Mixed Bag of Offerings

Pastoral Perfection!

I have had a busy few days which left very limited time for blogging of any description. I have tried to visit as many of my favourites as possible, but due to time constraints am not always able to leave a comment.

Apart from the usual busyness I had a wonderful day out with a very good friend of mine on Monday. We drove out into the countryside and ventured somewhat off the beaten track in search of eye-catching scenes and a good place to enjoy a leisurely lunch. On Tuesday, my husband took our three older dogs with him when he went to do a short site inspection. Despite having taken precautions (spraying the dogs with tick spray) they all returned home covered with ticks! That entailed much hasty bathing of all five dogs, as we decided to play it safe and do the two pups as well. Following this, all of their beds and bedding, and the bedding that is used in the bakkie, had to be washed and dried. The dogs were all fitted with new tick collars in addition to their monthly tick and flea spot treatment. That took the best part of the rest of Tuesday! At present, we also have a couple of birds building their nests in the garden and have been eagerly keeping tabs on the Sunbird pair. We have yet to discover the whereabouts of the Robins' nest, but watch them flying hither and thither with beaks full of building material. We have also been following the movements of a pair of owls that move between us and our neighbours. I heard quite a commotion while out in the garden this morning and saw lots of birds agitatedly twittering and tweeting. Upon careful investigation, I saw one of the owls perched in our neighbour's Oak tree with little birds darting and flitting excitedly in the branches around the owl. I called my husband to please take a few pictures using his zoom lens. I walked around the garden myself as well and snapped a few of the things that are currently blooming...hence, my mixed bag of offerings to share here this evening. 

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I'll start of with a selection of pictures taken on Monday...

These roses were tumbling over the fencing at regular intervals. Such a pretty scene that begged to be photographed!

"What are you looking at me for?"

As far as we could see, the fields were green as green could be!

Grape vines trained on fencing in the foreground, pink roses covering an archway in the background.

We were not far from the densely populated suburb of Durbanville, one of Cape Town's Northern suburbs and yet it felt as though we were miles away.

The vistas were glorious in every direction.

A water feature at one of the restaurants we'd stopped at. Sadly, they were Closed For Business on Monday! We took some pictures of the attractively laid out indigenous garden anyway!

These pretty flowers were planted beside the pond.

This is Aloe time! Wherever we looked, we saw these sculptural plants with their candelabra blooms.

Succulents in full bloom!

The birds were having a wonderful time flitting from flower to flower and bees were buzzing merrily in the warm winter sunshine.

The Manor House at Meerendal, one of the winefarms we visited. They were also closed for business. Mid-winter lunchtime on a Monday is obviously not a busy time in this area.

We saw so many beautiful trees. In summer, this will of course be a green haven.

The 'browny' flowers on this shrub were humming with bees!

View from one of the picture windows at the restaurant where we did have lunch. Although pleasant enough, the meal was not one I would recommend and the service was sub-standard. Again, Monday is probably not the best day at this time of year.

OK, now I'll walk you around my garden and show you a few blooms and the birds that are very busy right now...

Coco's camelias!

This is where Coco 'picks' her flowers.

Our huge Stelitzia plant resembles a banana plant.

The leaves are enormous!

The seeding head of one of our indigenous fynbos plants

First Snowdrop blossom!

Our resident male Sunbird at the nectar feeder.

He is such a beauty, but very much 'shyer' than his mate.

The White-eyes are regular visitors.

Our female sunbird. She is doing all the nest building herself! The male chases away any birds that get too close. He seems to have a particular disliking of White-eyes!

Here's our little female Sunbird at her nest.

A lot of the nest appears to consist of hair from our dogs!

Turtle doves are also very busy in the garden at the moment.

One of our Robins.

These are tiny little birds, which we still need to identify. Several arrive together and they are very active around the seed feeders and in the water feature.

The owl in our neighbour's tree.

Weaver's nests at the dam where our dogs picked up lots of ticks from the long grasses and reeds.

Cormorant drying its wings at the dam where my husband took the three older dogs for a walk on Tuesday.

I'm hoping to visit one of my favourite nurseries tomorrow and if I do, I'll be sure to take my camera along with me so I can share the outing with you next time I post.