Goodbye 2015

A light wind swept over the corn, and all nature laughed in the sunshine. 

-Anne Bronte

"Golden wheat" - painted with Nescafé instant coffee, strong and black - ©Maree Clarkson

As the year draws to a close, I want to take a moment to thank you for allowing me to be an important part of your daily life. I've immensely enjoyed reading all of your blogs (even though I don't comment much!) and learnt so much and I'm always thrilled when you leave a comment and we can have a bit of discussion.

This year has had it's ups and downs in my garden (I've lost two big trees and a few frost-tender plants) and Mother Nature has taken and given in abundance, both in fauna and flora. I've seen many a brood of baby birds being raised but I've also experienced the loss of the baby Robins and a few of my beloved chooks. But overal-ly it's been a good year and I hope we will all still be together for many more years to come!

And remember, life is short. Laugh regularly and connect with nature - it helps you find peace in your busy life while making the world a better place!

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Season's Greetings from my home to yours 2015

My sincerest wishes for hope, happiness and peace during this Holiday Season. May you spend wonderful, happy hours with friends, family and loved ones!

It's Agapanthus time!

Every summer I look forward to the few Agapanthus (A. praecox) that I have, flowering. I say “few”, because I struggle to grow these beauties in my garden (Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa) – too much shade. I have found that they prefer full sun and not too much water.

The evergreen species is indigenous to the winter rainfall Western Cape and all-year rainfall Eastern Cape and shed a few of their old outer leaves every year and replace them with new leaves from the apex of the growing shoot. The deciduous species come from the summer rainfall Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Free State, Lesotho, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and Mozambique, and grow rapidly in spring with the onset of the rains, and then lose their leaves completely and lie dormant during winter.

Agapanthus species are easily able to hybridize with each other, particularly when grown in close proximity and as a result, a bewildering array of garden hybrids have arisen.

Insects just absolutely love Agapanthus and the Agapanthus is undoubtedly one of our indigenous botanical treasures. It has been exported to all corners of the earth, but occurs naturally only in Southern Africa, where it grows in the wild in all our provinces except the Northern Cape, as well as in Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique.

I doubt that there is a South African gardener alive that has not come across an Agapanthus somewhere! They line our roads, and are in most gardens and parks, from the tall globular-headed ones to the ever-shrinking dwarf cultivars now available at garden centres. This one above is the smaller praecox minimus species I have in my bathroom court-yard garden.

Here's to another bloomin' blue summer!

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Africa's 12 Days of Christmas

Hope you are all having a wonderful festive season!

Images from Africa, this is why I live here.

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They crept into my heart

I must say that, after the Fiscal Shrike (Lanius collaris) killed my Cape Robin-chat's babies to feed her brood of four, I was totally pissed off with her and swore no more interaction with that mean little bird. 

Mean little bird!

But as the days passed and I saw how the parents were struggling to keep up with four hungry little mouths, I broke down and started offering little pieces of minced meat on the feeding table again. The parents were SO thankful and immediately took little pieces, endlessly flying between the four hungry youngsters, who shrieked and flapped their wings in anticipation.

Since they hatched in late September (about 4 weeks ago), they have grown in leaps and bounds and it wasn't long before they would be waiting at the feeding table for me, knowing what's coming. For a while they still preferred Mommy to pick up the pieces and feed them, which she obligingly did but about a week and a half ago I observed her behaviour changing as she with-held the food from them, swallowing it herself and then turning on the shrieking little one, chasing it into the next tree. Mommy was saying, "It's time to leave home, children!"

For a day or two they still tried coaxing Mommy into feeding them, flapping and screeching, to no avail, and soon they were eagerly hopping onto the feeding table as soon as I appeared, hardly giving me a chance to put anything down! I would sometimes have three of them sitting there, helping themselves as fast as I could supply.

I now have them taking little bits of mince straight from my fingers, albeit a quick grab, and retreating to the nearest branch to enjoy it. What a wonderful experience that is! and all the while staring me straight in the eye with absolute trust in their little eyes.

During the day, as soon as I appear in the garden, all four would fly towards me, sitting close-by, intently watching my every move just in case a snack is forth-coming. I only feed them twice a day, early in the morning and again late-afternoon. If I'm in the garden and I don't see them anywhere, I just have to whistle and they're there like a flash.

These little birds are totally fearless, secure in the knowledge of their "raptor" status. When the Thrush or Robin see an insect on the ground and go to retrieve it, they will immediately land at the same spot, and as young as they are, immediately send the Thrush and Robin scurrying away in a hurry.

Little Raptor in the making!

Looking for all the world like a small hawk!

"I'm going to be fierce, can you see?"

These little darlings have crept deep into my heart and will really miss them when they leave (if they leave!), but already this morning only three came to feed. The eldest one has always been a bit more independent, always coming to get food after the fact of the matter and I think it might already have left for greener pastures.  C'est la vie little one!

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Winter is dead

She turned to the sunlight and shook her yellow head... and whispered to her neighbour, "Winter is dead”.
- A A Milne

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The Daybreak: Make an Important Goal Happen with a Morning Habit

Rainy days in the empty forest.

Smoke rises late as I steam greens

And boil millet to take to the paddies.

Above the foggy waterfields

Fly white egrets

And an oriole sings in

Dense shade of summer trees.

In the mountain I practice silence,

Contemplating morning hibiscus.

I pick hollyhock beneath a pine,

A vegetarian now,

No longer looking for position,

An old man living in the wilds;

Why should seagulls still be wary of me?

- Wang Wei (699-759)  

The sun begins to come up, and the first rays of light begin to shine upon this fresh day.
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What do you do with this time?

The most important thing.
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If you have a project you want to happen (let’s say you want to write a book), this is the time to form a habit that will make that project happen. A morning writing habit will get the book done. Simply wishing for the book to get written, or saying you’ll do it “someday,” doesn’t make it happen.
If it’s important, you’ll make a morning habit of it:

• If you want to lose weight, create a morning walking habit. Or morning strength training. Or a healthy breakfast with fruits and veggies.
• If you want to start a new business, create a morning session where you work on it every morning.
• If you want to become more mindful during your day, create a morning meditation habit.
• If you want to work on your relationship with your spouse, have a morning habit of talking about your relationship over coffee.
• If you want to journal, make it a morning habit.

Why is morning a better time for important habits? Why not afternoons or evenings? Well, I’m biased, because I really love the mornings. I’ve found the time to be quieter, less chaotic, better for reflection and focus.  Nature is at her best early in the morning, showing off her beauty as the sun rises on another perfect day. Some people will work better in the late nights, but I’m usually tired by then. So figure out what time is your magic time — I think for most people that will be mornings, but not all.
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There are great habits you can create in the afternoons and evenings too, but I recommend trying a morning habit if you have something important you want to get done.
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Make it a habit, and do it first.

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I have this dilemma...

I’ve got too many interests.

I love painting and sketching. I love gardening. I love nature. I love succulents. I love my memories. I love chickens. I love books. I’m interested in simple living, I’m interested in the health and well-being of the mind and body and our planet, I like home-made remedies and love deep discussions on religion (or the lack of it) and I love doing various crafts, like making jewellery and every now and then I love a good recipe.

And I’ve got a blog for each one. Seventeen of them to be exact. And a few in Afrikaans. Plus ten that I’ve made private. I love blogging, writing and sharing my interests, and I’m blessed that I do actually have the time, but it’s killing me, trying to keep up with all of them! I feel guilty when I neglect one of them and then will probably end up posting any drivel just so the blog can stay alive.

And you might ask, “Why?! Why so many? Why not just have one blog for all of it?” And I actually do feel a bit silly having so many blogs, even Blogger is getting suspicious, wanting to know whether I’m a Robot when I post a lot! Even though the limit on the number of blogs one can have is 100. I wonder if there is anyone that has reached that limit…?

Well, here’s the thing. I feel that, when I subscribe to a blog, it’s because I’m interested in that particular topic, say for example chickens or art, and if there is all sorts of other random topics included, I probably won’t subscribe. There’s a gardening blog I love, but every now and then (in fact, more often than not!), the lady includes posts on do-it-yourself furniture making and restoration, and I’m not interested in that at all. So eventually I unsubscribed from her blog. And the people that are subscribing to and reading my various blogs are, so I presume, doing it because they’re interested in that particular topic.

So here’s my question - how do you feel about the matter? To do or not to do so many blogs? Should I just have one blog and combine everything in there? Would the regular readers of say, my Nature Journal or my gardening blog, still visit my blog?

I would love to hear what you think!