October’s wildflowers, and comments from South Africa

Join me at Gail of Clay and Limestone’s Wildflower Wednesday meme? 

Click thru to see what she would like from you. 

Photos were taken yesterday in my garden. 

Some of the bulbs have faded and those pictures are from earlier this month.

Bietou, Erica baccans
trailing daisy, Plectranthus neochilus

Sole survivor of my attempt at fynbos is this little pink berry heath Erica baccans. The bright yellow bietou by the front door, is a gift from the birds in Camps Bay, brought to this garden as a cutting, now a small tree! Near the jetty the blue spires of Plectranthus neochilus, with funky leaves. The ivory trailing daisy suffers from the dreaded Lost labellus.

Lachenalia, Veltheimia
Albuca, Hypoxis

Lachenalia, Veltheimia and Albuca are all fading and gone to seed now. But the sunny yellow Hypoxis seems to be able to bloom continually. This I like for its three ranks of leaves.

Watsonias

The inherited watsonias come in gentle pink, tall spires and in more frightening magenta bowing its swan neck.

Caterpillar on Gazania

Sharing the spirit of Gail’s pollinator friendly garden, there are caterpillars, and busy birds.

Painted Lady and fruit chafer beetle on Scabiosa

Cinderella (Cynthia cardui Painted Lady) in butterfly ball gown splendour, 

must beware. 

At midnight she reverts to her black and white maid’s uniform 

(fruit chafer beetle). 

From sipping champagne, to changing the sheets on the Scabiosa. 

For my Northern readers as an antidote to the 

No wind No rain November days 

(apologies to Thomas Hood). 

Lowering with sullen grey clouds shawling your shoulders. I remember Zurich.

Pelargoniums

The velvety red Pelargonium frightens the camera, and has few flowers. Salmon flames up from its pockets across the garden. My pink favourite, citrus scented with fierce leathery pointed leaves.

Pelargonium tomentosum
bottom right the usual sunny species

And white. Now blooms the shady Pelargonium tomentosum with its huge soft leaves exuding spearmint and ethereal drifts of tiny flowers. (We may not say miniscule, it means lower case I learnt yesterday!)

Succulents on the Karoo Koppie

I think of my Karoo Koppie succulents as over for the year. But the camera found buds. Winter’s red aloes are done, but for this latecomer. And the vygies are now faded and gone.

Buddleja, Salvia  chamelaeagnea
Melianthus major, Grewia

The Melianthus still has flowers, which have been claimed as MINE ALL MINE by the malachite sunbird. Going to seed, and what seeds! In the shade on the Woodland Walk pink stars of Grewia, reaching spires of Buddleia which waft honey to the verandah when the breeze is right. Returning to the Paradise and Roses garden I see the first of the blue sage.

Many readers are from my country of South Africa, but few comment. 

Christine and Barbie at thegardeningblog

Jack at sequoiagardens

Dani at ecofootprint

Garden Girl at mycapegarden

Firefly in PE

Christine at our cityofsunshineandstorms

artist Marie Theron

are the 1 out of 10 we see and hear. (Did I miss someone??)

My comments accept Anonymous, 

you don’t need a Google account, 

don’t need to log in to another comment system. 

There is NO Word Verification 

(thanks to Jen of muddybootdreams and Jodi the bloomingwriter), 

but you will not see your comment, until I have read it. 

If you are the 9 out of 10 silent lurkers, 

I know you READ the comments – do talk to us! 

(I remind myself to also write to the silent majority) 

I treasure every comment I receive, 

and will go to your blog to visit and comment.

Pictures and 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.)

Fill the Frame for Gardening Gone Wild

Saxon Holt is judging the GGW October contest. Gracious in explaining how to photograph, his enthusiasm bubbles thru, and his photos cause the flying fingers to linger, while the eyes enjoy. If not for this contest, I would have kept the post for some-corner-of-a-foreign-field 11-11-11-11.

He asks for the photo to tell a story. We inherited these swan-necked watsonias. The post and rail fence, the gravel tracks tell the Garden story. The green middelmannetjie and the grassy swathe next to the tracks tell of the Crazy English with their Weeds. That distant brown clump tells the Guilty, it has taken us four years to plant the last of the Dug Up for the Driveway Access clumps. But that picture doesn’t sing.

Inherited watsonias along the driveway

In our Paradise and Roses garden are four beds. Four rivers of Paradise, milk and honey, water and wine. Four seasons as colour themes. This is my high maintenance, water thru the pushing 40C summer temperatures garden. Deliberately sited here to be seen from the livingroom. I have taken this, thru the window.

Autumn Fire in the
Paradise and Roses garden

The distant corner bed is Autumn Fire. Red and purple roses. Deep dark foliage. My father’s sundial gazing away from – I only count your sunny hours. This was the vegetable patch behind our neighbour’s house. So, how gracious of Mother Nature to donate the flames of an exotic red poppy.

Foreign poppies

Sitting with my morning tea, gazing at the life story of this flower. The buds soft and furry, emerging meekly with their heavy heads bowed down. Growing taller and stronger, then raising proud heads on tall stems.  Suddenly the flower opens. Within that promising bud, just four gossamer petals, which fall as the day passes. Most of that fat bud was the elaborate architecture of a seed capsule.

Scarlet poppy

In the capsule are many many seeds. Turning my thoughts to the  Global Invasive Species Programme and my own Paterson's Curse. Sadly we only fight invasive aliens when it hits our pocket. We clear water hyacinth because it blocks the flow of rivers. We clear Port Jackson wattle because it takes water we need for people, and is a fire hazard. We forget the broken links in the web of life.

Back in Paradise and Roses, the poppy has a few bees, but the scabious is a Disneyland cloud of butterflies. The Melianthus has a pair of sunbirds. Busy European starlings are serving lunch. Our apex predators are the owls we sometimes hear hooting at night. We have a visiting hawk or falcon, swooping silently past Spirulino’s bird feeder. Leaving me to find the discarded wings of the doves he has eaten. 

Poppy heart on fire

Fill the frame. Tell the story. The stamens, with pollen, some already history, tell of the lifecycle. The sun and shadow on the petals swing my mind between the swirling skirts in sultry colours of a flamenco dancer. And the flickering leaping flames of a blazing log fire. Autumn Fire. Planned by the gardener, and gifted by nature.  

If you are a new reader, with-the-Cape-Leopard-Trust-at-Driehoek will show you the other side of this blog. The For Wildlife in South Africa side. 

Pictures and 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.)

With the Cape Leopard Trust at Driehoek

Imagine you are hiking in the Cederberg. Ahead of you is a red flag.

Warning flags for leopard traps at Driehoek in the Cederberg

As you get closer, you read about Cape Leopards.

Leopard trapping signs

Leopard trapping signs for hikers

In September the Ungardener was at Driehoek volunteering with the Cape Leopard Trust. Stock farmers battle predators. Old stone traps remain from days when the animals were caught, and killed. Leopards were removed, while ‘their conservation status remained uncertain’. The Trust works with farmers to find solutions, such as Anatolian shepherd dogs.

Old stone trap for leopards

The Trust began with metal cage/box traps, but is concerned about possible damage to claws and teeth before adding a radio collar, then returning the animal to life in the wild.

Former cage trap for leopards

Dr Quinton Martins  of the Cape Leopard Trust is testing a foot-loop trap for large cats, a technique refined by American Dairen Simpson.

Dr Quinton Martins
at a new trap on the hiking trail

The new traps are set along hiking trails, or baited. Paths are made by animals, we follow. Sympathisers might feel triggering the trap allows another leopard to live, but the leopards, once caught, are radio collared then released. In time, the batteries go flat, and the process must be repeated.

Vehicle of the Cape Leopard Trust

While Jurg was monitoring the trap, came a signal, caught something! Each trap has a transmitter, volunteers check the signal every 1-3 hours. Phone Dr Martins. There is a river to cross on the way to the trap. Where they meet 2 elderly hikers. She asks for a lift across the river! We are in a hurry to get to that trap!! Once they get there, the trap is empty. Paw prints show a baboon was caught, but they, can release themselves. Any doubt was cancelled, by the troop of baboons on the ridge, yelling and swearing at those %$#&ing people! While they are resetting the trap, along come those same hikers. But, we asked you to avoid the flag!!   

Jurg doing telemetry
Listening for leopards!

A signal from a radio collar! Q says the leopard is staying in one place, he has made a kill. J, Q and his wife Elizabeth, hike up the mountain. By the time they arrive, the leopard is gone. The kill was a juvenile klipspringer. The wiry coat, looking like the bristles of a scrubbing brush, is soft but thick – intended to protect the buck from sharp rocks. The leopard carefully plucks the fur, and left nothing but the lower jaw with its teeth.

Klipspringer killed by a leopard

The Land Rover proudly wears its newly earned badge at Driehoek.

Volunteering for the Cape Leopard Trust at Driehoek

Dr Martins has only seen 7 uncollared wild leopards in 8 years. 

Even with collars, he only sees a few each year.  

Jurg is still hoping, next time?
In October, caught, on the camera trap!

At Driehoek

Pictures of Cape Leopards are on the Trust’s website. Click Projects, Cederberg, Leopards, for a dropdown menu of animals identified by their unique pattern ‘a leopard cannot change his spots!’ If we have caught your interest, you can subscribe to the Trust's newsletter. Or Adopt a Spot. Q is currently trying to collar Sneaky Pete, and Spot needs a collar with a new battery.


I believe the future of nature conservation lies with teaching the children. One day, when that child sits behind a desk with the power to sign away – a wetland or  the last surviving habitat of … I want to know that once, a little girl or boy learnt the fascination and delight of a wildflower blooming, a bird singing, a buck pausing close enough to hear it snorting. Elizabeth Martins runs children’s wilderness camps for the Cape Leopard Trust.

Pictures by 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.) 

Update for once were Blotanists from Stuart

This is in the Blotanical forums, but I am copying and pasting for my readers.

To answer your questions quickly, No - I have not moved onto something else.

I've employed some more coders for the site and we are working to have the update completed for Feb 2012. The update has taken longer than expected but is truly incredible.

The Picks section has been completely revamped and works seamlessly and intuitively.

At the moment, we are working on bringing the Plots section up to date and working on a few other features.

Alas, I'm not offering any support for the site in its current format as it's delaying the time I have available for the updates.

You are more than welcome to use the site as is as at the moment but we will inform you once Version 2 goes live.

I apologise for wearing your patience out but I hope that the ammendments will more than compensate for the delays.  

Stuart 19 Oct 2011

Tankwa Karoo – birds and bees at the cottages

On the Gannaga Pass in the Tankwa Karoo National Park, while my camera took me for a walk, I could hear a bird singing its heart out – All This Is Mine! Cape Bunting. (I’d call it a stripe-headed sparrow).   

Cape Bunting on Gannaga Pass

We stayed in the new Elandsberg cottages, looking across the late spring flowers to the Gannaga Pass.

View from Elandsberg cottages
to Gannaga Pass in the Tankwa Karoo

Old farmhouses or the new purpose built tourist accommodation? Two farmhouses come with a ‘donkey’ – light the wood fire to heat water. There is no electricity, this is WAY off grid. The new houses use traditional mud bricks (= adobe) and eucalyptus beams. There are five cottages spread out, the neighbours far enough away to be undisturbed. Or, you can have a farmhouse all on its own.

Elandsberg cottages
Bottom left 'donkey' at Varschfontein

Gas-fired fridge, geyser and stove. Ceilings covered with Spaanse riet (what grows near our garage where the weavers nest). Candles and a row of paraffin lamps. Felt quite Victorian. For a few days I reset my internal clock to sleep and rise WITH the birds.

Inside Elandsberg cottage

The open plan kitchen has a traditional peach pip floor. Enjoyed walking on that, felt like gentle cobbles.

Traditional peach pip floor

Returning from the Leuuberg 4x4 trail, crossing the plain, we saw a group of springbok. One anxious soul remained behind, gazing back past us. We switched off, and waited with him. In their own good time, the second half of the herd came slowly along the ridge, paused to snack. Then pronked across the road. I have never seen this before, was just a word. Imagine the springbok, like a kangaroo on a pogo-stick, jumping straight up in the air, and high! ‘Is that a lion in the grass?’ His herd reunited, the sentry galloped off.

Springbok in the Tankwa Karoo

Tortoise in the Tankwa Karoo

On the Elandsberg a crab-spider lurks on an Albuca flower. Striped toktokkie (so called because he knocks like a death watch beetle) – the ones I know have smooth backs, in the Karoo they are armourplated. At Varschfontein, once was a farm, I saw this – white lentil running like hell, tiny beetle with his sunscreened overcoat. He is called – a frantic tortoise beetle!

Back in the mud walls of the cottage, solitary bees are nesting. Gathering pollen as it is flower season, then sealing the nest with mud. For which they need water. To be found in the plunge pool!   

Striped toktokkie, crabspider on Albuca
solitary bees nesting in mud wall, frantic tortoise beetle

Our first afternoon there was a stiff breeze. Imagine the hot dry Karoo. You are a sparrow sized bird with short legs. There is water. In a pool, with a smooth concrete rim. The filter runs on a solar panel. Couldn’t bear to watch the birds battling to reach the water, so the Ungardener carefully chose and placed two rocks.  Those little birds were delighted to be able to bathe. The solitary bees and the mud wasps were also desperate to get water, and hundreds of them lost their grip, to drift drowning on the water. We spent some time fishing them out.

  

Yellow Canary
Cape Bunting

While we were staying there, they installed tarpaulin covers over the pools.

Plunge pool at Elandsberg cottages in the Tankwa Karoo

We wish that SANParks had a waterhole for the wildlife, 

instead of an unusable plunge pool. 

Letsie Coetzee, Section Ranger Tankwa Karoo National Park replied in the SANPark Forums on 19th October. 'There are 2 waterholes 2-3 km from the cottages. To protect the vegetation waterholes are 5 km apart. Please keep the pool covered. A floating "island" will be added as an escape route.'

PS We did see bees climbing under the cover ...

Pictures by Jurg and Diana
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.)

Foreign flowers in our October garden

I did try for the long view, instead of the pretty flowers. When we look at A Flower, the camera and I are mostly on the same page. The long view leaves me befuddled. Why doesn't the &%$#ing camera see what I see? Overexposed, or focused on a plane the human eye doesn't notice. The wrong edge of the wrong petal, of the wrong blooming flower!

Walking down the driveway as you turn to the front door the edge of the gravel has a bunker of nasturtiums. The summer sun starts to bite, and later will shrizzle the leaves, leaving the seed to wait for March, coolth, and the first rain. But for now we have thousands of flowers.

Nasturtiums AKA Cistercians here

In the pond are frogs and tadpoles the size of my thumb. The pink waterlily is hiding its glory behind the island. And fighting a quiet battle with the tiny duckweed. We scoop it out by the bucketload, turn away for a moment, and half the pond is covered, again.

Waterlilies

This year the plums have lots of blossom, so we should get fruit. Prunus nigra, bought for its deep purple leaves, after blooming at the beginning of September, is covered in plums the size of my thumbnail. Anyone know if they are edible? Wigandia's William says yes!

Left blossom on edible plum
Right thumbnail sized fruit on Prunus nigra

October last year, and the year before, I put up weekly Pink Ribbon posts. Themed around the rose garden. This year the roses were lightly groomed. October and November should be their best months, so they are back to a monthly sprinkle of Talborne certified organic. And these two legs of the grey water system try for ten litres per bush every 5 or 6 days.

Dainty Bess, Tropical Sunset
Pearl of Bedfordview

Pink-Ribbon-1-Winter-Chill The first of Dainty Bess, with striped Tropical Sunset, and Pearl of Bedfordview being generous.

Left Courvoisier
Right Sheila's Perfume

Pink-Ribbon-2-Summer-Gold Courvoisier and Sheila’s Perfume already offering flowers to pick and bunches of promising buds.

Papa Meilland, Elizabeth of Glamis
Alec's Red

Pink-Ribbon-3-Autumn-Fire Papa Meilland, Elizabeth of Glamis, and Alec’s Red. Yes, we have roses to pick again.

Top left Lavender Jade
Burning Sky

Pink-Ribbon-4-Spring-Promise Lavender Jade and Burning Sky, in life quite clearly two different roses. A delicate miniature and a vigorous tall hybrid tea, but both exactly the same colour. 

Pink lavender

Mexican feather grass Mare's Tails
Japanese maple

I’m linking to Gesine in Berlin's Bloom Day on the 15th. And also to Carol at Maydreamsgardens the original bloom-day. I bring foreign flowers today. Mexican feather grass. Even the Japanese maple has flowers!

Our Computer Man
and the Elephant's Eye thumbnail on Google search

Beyond the circle of blogs I read for content, about gardens, and art, and words, and living green – I also read techie geeky nerdy blogs about blogging. I’ve learnt to add to my Google Reader any available blogs by the tools I use. That way I don’t have to wait for you tell me that … Google is protecting us authors from scraping! Jim Connolly at Google Plus told us on his blog how to get our thumbnail/avatar to show up in a Google search. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't – Google says ‘ranking will be implemented algorithmically, so author information will not always display in search results’. Mouseover the double arrow to the right of the list, and you get a preview. Highlights where the text you asked for shows up. I use StatCounter to click thru and see what you did, when Google brought you to my blog. StatCounter answers the But WHY, I NEVER wrote about … StatCounter and Google say Oh Yes, you DID!!

  

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.)