Our friend has the most enchanting little fynbos garden we had ever seen.
When we arrived in Stanford on Friday around midday, it was unseasonably warm. It’s supposed to be winter, but the Western Cape hasn’t had nearly enough rain to fill up our rivers and dams sufficiently to last us through the long hot summer that no doubt lies ahead. What with the heat and being a little tired from the drive, and from yet another week of late nights and early mornings, we had started to wilt a little.
Clearly, it was time to just chill.
The moment we stepped out onto the porch, and saw this amazing garden laid out before us, with a panoramic view that stretched all the way across the wetlands of the Klein Rivier to the circle of mountains along the distant horizon, we felt the heartbeat of life slowing down.
A sunny garden bench is not complete without a kitty-cat... or two..
We exhaled and sighed.
It was a deep, relaxing, muscle-loosening, tension-melting sigh.
Aahhhhhh. This felt so good.
There was nowhere else we would rather be right now, than here. Right here. Right now.
“How about a cup of tea?”
“Oooooh, yes.”
“And perhaps a book?”
“Yes!”
I love sundials in the garden
While hubby busied himself in the kitchen, puttting the kettle on the boil, extracting a beautiful rustic teapot from the back of a shelf and choosing a pair of mugs, I trotted upstairs and fetched our respective reads-for-the-weekend: Rosie Swale Pope’s inspirational “Just A Little Run Around The World” (her website) for hubby, and the final instalment of the magical Harry Potter series (“The Deathly Hallows”) for yours truly. We had booked tickets to see the final movie in the series on Sunday early evening on our return home from Stanford, and I was looking forward to re-reading the book for the umpteenth time.
Tea, books and some cookies to hand, we plunked ourselves down in the armchairs, and allowed the tranquility of this peaceful place to seep into our very being. Sigh…
It was with some reluctance that we roused ourselves for an afternoon walk into the village. We needed some wood and other supplies for our evening braai, and I was curious to explore the so-called Wandelpad that ambles alllll along the river. You can read more about that by clicking on Wandeling along the Wandelpad.
For now, though, settle down on the stoep, put your feet up, have a cuppa tea, and allow these pictures to sweep you away to that peaceful place we all long for when the turmoil of urban living becomes too much.
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Here are the links to all the posts in this series, in case you’ve missed any:
Grains of Sand 
I liked watching the last Harry Potter finale. Your time here sounds idyllic. I have never heard of a Fynbos garden.
A fynbos garden is a good idea, actually – it’s waterwise gardening, using plants that would grow naturally in such an environment, which means they need less watering – important in our water-poor country.
Relax and chill, a cup and a book, sounds like some super nice days! And in a “Fynbos garden” – does that mean a kind of wild or natural garden? It’s funny because we have 2 major islands (and a lot of smaller!) here in Denmark: Sjælland (where Copenhagen is) – and Fyn. And a resident on Fyn is called a Fynbo…….. I wonder if there is a connection here????
Chuckle, no, I don’t think there’s a link. 🙂 But it is an amusing thought! ‘Fynbos’ comes from the Afrikaans words ‘Fyn’ (fine, or thin) and ‘bos’ (bush). It refers to the specific type of vegetation that we get in South Africa (Wikipedia article), many species of which have very fine, need-like leaves:
Isn’t that quite amazing? You can read a little bit more about it in this recent post: Constantia Nek to Kirstenbosch.
Very interesting!!! But funny with these words – how they are similar…