A new look
If you’ve visited the blog before you might notice I’ve changed the theme. I have been wanting to find out how to improve it for ages and suddenly I have some time to play with it, curled up on the sofa with Maebh while Niall and Peter enjoy the Sunday night movie.
We’ve been having some wonderful runs on the mountain – the weather this week has been warm and sunny and the mornings have been stunning. Not too cold even first thing; as we run up the mountain the rising sun hits Table Mountain in the far distance. 60 Kilometres away – too far to photograph from here but the human eye is a magical thing and then we see the light flood the entire Western Cape until it catches the Paardeberg and the Simonsberg and finally Paarl moutain opposite us and then climbs the lower hills of this mountain until it reaches us at about 8.30. By which time we know we are late for breakfast and we tear down the hill as fast as we can.
We are usually late because we’ve stopped to photograph something. The wild rosemary, Eriocephalus africanus, is in full bloom now. We were kindly invited to a divine lunch at Overture restaurant today at Hidden Valley where they have a magnificent fynbos garden and this is used to great effect. There are places on the farm where it looks like it has been planted by a brilliant landscaper – great banks of whiteness.
We always see something interesting as we trot down the drive and this one is a scruffy looking thing – it looks like nothing from a distance but Ericas are deceptive and close up you can see the tiny tiny flowers, the telltale little bells make the identification as an Erica certain, though I can’t say which Erica it is.
I can’t resist taking a photo of Protea nerifolia when I see a particularly beautiful specimen – my favourites are the white variation but this pink flower shimmers in the morning light.
Protea Nerifolio
I can’t find this one in the book – it is heath-like but not an Erica – will hope an identification pops up and repost if it does.
Unidentified fynbos shrub
The Fynbos Blog 