Kentucky, my pet Rooster

Hope is a thing with feathers. 

That perches in the soul. 

And sings the tunes without the words. 

And never stops at all. 

- Verse from Emily Dickinson poem 

Watercolour on Bockingford

Besides my love for all animals, and for birds in particular, my love affair with chickens started in the late 70’s, when we bought our first smallholding (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) and, of course, the first thing anybody on a smallholding does, is get chickens, ducks and geese!

After a couple of months of settling in on our new smallholding, I was given some Bantam chickens by a neighbour, and there was a mad scramble to erect some chicken coups. They were prolific little breeders and soon the yard was full of mothers with little chicks , all running like mad for a tit-bit when they see me.

One newly-hatched little fellow, however, seemed not to be able to keep up with the rest, so I duly ‘rescued’ him, carrying him around in a basket and feeding him at every opportunity. The result was Kentucky, the most beautiful specimen of a rooster I had ever seen, with bright, coppery feathers adorning his neck and the most beautiful blue, black and burgundy tail feathers a rooster could wish for! Although he ruled his chosen hens with an iron claw, he always was a bit of a loner, spending hours following me around, hens in tow, or roosting on the back of the couch in the lounge (with lots of newspapers on the floor!)

He spent many years with me, preferring to roost in the tree outside my bedroom window, in stead of the chicken coup with the rest, and my heart was broken when I went out one morning and found part of him under the tree, half eaten, killed by a Genet during the night. But he lives in my heart forever and I’m sure he’s still watching over me from chicken heaven.

My apologies that I haven't got any photographs, but this was in the days before I had a computer, wasn't much into photography and, of course, wasn't blogging yet!

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Wireless technology

Here in the rural area where I live in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa, telephone poles are becoming a thing of the past. The copper wire has been stolen so many times that Telkom has abandoned the land-line system and resorted to a satellite telephone system. I’ll miss the poles and lines in the landscape, they provided great perches for birds of prey and congregating swallows before they leave on their great winter migration up North. 

I AM a copper wire slung in the air, 

Slim against the sun 

I make not even a clear line of shadow 

Night and day I keep singing—humming and thrumming: 

It is love and war and money; it is the fighting and 

the tears, the work and want, 

Death and laughter of men and women passing through me, 

carrier of your speech, 

In the rain and the wet dripping, in the dawn and the 

shine drying, 

A copper wire. 

- Carl Sandburg 

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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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My Acacia 'karroo'

My Acacia Karroo (Soetdoring - Vachellia karoo) after the Springs rains October 2009
- Camera : FujiFinepix 2800Zoom

My thorn trees (Acacia) are just coming into bloom and for those that suffer from hay-fever, this is really a bad time of the year, especially if we haven't had much rain. Spring started off very dry, and we have only had some decent rain late in November this year.

During Winter I'm able to prune the tree's low-hanging branches a bit and I just love keeping some of the branches with the HUGE thorns for display around the house - they become quite a conversation piece!

This is one of South Africa's most beautiful and useful trees. It is integrally part of our country's history having been used for everything from raft-making to sewing needles and fencing for the houses of the royal Zulu women. The thorns were even used by early naturalists to pin the insects they collected! It is very widespread throughout southern Africa and there are different forms in some places, which can be confusing. Acacia karroo may be found from the Western Cape through to Zambia and Angola. In tropical Africa it is replaced by Acacia seyal. The name Acacia is derived from Greek "akis" a point or barb. Karroo is one of the old spellings of karoo which cannot be corrected because of the laws governing botanical nomenclature (giving of names).

The sweet thorn makes a beautiful garden specimen. The bright yellow flowers look very striking against the dark green foliage. The rough, dark brown bark is also most attractive. The flowers are sweetly scented and are renowned for attracting insects which are essential to any bird garden. Birds also like to make nests in thorn trees as the thorns offer them some protection from predators. These thorns can grow up to 6" (15cm) long and if they are very thick, it's an indication of an abundance of water. Caterpillars of 10 species of butterflies are dependant on the tree for survival. These include, the club-tailed charaxes (Charaxes zoolina zoolina) and the topaz-spotted blue (Azanus jesous). In cold and dry areas like where I live, the tree is deciduous.

Regions where the Acacia Karroo can be found - I can be found approx. where the red dot is at the bottom of Southern Africa. (Click on pic to enlarge)

Vachellia karoo - Acacia 'karroo' flowers" Watercolour sketch - Maree©

Acacia karroo also known as the Sweet Thorn (Vachellia karoo), is a species of Acacia, and the tree is especially useful as forage and fodder for domestic and wild animals. Apparently, there is no risk of poisoning from it. Goats seem to like A. karoo better than cattle. The flowers appear in early summer in a mass of yellow pompons and make a very good source of forage for honey bees; honey from it has a pleasant taste.

An edible gum seeps from cracks in the tree's bark. The gum can be used to manufacture candy and it used to have economic importance as "Cape Gum". In dry areas, the tree's presence is a sign of water, both above and underground.

It is a tree of open woodland and wooded grassland. It grows to its greatest size when rainfall of 800-900mm is received but can grow and even thrive in very dry conditions such as the Karroo region of western South Africa. The requirement here is for deep soils that allow its roots to spread. Everywhere in its range, however, the tree is easily recognised by its distinctive long white paired thorns and coffee coloured bark, both of which are very attractive. In the tropics it shows little variation but at the southern end of its range it becomes more variable in appearance.

Common names in various languages include Karoo Thorn, Doringboom, Cape Gum, Cassie, Piquants Blancs, Cassie Piquants Blancs, Cockspur Thorn, Deo-Babool, Doorn Boom, Kaludai, Kikar, Mormati, Pahari Kikar, and Udai Vel

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Jacky Hangman

My morning prayer :
“Bless the flowers and the weeds, my birds and the bees.”

This is a page from one of my Nature Journals - Watercolour in Moleskine 200gsm Watercolour Sketch-book - 12" x 8" - Maree©

The Fiscal Shrike has been a busy little lady, filling up her larder in one of my Celtis trees - this morning I found a Finch fledgling spiked through one of the thorns on the tree and Jackie was sitting close-by, keeping a watchful eye on me.

I love my Shrikes living in my garden and they know when I approach the feeding tables that it's snack-time. I have a special feeder just for them, where I fill a pine cone with mince and suet, their favourites.

They provide me with hours of pleasure, watching and sketching them as they either sit in the top of an old dead tree or swoop down suddenly, landing on target of some tasty morsel. They are cheeky and precocious, harassing other birds no end, making sure their territory is clear of competition for food. They are also not past raiding nests, often taking newly hatched nestlings, much to my consternation as I helplessly watch.

The Fiscal Shrike is also named 'Jacky Hangman' due to its habit of impaling its prey on Acacia thorns to store the food for later consumption. In my garden they also use the White Karee, which has thorns all along it's trunk when it is young. My Fiscals often spike grasshoppers, small lizards and even mice on these large thorns and they also use the barbed wire and the spikes on top of the palisade fencing.

One of the Shrike's larders in the Celtis africana

Camera: Kodak C195 Digital

Grey Crowned Cranes

"Crowned Crane" Indian ink and watercolour - Maree©

The Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum) is a bird in the crane family Gruidae. It occurs in dry Savannah in Africa south of the Sahara, although it nests in somewhat wetter habitats.

There are two subspecies. The East African B. r. gibbericeps (Crested Crane) occurs from eastern Democratic Republic of the Conge through Uganda, of which it is the national bird, and Kenya to eastern South Africa. It has a larger area of bare red facial skin above the white patch than the smaller Balearica regulorum regulorum (South African Crowned Crane) which breeds from Angola South to South Africa.

This species and the closely related Black Crowned Crane are the only cranes that can roost in trees, because of a long hind toe that can grasp branches. This habit, amongst other things, is a reason why the relatively small Balearica cranes are believed to closely resemble the ancestral members of the Gruidae.


"Grey Crowned Crane Dance" watercolour - Maree©

The Grey Crowned Crane has a breeding display involving dancing, bowing, and jumping. It has a booming call which involves inflation of the red gular sac. It also makes a honking sound quite different from the trumpeting of other crane species.



The nest is a platform of grass and other plants in tall wetland vegetation. The Grey Crowned Crane lays a clutch of 2-5 eggs. Incubation is performed by both sexes and lasts 28-31 days. Chicks fledge at 56-100 days.

The Grey Crowned Crane is about 1 m (3.3 ft) tall and weighs 3.5 kg (7.7 lbs). Its body plumage is mainly grey. The wings are also predominantly white, but contain feathers with a range of colours. The head has a crown of stiff golden feathers. The sides of the face are white, and there is a bright red inflatable throat pouch. The bill is relatively short and grey, and the legs are black. The sexes are similar, although males tend to be slightly larger. Young birds are greyer than adults, with a feathered buff face. Like all cranes, it feeds on insects, reptiles and small mammals.



Although the Grey Crowned Crane remains common over much of its range, it faces threats to its habitat due to drainage, overgrazing, and pesticide pollution. Recent evidence of large-scale declines, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape provinces, and the restriction of its range in the Free State and Transkei qualifies the Grey Crowned Crane as Vulnerable. The loss of wetland breeding habitat, direct poisoning of birds in agricultural lands and the removal of chicks from the wild has led to this species’ reduction in population size. The current population is estimated at 3 500 - 4 500 Adults