Our False bay garden in May

 by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

 in Cape Town, South Africa

 

Chilly but the sun is shining. Step Through the Garden Gate with Sarah Down By the Sea in Dorset. Rescued from the weather a golden South Africa rose with orange Tecomaria capensis retrieved from pruning.

 

Golden South Africa rose with orange Tecomaria capensis
Golden South Africa rose with orange Tecomaria capensis

High wispy clouds, COLD, 7C overnight. Weather gods tipped out a bag of marshmallows ahead of the cold front.

 

Clouds
Clouds

Pink Thuli Madonsela winter battered, South Africa picked when perfect, Iceberg always in bloom. Our owl has a stately backdrop of glowing Euphorbia tirucalli. Aloe marlothii with a candelabra of buds. Ruby Lachenalia bulbifera coming.

 

Garden flowers in May
Garden flowers in May

Boophone leaves fan out almost a metre wide. Kumara plicatilis has four fans of leaves (needs more light and space). Spotted Aloe maculata has babies around it. In that pot I planted the reindeer antlers Cotyledon orbiculata, and lavender seedlings, but the lush Pelargonium capitatum and dancing Oxalis are gifted. Pregnant onion Ornithogallum bracteolata has one perfect spike. I weeded the beach, but the 'dwarf' papyrus is marching onwards!

 

May garden in green and texture
May garden in green and texture

When we moved in, down by Froggy Pond seemed a good place for the bird feeder. But, unlike Porterville, we can't see there from inside. And if we walk down ... the birds take off. The feeder is now outside my bedroom window, where I can enjoy the birds with my morning tea. Or lurk discreetly with my camera. And we can see it from the livingroom. He will paint it in pearly grey and a gentle rosy pink to fit its new home in Spring Promise (velvety grey Dusty Miller, with pink and white flowers)

 

Moved the bird feeder
Moved the bird feeder

Pruning the carob steadily, has opened a hole. The new trellis needs to budge over a bit to the left. Now my sister's sculpture and the bonsais on the table can star in that corner.

 

Without the green bird feeder with new trellis
Without the green bird feeder
with new trellis

Bottoms up, many doves hoover up as much and as fast as they can. The sparrows sing while they squeeze in between. Saw one weaver lady. (Thomas is responsible for the taller pole. Someone. Used to leap up and clip the corner, leaving it resting at a drunken, guilty, angle). Disconcerted one morning to look out and see a black cat with amber eyes gazing back at me. Chocolat! But as he beat a dignified retreat the tail was fluffier.

 

Doves and sparrow at feeder
Doves and sparrow at feeder 

In working days, the Ungardener was a tour guide. Found a model of the tour bus he used to drive. That is why he, can garage the car with centimetres to spare, while I sweat blood and weep.

 

When the Ungardener was a tour guide
When the Ungardener
was a tour guide

April Love was my mother's favourite. Pre-Raphaelite vivid blue dress is one my cherished memories.

 

April Love
April Love

Exhibition by local artists (mine is the one bottom of her sold list) at our mall. Each time I walked out, these oak leaves caught and held me. Scraperboard, so you get three layers - the white lines on black drawing, in relief, with colour added to make it sing. And as my mother said - read something new. What IS scraperboard? The next novel I read has an artist working on scraperboard.

 

Constantia scraperboard
Constantia scraperboard

Every few weeks I make another batch of muesli.

 

Muesli
Muesli

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Pictures by Diana and Jürg Studer

of Elephant's Eye on False Bay

 

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Comments

  1. Your muesli looks delicious! A tour bus operator? I'm impressed...although I understand your nervousness about parking, since I've never been comfortable driving large vehicles. ;-) Your garden, and plants, look amazing as always!

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    Replies
    1. That chopped dried fruit always reminds me of stained glass - such vivid glowing colour.

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  2. I love the orange flowers with the art in the background echoing similar warm tones. Your garden is looking lush and beautiful, Diana, and I'm sure you're enjoying your improved view of the bird feeders. I have a trio of feeders visible from my home office window, currently standing empty, although birds perch there occasionally as if to point out my oversight. I let them all go empty back in February because we were experiencing a deadly epidemic of salmonella among songbirds here. As there's no longer a chance of wet seed spreading the disease, it's time for me to clean and refill the feeders.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Poor songbirds! There is bird flu at the World of Birds, but we haven't been warned not to feed.

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  3. Lovely seeing your colourful flowers brightening your home.The garden birds here love the sunflower seeds, I am not so keen on the sunflower seedings that have suddenly appeared.Your picture is fantastic , I love the colours and detail. Sarah

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  4. My late father drove a Greyhound bus until he retired. He could squeeze our big car (they were all big cars back when gas was cheap) into the tightest spaces too. He also had no fear of pulling out in front of others and would say. "They will stop." My mother would remind him he wasn't in a big bus! People stop for big buses but not small cars she would say... again and again.

    Thanks for causing me to recall a pleasant memory.

    Jeannie@GetMeToTheCountry

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  5. Love the bird feeder you have. Chilly for you right now, here we are having much needed rain today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was the Ungardener, it started small, then grew, bit by bit

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  6. You make your own muesli ! I have just got a taste for it, the alpen variety,that is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That way I can choose - no wheat, and change the fruit and nuts each time.

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  7. Beautiful bird feeder! So many doves. It seems doves are always hungry. Our doves and sparrows are less colorful than yours.

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  8. Your muesli looks delicious! Your garden flowers as well as you your picture.

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  9. That SA rose is glorious. The Huntington was offering it this past winter and I thought hard about making the 80 mile journey to pick it up, but it was the peak of Covid here, so...maybe next year.

    The 'April Love' blue--such a delicious color.

    Enjoyed seeing your garden in its winter vigor. Best wishes for a good rainy season!

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  10. I make my own muesli as well. Yours looks wonderful, as does the garden.
    Amalia
    xo

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  11. Nice May garden impressions, dear Diana! We also have to find a better place for our bird feeder - same problem as yours ...
    All the best from Austria!
    Traude
    https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2021/06/nexinger-schweiz-muschelberg-und.html
    PS: This time I have something called "Switzerland" on my blog ;-) But unfortunately it has little to do with real Switzerland, except for the rocks ...

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  12. Kumara plicatilis is gorgeous! Wow, what a fan!!

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