Soaking up the Winter sun

Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul. 

- Luther Burbank

Cosmos are like sunshine to the ground! 

Two Pink Cosmos flowers still soaking up the winter sun in my garden, they have long surpassed their usual time of flowering. A bird must have carried in a seed, for I only have this one Cosmos plant, but it's rewarded me with some beautiful flowers! 

Camera : Canon EOS 550D 

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Pebbles and sand

I just love collecting all sorts from nature - pebbles, leaves, grass, crystals, twigs, driftwood, wasps' nests, feathers, porcupine quills, birds' nests, seed pods and even dung! It's a habit I picked up as a child and still practice avidly. It feeds my soul, soothes my senses and pleases my eye. 

A collection of pebbles and crystals in a wooden African bowl next to my bed

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Below is a lovely life lesson I picked up on the internet... 

'A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 2" diameter. 

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. 

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The students laughed. 

He asked his students again if the jar was full. They agreed that yes, it was. The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. 

"Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life. The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children - anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed. 

The pebbles are the other things in life that matter, but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff. 

If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important. 

Pay attention to the things that are critical in your life. 

Play with your children. 

Take your partner out dancing. 

There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and fix the disposal. 

Take care of the rocks first - the things that really matter. 

Set your priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.' 

— un-attributed 

Seedpods and dung from an Antelope 

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Porcupine quills collected on a friend's farm 

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Guinea fowl feather in my garden 

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The OC Robin

I have this Obsessive Compulsive Cape Robin that has decided that my kitchen is the best place in the world!. He also wanders through the house as if he's been doing it his whole life. And no, he's not a pet! 

A couple of months ago I sat and watched as the Cape Robin, a total new-comer to my garden, was testing out one of the bird baths. He sat on the edge, dipping his beak and shaking his head, testing the temperature and getting a good splattering at the same time. This carried on for about 3 or 4 minutes before he summoned up the courage to hop in and actually bath. 

Then he flew up onto a nearby rock, preening and cleaning his feathers from head to toe before flying up into the trees and disappearing from sight. Little did I know that he's a totally peculiar character - he actually seems to prefer the indoors to the out-doors. 

Entering through the front door which is always open, he'll spend hours wandering from room to room, sometimes walking, sometimes flying. His favourite spot, however, is standing in front of my stainless steel dustbin in the kitchen, flying up at his reflection, as one sees birds doing to motor car mirrors, coming back frequently from his other trips through the house to once again challenge himself in the shiny dustbin. 

I have wondered if he could possibly have been someone's pet at one stage, he's so totally at ease in the house. I also believe that he is lonely and that the obsessive flying up at his image is possibly because he thinks it might be a potential mate. 

He has learnt what my whistle means when I fill the bird feeders and I can now actually whistle from anywhere inside the house and he will actually come in and have a look if anything is on offer. I especially put minced meat on one feeding table for him, and am now considering leaving a snack for him in the kitchen! 

I feel absolutely blessed that he has chosen my home to be peculiar in, but I do SO wish for another Robin to join him here in my garden....

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Photographs taken in my garden in Tarlton, South Africa 

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Mommy Bobby and her clutch of 10

“Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.”

- Unknown

Day 1

Mommy Bobby, one of Solly's hens, chose to make her nest under a truck canopy lying on the lawn in the workshop area of our business, waiting to be fitted on one of the trucks, snugly out of the rain and harm's way. For three weeks the workshop staff waited impatiently (upon my strict threats that the canopy was not to be touched!) as Bobby sat on her clutch of 12 eggs, fluffing herself to double her normal size should anybody dare to come near. 

Then, at about 11am one morning, she triumphantly emerged from under-neath the canopy, keeping her brood of 10 close to her side, much to the pleasure and relief of all in the workshop, who immediately got to work moving the canopy, now leaving Bobby and her brood totally homeless! 

Now I know I was supposed to do this long before the time, but Solly and I quickly scrambled to erect a make-shift new home for them, finishing the coup that same afternoon. At about 4pm, we slowly herded them towards their new home, securely fenced, protected against the rain and a large area where they stayed for about a week before I opened the gate and introduced them to the garden. Now they spend their days happily scratching around in the garden before she leads them home back to the coup at about 4.30pm every day. 

I’m really enjoying having chickens in my garden once more after an absence of almost 2 years! 

Day 7 

Quick make-shift home for Bobby and her clutch 

Bobby seeking safety inside the chicken coup while Chrissie, my gardener, was mowing the lawn 

Happily playing in the garden 

Mommy Bobby and the brood’s new home – 

I placed an old garden table and chairs in their area, where I do some sketching of them, what a job, they’re never still for a moment! 

Camera : Kodak EasyShare C195

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Dainty but strong

I have one lonely Cosmos plant that took root in my garden, and then fell over because it was so tall and heavy that it needed to be propped up. I thought it wouldn't flower after falling over, but it did produce a whole bunch of flowers, obviously much loved by these pesky beetles that eat holes in every flower they find. 

Interesting info : Historians believe that the seeds of the flower, originally from Mexico, were brought in with bags of horse-feed for the English troops during the Anglo-Boer War. 

Camera: Kodak EasyShare C195 

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