Say it with flowers!

And all the loveliest things there be,

Come simply, so it seems to me!

~ Edna St Vincent Millay ~

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it within us, or we find it not." - these wise words, attributable to the American philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson prodded me into thinking about how closely we really look at all the loveliness around us.  We view our gardens, close-up and from a distance and think we are really seeing all there is to see, but do we?

Please click the Read more button below if you'd like to view life in my garden through a macro lens...
 

I sweetly asked my husband to test out 'this theory' and his macro lens on the flowers in our garden, ostensibly to teach me, as he has volunteered the service of this lens which conveniently fits my new camera, too. 

The common name for this indigenous South African shrub (Clerodendrum myricoides) is Butterfly Bush...no need to explain why!

Geisha Girl, not indigenous, but she was bought for her irresistible colouring!

One of our indigenous shrubs.  It flowers continuously through Spring, Summer and into Autumn. 

This fuchsia originated from my Mother's South African garden more than 25 years ago!

Cerise pink hibiscus flower.

Pistil and stamens of one of my hibiscus shrubs.

Impatiens, another truly rewarding plant except the Emperor moth's caterpillar finds them truly irresistible and can happily devour an entire plant overnight!

I do not know the different names of my fuchsias and know them only by their genus.  I have about six different species.  To me, they are all the ballerinas of my garden.

Pink flowered Streptocarpus (see below)

Streptocarpus, or Cape Primrose, another of our indigenous plants and one of my favourites.  It's related closely to the African violet (in the photograph below).

Beauty is truth - truth, beauty - that is all Ye know on earth, and all Ye need to know!

~ John Keats ~ 

Anthurium growing in my greenhouse.

Eureka Lemon blossom being worked by the ants.

No garden should be without a lemon tree!

Seeding Lantanas are banned in South Africa.  This is one of the three we are permitted to grow as they are sterile.  They are sheer perfection when covered in masses of their tiny colourful florets.

Blue flowers take pride of place in my garden. 

Plectranthus, another of our exceptionally rewarding, indigenous shade lovers.  I have several species.  All are currently flowering.

A Carpenter bee busily going from flower to flower on this salvia.  The bees and butterflies love them, too!

As with bees, the Carpenter bee only visits each flower once.

And here, we have a honey-bee coming in for a drink.  Hope that Carpenter bee left enough!

Oops!  There's that greedy Carpenter bee again!

A bicolour salvia that I have growing in a pot beneath my 'study' window.

It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder...ask a toad what beauty is and he will answer, "A female with two great bulging eyes, a great wide cavernous mouth and a bloated yellow belly!"   While I have no idea to whom to attribute this great wisdom (they are not my words), I couldn't agree more with the sentiments....how else would so called 'aesthetically disadvantaged folk' fall deeply and madly in love with each other...or gardeners break into raptures over their collections of spiky, thorny plants that, to the uninitiated eye fall, without question, into the 'toss out instantly' category?  Why else are weeds so maligned by most, yet eulogised by others?  If you want to experience beauty through the lens of an avid naturalist, then visit Laura @ Forest Walk Art  Anything viewed through her lens becomes instantly captivating!

A gheko in our garden...we have a whole civilization in residence!

The bark lifting off the trunk of the Ulmus parvifoliar (Japanese elm).

Is there anything more lovely than a 'dewy' spider's web?

Prayer plant in the greenhouse shortly after the overhead irrigation had finished its cycle.

Water and Maidenhair fern...a match made in heaven!

Romeo and Heathcliff getting in on the intense scrutiny act!

"This is NOT the correct way to observe a pesky fly!" says Toby.

"This is the correct way to watch a pesky fly!" says Toby.

While I'm learning to use my new camera, you'll be taken around my garden in minute detail.  For those of you who only come to have helicopter flights, I'm sorry to disappoint.  At the moment, my focus is going to be more zoomed in on the aspects of life right beneath my feet and at the tip of my nose.  If you want glorious, panoramic landscapes, please do drop by Michael and Hanne's blog @ Penticton Commentary and delve through their amazing archives! 

One final observation...it is Autumn in South Africa, yet my garden is behaving as though Spring is up next!  I have snowdrops and freesias popping up and azaleas in flower!  What is happening?