🐾 Maybe the reason I love animals so much, is because the only time they have broken my heart is when theirs has stopped beating.

Wednesday 28 March 2012

It IS something to own a Pheasant

Through the uncut grass on the elm's hill 
It is something to own a pheasant, 
Or just to be visited at all. 

Across the garden 
now beneath the bird food 
You peck your lordly selfish portion, 
Chest out, head back, all colours blazing. 
Your Lady Hen still follows meekly to the fare 
- Unknown 

My Pheasant sitting on a rock on my patio 

John, from Midmarsh Jottings's wonderful post on the visitors to his garden, in particular the Pheasant, reminded me to post a picture of my Pheasant, which we rescued from somebody trying to sell him for the pot. This is an introduced species into South Africa, probably from the U.K., where it is also a non-native bird that was first introduced by the Normans in the 11th century as a game bird. Here in South Africa they are sold as pets and kept as ornamentals in Aviaries. 

Even though he would wait at the front door for his daily tit-bits and even venture into the lounge, he never really got very tame and would spend most of his day skulking under the shrubs in my garden with his female, who only ever ventured out once the coast was clear and not a soul in sight. They spent many wonderful years with me and unfortunately the male died of something unidentified and the female took wing shortly after that. 

The Congo peafowl is Africa's only true native pheasant, according to the Arkive website. This bird, discovered in 1936, lives only within the Congo rainforest region. 

A pair of Congo Peafowl at Antwerp Zoo Photograph from Wikipedia  
Henry skulking around the garden 

Henry and his female in the garden 

The very elusive female Pheasant 

Henry softly calling to his female to come and check out his chosen spot 

 Henry running for cover as the gardener approaches





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Monday 26 March 2012

You ARE free

“Come along then.” said Jonathan. “Climb with me away from the ground, and we’ll begin.” “You don’t understand. My wing. I can’t move my wing.” “Maynard Gull, you have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way. It is the Law of the Great Gull, the Law that Is.” “Are you saying I can fly?” “I say you are free.” 
- From Jonathan Livingstone Seagull 

Seagull - W&N watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm 

I've just read "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull" again for the third time, and every time I discover another lesson... 

  • You are free. 
  • You’re so free, you can choose bondage. 
  • You are so free, that no one can do anything to you. 
  • You are so free, that you are the only one who is causing anything to happen in your experience. 

The seagulls at Durban Harbour or St. Lucia, way up on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa), is a constant source of pleasure for me. I just love feeding them, watching them swoop down to collect tit-bits and squabbling among one another for the best pieces. Their innovativeness knows no bounds and one must actually watch all your possessions very carefully or they'll have your beach bag's contents strewn all over the beach.

 Their favourite junk food seems to be hot chips with tomato sauce - I sometimes buy ten packets to take to the beach with me - and offering that sets off a frenzy like you've never seen! And they're not shy to stare you RIGHT in the eye, something I find utterly fascinating! And they do have expressions - intention, curiosity, weariness, guile, craftiness. And it shows in their eyes when they're relaxed and contented, full to the brim with hot chips.

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Saturday 24 March 2012

Rhinos on my doorstep

The only way to save a rhinoceros is to save the environment in which it lives, because there's a mutual dependency between it and millions of other species of both animals and plants. 
 - David Attenborough 

Sketch in my Moleskine 200gsm A4 Folio Nature sketch-book 

When taking my grand-children to Lanseria Airport, we pass by a game farm just a couple of kilometers from where I live, and these two Rhino were grazing right by the fence, so I stopped and did a quick sketch. They didn't seem bothered by me at all, I was just on the other side of a rather rickety looking game fence, which I'm sure they could demolish with a step or two, should they so wish! And I was thrilled to see that they still have their horns, so many are being removed to thwart poachers in a conservation effort of these magnificent animals... 

Sometimes we're lucky enough to see the Lions close-by the fence, but I've never left my car to try and sketch them! 

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Wednesday 21 March 2012

Replenish your Soul

Watercolour flowers in terracotta pots on a vintage pine table, which I bought many years ago at a second-hand shop - processed in MS PowerPoint. Back-ground texture by Kim Klassen

Imaginary sunshine spills through the window in my potting shed, lighting up some potted plants on my Vintage Pine table. A potting shed is one of the greatest pleasures of life, a place where you can lose yourself, have contact with Mother nature, pushing your hands deep into the soft soil, creating life in a pot. A place where you can talk to the flowers without getting funny looks. The potting shed is the heart of the garden. It's here where the day begins and ends, where plants get their start, where creativity springs forth and seed packets whisper "Spring is just around the corner!" 

Ideally potting sheds are small outbuildings dedicated solely to gardening activities. Yet, you don't really need a separate structure to pot and propagate. All you need is a sheltered bit of functional space where you can comfortably work and wile away the hours. And replenish your soul. 

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Tuesday 20 March 2012

Hedgehog Babies

HOW DO HEDGEHOGS FEED THEIR YOUNG? 


From birth, the mother feeds her babies with milk. She has four pairs of nipples, which seems more than adequate, even for a large litter. However, the mother herself may be short of food, especially in a spell of dry or cold weather, and so unable to feed her entire family. Approximately one in five of all baby hedgehogs dies before it is old enough to leave the nest. 
Info from "Everything You Want To Know about Hedgehogs - Dilys Breese"
 
A couple of years ago I was lucky enough that Hedgie and Sethlong had a litter of eight babies, all of which survived! I started handling them from an early age, with the result that they even started coming out of the grass whenever I called, curiously peeking to see if I have any of their favourite snacks, meal worms. And as soon as I put the worms into the bowl, they would run over and hastily crunch them all up, snuffling around the bowl to see if they missed any. When they were a couple of months old, I found a lovely home for them in the huge aviary at the Krugersdorp Game Reserve, where they were well fed and safe from the raging winter fires we experience here every year. 

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Friday 16 March 2012

Practicing cactus

(A warning: If you have any propensity towards cactus love to begin with, moving to the desert will increase it exponentially!)

A long-standing passion - a passion most people find utterly boring and something only a cactus-lover will understand - THE LOVE OF CACTUS. So maybe this post is not for you, but if it is, read on!

It all started in the 1980's, when my (well-meaning) father gave me three Echeverias in a pot. I couldn't turn them down and hurt his feelings, but I had NO interest in those three succulents! When I got home, I hastily stuck them in the ground in some far-away corner in the garden, hoping they would disappear.

Echeveria glauca

A few months later I was working in the garden and decided to do something about that 'little lost corner' of my garden. Upon investigating, to my surprise, the three Echeverias had multiplied and there were dozens of them, all displaying the most gorgeous little pink bell-shaped flowers on long stalks. I was hooked! I mean, forgotten and neglected, NO attention whatsoever, yet they blossomed forth with the most gorgeous gifts. I felt so guilty I almost cried!


Now those spiky flat coins and furry ground knobs make me go nuts. Finding a new specie not in my collection is like striking gold - my stomach churns, my heart starts pounding and I just HAVE to have it!

I can spend hours fiddling with my cacti and succulents, removing seedlings and siblings from the garden and potting them in terracotta pots, I have displays all over the house, on various patios and in my garden shed. You'll find them on window sills, tree stumps, on little tables, in terracotta pots, jam tins, glass jars, buckets, cracked coffee mugs, on wooden palettes, on my desk, next to my computer, in fact, anywhere there is a flat surface! And heaven forbid I come across someone selling them at a market stand, I could buy up all their stock!

'They' say "It takes real guts to love a cactus!", but I have found it the easiest thing in the world!

I need to get some more!

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Prickly... (Cactus Echinopsis oxygona) - a Dung Beetle brooch hand-crafted with black glass jewels, silver wire and silver solder, sitting on a little piece of driftwood . bird's nest in Abelone shell (Perlemoen)

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and smooth.... (Echeveria elegans)

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prickly... (Aloe ciliaris)

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and smooth... (Haworthia Cymbiformis)

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prickly... (Aloe ferox)

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and smooth... (Gasteria)

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prickly and smooth... a collection on a wooden palette on my Patio. Rat-tail cactus far left and front right - Old Man's beard behind that, Aloes and Echeverias in metal tub.

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mostly smooth... Gasterias, Echeverias and some cacti on a Vintage Pine table in my Flower Room

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prickly... My latest acquisition - A cactus in an enamel bowl surrounded by four Haworthias and a tiny succulent peeping through the pebbles

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smooth - Echeveria glauca in an old concrete cast

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Wednesday 14 March 2012

Survival in the African Bush

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
- Charles Darwin


New-born antelope calf hiding in the grass in the African Bushveld.
W&N watercolour on X-pressit 300gsm


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The antelope is one of the many medium-sized mammals holding the African food chain together. Unlike deer that renew their horns annually, the antelope has strong permanent horns, that antelope mainly use to defend their herd or to fight other antelopes.

After mating, female antelopes give birth to a single calf or, more rarely, twins, after a gestation period that can last up to eight months. A mother and her newborn calf are vulnerable to predators, and antelopes have had to evolve different strategies for surviving this period. For most antelope species, the female gives birth in dense cover and leaves the calf while she feeds. The calf comes to its mother when she calls it, and once fed, the calf will hide away again. Once in its hiding place, the calf remains completely still, blending into the surrounding landscape becoming almost invisible. It will run away only if it is on the verge of being discovered.

Did you know that small antelope, such as dik-diks, tend to be monogamous? They live in a forest environment with patchy resources, and a male is unable to monopolize more than one female due to this sparse distribution. Larger forest species often form very small herds of 2–4 females and 1 male.

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