Picnic in the Park!

Yesterday we went on a picnic! It's one that has been in the planning stages for at least a month, but the weather kept upsetting our timing, which was just as well as it turned out. Keep reading to discover why!

Our wild flowers are out! Beautiful but shy if the sun is not just right, but on a sunny, calm day the few hours between 11 and 3 are the best viewing time. And the best picnicking time! So, it seemed the perfect way to kill several birds with one stone, namely, see our friends, see the flowers and have a lekker relaxing time with a picnic and all those forbidden things like crisps and brownies and koeksusters!

Pam and Rob ready for action!

Tracks and Tunnels!

Yesterday we went for a drive in a northerly direction along a lovely road that runs next to the sea before heading off on a meandering journey through vleis, farm and flowers before re-joining the sea at the little coastal village of Elands Bay. However, because we were heading towards the sun, all the flowers were facing that way too, and we had to keep peering in the rear view mirror to see how gorgeous they actually were! Anyway, because the road meanders so much, it has several bridges  across the railway line that runs from Saldanha Bay to Sishen, a long straight track that covers 861 kilometres.

As far as the eye can see in both directions.

I used to be terrified of trains, the noise and the size and the power turned me into a gibbering idiot. I remember my mum asking the Station Master at Ealing Broadway Station to please tell me that the trains wouldn't hurt me! Now I love them, I wave to all the drivers and get quite annoyed if they don't hoot and wave back! So every time we passed over the bridges yesterday I stared in both directions to see if anything was coming. Because we had Alfie with us (of course), we headed off the main road at Elands Bay to let him have a run and a drink (and other things) and parked close to the tunnel entrance/exit (depending on which way the train goes!). As we were standing there, a bakkie arrived and a chap leaped out and climbed down the embankment and into the tunnel where he began to hit something with a long metal tool that he had. So, naturally, we stopped him on his way out to find out exactly what he was doing!

The Bobbejaansberg Tunnel.

Tortoise time!

I think that I have mentioned the fact that we can have all four seasons in one day? This last week has certainly proved that, and if that is true, then we have had four years worth of seasons in the last few days! So, yesterday we decided that as the weather was being kind, the wind had dropped to a tiny tickle and the clouds were fluffy and benign, we would go for a little flower spotting. The fields around us are beginning to burst into colour, even though they have been battered with the rain and freezing wind that we have had. Our bougainvillea took the full force of the wind one night and several branches stand naked now.

Next to the road, bright and beautiful.

So, timing our drive so the the flowers would be open towards us, (and the sun), we set off along the back road that leads to Saldanha, and we were not disappointed! Patches of colour in the form of bokbaaivygies (Dorotheanthus bellidiformis) and rain daisies were flowering next to the road, and the vivid red malvas were beginning to open.

Like jewels in the sand!

Beehives and Blomme!

My last blog was about weather, so it seemed logical to follow on with the seasons, well, Spring anyway. Towards the end of August and into September, our countryside literally explodes with colour. Our wild flowers are well known almost world wide, and we often see tourists hung about with cameras, bending over a perfect "blom" (flower). Sometimes we see a wife or husband, sitting in a field of daisies, squinting into the sun, swatting bees and sneezing, while the spouse fiddles with the camera and implores the partner to 'say cheese!'

Rain Daisies on the side of a road