Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold

Became a book title for Chinua Achebe. From a poem by William Butler Yeats. On Tuesday I needed to get images of London Is Burning out of my mind. From 6-things-bloggers-can-learn-from-dr-seuss. I'm too old to have read Dr Seuss as a child, and childless, so I missed his books both ways. A really good, classic, quotable ‘child’s’ book – is not childish. It crystallises wisdom down to its simple essence, to truth.

Dr. Seuss

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.

Euryops sp. growing tall
The centre, cannot hold, and scatters seeds

We went up our mountain to the Groot Winterhoek World Heritage Site . Driving up the Dasklip Pass, either at his brisk getting somewhere pace. Or my - Stop stop, there’s a flower - pace. Once when he was truck driving, we went, heavy laden, across the Brenner Pass in Austria. Very very slowly. Up in the cab of the truck, at eye level with the flowers, so close I could, almost, reach out and touch them. One of the magical stardust spattered times in my life. I remember wild violets … 

Oxalis

As we stepped out of the car, lying close to the ground is Oxalis. In vibrant fuchsia pink, barely there blush pink, gentle buttery yellow (without the lime undertone of the taller pes-caprae), and a gorgeous apricot with peach veining.

Ursinia paleacea

This daisy has buds packed in russet, opening to an electrifying golden yellow. Ursinia paleacea

Berry bush ? Gazania sp.
Bartholina burmannia orchid, a vygie

I needed to be reminded how nature uses fire. To clear the shrub layer. To make space for smaller annuals, bulbs and orchids. And to send up the new generation of shrublets, who will, over years to come, grow tall and strong.

Carabid ground beetle

An unnamed moth

Where we saw  baboons, now we had eagles and swallows circling and calling overhead. We saw rheebok, outside the reserve, in an open field at the protea farm, enjoying the winter afternoon sun. This time the wildlife the camera captured was smaller. A carabid ground beetle.

Phylica pubescens, Muraltia heisteria

Feathery white Phylica pubescens in the reserve. Purple and white Muraltia heisteria accompanied us all the way. As you rise up the pass, so the plants change. I remember what I see driving up, hope to find it again when we are walking. Stop on the way down, for many plants grow just in one tightly defined area. Too hot, too cold, too much sun, too much shade, too wet, too dry, yes we like wet but free draining, no we prefer wet feet, sand, clay, rock fissure, and then some are very picky about their neighbours!

Heliophila trifurca

This Heliophila trifurca was scattered in drifts on the slope beside the Dasklip road. I thought it was a bulb, but it has twiggy stems and small leaves. Comes in light and dark purple, and almost white.

Earth laughs in flowers- Ralph Waldo Emerson, but here in its darker context. Laughs at in Schadenfreude, or in delight and joy, with us? I can’t solve the problems of the world, but I have been reading England based Rebecca Woodhead over at Google Plus. Later we’ll take a wider view, getting things into perspective – a landscape view of the Groot Winterhoek Wilderness Area.

Pictures by Diana and Jurg,

words by Diana of Elephant's Eye

- wildlife gardening in Porterville,

near Cape Town in South Africa

(If you mouse over brown text,

it turns shriek pink. Those are my links.)