Fujifilmxe1

The native forests of Table Mountain. Dense and ringing with the calls of forest birds - unlike the bare alien pine forests that still linger on some slopes.

My camera battery charger has been rediscovered. So I took it for a long walk in the woods on the mountainside this morning. It’s really striking how many more birds you hear when you leave the alien pines and enter the indigenous forest. Now that I recognise the eerie, jaunty call of the Sombre Bulbul, I can hear that the forest is lousy with them. I also spotted a Cape Batis.

I’ll take a ‘plain top’ Les Paul over a veneer top any day. The mystery of maple’s fungal growth patterns is that it changes depending on the angle of the light and how you look at it. Every slab of wood is completely unique. In just the right light, the faintest hint of flames becomes visible on the top of my 2010 Tokai LS150. And patterns that mean that it’s completely identtifiable - like that odd little curl and the deeper flame near the toggle switch. This is a workhorse rock guitar. It’s been banged up and played hard. But it’s still the best guitar I own against some pretty stiff competition.

So I ran into this in Pinelands in March…

Had to relearn how to take pictures when we went to a heavy metal show last night up the street with @sad_ivan and Tanya. @withoutaleaf and I aren’t really metal people so we dressed as tourists. We bumped into the organiser of this 200 odd people event and she can be seen wearing my fly glasses. Absolute blast. Metal heads are the best people. The band, Abaddon, were cracking. Tight as a drum. Thundering sound. A fine night out.

This fella has been feeling like the house is the siege of Stalingrad since the painting began. But he seems to gradually be accepting that he’s not in mortal danger.

Some #latergrams from Xmas in January. Omicron put a hold on our planned Christmas lunch and led to it being @withoutaleaf and my folks at their place for a slap-up lunch with a more modest roast chicken standing in for a turkey.

Our Liesbeek bird counting group had an away day this morning at Strandfontein Sewerage works. Jane and Terna looking out at the thousands of birds in every direction. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen the place so dense with avian life. As we drove down the tracks, Barn Swallows swirled around the car stuffing themselves with unseen bugs - to fatten up for their long journey back to the summer of Europe. We saw so many different ducks - Cape, Red-Billed, and Blue-billed Teals. Cape Shovelers. Spur-Winged Geese, Egyptian Geese, Southern Pochards, Fulvous Whistling Ducks, and Yellow-Billed Ducks. ...

A second of quiet dignity among quite a bit of camera-inspired hamming.

What @sad_ivan once called, “The cheap showiness of nature.” That blorange Cape sunset taking things over the top.