Braais, bugs and breakfast!

Today is 'Heritage Day' aka 'National Braai Day'. As I write this I can smell braai fires wafting round the village, and our wors and steak is defrosting in the kitchen! It is a perfect day, calm and still with a small nip in the air that tells us that although spring is here, winter is still lurking round corners and in shady areas! I started off the morning in socks and slippers and a fleecy top but after much exertion with a broom on the veranda, I went to change. Half an hour later I was back in the fleece but am being extremely brave about the socks and slippers bit! In fact, I am wearing my Birkenstocks, remember the ones that did the world tour a while ago?

Statice and bokbaaivygies.

And my garden is a picture! Statice is mixed with vygies, geraniums are tumbling over rocks as they have finally had a chance to grow because the veld is green and the bokkies have alternate fynbos to eat. Come summer they will be pruning my geraniums to within an inch of their lives!

Douvygies.

The little douvygies have made huge patches of pink all over the garden, they simply arrive, don't ask me how, but they are very welcome! Arctotis and the last of the winter bulbs, all is colourful and beeful!

And of course, with the spring and the blooms come the bugs! And the beetles. And the caterpillars, both hairy and smooth.  Now, the smooth ones slip down the bird's throats with ease with no tickle but the large brown hairy ones are a different story.

A hairy caterpillar!

They have to be cleaned before they can be eaten, a bit like plucking a chicken! The bokmakeries have it down to a fine art. We watch them in the garden. They grab the hairy caterpillar towards the end (not sure if it's front or back end!) and then find a convenient rock. They beat the caterpillar against the rock until every hair has been knocked off. Then they eat it for breakfast! I think the bokmakerie is one of our most beautiful birds in this area and their song is unbelievable! Their latin name is 'Telophorus zeylonus' (I think it should be 'Telephonus' as they sound exactly like the ring of a phone!) Found in pairs, their duets are the sound of spring. And summer too actually!

Our beautiful bokmakerie

And then, we have the locusts. Huge black and red monsters, they lurch and clamber over the plants that they don't fancy and then devour the ones that they do fancy. I don't think anything eats them, but we catch them and chuck them over the wall. Why I don't know as they simply fly back!

An unwelcome visitor!

And we have the beautiful, trusting lizards. Too trusting for their own good actually, as Basil thinks that they make good playmates and brings them in to show us.

A lizard sunning itself on a rock. 

We have several in the garden now with stumpy tails, but at least they are still alive.

It's a wonderful time of the year. But then, living here, every day is a wonderful time of the year!