The pines have their own charms though. When you’re raised on European culture and JRR Tolkien - and our spectacular African scenery is just the backdrop to life - it was easy to romanticise this slightly exotic landscape. But it doesn’t really belong here and as such it lacks the intense diversity of our native biomes. The one upside though is that it provides a living for fungi from Europe which extrude bizarre fruits out of the ground and bark after rains.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday fun draws to a close chez @goflow42 and @jason66c. Old friends met. New conversations were held. @withoutaleaf cooked up great troughs of mussels in wine and garlic.
Sophie is an old lady now but still full of beans. Enjoying riding in #eljaguarazul avec @sophdex who deigned to let @ezlemoen pilot the sapphire chariot.
This little South Indian place in Newlands was great for lunch at the end of our river walk. But their claims to sell real Nepali momos were a bit exaggerated. Tasty dumplings they were. Nepali momos though? Nah. There’s a real gap in the market for a Nepali restaurant in Cape Town, I think.
A very long time ago they made a little walking route from Rondebosch through to Claremont along the Liesbeek. Even though most of it here is canalised, it’s still a very lovely walk from Observatory to Newlands for lunch on a summer’s day - especially because the locals all along the route have planted up a storm of flowers. Although it’s a domesticated section of the river, there’s still no shortage of life, such as a pair of African Black Ducks with a small swarm of ducklings.
Perched where she can see who goes up and down the stairs.