African tulips & natural inspiration

Our gardens are goldmines and I love nothing more than seeing the joy & inspiration other people get from their gardens. Yesterday I learn't about the African Tulip, from FreshlyFound. A tree I'd never heard of before although I have heard of a Flame tree, which is one of it's other names. They are truly magnificent.

This is an African tulip tree growing in her garden

See why FreshlyGround is one of my favourite haunts here.

Found all around the world, Interestingly enough, it has been declared an invasive weed in other countries, like Australia.

Stone Circles

Reading skinnylaminx today reminded me of how some of us love to hoard in themes. I'm an avid visual collector, from photographs of textures, shadows, shapes, people, you name it, to found objects and 'natural graphics'.



In fact my collection of interesting stones & shells has become an ever changing installation on my outside table. Here are 2 of my favourite finds.

Chinese torture

As we hit the thirties today with no aircon, the Northern Hemisphere is cooling down. My brother, who lives in Connecticut, has a garden tap that's been

dripping,

slowly,

for a while,

feast your eyes.

Have a good

one.

Agapantha's

My Aggys are coming to an end and I think they're even more interesting now. For the first time in a couple of years I've had a really great show, I'm not quite sure why but I'm working on some theories. Too much water, too little water, compost etc.

Cell,see for yourself

Deep down inside I'm very old fashioned and like things that are simple. Like plants, and you know, a phone that's a phone, not a cybercommunicatingvibratingvisualspythingy.

I've changed my mind.

The Cape everlasting (dry)

Although the pics are not of the greatest quality, it's great for a visual diary, and I'll be pushing the limits of 'cellphone horticultural photography' until a better solution presents itself. Here is some of the fynbos from this weekend and my first attempt at mastering my demon.

I think this is a Brunia (Volstruisie) bush but I'm not sure? Apparently these are exported en masse for the florist trade ~ I can see why.

Shopping for a Fynbos bed :-)

Black is the new blue.

My technical woes continue. I think that the effects of Eskoms load-shedding are more far reaching than even we believe, and that they have now morphed into a physical airbourne virus. Call me paranoid if you want.




On Saturday even my digital camera came up with a black screen when I tried to switch it on! The thing that really got to me is that we were in the Betty's Bay area and the fynbos is looking absolutely fantastic, and I got to see my first real life disa's but I can't share them! The future looks dark indeed. I'm going to have to find an alternative way of keeping my visual records for a while so hold your breath...my minds gone blank.

Wanted:

I'm always inspired by nature. The shapes, patterns and colours are just endless. I still haven't done my grass print but here are a few other images I took over December.

No wonder I love my garden.

Dead or alive.

Handmade pots

I went back to my pottery classes this week, a very theraputic creative space indeed. A long time ago I mentioned that I was making a herb pot based on african masks. It has four faces (the mouths being the planting space) and obviously the top from which to grow your herb collection. Well here it is, sans herbs.



I have mixed emotions about it. On the one hand I think it's quite an achievement and on the other, There is none of the somber dark I'm a dead cool spirit representative vibe.

Then Helen who runs a backpackers at Oude Molen (where the studio is), brought in this great pic of her "Queen" hair and all, which I just love. But...




it occured to me then, that my guys might end up looking like they had a bad meal the night before once all the herbs were in place. The better they grew the worse the effect...irony perhaps.

Gremlins, gargouyels and/or garden gnomes

Hullo, hullo,hullo!

I went on holiday and fell into a technical blackhole.

Sad, but I had a camera and other people had gardens.

Spotted on my travels through small town South Africa: Velddrift's take on happy families.

You can argue the art but in it's defense it is waterwise!