Back on my mountain walk this morning for the first time in a long time. Amazingly there were cultists bellowing early Wednesday morning. I took @withoutaleaf’s old canon S95 digicam. Apart from the zoom lens I’m not sure that the results are really better than my phone.

During and after our walk with @kanesnaps and Gnu the puppy. First pic is in front of a giant camphor tree, then Kane finding a bag for the porcupine skull, then Gnu cooling off in the pool where we soon joined her.

@kanesnaps found this grim skull of one of our African Ground Porcupines while we walked in the geen belt in the vicinity of Kirstenbosch yesterday. Cleaned up, it’s making a great garden ornament.

Oh. this was the other one I meant to post. The dinosaur landscape of the cycads that evolved before there were trees or grass. I’m planning my exit strategy from instagram which that ridiculous animated manikin, Zuckerberg, has now enshittified to the point where it’s just a place for seeing recycled stuff from TikTok and Twitter. I see more original photos on Bluesky and I’m not exaggerating. The reverse Midases of big tech will never stop (unless they run into Mario’s brother) so I think I might scrape everything off here and put it on my own website.

Another Kirstenbosch pic. Photography wisdom says dappled light through leaves doesn’t work. And that wisdom is probably right. I’m impressed at how sharp my cheapie ttartisan 17mm f1.4 is when stopped down to somewhere between f5.6 and f8.

Another little expedition into Kirstenbosch with my old man in his dapper explorer’s outfit. Wandering about. Taking pictures.

I went on a long walk yesterday morning after waking up too early. I took my camera. I won’t say I got any striking pictures but I’m glad I now have a document for myself of my regular running route to Rondebosch common (obviously I can’t carry a camera when running). I’m trying to put a couple of concepts together this year. I have had some luck in increasing the consistency with which I engage in activities by documenting them in a very simple, binary way. Did I or didn’t I on a given day - no details of duration or quality need be captured. ...

Another one from Kirstenbosch the other day. This is the remnant of a protea flower.

A rather lovely and whimsical Observatory garden I noticed while out walking early.

Butterflies at Kirstenbosch this morning. I hope everybody has a good year.