Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Pretoria Botanical Gardens


Today we went on a quick road trip to the Pretoria Botanical Gardens. This is a Waterfall we passed on the way up the 'koppie', I used Instagram to take the shot. It took us about 45 minutes to drive there. My Tea Leaves cardigan came along and I knitted a few rows in the car. I am busy with the front and sides section, so it's just plain stocking stitch of close on 300 stitches per row. This can become a little monotonous with so many stitches, so every little row counts, right, whether sitting in the car or under the oak tree knitting...

 
I have also started a new cowl project, I saw it over on Ginny's blog, the Circumnavigate Cowl, I loved it and spun up some Camel silk yarn for the project, (so soft!!) ok, I am going way off topic here, I'm supposed to be posting about our day trip, but you know how it goes when one mentions knitting, spinning and yarn all at once, the brain begins to focus on all things fibre related....
I will be writing more on this tomorrow though! :)

Now back to the gardens, (ahem...)


This photo was taken at quite a distance and I was really nervous that this little Dassie (Hyrax) would dart away into the bush, so the camera was shaking ever so slightly, hence the 'not too great shot' ! But there he is anyway, he is called a Dassie and I read on the information plate that his closest relative is the elephant! His skull bones look very similar to that of the elephant and he has thick pads on his feet. His feet also have a suction cup shape to enable him to climb up steep surfaces and the last fact I learned was that they do not actually drink water but obtain water in the grasses that they eat.



All the Aloes are starting their winter flowering, you can see the orange flowers at the top of the Aloe plant, too beautiful...


I love these tall thorn trees in any shape and form, they just say 'Africa' to me!!


I thought this tree's bark was so interesting and looked like velvet...

Hope you are having a lovely weekend and happy 1st of May...

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Day Trip to the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens

Today was a beautiful day, the rain has finally stopped and the sun was shining, so off we went for a day trip to the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens. Such a beautiful place with forests, waterfalls and walking paths... we were even lucky enough to see the majestic Verreaux Eagle circling the nearby hills...
What bliss to walk this area and connect with nature as we did today, we will return to this wonderful place soon...










In gratitude for this beautiful country where we live,
Linda

Monday, March 21, 2011

Autumn Equinox Road Trip

Yesterday we went on a day road trip to Haartbeespoort to visit Bush Babies Monkey Sanctuary, what a wonderful experience!
Happy Autumn Equinox to all those in the Southern Hemisphere and happy Spring Equinox to all in the North:)
xo
Linda















Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Some Colour for You...

We have had so much rainfall over the last few weeks... Floods in Pretoria yesterday which is about 30 minutes away from our home, so many people have lost their lives here in South Africa from all the rain, it is so very sad...
All over the southern hemisphere there has been so much tragedy, our thoughts are with all of you...

I wanted to post something uplifting, I thought, colour would be good... some colour for the soul...




Hibiscus


Moss


Moss


Olive watching me with my camera...



Raspberries


Potato flowers...


The window box outside our kitchen door...

Wishing you a day full of colour and happiness...

Thursday, January 6, 2011

The Vaal Dam, Floods and Cuckoos

Thank you so much to everyone who visited and left such lovely comments about my studio, I am very happy with this new space and it is lovely to have one room where all my things can fit so nicely:) Today we went on a short road trip to see the Vaal Dam. It is 105% full and is overflowing. All the residents in the surrounding areas have been safely evacuated approx 600 people. The water gushing out of the flood gates was amazing, so powerful and terrifying at the same time.



 A view from the bridge we were standing on.






We did manage to stop in at a quaint thrift shop and I saw this gravy boat, I just loved it AND I really need a gravy boat. I love that it has a base plate to catch the gravy that runs down the side, instead of the table cloth...


I finished spinning that rainbow superwash today and have started with another...


I have been hearing a strange bird call in our garden over the past week, today we discovered it was a Cuckoo...


I am so excited about this shot, it isn't the greatest shot, I know, I think I was so over the moon when I saw what was happening that I couldn't keep the camera still! This Robin on the right is feeding this large Cuckoo on the left. I have always heard how Cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds nests, in this case the Robin's nest and are raised by birds other than their own mothers. To experience this today was an amazing gift from nature! In this photo above, the Robin had just fed the Cuckoo:)

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