Do you remember the posts I wrote about the two nocturnal spiders who make their nest every evening between our carport roof and the washing line, or thereabouts? December 2009 – Two hyperactive spiders January 2010 – Two hunting spiders February 2010 – Spiders at night Well, I think one of them has left, whereas…
The day of the local municipal elections – Wednesday, 18 May 2011 – was declared a public holiday. Having done our civic duty even before breakfast by having our thumbnails marked with ultraviolet ink (to prevent double-voting) and casting our ballots at the local town hall, we took advantage of the fabulous weather to head…
When we visited Eseltjiesrus Donkey Sanctuary during a whirlwind week in February this year, to introduce our respective moms to our adopted Donkey, we saw that all the sunflowers outside the cute little shop were in full bloom. We picked up a couple of seeds and, on our return home, planted them in a flower-pot.…
During winter in Cape Town, the famous blue skies of Africa are often hidden behind water-logged dark-grey clouds that trail curtains of rain across the peninsula, causing erosion on exposed hillsides and widespread flooding in low-lying areas. In the last three months, our weekends had rarely coincided with a bit of free time and a…
At the start of May, longing to get away from computers, technology and deadlines by spending some time among shady trees and burbling streams instead, we went for a short ramble around Newlands Forest. As always, it was peaceful and serene in this old, well-established forest that is understandably popular among hikers, dog-walkers and trail-runners.…
We had some hot days in February and March this year, and so I’ve been making sure that our various bird baths are always filled with clean water. I love watching the birds swooping down on our garden at various times of the day – it is one of the delights of working from home.…
We’ve had a couple of hot days in March, and so I’ve been keeping the water fountain in the backgarden flowing, and the various bird baths dotted about under bushes topped up with water.
After last week’s whirlwind program of activities and outings with mom-in-law, it was back to work for me today. Some editing and proofreading work had been pushed aside for a week, and now it was clamouring for attention. As you can imagine, it was tricky to concentrate, as my head was all over the place,…
Yesterday morning, on a walk through the neighbourhood, I spotted a pair of Egyptian geese on a grassy verge up ahead, near the traffic circle of Woodside Drive and Francis Road. The grass was very tall and overgrown, so I could just recognise the two large birds with their striking colouring. As I approached slowly,…
Until last week, there was a small plant in our back garden that looked like a bunch of weeds I’d forgotten to pull up…. I’m so glad I didn’t, because it suddenly sprouted forth the most amazingly radiant golden-yellow flowers, which have completely transformed that corner of our garden. Look here! And every evening, when…
I was ambling through the garden with my camera yesterday afternoon, when I spotted this beautiful chap munching his way along the cotoneaster: He looks a lot more hairy and has a far more striking colourscheme than the hairy caterpillar Tuffy and I spotted two weeks ago. I wonder what kind of butterfly he’s going…
Aren’t these glorious? Blissful sigh… P.S. I have just found out that these are Californian Poppies (Eschscholzia californica).
A couple of days ago, I was sitting on the stone bench by the swimming pool, having a well-earned cup of tea and a supremely decadent chocolate muffin. I was staring into space and absent-mindedly stroking Tuffy-cat, who was curled up on the sun-warmed bench beside me, and emitting an appreciative soft purr. Suddenly, I…
This hairy little fella was inching his way across the paving stones in the back garden this afternoon. (By the way, that’s Tuffy’s nose insisting on getting a little sniff of the action too.) His brown-and-black spikes were rippling and undulating as he moved along, rather like spikey fur. But I wasn’t tempted to touch…
Hey! Who’s been chomping on Tuffy-cat’s brand-new catnip plant?! This is what it looked like on 3 September 2009, which is only about two weeks ago: And this is what the poor thing looked like today: Strictly speaking, it’s been looking like this for a couple of days now, but I wasn’t able to take…
Grains of Sand 
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