Up the palm tree

SKYWATCH FRIDAY

I finally got my act into gear and got a photo of semi-blue sky for today, instead of my usual sunset :)
Check out other skywatchers at the new Skywatch blog!

Three Corners - April

It's time for April's Three Corners challenge.
I set the theme for this month, which was "Seasons". I thought it would be a good one with me being in Autumn and Lindy and Corey being in Spring at the moment.
I thought at first that it was easy, but I had such a hard time choosing which photos to show you today. You've only seen one of them before, the other 2 I kept for this challenge.

Autumn in the Freestate

The next two were taken at Emmerentia Dam on Sunday.

Copse of trees

Autumn colours

Lindy and Coreys' posts are already up, so check them out too. You can also check out our Flickr group.

I can't wait for next month's challenge now... Corey is deciding on a theme for May.

Autumn at Emmerentia Dam

We took the boys to Emmerentia Dam this afternoon to feed the ducks... or rather the geese as the ducks were too slow... and so that I could get some Autumn shots for the Three Corners challenge later this week :)

Connor had never fed them before, and clutched at his bread... he wouldn't throw it. LOL!

Reflections of the trees in the dam

A copse of trees

Playing in the leaves

A bench in the park

I took Bradley there in October 2007 the last time... here is the link to my post then, which incidentally is one of the most popular pages on my blog.

The journey of the tree

Well, I got it home :) Yes, you can call me mad ;) I just hope that'll it'll survive the frost in Jo'burg.
I got the strangest looks and comments, but on the whole it went quite well. The guy at the check-in counter wasn't quite sure, so the supervisor got called... first hurdle accomplished! Then the security men tried to put it side-ways on the conveyeor belt, lol, but then finally agreed to let it go through where the humans walk :). They were worried something was hidden in the pot.

The Cape Town terminal was a nightmare! So many planes were delayed so we ended up sitting on the floor around my tree. We must've looked so funny sitting there. These photos were taken while we were waiting for the plane.

On the bus we had to catch to the plane, a couple from the US actually asked me about it, and one other guy just said "I'm not going to comment... my wife takes books to rugby matches". Hee hee!

Then when I got on the plane, I was given an aisle seat. When the guy sitting next to me got to the seat he said "Now, that's a nice welcome, a flower on my seat!". So between me clutching my tree between my legs and the lady at the window, who kept getting up to see her son at the back of the plane, he had an interesting flight. He was fascinating too... he's an electrical engineer working on a ore track into Saldahna. And as for the lady, wow what a story. Her son was being flown back to Jo'burg to go to a rehabilitation hospital (on a bed with a paramedic for company). He had an accident while cycling the Argus Cycle race, and he was on a ventilator for 2 weeks and has only just managed to start walking again. But for someone who'd had such a bad head injury, I think his recovery has been quite amazing so far. I hope he recovers fully.

So, all in all, it was a pretty eventful and interesting flight home. I hope the tree will be happy in my garden.

Wordless Wednesday - Autumn leaves

More Wordless Wednesday participants here

Park bench

I pass this park on the way to work every day. As you can see by the long grass, it's not very well kept (like most of the parks in Jo'burg). Next to this bench is a very run down wooden jungle gym, which is hardly used by kids which is a pity actually, because it's quite a peaceful place. In fact, the home owners in the area don't use this area very much at all. This park is used mostly by domestic workers in the area who meet up with friends around the park benches when their workday ends.

It's actually quite a sad fact, that in the older areas of Jo'burg these parks are not well maintained or well used, but the houses in those areas have generally got large gardens for the kids to play in. However, in the new areas in Jo'burg where space is a premium, and properties are matchbox size... these green lungs don't exist. Go figure.

Green Thumb Sunday - Australian Flame Tree flower

We have a beautiful Australian Flame tree growing in our garden. It was hit very badly by the frost in winter, and is only starting to recover now. It's show of flowers is not as magnificent this year, as it was last year; but they're still beautiful.

My garden today

I was planning on taking some really cool photos today (horse-riding and Bradley's school concert) but everything had to be cancelled. Bradley is very ill, I posted about it in my journal last night. He's not much better today, and we're waiting for the results of the tests so he can't go anywhere. As a result, you just have to contend with photos from my garden.

Chive flowers from my herb garden.


A miniature red rose with water droplet. I tried Max's suggestion and shaded the flower, the photo came out a lot better than the last red rose.


Gaura in the sun.


Connor and I were playing in the shade of this tree fern, so I couldn't resist looking up and taking a shot.

Street dressed in purple

Joburg is beautiful at this time of the year, when the jacaranda trees are in flower. Throughout Pretoria and Jo'burg, especially in the older suburbs, jacaranda trees line the streets. It's a sight that's going to eventually disappear though, because the trees are invasive aliens, and nurseries aren't allowed to sell them anymore (and people are being encouraged not to replace them).



I took this photo on a road in Hurlingham on the way home from Sandton this evening. I love this street; I take this route to work most mornings now, but it's blocked off in the afternoons and they only allow residents on it then (which is why there is no traffic in the photo). The security guard thought it was very funny that I just wanted to take a photo of the road, so he let me through the barrier.

Raindrops on cactus

As you can see by rain in the photo, the weather is miserable again. I'm not sure what kind of cactus this is, I can't remember and I've tried googling it but I had no luck - I'm sure the name has got something to do with an "old man", but I could be wrong. It grows into a small tree with leaves on top. Mine is still quite small, it was in a pot and I moved it into a bed, and it's taken months to recover - I thought I'd killed it actually.

I've actually taken a photo of this cactus before... here.

Fungus and fairy forests

I took these in a shady paddock while Bradley was riding this morning.

There were loads of mushrooms under a tree, so I told Melody's daughter all about how the fairies are going to dance under their mushroom forest in the moonlight tonight.

This fungus is growing on the bark of the tree which was shading the mushrooms.

First rains

We had our first rain of the summer season at home today, and boy, did it rain! By 6:30pm we'd had 35mls so far and it's still raining. Took this photo of raindrops on the Yucca palm this morning before I left home.

Silver Birch

One of the Silver Birch trees in my mom's garden this evening.