Return to me....

“To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” he said, ”you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived…”
- From Jonathan Livingstone Seagull

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Watercolour in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book - 8" x 5"

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I've just returned from a short visit to the North Coast in KwaZulu Natal (South Africa), and one of my favourite past-times is watching and feeding the seagulls. Something I didn't know, is that Seagulls are most closely related to the terns (family Sternidae) and only distantly related to auks, skimmers, and more distantly to the waders. But whoever they are related to, I personally would categorise them with Crows, one of my favourite, most intelligent birds!

The same as crows, most gulls will take live food or scavenge opportunistically. And their love for man-made "junk food" defies belief! They will go to ANY length for some tasty hot potato chips with tomato sauce, and are VERY diligent in their pursuit of these tasty snacks. This chap managed to grab my bag of potato crisps right out of my hand, flying off to settle on some rocks not far from me to enjoy his prize. But it was short-lived, he was soon flocked by all the other seagulls, relinquishing his prize to return to me for an easier snack!

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Insectilicious

I wanted to know the name of every stone and flower and insect and bird and beast. I wanted to know where it got its colour, where it got its life - but there was no one to tell me.
- George Washington Carver

Leucocelis rubra - or Amethyst fruit chafer (Identification kindly supplied by Joh - see comments below - thank you Joh!)

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We don't have the same problem today as what Carver had, if we want to know something, we just Google it. But no amount of Googling got me to identify this beetle. At first glance I would've thought it's a Christmas beetle, but the tapered body at the back and iridescent colour leads me to believe that it's a fruit beetle of sorts (besides the fact that it's obviously enjoying this orange I put out on one of my bird feeders!)

We all know the big, yellow and black fruit beetle often found on our fruit trees and this little chap is about half their size.

African fruit beetle - Pachnoda sinuata (Pic from Wikipedia)

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Fruit beetles are strong fliers and can cause fruit and flower mayhem during the course of their day's foraging. At night, they repair to special 'sleeping trees' or else bury themselves in the soil at the foot of the very plants they have been ravaging.

The larvae of fruit beetles feed on decaying vegetable debris and on plant roots. The female of Pachnoda sinuata takes a trick from the dung beetle: she makes several little balls of dung (or compost) and then lays an egg in each of them. The tiny larvae that hatch feed on the contents of these balls, before transforming themselves into pupae. You may find up to a dozen of these little dung balls attached to one another within the warm, moist intimacy of an aromatic manure heap or pile of compost, or in a well-fertilised flowerbed.

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Sometimes...

... I need only to stand wherever I am . to be blessed.

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Every morning I get woken by the chatter of my Greater Striped Swallows as the parents and their two off-spring sit on my bathroom wall in the early morning sun. They have gotten quite tame and will now allow me to get fairly close.

Sunrise and my swallow glides above, keeping an eye on me

Home-made security on top of my bathroom court yard wall

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February gifts - Light

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As a citizen of sunny Earth, it's hard not to take light for granted. Light is at once both obvious and mysterious. We are bathed in yellow warmth every day and stave off the darkness with incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.

However, I often sit on my patio at night, switching off the garden lights and lighting my old paraffin lamp, sipping a hot cup of coffee by its soft glow, revelling in the insects and night creatures that appear after dark - huge Emperor moths, weird, unmentionable creepy crawlies, excitement as an Hedgehog snuffles around and, if I'm lucky, the joy of hearing one of my resident Eagle Owls settling on the roof.

I salute you, light, for a lightless world would be a gloomy place indeed!

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Picture taken in my garden in Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa) - Camera Kodak EasyShare C195 - Back-ground texture by Kim Klassen

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The Midnight Hour

WHY ARE HEDGEHOGS NOCTURNAL?

The hedgehog is well protected from predators by its spiny coat, so there seems to be no reason why it should be active only at night. But, biologically speaking, nocturnal activity has always been the norm for mammals.

The main reason for the hedgehog's night-time roamings is that its food is mostly nocturnal too. The creatures it eats are small invertebrates that are active at night to avoid other predators, or must keep out of the heat of the sun to avoid water loss.
Info from "Everything You Want To Know about Hedgehogs - Dilys Breese"

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The Larder

“Even the most resourceful housewife cannot create miracles from a rice-less pantry.”
- Chinese proverb

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My resident Fiscal Shrike often makes use of the barbed wire fence and the palisade fencing to store her snacks, but a couple of weeks ago I discovered a new larder in my Celtis africana (White Stinkwood) tree - this time a whole baby Laughing dove - I watched over the span of a few days as she fed her family, often returning to pluck some juicy piece for a hungry little mouth. She successfully reared two lovely youngsters and all four of them are spending time in the garden, but not for long - soon the parents will lead them away to find their own territory.
Camera : Kodak EasyShare C195

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“I sometimes think that the act of bringing food is one of the basic roots of all relationships.”
~Dali Lama

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Love is in the air

The first Cosmos flowers of the season...

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Love is in the air
Everywhere I look around
Love is in the air
Every sight and every sound

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Love is in the air
In the whisper of the trees
Love is in the air
In the flower and the breeze

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Love is in the air
In the rising of the sun
Love is in the air
When the day is nearly done

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Normally the countryside is covered in Cosmos by now, starting about November through to March ~ but this year (and it seems every year lately) we only have a scarce spattering along the road. I had to traipse DEEP into the veld to capture these few...

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Bulbine frutescens

Bulbinella in my garden, Tarlton, South Africa
Camera : Kodak EasyShare C195
Back-ground texture by Kim Klassen

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(I use the Latin name Bulbine frutescens to avoid confusion as the common names Bulbinella and Bulbine seem to lead to arguments in herb circles. The plant I mean has long thinnish succulent leaves, and spike-like clusters of small yellow or orange star-shaped flowers.)

This wonderful indigenous plant is, like Lavender, an outstanding remedy for minor burns, cuts and abrasions, and insect bites. Simply break off a leaf and squeeze the juice or jelly onto affected areas.

The ease of application makes this an excellent herb to plant with your culinary herbs just outside the kitchen door - not to cook with, but to use for kitchen mishaps like burns and cuts.

The juice of Bulbine frutescens also helps to stop bleeding. Use also for rough and cracked skin and lips, ringworm, and cold sores. Scabies also seems relieved by regular application, but remember that Scabies is caused by a small bug, so any treatment of scabies must be holistic and include thorough laundering and ironing of bedding and clothes (to get rid of family and friends).

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A place where I can hang my heart...

The front entrance of my home, densely framed by two species of Karee - Karee viminalis (White Karee) and Karee lancea (black Karee) as well as various indigenous grasses and aloes.

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I've had a couple of requests to 'share' a bit more about where I live on my little piece of African soil. This is my home in Tarlton, South Africa, situated on an 8.5ha smallholding. When landscaping my garden about 7 years ago, I took inspiration from Africa, and nature in particular, choosing to plant only indigenous trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers, with the result that I have a rather wild garden with not much colour, as indigenous flowers and shrubs tend to be less spectacular than most exotic plants, which just don't do well in our climate at all, with very hot and sometimes dry summers and winters that can dish out the coldest of frosts.

I am not ostentatious by nature and prefer the simple and natural things in life. Here I can putter around in my old garden clothes and find my way back to a place that feels right - weeding does that for me. Here I can dream BIG dreams, not all of which become reality but I certainly have fun along the way!

Hope you enjoy, I know I just LOVE to see other people's living spaces, be it small or large, simple or ornate, in suburbia or the country, in a basement or a sky-scraper, inland or at the coast.

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A garden ornament hanging from a Karee Viminalis (White Karee), and Jacko, our Fox terrier, sitting at the front door

An old (and now rusty!) paraffin lamp provides some light at night. On the corner of the pathway is a clump of Restio (Cape Reed grass) and right at the back is planted some Tiger Grass (Miscanthus). Grown in India, Australia and Madagascar, South Africa and other warmer countries in Europe, Tiger grass is believed to be the grass that the Bengal tiger uses to clean and maintain its sleek coat. "With the knowledge that the animal kingdom is more in tune with its habitat, Bengal tigers roll around in this grass to soothe wounds and skin irritations, devouring its leaves while waltzing around!" (Don't ask me if that's true, I read it on a Miscanthus site while looking for info on this plant and now can't remember where it was!)

The Tiger Grass gets these beautiful white plumes at the onset of winter before dying down.

One of the many bird baths in my garden. An old log is being cleaned up by some termites.

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My vantage point on the patio from where I survey the birds and my garden. Nothing like a warm cup of tea and a sketch-book while watching their antics at the bird feeders! A concrete-relief gecko adorns the patio wall.

A carport turned Studio/Potting shed. Here I pot and plant to my heart's content, sometimes sketching and painting here while my resident Swallows chatter with me.

My Studio cum Office - which often spills over to the kitchen table below!

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A hailstorm we had a couple of weeks ago - just about destroyed half the garden! It was actually much worse than the pic shows, which was taken once I dared set foot outside and half of it had melted already from the rain that followed!

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Even though it's almost only the beginning of February, I can see by the way the setting sun is moving and the chilly mornings that the season is turning and soon we'll be heading for Autumn.

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I live in this world I have made for myself.

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Rise and Shine

"WAKING UP"

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Hibernation is not continuous; a hedgehog usually rouses for a short time every seven to 11 days. Its body temperature returns to normal, and it usually just remains alert inside its nest, although sometimes it may leave the nest and be active for several days or even move to another nest.

We don't know why this happens; it doesn't benefit the hedgehog, since fat, and therefore energy, is consumed in the process of waking and going back into hibernation. Arousals seem to be spontaneous, but some may be due to outside factors such as flooding, disturbance of the nest by animals or humans, or unseasonably warm weather.
Info from "Everything You Want To Know about Hedgehogs - Dilys Breese"

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