Pachypodium lamerei 1

My 15-year old 3-meter tall Pachypodium lamerei in the summer of 2005/2006. With fragrant frangipani-like flowers, this barrel-shaped tree exudes character.

My 15-year old Pachypodium lamerei (also known as the Madagascar Palm) suffered many a severe winter here in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa, to such an extent that it had been frosted down so many times that it eventually had 3 stems. Then in the Winter of 2006, it finally succumbed and died completely, much to my utter distress.

Pachypodium dead after the severe winter

It started off as a baby in a pot, being outside all summer long and brought into the house every winter. It got transplanted into a bigger pot every year until, finally, it was too big to bring into the house and I decided to plant it out in the garden in 2003. Every year it got bigger, rewarding me with those most beautiful white flowers every spring. I was truly devastated when that winter killed it.

Pachypodium flower

I'm not one for replacing plants that get killed by winter, but in January 2008 I broke down and got a new Pachy, and yes, he's in a pot and comes inside every winter! I'm a sucker for succulents, what can I say?!

October 2009 - next to my 'Old Man's Beard' cactus

February 2010 - sharing space with some Echeverias

11th November 2011 - sharing space with some newly-planted nasturiums

He has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 4 years and will soon also have to get transplanted into a bigger pot and DON'T ask me what I'm going to do when he gets too big to be moved around, one step at a time!

Pachypodium lamerei has a tall, silvery-gray trunk covered with sharp 6.25 cm spines. Long, narrow leaves grow only at the top of the trunk, like a palm tree. It rarely branches. Plants grown outdoors will reach up to 6 metres. It has large thorns and leaves mostly just at the top of the plant. It is a stem succulent and comes from the island Madagascar and bears large, fragrant flowers. Blooming time is late spring to early summer.

This plant grows best in warm climates and full sun. It will not tolerate hard frosts, and will likely drop most of its leaves if exposed to even a light frost. It is easy to grow as a house plant, if you can provide the sunlight it needs. Use a fast-draining potting mix, such as a cactus mix and pot in a container with drainage holes to prevent root rot. Water sparingly and do not fertilize. Do not water in the winter months when there is no foliage, for this is what killed my Pachy.

Today Pachypodium consists of about 20 species; five are native to continental Africa and the rest to Madagascar. In Africa they are found in arid areas or in dry situations in Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa (Northern Province, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern, Western and Eastern Cape).

Camera used: FujiFinepix 2800Zoom



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Farm talk - Winter in S.A.

After quite a severe winter and struggling with the many 'veld' fires we get here in South Africa every year (we're very much similar to Australia in that regard, and where do they COME from?) - the first spring rains have arrived - and it really amazes me that, no matter HOW much you water the garden, just 5mm of rain and everything is flowering, towering and spreading with zest and zeal.

The fires are always a mystery to me - part of our smallholding is not situated near a road, so it cannot be from somebody carelessly throwing down a match or cigarette, yet the fires would always start 'somewhere' and then spread ferociously the length and breadth of properties in its path, resulting in every possible helping hand rushing in with wet sacks, branches and whatever is available to try and extinguish the demon and rushing to get animals out of harm's way.

Life on a smallholding or small farm is always very much at the mercy of the rain - too little and you have to supplement from the borehole and in any drought situation, there's always the worry that the borehole might dry up. This is every small farmer's greatest fear, as it's costly and time-consuming drilling a new borehole, or two or three, because no matter how strongly the 'water diviner' insists THIS is the place to drill, there is no guarantee that one will find any water. Too much rain and the potatoes might rot.

During one such drought, the water level in our trusty 20-year old borehole dropped to beyond a depth that was viable to try and retrieve, so we opted for drilling a new hole. Now this takes major organisation, because you must remember that, from the minute that your water tanks run dry, you are in a position of having absolutely NO water - no bathing, no cup of tea, no water to cook with (so you end up frying or grilling everything), not even to wash your hands with!

So while the drilling contractor is busy setting up his equipment, we were busy organising with the next door farmer to get some water pumped into our tanks for daily use - pipes and fittings have to be bought and trenches dug for hundreds of meters to get the water into the tanks 10m high - there are equations to be worked out between the Kilowatt strength of the neighbour's pump, the distance to the tanks and the pressure needed to get the water 10m up ...

Once the water from the neighbour has filled the tanks, utter caution is exercised in the usage of the water - every spare drop is used to full capacity for flushing toilets, watering plants and supplying the animals with enough to drink. And possibly weeks later, when the new borehole is finished, all the equipment is removed from the old borehole and fitted to the newly drilled hole, once again trenches are dug for new electrical connections and then, hopefully, beautiful, sweet cool water once again flows.

I wonder how many town folk ever give this precious commodity a second thought ...

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Male or Female?

Anatomy of a Hedgehog -




THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SEXES




It is often assumed that large, powerful-looking hedgehogs are male and that smaller, more delicate ones are female. This is not the case.









If your resident hedgehog is co-operative and lets you take a look at its underbelly, sexing it is a straightforward matter.




In adult males, the penis shows as a large projection (similar to dogs) approximately where you would expect the navel to be, about 5cm in front of the base of the tail.




In females, there are two opening close together, near the base of the tail.

Info from "Everything You Want To Know about hedgehogs - Dilys Breese"










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Crocodile in Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens

What if you decided to visit a Botanical Garden and, while enjoying a nice and relaxing picnic, you were suddenly faced with the jaws of a crocodile some metres away? That possibility is now a reality at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden (Roodepoort, Gauteng, South Africa) after an approximately 80 cm young crocodile made the waterfall its new home. It has been named Snapper.

It was first sighted by a visitor, Vimal Sewlal, who took a picture of it whilst trying to capture the majestic flow of the water at the waterfall. He told the staff on duty about his scoop. This was dismissed as there was a possibility that it might have been mistaken for a huge monitor lizard sighted at the Garden a few months earlier. He then forwarded the pictures to the office proving beyond any doubt that we had a real crocodile on the estate.

Professor Graham Alexander, a reptile specialist, confirmed that it was indeed an indigenous Nile crocodile that was probably kept as a pet and might have escaped accidentally or was released on purpose by its owners. ''People are not responsible with these dangerous animals and it's highly likely that the owners did not have a permit and decided to release it in the Garden'' he said.



He said the predator was unlikely to make the waterfall its home as the area is too cold. At its age it is not yet a danger to humans although as young as it is, according to Prof. Alexander, it can deliver a nasty bite to anyone encroaching on its territory.

The Garden management is in the process of getting the young crocodile relocated but still working on procedures with the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development regarding a permit. The new tenant has become a draw card and talking point of visitors who come to the Garden. He became a celebrity when he featured on the second page of some national newspapers on 21 October. People have been descending on the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden over the past weekends in the hope of glimpsing this beautiful reptile. It can usually be seen sunbathing near the waterfall. Snapper is probably feeding on frogs, fish, birds and crabs. The Garden is now home to the king of the sky (Black/Verreaux's Eagle) and the beast of the fresh water. Coincidentally the river that runs through the Garden is known as Crocodile River. Visit us on www.facebook.com/wsnbg to see more.
- Taken from my WWBG Newsletter

FARM TALK - Straight from the Cow's Mouth!

Life on a farm or smallholding is certainly exciting and out-of-the-ordinary, to say the least. The thrill of having a big tract of land at one's disposal conjures up images of green fields, herds of cows, goats, sheep or whatever and neat, tidy and sturdy fences keeping everybody organised and in their place, sheds for lots of storage and the farm cat lazily strolling around on the look-out for those pesky rodents. The (old) tractor and trailer is loading and moving bales of food and the sprinklers are gently wetting the earth and getting everything to grow, grow, grow into MONEY!

For the lady of the farm, there are images of a rambling, yet comfortable, old farmhouse with chimneys and wrap-around porches, rolling green lawns and a herb garden close to the kitchen. Home-made butter, full cream Jersey milk, home-made bread and fresh garden vegetables are first on the list of things to do.



And of course, there have to be chickens (for Sunday lunch - except we can't slaughter Kentucky, the rooster, because he's such a character, or his wife Hendrina, because she's so sweet) and eggs for breakfast, to go with the home-made bread. You might have a couple of pigs (for the bacon - just not Miss Piggy because we reared her with a bottle) and then the kids want some rabbits, because there will be lots of carrots to feed them.



So now the vegetable garden has become a priority (after all the pens for chickens, pigs, rabbits, goats and sheep have been erected). And after all the beds have been properly prepared, fertilised and planted, at great expense, the first seedlings start showing their heads. Your next priority is a scarecrow or SOMETHING to keep away all the birds destroying the seedlings (after you have put up bird feeders all over the garden to attract garden birds!).

The vegetables are ready to be harvested and suddenly you find that EVERYTHING is ready at the same time! You now have 20 bags of cabbages, thousands of carrots (the rabbits can't keep up! even though the original two have now become 11), enough beetroot for several restaurants (a business opportunity?), every shelf and drawer of the refrigerator is packed with tomatoes and you have enough green beans and peas for six months. And family and friends can't understand why they have to pay for "free" vegetables from your own garden.

You also have so much milk and butter and cream now, that you decide this is definitely worth the trouble of selling it. You spend your mornings in the 'bakkie' (LDV) delivering milk (which has to be in an utterly bacteria-free bottle otherwise it goes sour within a couple of hours, so you spent the whole of last night sterilising bottles and getting up early was a nightmare) ... and there's still so much to do when you get back ... The chickens and rabbits have to be fed (and there's a hole in the fence so the rabbits are all in the vegetable garden), the milk from the cows that were milked at dawn has to be de-creamed (for the butter), the butter has to be made and bottles sterilised once again - and some of the neighbours never left their bottles out, so you actually have to rush to town as well to buy a dozen more. And the local market where you established a contact for selling some of your vegetables expects their delivery before 7.30am. You suddenly remember that you also have to be back in time for the truck collecting the pigs you sold because everybody at home suddenly had an aversion to bacon and besides, nobody wanted the job of cleaning the pig sties ... besides, the tractor broke down last week, so the trailer couldn't be loaded with all the muck to be taken away - will have to wait a while now ...



You're sitting on your wrap-around porch, exhausted, having a well-deserved cup of tea, admiring your green fields and neat fences and your heart swells with pride and gratitude - this is ALL YOURS! No matter all the hard work and early mornings - you now have a steady income from the vegetable garden, which has grown to three times its size, and the milk and butter, and the kids are enjoying the new pony enormously. You have learnt what to cut down on (like rabbits, for instance) and everybody has fallen into a comfortable routine, knowing exactly what needs to be done and when.

Your thoughts stray to a new idea - how about a strawberry patch? Surely there's a big market for strawberries - and mushrooms, maybe ...?

"Whatever you put your attention on gets energy from you and grows."

Hidden Hedgehog traps

Garden Dangers

You've done everything you can think of to welcome hedgehogs to your garden - you've put out food on the patio, left some leaf litter for them to scrounge in and now you're sitting back to watch your first prickly guests arrive - BUT YOUR GARDEN IS SCATTERED WITH DANGERS!

Hedgehogs will manage to get through amazingly small holes to reach the next garden or feeding area. They can also climb over fences or up walls, or reach roof gutters by squeezing up inside drainpipes, and getting stuck in food and soda cans carelessly left lying around.

Another hazard for the hedgehog is getting tangled up in nets. Unless it is rescued quickly, it will very likely die. Tennis nets should be looped out of the way, off the ground; other garden netting should be kept in the shed or hung on a wall. Netting used to protect soft fruit should be pegged down tightly at the edges, this holds the netting taut and so a hedgehog is far less likely to get tangled up.

But they also fall into things - holes, trenches, rubbish pits and ponds. They are not likely to be injured by falling on hard surfaces, since their spines cushion their landing, but being left in a trench or hole for an extended period of time means certain death.

Falling into a pond is not a big disaster as, like most mammals, they are quit competent swimmers. They will happily cross small streams in this way, but if they fall into a swimming pool or garden pond that has nowhere to climb out, they will certainly drown. Make sure your Koi pond has a gentle slope on one side or some vegetation which will provide an easy exit, but plastic pond-liners and fibreglass ponds, with their slippery sides, can defeat the most agile of hedgehogs.

Take care with pesticides, especially slug pellets. Only use pellets that have an unpleasant-tasting substances added, especially to put off hedgehogs, and conceal them where hedgehogs can't reach them.

But one of the most effective ways of controlling slugs and other garden pests is by using the services of the hedgehog itself! A high proportion of the hedgehog's natural diet - slugs, caterpillars, weevils, crane-fly larvae and many more - consists of creatures gardeners would be glad to be without.
Info from "Everything You Want To Know about Hedgehogs - Dilys Breese"

So why not make the hedgehog feel at home?

Full Moon wonder

“Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.”
- Henri Frederic Amiel

The full moon just holds a special fascination for me. I try to get outside with every full moon to sketch it, but this past winter has been a bit too severe for me. And then the first full moon we have in September 2011, officially Spring here in South Africa, I go and miss! This is a photograph of the full moon in July, mid-winter and freezing cold, peeping through the bare branches of my 20-year old peach tree.

While I was outside with the camera, I took a pic of one of the garden lights which looks a lot like the full moon

and also one of my garden ornaments hanging from one of my White Karee's (Rhus viminalis)

Night time in the garden is also special for me - last summer I was lucky enough to see some fireflies around my Arum lilies (Zantedeschia), they made it look like a veritable fairy-land! Unfortunately they don't photograph well, either they're too small or they switch off just as the camera flashes!

Camera : FujiFinepix 2800Zoom

This was my last sketch of a full moon as seen through my studio window at 5am on the 21st January 2011.

Aloe ferox - Nature's Ultimate Healer

The aloe seemed to ride like a ship with the oars lifted. Bright moonlight hung upon the lifted oars like water, and on the green wave glittered the dew.
- Beauchamp, Bliss and Other Stories, 'Prelude'

Last Spring I noticed that the Black Sunbirds were all visiting this Aloe (Aloe ferox, Bitter Aloe) in my garden, and the reason was soon apparent - it was fairly dripping with nectar! The flowers always seem to produce the most nectar just as they're getting to the end of their life-span. It's their special gift to nature.

This hardy plant, indigenous to South Africa, and with its succulent leaves can survive the harshest conditions. When damaged by man or animal, the plant seals off any wound with a sticky, dark liquid that prevents infestation by virus, fungus or insect. This dark liquid has been successfully used by ancient inhabitants as a traditional remedy for many ailments.

The white inner gel of the leaf has the ability to hold and store moisture through hot, dry conditions and months of drought. Traditionally the local inhabitants use it to soothe burn wounds, cuts and abrasions. Today those same qualities are still the being used in a wide range of moisturisers and rejuvenating creams and gels.

The nutrient rich leaf is filled with the goodness of the earth and contains no herbicides or pesticide making it an ideal source of nutrients and helping your body to cope with modern day living in a gentle and natural way.

The bitter aloe is most famous for its medicinal qualities. In parts of South Africa, the bitter yellow juice found just below the skin has been harvested as a renewable resource for two hundred years. The hard, black, resinous product is known as Cape aloes or aloe lump and is used mainly for its laxative properties but is also taken for arthritis.

"Schwedenbitters", which is found in many pharmacies, contains bitter aloe. The gel-like flesh from the inside of the leaves is used in cosmetic products and is reported to have wound healing properties. Interestingly Aloe ferox, along with Aloe broomii, is depicted in a rock painting which was painted over 250 years ago.

'AloeFerox.talkspot' says, "The aloe bitter is best known for its use as a laxative. However, in addition to the purgative effect the anthraquinone (bitter) substance is also an antioxidant, antiviral and effective for cancer prevention.

Numerous scientific studies on aloe gel are demonstrating its analgesic, anti-inflammatory, wound healing, immune modulating and anti-tumour activities as well as anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. The aloe juice has been shown to lower cholesterol and triglycerides while demonstrating anti-diabetic activity." Read more about the medicinal properties HERE.

The Aloe is winter-flowering and did you know that they flower in mid-summer in France, when it's Winter time here in South Africa? Isn't nature's clock just amazing...?

Camera : Fuji Finepix 2800Zoom - pic taken in my garden.

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Farm Talk - Dragonfly - Flighty, carefree!

PS : I have not been able to identify this Dragonfly as yet, so if anybody is able to help I will greatly appreciate it! ... 

This Dragonfly (Odonata) has donned her Spring finery, a bright blue, lacy little bra! Caught her getting a bit of a suntan on the rocks next to my pond last spring just before all the males arrived!

Sometimes the period, just before spring arrives, is always filled with a few hollow promises - dragonflies appear at the pond, the Peach Tree starts preparing her blossoms and then, suddenly, a cold front dispels the promise of Spring.

A close-up of the head and thorax

Menacing and marvelous, the dragonfly has for centuries captivated human imaginations with its daredevil flying maneuvers, vibrant colors and bullish disposition.

Pre-dating the dinosaur, this fascinating insect has long been the subject of chilling myths and legends. In fact, the dragonfly's terrifying syringe-like appearance earned it a laundry list of dastardly names in world-wide folklore including "Devil's Darner," "Water Witch" and "Snake Doctor."

In European and early-American myths, children were told that if they misbehaved, a dragonfly would sew shut their eyes and ears as they slept. Another myth warned that dragonflies were in cahoots with snakes and were able to wake them from the dead or warn them of impending danger. And in Swedish folklore, dragonflies were called "Blindsticka" or "Blind Stingers," and rumored to have had a penchant for picking out human eyes. The Swedes also believed that dragonflies were used by the Devil to weigh people's souls, and that, if a dragonfly swarmed around someone's head weighing his or her soul, that person could expect great injury!

Your delicate wings rapidly beat the air
The sleekness of your weightless body hovers
Curiously observing as though you care
Steadily searching for lifelong endeavors

Do you bring a message of a tranquil destiny?
Does your evolving maturity convey wisdom?
If I follow, will I find harmony or perplexity?
As you disappear… I am serenely lonesome
- Theresa Ann Moore

If you look carefully, you can see a male that has just arrived!

Camera : FujiFinepix 2800Zoom - Pics taken in my garden in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa.

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For the Love of Pigeons - Duffy

I mean, it is an extraordinary thing that a large proportion of your country and my country, of the citizens, never see a wild creature from dawn 'til dusk, unless it's a pigeon, which isn't really wild, which might come and settle near them.
- David Attenborough

This is Duffy, whom I rescued as a featherless baby from certain death when his parents abandoned him. This was the start of my love affair with pigeons.

His parents didn't belong to me - they were Ferals who just moved in and nested in my stables, as there was plenty of food around, with seeds and corn being put out for the ducks, geese and guinea fowl on a daily basis. And why they abandoned him I'll never know, but their loss was my gain as Duffy and I spent many years together, during which time he took a wife (Wuffy) and they in turn reared many clutches of little pigeons. This, of course, led to there being dozens of pigeons now living on my property, not an ideal situation, as they are Masters of Mess! But luckily I found homes for most of them, which cut the numbers drastically down to only a handful.

Camera : FujiFinepix 2800Zoom

Cape Glossy Starling (Lamprotornis nitens)

Glossy Starling in my garden - W&N watercolour - Maree©

Kleinglansspreeu [Afrikaans]

Spring is definitely in the air here in South Africa! The Starlings, who haven't been around for some time, were visiting the bard bath today. They provide such a beautiful, bright iridescent blue splash in the garden, it's difficult to miss them!

Starlings are frugiverous and insectivorous birds with strong, slightly curved bills and strong legs. They occur from Angola and Zambia to Southern Africa, where it is locally common across much of the region, excluding central Mozambique, the Karoo, Namib Desert and the fynbos biome in the Western Cape. It can occupy a variety of different habitats, especially wooded savannah, forest edges, riverine bush, plantations, parks and gardens.

It is a monogamous, cooperative breeder, meaning that the breeding pair may be assisted by up to 6 helpers, who often remain with them through many breeding seasons. It usually nests in tree cavities, either natural or excavated by woodpeckers or barbets, but it may also use a hole in a riverbank, metal pipe or even a post box used daily. It adds coarse material such as twigs into the cavity until the platform is close to the entrance, after which it adds a lining of dry grass, dung and snake skins. It often uses the same nest over multiple breeding seasons, in fact one breeding pair was recorded using the same site for 20 years.

Egg-laying season is mainly from September-February. It lays 2-6 blue or white eggs, which are incubated solely by the female. The chicks are fed by both parents and helpers, leaving the nest after about 20 days after which they remain with the group for at least week before finding their own territory.

Greater Striped Swallow

“Daffodils that come before the swallow dares, and takes the winds of March with beauty.”
- William Shakespeare


Done in Moleskine Watercolour sketch-book - Maree©

My Swallows were late in leaving this year, still saw them around just a week ago. Now their twitterings that I love to listen to as they swoop over my garden or sit on my Satellite dish are silent. They returned to their old home in the pump house in early September 2010 and I'm always humbled and honoured to think that they choose to return to me after thousands of miles of travelling.

They managed to rear two babies this season and it was a delight watching the parents teaching them all the sweeping moves over our vast expanse of grassland and it wasn't long until they too were balancing on the wires strung up in my (open-air) potting shed, which I use to hang flowers for drying, happily calling to one another. It's always a worry to me, wondering whether the babies will make the long journey safely. And it's always only the parents returning every year (for the past 5 years now), so I often wonder where the babies head off to...?

If our summer is exceptionally hot or dry, I leave the hosepipe dripping on an empty piece of ground in the garden and have spent hours watching them gather mud for their nest-building.

Some info : The Greater Striped Swallow (Hirundo cucullata syn. Cecropis cucullata) is a large swallow. It breeds in Southern Africa, mainly in South Africa, Namibia and southern Zimbabwe. It is migratory, wintering further north in Angola, Tanzania and southern Zaire.
The Greater Striped Swallow builds a bowl-shaped mud nest with a tubular entrance on the underside of a suitable structure. The nest has a soft lining, and is often reused in later years. It is common, unafraid of humans, and has benefited from the availability of nest sites around habitation. It feeds mainly on flying insects, but has been known to eat small fruits. It's conservation status is LC (Least Concern).

Now see what you've done!

We received a notification from Eskom (our electricity supply commission) that they were doing maintenance on the sub-station in our area (Tarlton, South Africa), and that the electricity would be off from 9am to 5pm (it only came back on at 8pm!), so I had a day of no "RedBubble" ahead of me! OK, I did have a wonderful day painting, and in between I decided to give the garden a bit of water.

I used the hosepipe, as I love the feel of the water as I compress it to reach plants far into the bed and, besides which, it's almost like meditating, gives me lots of time to think and just enjoy the sunshine.

After I'd done quite a good soaking in one of my beds, out crawled this little Striped Field Mouse, soaking wet and looking quite bedraggled! He looked me straight in the eye as if to say, "Now see what you've done!" and promptly started cleaning and drying himself. I gingerly put the hosepipe down and rushed inside for my camera, hoping that he would stay put, and I was lucky. Upon my return, he was still in the same spot, slightly drier, but very intent on getting back to normal! He didn't seem at all perturbed by my presence and didn't move away until he was thoroughly dry again.

Camera : FujiFinepix 2800Zoom Digital - normal settings


Now this is disgusting!


It's still wet behind my ears...


Aaah, that's a bit better!

Struthio camelus

“An ostrich with its head in the sand is just as blind to opportunity as to disaster.”

The Ostrich (struthio camelus) is a member of a group of birds known as ratites, that is they are flightless birds without a keel to their breastbone, and are native to Africa. Of the 8,600 bird species which exist today, the ostrich is the largest. Standing tall on long, bare legs, the Ostrich has a long, curving, predominantly white neck. The humped body of the male is covered in black patches and the wings and tail are tipped with white. The female is brown and white. These huge birds, which sometimes reach a height of 2.6 m and a weight of 135 kg, cannot fly, but are very fast runners.

Here in South Africa, Ostriches were almost wiped out in the 18th century due to hunting for feathers. By the middle of the 19th century, due to the extensive practice of ostrich farming, the ostrich population increased. The movement changed to domesticating and plucking ostriches, instead of hunting. Ostriches have been successfully domesticated and are now farmed throughout the world, particularly in South Africa, for meat, feathers and leather. The leather goes through a tanning process and is then manufactured into fashion accessories such as boots and bags.

I don't have any nice pics of Ostriches myself, so I decided to do this sketch for this post. Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©

Gentle Giant

“Keep five yards from a carriage, ten yards from a horse, and a hundred yards from an elephant; but the distance one should keep from a wicked man cannot be measured.”
- Indian Proverb

"African Elephant" - Acrylic on Canvas - Maree©

With a height of just over 3 - 4m (measured at the shoulder), a length of between 6 to 7.5m (that's the length of an average motor car garage!) and weighing in at 6 tonnes, these mostly gentle giants of the African bush are highly intelligent with a strong sense of family and herd, and a complex social structure.

Elephants are incredibly social animals: they form strong, long-lasting bonds within their herd. They adopt orphaned calves, help injured elephants and work together. They have surprisingly complicated behavioural patterns and interactions. An injured member may be helped to its feet and supported by other herd members: if it is badly wounded, it may be vigorously defended by the herd, with even the calves taking part. Although elephants are normally peaceful individuals, they can be aggressive and extremely dangerous, especially if they are sick or injured. Females in groups with young are particularly unpredictable, as are males in musth.

Here in Africa they are native to a wide variety of habitats including semi-desert scrub, open savannas and dense forest regions. Besides its greater size, it differs from the Asian elephant in having larger ears and tusks, a sloping forehead, and two “fingers” at the tip of its trunk, compared to only one in the Asian species.

For this sketch, I looked at many different photographs from a great many angles, and developed this stance from all the 'information' I had gathered in my mind.

Acrylic on Acrylic Gesso primed un-stretched acrylic canvas sheet 12" x 8"

If you would like to buy a print of this painting, go to RedBubble or e-mail me if you are interested in the original.

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

Safe and Snug

Come feed the little birds, show them you care
And you'll be glad if you do.
Their young ones are hungry,
Their nests are so bare;
All it takes is tuppence from you."
- From "Feed The Birds", Mary Poppins

Let the farmer remember that every bird destroyed, and every nest robbed, is equivalent to a definite increase in insects with which he already has to struggle.  He will soon appreciate the fact that he has a personal interest, and a strong one, in the preservation of birds.

A Weaver's nest in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) after a rain storm this morning.

Camera : Kodak EasyShare C195

Where have all the Guineas gone? .....♪♪♪♫

Birds are indicators of the environment. If they are in trouble, we know we'll soon be in trouble.
- Roger Tory Peterson


Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©

I used to have dozens of guinea fowl pass through our smallholding here in Tarlton (Gauteng, South Africa), but these days it's like Christmas seeing just a few of them. When we moved to Tarlton in the middle 70's, we were one of a few owners living on the smallholdings and there were large tracts of open land with hundreds of mammals, birds and reptiles that crossed our paths daily. Snakes were rife and regularly had to be removed to a safer place, now we only see a snake a couple of times in the year. I used to have wild hares entering my garden and eating my Marigolds; I haven't seen an hare for about 7 years. The same with hedgehogs, monitors, tortoises and jackal.

The area is now totally built up and our smallholding is now flanked by people on all sides, property fenced and surrounded by high walls - there are few, if any, empty tracts of land any more and I'm just wondering where all the wildlife has managed to find a safe refuge...

Here's wishing everybody a beautiful festive season and many years of joy and inspiration!

African Joy and Sorrow

Watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree©

"The triumph of life is the joy experienced thereafter."
- Maree

A couple of years ago, one of my guinea fowl sitting on eggs was killed by a dog, leaving 10 eggs, on the point of hatching, without a mother. I gathered all the eggs and put them in a basket with a hot water bottle, trying to keep them warm to see if any of them would hatch. Two days later still nothing, but on the third day I heard a weak peep-peep from one of the eggs. None of the others showed any sign of life, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and open the one that was peeping. I gently peeled away the shell and lifted out a perfectly formed little guinea fowl, and placed him on the warm towel, drying his little body with a soft cloth until he lifted his little head and stared me straight in the eye.

That was the beginning of a beautiful, long relationship with "Guinea", who spent five years following me everywhere and providing us with endless hours of pleasure with his surprising antics. He even lured a wild guinea fowl female from the wild (they used to pass through our property in large flocks, travelling from one field to another) and together they reared 5 clutches of beautiful little guinea fowl, all of whom stayed on our property for many years.

When Guinea's wife disappeared one day, he was inconsolable, standing on the wall and calling for hours in that haunting 'phe-twee, phe-twee, phe-twee' that is so typical of the South African bush. After that, he would often disappear for a day or two until, one day, he didn't come home at all. I hoped and presumed that he had found another family and was happily roaming the fields surrounding our property.


“This life as you live it now and have lived it, you will have to live again and again, times without number, and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and all the unspeakably small and great in your life must return to you and everything in the same series and sequence -- and in the same way this spider and this moonlight among the trees, and this same way this moment and I myself. The eternal hour glass of existence will be turned again and again -- and you with it, you dust of dust!”
- Friedrich Nietzsche


Guinea and one of his babies

I wanted to take it home!

"A dead cow or sheep lying in a pasture is recognized as carrion. The same sort of a carcass dressed and hung up in a butcher's stall passes as food."
John Harvey Kellogg


Watercolour done in my Moleskine watercolour sketch-book - 8" x 5" - Maree©

My neighbour's sheep - a while ago some ewes had lambs and it was the first time for MANY, MANY years that I actually held a little lamb in my arms again - oh my word! I'd forgotten how precious that can be! I wanted to take it home...!

The Dorper is a South African breed of domestic sheep developed by crossing Dorset Horn and the Blackhead Persian sheep. The breed was created through the efforts of the South African Department of Agriculture to breed a meat sheep suitable to the more arid regions of the country. It is now farmed in other areas as well, and is the second most common sheep breed in South Africa.


A Dorper flock
Pic from "Wikipedia"

The Dorper adapts well to a variety of climatic and grazing conditions. In its native South Africa it has spread from the arid areas to all parts of the country. It reputably does well in various range and feeding conditions and is also suited to intensive feeding. In Australia, Dorpers are now farmed throughout the arid and tropical areas as well as the high rainfall southern States, thriving even in the extreme cold and wetness of Tasmania. Dorpers can be run as a replacement or with suitable management as a complementary flock to Merinos, particularly as shearing costs continue to rise and wool prices fall.


This Framed print for sale on my RedBubble Site

Gemsbuck in the Kalahari desert

I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?
- James Thomson



The gemsbok or gemsbuck (Oryx gazella) is a large African antelope, of the Oryx genus. The name is derived from the Dutch name of the male chamois, gemsbok. Although there are some superficial similarities in appearance (especially in the colour of the face area), the chamois and the oryx are not closely related.

Gemsbok are light brownish-grey to tan in colour, with lighter patches to the bottom rear of the rump. Their tails are long and black in colour. A dark brown stripe extends from the chin down the bottom edge of the neck through the join of the shoulder and leg along the lower flank of each side to the brown section of the rear leg. They have muscular necks and shoulders and their legs have white 'socks' with a black patch on the front of both the front legs and both genders have long straight horns.

This is a watercolour painting I did as I imagined them trudging through the desert on their way to find water.

Mai, the Mynah

This is Mai after her bath, a young Mynah I was very privileged to have in my life for almost 6 months. Here she enjoys a bit of sun before following me back to my studio.

I found her on the pavement in town, where she had probably fallen out of the nest, and she was just a little bundle of quills, no feathers yet, and after looking around if I could see the nest and not finding it, I took her home with me.

The intelligence and loving spirit of these amazing birds is beyond description - she was not caged and had free range of the house and garden, and one of her favourite past-times was her early-morning bath in the bird bath in the garden, after which she would fly into my studio, roosting on top of the computer screen, preening herself until she was all sparkling and shiny.

(The Common Myna or Indian Myna (Acridotheres tristis) also sometimes spelled Mynah, is a member of the starling family. It is a species of bird native to Asia with its initial home range spanning from Iran, Pakistan, India and Kazakhstan to Malaysia and China. An omnivorous open woodland bird with a strong territorial instinct, the Myna has adapted extremely well to urban environments.

The Myna has been introduced in many other parts of the world and its distribution range is on the increase to an extent that, in 2000, the IUCN Species Survival Commission (IUCN) declared it among the World's 100 worst invasive species. The Myna is one of only three birds in this list of invasive species. It is a serious threat to the ecosystems of Australia and South Africa.)

Camera : FujiFinepix 2800Zoom Digital - normal settings

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Mai taking off to dry off after sharing my bath with me.


Mai, roosting on my PC speaker, enjoying some music


The beauty of an adult Mynah
Pic from Wikipedia


Adult Mynah