March | 2014 | The Fynbos Blog

Monthly Archives: March 2014

Protea Repens, the iconic Sugarbush

Posted on March 30, 2014 by fynbosblog Leave a comment

If there is an iconic flower on this mountain, indeed in much of the Cape, it is Protea Repens. The book says it flowers all year round but on these mountains this flower is the precursor of autumn and as the days shorten and a damp chill scents the air, these creamy, sometimes pink tipped flowers open all over the farm. The common name is sugarbush and very often they are full of bees feasting themselves on the nectar. I like to think that our honey at this time of year must come mostly from from this source.

This morning was spectacular, blue, green and golden, and the dogs and I set off for a gorgeous run with the objective of capturing some images of Protea Repens as it dominates this flowering moment. With the rain we’ve had there will be more to see before long.

The national flower of South Africa is Protea cynaroides, the King Protea and with it’s huge and gorgeous flowers one can understand why. I was interested to read in my research that until 1976 the national flower was in fact Protea repens. It makes sense, it is stunningly beautiful, ubiquitous here in the Cape and there is something glorious about this shrub that chooses to flower in the arid season of the year when all is dried and shrivelled, all colour gone and which continues to flower all through the winter. We will see more of these in the blog, I can’t resist how they catch the endlessly different light on the mountain and in the months to come we’ll see great banks of them flowering all over the farm.

Protea Repens – if you look closely you can see the feasting bees

A pink and white Protea repens catches the morning light

A pink and cream Protea repens catches the morning light

Light shining through a large Protea repens sighted at the top of the olive groves

The same shrub covered with creamy white flowers

A Flower!

Posted on March 26, 2014 by fynbosblog Leave a comment

We have had heavy rains over the last few days – up to 40mm in some places which is high for this time of year. Some years the rains don’t arrive until April yet this year it has rained a little all through the summer. The farmers are not happy – these are the Cape Winelands and the farmers depend on the heat to ripen their grapes. This year they have struggled. The olives on our trees are sparse and slow to ripen, and we hear it is the same everywhere, even with the big producers.

The fynbos isn’t listening. At least not yet. After months of daily flowering and the expectation of something new and exciting every time I go out, I haven’t seen anything new for weeks. The Protea Repens is the one thing that is in flower and it is stunning. It needs a proper expedition to photograph it and a blog of its own. But little else. Until yesterday when I was driving up the drive and saw a tiny little spike. We are a bit chaotic at the moment what with Peter away, my horses injured and needing nursing twice a day, and the farm truck out of order which means I had to do the village school run today. But when I got back this afternoon I called the dogs and we went to inspect. What a stunning little thing. I have no idea what it is but I was so happy to see it.

Unidentified autumn flower

Later this evening we went for a gorgeous run around the farm. No special light, nothing to photograph in terms of flowers, just cloudy skies and still air. There is nothing I like more than these moments, the evening run with the dogs, the smell of the mountain and the call of the Cape Eagle Owl in the pine trees as we come back down the road through the half-dark to the house.

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Posted on March 14, 2014 by fynbosblog Leave a comment

The glimmering lights of Paarl

It’s been a busy week in Johannesburg and London and I returned home this morning a little bedraggled and the worse for wear off BA059. Peter points out that its not all because of work, I took advantage of a quieter week than usual in London to catch up with friends and family which was wonderful, but a very bumpy flight home and little sleep didn’t help today.

It’s hot in Paarl and I spent a quiet afternoon doing some work and catching up on emails in the shade of the big blue gums behind the house. This evening there is not a breath of wind, always rare on the mountain and the sky, the mountains are glowing in the light of the rising moon, nearly full.

I walked down to the dam wall in the stillness and all around the fiery necked nightjar and cape eagle owl called in the dusk. These are the sounds of the African night and I felt utterly at home. There is an autumn coolness in the air but the earth smells slightly burned and spicy from the heat of the day. The lights of Paarl glow down in the valley with Paarl rock silhouetted against the setting sky. The moon rises over the house, reflected in the still waters of the dam.

An almost full moon rises behind the house

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Wolfhounds slipstreaming in the wind and glorious early autumn sunsets

Posted on March 4, 2014 by fynbosblog Leave a comment

Two lovely runs this week. One on a cool damp morning with the new growth of Leudadendron salignum glowing green in the grey light once again and bounding dogs enjoying the autumnal weather. The house is full of guests and it’s lovely to get up early, go for a run and enjoy my own company and that of the dogs, returning to a social breakfast full of chat and laughter before we get on with the day. Our guests are terrific, they know their way around the house and on Monday’s run I returned home to a delicious breakfast of poaches eggs with english muffins, avocado and olive oil, all prepared by Niall before he took himself off for a morning of work.

This morning was the perfect opposite in terms of weather, a typical hot dry windy morning with the heart monitor showing the heavy weather I was making of pushing up the mountain against the howling wind. The wolfhounds love the wind and stand face on, enjoying the feel of it slipping through their shaggy coats. As ever on a hot day, they enjoy a quick water break at Fox Pan as we run up the mountain and you can clearly see the wind ruffling their coats.

Seamus and Maebh enjoying water and wind

Although flowers are not prolific I can see the Cape cycle starting once again. Having grown up in the Irish climate where winter is winter and spring gets off to a slow start, this Cape climate is always a little strange to me. The slowest period is during the hot summer months of January and February. As the weather cools and the rains arrive, the whole mountain bursts into life, the flowering season starts again, lasts all winter and reaches it’s apotheosis in the spring months of September, October and November. Having been through the cycle once I am alert to the signs that the new flowering year is getting ready to launch. Murlatia hysteria is a real stalwart, along with the Salvia africana it really does flower all year long without a break, but now in anticipation of the rains it seems to be showing more blooms than ever. Here it is in the morning sunlight.

Muraltia heisteria

I cannot resist taking photos of the gorgeous Leucadendron salignum, particularly when it’s been raining which seems to set off the glowing green. There will be many more photos of this gorgeous plant during the course of the winter. It has begun its flowering season already.

Leucadendron salignum

One could do a whole blog just on grasses but as the are hard to photograph really well I tend to ignore most of them. It’s a technical subject and I have a couple of books, but not the time to identify this one which has just come into flower all over the mountain, especially in high, rather damp places.

Grasses with yellow flower

I’ve identified this as a member of the Helichrysum family. I’m still not sure that’s right but I can’t find anything else that it resembles. The flowers don’t seem very helichrysum-like to me, but I can’t find anything else that it resembles. As I was taking this photo just above Fox Pan, I realised that the dogs were very interested in the plant and really getting in to have a good sniff around. So I stopped and looked and you could clearly see that something had been lying up on top of it. Makes perfect sense, this plant is growing in front of a large protea, so it’s protected from the back, sheltered overhead and looks over Fox Pan and the whole mountain so whatever lay up there obviously felt completely safe and its lucky I didn’t run past at the wrong moment with the dogs. I presume it was a buck of some kind, we see lots of them and the dogs often put them up and give chase, but they are far far slower than any buck and don’t even try that hard. It’s lovely to see evidence of the animals who share this farm with us, whether it’s picking up a porcupine quill on a road that I’d only run the day before and imagine him shuffling up there in the dark, or seeing a plant flattened by a buck contented after her drink at Fox Pan and enjoying a rest on the mountain.

Is it Helichrysum?

We get the best sunsets at this time of year and I always try to capture and share the good ones. This was over the weekend as we sat on the balcony enjoying the house cocktail, gin and tonic with Campari.