December | 2014 | The Fynbos Blog

Monthly Archives: December 2014

Christmas, a wedding, and a little contemplation

Posted on December 31, 2014 by fynbosblog One comment

Christmas and a house full of family and friends. Running on the mountain continues with a bride (Peter’s son gets married on 8 Jan and they are staying with us) who is keen to keep her figure elegant through the Christmas indulgence so the running is serious and the opportunities to stop and take pictures infrequent at best. We’ve been running through the pine forest that adjoins the farm; in the warm summer weather the stately silence of the trees and the dappled cool of the forest is a welcome break from the heat and the wind. Because the dogs get protective I tend not to run in the forest except on Sunday mornings and at Christmas when the foresters take a break.

We did a farm run for a change this morning and saw this Tritoniopsis burchellii; the guests were good enough to wait while I snapped it. I’ve been waiting for it to flower – I first saw it last year about this time. They are an incredible shade of scarlet that seems almost surreal on this photo.

Tritoniopsis burchellii

The Salvia africana is also in full bloom on the mountain – it flowers beautifully all year round and I can never resist taking a shot of it when the light is good.

Salvia africana

After I posted the Gladiolus liliaceus before Christmas quite a few more came out above the waterfall and we went back up to take some photos of better flowers. Peter came with me once again, the dogs followed. We spent a happy half an hour finding the best flowers. I took a shot of the same flower in the morning to show how remarkably they open up in the evening light. The dogs of course take great delight in watching our antics.

Gladiolus liliaceus in the evening

Gladiolus liliaceus

Gladiolus liliaceus in the morning when the flowers are closed

Seamus and Maebh watching Peter as he inspects the fynbos flowers

It’s a funny time of year this. We love it, there are great friends who come to stay and family as well. The house is full of noise and this year, Peter’s first grandchild. There is a tinge of sadness as well. Most of the precious people I’ve lost have gone between the middle of December and the end of January. It’s a well known phenomenon that people pass away at Christmas, for many reasons and all of them different. So in the celebration and coming together there is also sadness, regret and reflective moments. Loss. These days are busy and full of treats and fun. As we run on the mountain with the dogs bounding after Ola who bounces along ahead like the resident klipspringers, tiny antelopes with spongy feet that allow them to spring across the rocks, I follow and in the beauty of these mountains I think of those who have departed, and quietly remember them. Not always sadly; there is pleasure in the memories, they are gone but they were wonderful and we were lucky to have known them.

Glorious Gladiolus

Posted on December 15, 2014 by fynbosblog Leave a comment

In winter, usually round about July, I check out a certain patch of land in the hopes of seeing the beautiful Brown Afrikaner, Gladiolus maculata. Now in the early summer it is a spot above the waterfall, where we cleared a lot of alien trees a few years ago and where the fynbos is now thick and healthy. There flourishes the lovely Large Brown Afrikaner Glaiolus liliaceus. The amazing thing about this flower is that it’s quite dull and boring when we run past in the morning, and easy to miss. But towards sunset the flower opens dramatically, develops a mauve tinge and exudes the most divine, delicate spicy scent. Yesterday morning we saw one on the run. Yesterday evening Peter and I went up there together to see its evening display. We are having a gorgeous early summer with balmy days and cool windy nights. The light in the evenings is spectacular and the last rays of the setting sun caught the petals of this elegant flower just as I took these photos. This isn’t the prettiest specimen, one of the flowers is a bit tatty, but it is still an absolute beauty and a treasure to be discovered anew every year.

Gladiolus liliaceus

The large brown Afrikaner

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Skipping up the mountain

Posted on December 9, 2014 by fynbosblog 2 comments

After a week of howling wind that has distressed the garden and stripped the leaves and lots of baby olives off the trees, we finally had a quiet, damp, cloudy morning today. This kind of weather is much more conducive to flower photos so we managed to capture a few we’d missed.

The Christmasberry, Chironia baccifera is in flower all over the place. It has these pretty pink flowers now, and later in the year it will be covered in beautiful red berries.

Chironia baccifera

As I’ve been running up the mountain in the past week I realised a sad truth. We went to the bush for a few days at the end of November. I love everything about the bush except for the fact that going running would make you a nice, easy, soft pink target for the predators. So you can’t run. A few years ago I realised the solution was to bring a skipping rope and this time I was quite good about skipping in the mornings. It’s very boring, but it does work and to my amazement when I got home I ran quite effortlessly up the mountain. Next time I’m struggling with fitness I’ll get that rope out. Tiresome with amazing results.

Another tiresome thing is that I’ve missed some flowers. I caught these comb flowers, Micranthus alopecuroides at the beginning of their flowering and this morning caught the end of the flowering, they are a little tatty but still very pretty.

Micranthus alopecuroides

Something happened while we were in the bush and it was funny enough to be worth the telling. We came back from a game drive and I did my skipping, followed by a lovely brunch. Tired from the early morning start, the exercise and the indulgent brunch, I decided to go for nap. Off I went to our room, the last little cottage along the river, and lay on the bed. It was hot; at this point I have to admit I was naked. I duly fell asleep. A noise woke me. I looked up. Sitting on the balcony, lined up in rows as if in a cinema, the babies sitting on the shoulders of the adults, staring in at me through the huge windows, was an entire troop of baboons. Just watching me sleep. It was the most bizarre feeling. I sat up. They didn’t move, just stared. It was rather unnerving. Then quite quietly I said “go away” and equally calmly they all left. I watched them go, en famille, off along the river bed. We didn’t see them again for a couple of days.

Back to the flowers. I have no idea what this pinky red pea is. I’ll post it on ispot and see if we can find out.

Unidentified pinky red pea

These are an old friend, Selago corymbosa, quite common and very charming.

Selago corymbosa

I went for a walk the yesterday evening. I’d missed the morning run and when the wind dropped in the evening I thought the dogs would like a walk. They certainly did and I took a couple of beautiful photos of Maebh. The focus isn’t perfect her coat looks great in the evening light.

Maebh in the evening light

Maebh in James’s lake

One of the first things to flower at the end of summer is the Protea repens and I think this might be a second flowering, it’s unusual to see them at this time of year.