Dry as a Bone!

I know that I mentioned the heat in last week's post. Together with that comes the wind and the dryness. We haven't had rain for a while now and I think that we are as dry as we can ever be. Even the lamp posts are wilting! And my sister in Pietermaritzburg just told me that they had over 60 mm of rain during a violent storm that did lots of damage last night. We could certainly do with some of that...........without the damage though!

Dry and drab, dead and dormant.

This is what the surrounding 'green' areas look like now. Hard to imagine that in a few months time they will be a colourful carpet of yellow and white. Hopefully!

A tiny puddle left! (Pic thanks to Rob)

This is what our little waterholes on the way to town have shrunk to! The white that you see is salt, even though they are over three kilometres from the sea! In the seven years that we have been here, they have never dried up completely. But I think they may do that this year! The water is now too salty for even the flamingos! There must be a small fortune in rock salt lying there waiting to be harvested. With a fair amount of sheep and cow poo mixed in for flavour!


So, I thought that I would give you a little floral tour of my garden. Most of the beauty is contained in 'kruiwas' (wheelbarrows), as they are easy to water and can be changed quickly when the plants 'wear out'.

Beautiful gazanias.

I have one exception though.

This one was standing in the garden when we came back from Kuifkopvisvanger and was the first thing that I noticed when we walked in! I had no idea where it had come from and who had given it to me, but it was in very good condition. Rob said that it was still roadworthy! So, after much thought and ponderance, I decided not to plant anything in it, but to make a feature of it. So, after much dragging and a bit of swearing and with Rob and Emma directing operations, I tipped it on its side against the wall between Emma and us and collected bucket after bucket of white rocks from the field over the road. These I craftily arranged to look as though the kruiwa had fallen over and the stones were falling out! Then, to complete the job, I put two bags of nice smooth white stones that I bought from the Nursery (Scott's of course!) over the tatty rocks. And voilà!

Cascading rocks.

No watering and no weeding and a bit more garden prettied up!

The ones that got away!

The buck comes every evening as there is just nothing to eat outside, and my geraniums are too good to miss! He also eats the portulacas. I had three blooming kruiwas on the pavement, now I have three full of chewed off tatty bits. But I don't mind, I gladly share what little I have with the wildlife!

A red hot poker. Not to bokkies taste!

But here's a question. What on earth do sheep eat? There is nothing in the farmlands as far as I can see, but there they are, fat as anything, heads down and nibbling, and many of them have a lamb too.

Baaaa-d sheep! (Pic thanks to Rob)

Amazing.