A newcomer to my garden- White-browed Scrub Robin

While relaxing in my lounge with a 1000-piece puzzle a few months ago, I heard a bird-call I’ve never heard before. Grabbing my phone, I slowly stepped outside to see if I could catch a glimpse — no luck. So my next move was to search for the bird-call on the Roberts Birds app on my iPad, and after a short search, I found him — a White-browed Scrub Robin! (Cercotrichas leucophrys).

)Still on my patio, I played the bird-call as loud as my iPad would allow and lo-and-behold, he suddenly appeared on the fence, trying to find the interloper who was, probably, trying to infiltrate his territory!

White-browed Scrub Robin flashing his tail, warning any possible interloper that he’s ready for him.

And true to all Robins, he pranced and posed and flipped his tail in that typical Robin fashion, allowing me to get a few pics. We played this game of him listening intently to my bird-call and excitedly answering in return untill he decided that this threat was obviously not worth his attention.

Since then, every time I play his call, he actually comes and investigates. But for the past two months or so I haven’t heard or seen him at all. Maybe he’s raising a family somewhere. I will keep on being on the lookout for him …

Indigenous to Southern Africa, it is common across the the eastern half of South Africa through to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana and northern Namibia.

Gestreepte wipstert [Afrikaans]

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Spittle Bugs (or Frog Hoppers)

 

Raintree Spittle Bugs (Ptyelus flavescens) on a Coral tree. 

Spittle bugs (or Frog hoppers) on a Coral Tree (Erythrina lysistemon), indigenous to South Africa. 

As I was photograohing them, the sky was blue, and I wondered why it was raining? I actually just happened to pick a spot just beneath a family of raintree spittlebugs! 

These white foam blobs are produced by the immatures, or nymphs, of spittlebugs, small insects related to aphids and other true bugs, in the order Hemiptera. Young nymphs blow bubbles with their excretions, and so they live and feed in a glorious soggy huddle. The dripping foam keeps them moist and cool and keeps predators and parasites away.

Empty skins and some adult Spittle Bugs. 

They suck the sap of a tree through a drinking straw, called a ‘rostrum’ or ‘stylus’. Plant sap is not all that  nutritious, so the bugs have to work through a lot of it to get sufficient proteins. But this Coral Tree doesn’t seem at all the worse for the wear and as I got close to some of the bugs, they would shoot of as if out of a catapult, so I presume they disperse fairly quickly when disturbed so won’t cause too much harm to the host tree.

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A new discovery -- Leather-leaf Fern

 

During winter I discovered this beautiful fern just popping up between some pavers in a shady corner in my garden. It was so pretty and green so I decided to make a special little corner around it, incorporating a bird bath for my feathered friends.

It wasn't belong before they discovered this new feature, and soon they were flocking in and vying for the best bathing spots.

The Pennywort-looking weed actually adds some charm to this area. It also just started sprouting by itself in this shady spot, the only bit of shade in my mainly-sun succulent garden.

Rumorha adiantiformis loves a spot away from direct sunlight in a partly to fully shaded spot. Water regularly so that the soil remains moist but it must be well-drained. 

Afrikaans name : Seweweeksvaring (I have no idea why!)

Ferns reproduce from spores, not seeds. If you see small brown dots on the undersides of the leaves, they're probably sori, which are groups of sporangia that serve as spore cases. These spots may cover the entire underside of the leaf, but they aren't harmful to your plant. 

 With all the rain we've had over the last few weeks, it's grown so much that I had to remove a paver to give it some space to expand. And I've discovered two more ferns sprouting just opposite this one, will keep an eye on them and maybe find a spot for transplanting them.

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Because I could watch you

 

Nasty weather in Ballito on the Dolphin Coast (Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa) (reports of hail storms inland), cold for this time of the year, and two Laughing Doves (Spilopelia senegalensis) seeking shelter on my patio. 🖤

They are the most common little dove found in South Africa and are a resident breeder in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Western Australia.

Males and females look the same, but they can be distinguished from one another by the male’s courtship bobbing up and down when pursuimg a female. Mating pairs are monogamous and often mate for life.

because

i could watch you

for a single minute

i found 

a thousand things

that i love

about you

— unknown

This is where I live (4)

This is where it all happens -- my workstation. 

 

It ebbs and flows

 It ebbs and flows

and comes and goes ...

It’s a year since I lost my fur baby to cancer and it still ebbs and flows and comes and goes. 

RIP Jacko.

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Pic credit: Sam Toft

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This is where I live (3)

 

View from my bedroom window -- Sunset over the sugarcane.

This is where I live (2)

 

Early-morning mist -- view from my patio.

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This is where I live (1)

 This is where I live. No, not right under the Palm tree, just close-by.

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After the chaos, blue skies

After the storm — Ballito, Dolphin Coast, KwaZulu Natal

Once in a while

I am struck

all over again...

by just how blue

the sky appears…

on wind-played

autumn mornings,

blue enough

to bruise a heart.

—Sanober Khan

A few days before I took this picture, KwaZulu Natal (South Africa) was devastated by the worst floods in 60 years. Days of heavy rain (we had more than 240mm of rain in 24 hours)  across the province led to deadly floods, destroying several thousand homes and killing hundreds. So waking up to this incredibly blue sky yesterday morning after a week of stormy weather was absolutely glorious!

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This is home

 

My gardening shoes - Home

Normally I just do my gardening in my flip-flops, (it’s not as if I’m doing major landscaping! I’ll show you the size of my garden and you will understand) but last week I decided to put on my hardly-ever-used gardening shoes as I was going to be carrying some VERY heavy paving slabs, wouldn’t want to drop those on my toes! From previous experience I’ve learnt not to just put my feet into ANY shoes without checking what’s inside, and as I turned them over, out fell Mister (or Mrs) Frog.

No sweat, she hurriedly scurried into the garden and as far as I was concerned, that was that.

Snugly inside the shoe

The next morning at about 4.30am, I was having my first cup of coffee, a frog hopped onto the patio and started heading for the corner where I kept my gardening shoes. I watched in fascination as she clambered up one shoe and disappeared inside. I couldn’t resist taking a peek and there she was, nicely nestled right in the toe section.

Mrs Frog on her way back to the shoe, i.e. Home

So for the past week I’ve managed to catch her leaving home at dusk to go food shopping (we have a garden light on at night, perfect for hunting frogs, bats and geckos) and for a few mornings now, I’ve watched her return, settling snugly into the shoe.

Doesn’t Nature just constantly amaze?! I never knew that frogs would return “home” every morning, just goes to show, you’re never too old to learn!

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Early-morning dew

Early-morning dew beautifully highlights this spiderweb amongst all the green foliage. For me, about 5am (in summer!) is the best time to do gardening to escape the midday heat. I also find the most amazing things on my early-morning walks.

A new start!

 

An early-morning scene from our patio.

It’s a year later and here I am... I was reminded by an Instagram friend that my last post here was a year ago and inspired me to reconnect with all my readers. Hope you are all still around. I know life throws us curve balls and that things change, but we ‘arise from the ashes’ (a good thing, right?) and if we’re lucky, continue on our merry way.

Since moving to the coast (KwaZulu Natal) in December 2017, my muse (whom I thought had stayed behind in Gauteng) has been coming round more and more and I’m glad to say, I think she’s here to stay.

So here’s wishing each and everyone a grand and happy new year and, as I said previously, may the tears you cried last year, water the seeds you plant in 2021. 

xxx

Happy New Year 2020!

The Bliss of life on a smallholding

Kentucky in the middle of his moult

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!
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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.
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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, or Betsy and Babs because they're best friends...) 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, fertilized 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!).
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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!
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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’ (pick-up) 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 sterilizing 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 …


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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 when.
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Your thoughts stray to a new idea – how about a strawberry patch? Surely there’s a big market for strawberries – and mushrooms, maybe …?
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“Whatever you put your attention on gets energy from you and grows.”
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Here comes the rain...

Here comes the rain 

 Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you?

 Photo credit : Unknown