bush.

Up into the hills and on sand plains. Fynbos. Proteas are in bloom. Leucadendron pubescens. Flowers are covered in silver down. One of the proteas whose seeds are dispersed by ants.

Wadrifsoutpan – old wagon crossing on the salt pan, the Wadrif farm is still there. The salt pan opens on the coast, crosses under the railway line (Wednesday), and then winds up the second valley. Avocets, ducks, and a drift of flamingos. The ostriches are farmed animals, too hot and dry for cows here. ‘The only genuine wild ostriches occur in Northern Namibia and the Kgalagadi. All others are descended from hybrids bred for the feather trade’ --- from Sasol Birds of Southern Africa by Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton.  


But we are heading for Lambert's Bay and Fishing-for-diamonds and Bird-Island 

Pictures by Jurg and Diana, words by Diana of Elephant's Eye