Where does it hurt?

As long as Man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.

What does my South Africa look like?

 
My South Africa smells of rain, of dust, of sea spray as the waves pound the powdery beaches. My South Africa smells like fear as the antelope runs for his life. My South Africa is bright blue skies, warm sunshine and spring rains turning everything green. My South Africa is open spaces, an epic wilderness; a leopard tortoise ambling alongside the road, a go-away bird chirping its distinctive chant in the trees.

Image from Wildlife Den

My South Africa is all these things and more, so much more.

Please don't hold me for long

(Postman butterfly - taken at Butterflies for Africa, Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa)

...But if you ever hold me, please do not hold me for long... let me go where I belong... I will leave a beautiful silken touch of colour... not on your fingers, but on your soul
- Aarti Kurana

My artwork available as an App for iPhone and iPad

Do you ever wish you had MORE icons/emojis on your iPhone or iPad to use when messaging? Sick and tired of all the same old icons on your phone?

Well, finally, a dream come true! Some of my artwork is now available as an App of stickers for iPhone and iPad, to use with iMessage, available on the Apple iStore, developed by Donovan Crewe from Ballito, South Africa. Both my Apps have already been featured in the iStore, with one being considered for PROMOTION.

App for iPhone or iPad - Maree Clarkson Fine Art - Birds

App for iPhone or iPad - Maree Clarkson Fine Art - African Animals

All these images are also available as stickers from my RedBubble store. Individual slices of personality, totally unique and 400% awesome! Turn a boring laptop / notebook / otherwise plain surface into your own personal game farm with a selection of animal stickers. Finally you can have lions, giraffe, buffalo and wild dogs all hanging out together being bros!

"Don't deem my spirit fled" sticker

If you take time to notice throughout your day, you will find that stickers are used for a tremendous number of reasons. Almost everywhere you look you’ll see stickers employed to decorate, advertise or communicate important information. Anyone trying to promote a business or organization should understand the usefulness of stickers in achieving their goals. Those who enjoy crafting and decorating will also love using stickers to brighten up and enhance any project, be it a photo album, a diary or journal or storage boxes, even Christmas gifts!

"Three Little Birds 2" Christmas sticker

Stickers and labels will never go out of fashion -  When you want longevity but you haven’t got a blockbuster budget, stickers are the perfect vehicle to make sure your message really sticks around!  So if you're looking for that special sticker for a gift or to convey a special message, please feel free to visit my portfolio, where you will find a wide range to suit all tastes.

 Keepers of the Sacred Law Sticker

(Crow sketch done from "Midmarsh Jottings" beautiful photograph) 

Pippin, the Bush baby sticker

::

Can you spot the fungus?

These are Bracket Fungi even though they looked like mushrooms when starting out, almost indistinguishable from the rocks, but they are rock hard and sturdy, like most Brackets.

Like all fungi, bracket fungus likes a damp environment and tree bracket fungi attack the hardwood interior, and therefore, the structural integrity of the tree and are the cause of white or brown rot. 

 

Luckily these appeared in a damp spot next to my garden path amongst some rocks and were not near any of my trees. Make sure the bases of trees don’t stand in water. As soon as the infection is noted, removal of the bracket fungus shelves will at least prevent the spore release that may infect other trees. The good news is that these fungi attack the old and the weak and often occur after a tree is damaged by man or nature and play an integral part in the decomposition of wood.

Standard English Name(s): bracket fungus, shelf fungus, tree fungus, conk

Scientific Name(s): various species of Fomes, Fomitopsis, Ganoderma, etc.

 

 

Feathers appear when angels are near

A Dandelion flower and a feather in my garden, Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa)

The internet is full of “when you find a feather, what does it mean?” I read up on some of these and the overall conclusion is that, when you find a feather, it is a sign that you are going to get a message soon. Or that some thing or another is going to happen to you. And if the feather is white, it is a message from an angel. A black one means that the guardian of your soul is near.

Now I (maybe) understand that city folk might look upon finding a feather as some sort of a sign, but for us country folk, feathers are a big part of everyday life, especially if you happen to have (13) chickens, and lots of garden birds, like I do. My yard is covered in feathers, especially during moulting season. White ones, orange ones, grey ones, black ones, yellow ones and mottled ones – virtually every colour of the rainbow, even blue and purple.

Don’t get me wrong, I am totally enchanted by every feather I see, some more beautiful than others, but I regard them as part of one of nature’s wonders, like falling leaves and baby chicks and tiny flowers.
One woman wrote that she found a feather “around odd places where birds don’t fly around” and was wondering what the message could be. Has she ever considered that the wind might be playing a part in this? Or is my garden just filled with messages from angels?

In a garden one is making memories

.
Probably most of us have been in a garden on a particular day and time and felt a rush of well-being – of joy, being recharged, uplifted, a sense of healing, being in tune with the infinite. Gardens can clear away the fog of the noisy, fast, techno world, and the mindless focus on the clutter of trivia. Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help.

Gardening is an instrument of grace. In a garden one is not growing rare plants and trees… one is making memories… Gardening is one thing, maybe even the only thing, that brings people from all over this world, together. Gardening teaches us compassion – just walk past the ‘nearly’ dead tree every day, pat it on the bark and whisper, “just hold on for one more year”. It really does still serve a purpose – little raptors like the Fiscal Shrike loves the vantage point the dead branches give her and many birds will bask in the early morning warmth of the sun on a cold winter’s morning in the very top branches.
.

.
Consider what you bring to the partnership and what the rest of nature brings. Gardening as a partner with the rest of nature means we have to let go of control to allow the garden to do its magic. When we allow ourselves to see the garden more in its own terms, to reach beyond ourselves to the garden, then we become more one with it, and no longer standing outside and above. A soul garden is one where the forces of nature are more powerfully evident than our own power. This is honoured and expressed through plants that regenerate, and are thereby not as dependent on humans for their existence. These are often labelled as weeds. There is a dance between the power of the weed and us. Allowing weeds to grow in your garden is not just a new fashion, which calls for a wild patch alongside tame ones; wildness is necessary within a garden, it’s a connection between nature and ourselves.

My own private forest where wildlife abounds.

A wildlife haven for insects, birds and small mammals

 

 Sitting in the shade here, watching insects and birds, is a real joy!

::