Wildflower Wednesday as February turns to Autumn

My contribution to Gail at Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesdays aim around the 25th, since I wrote my first one for Christmas Day. The garden is blooming in considered and thoughtful blues. A wash of blue sage. A scattered carpet of Plectranthus spurs. Drifts of blue and white Plumbago. Sparked by pelargoniums in pure white, gentle pinks and salmon sprinkled with gold dust where the sun catches it.

Plectranthus neochilus

Commonorgarden walk

Mid-February, high summer although we have had a few cooler days. Commonorgarden and summer rainfall plants are hunkered down for the duration. Some have faded off into the sunset murmuring – It’s hot in Porterville … The roses have been fed and given a handful of wood ash, dutifully watered, every 5 days, 10 litres of grey water to each bush. New sprouts are coming for the autumn flush, but only Lavender Jade has good flowers today. 

Lavender Jade

Seven steps built by a mud wasp

When I look across to our mountain, to the clouds that come and go, sometimes I see seven steps to heaven  (Miles Davis). That first step is unattainable, and even if I could reach it, insubstantial. My foot would simply pass thru the water vapour. Earth-bound my mind turns to the legendary Seven Steps in District 6. Again, insubstantial, demolished during apartheid, living on in memory and music. In my living memory, that part of Cape Town has always been a green slope below the mountain, at the far edge of the city.

Seven Steps to Heaven