Spring at last!

We visited the plot in the middle of July after my return from England and the time was spent restfully reconnecting with nature.

Basking in the winter sun was such a treat after all the rain and cold in Cape Town.

Imagine our surprise when we saw that one of our Wild Olive trees is in fact an Olive tree and was bearing small fruit profusely! We harvested most of the  fruit  for processing, mainly to demonstrate our appreciation of the effort put out by the tree. The fruit was really small!

We returned to the plot in the last week of September, after first visiting friends in Pringle Bay and Stanford. We spent time pruning trees and removing fruit that was draining energy from trees; fruit which we would not  be around to harvest ourselves. 

We could smell the Jasmine from about 30 metres away!

The Acacia Robusta had just started sending out new leaves.

The vicious thorns serve a purpose for the resident Shrikes

 Shrike's pantry

We noticed that many birds were out and about, preparing for the new season. 

 Blue Cranes

I am so glad that we planted lavender, wild sage and some succulent bushes at the base of most of the trees. The Sunbirds do love them.

Can you see him?

Some typical Renosterveld vegetation is starting to return at last. We pull the Renosterbos out wherever we find it, otherwise nothing else gets a chance to grow. In it's natural situation, Renosterbos is not so overwhelming but on disturbed land, the Renosterbos just takes over in an unnatural way. 

 Wild Lavender (Eriocephalus africanus)

Anthospermum aethiopicum

I noticed that some of the Sand Olives were laden with seed 
while others were still naked. 

We took a few walks to make the most of the good weather before it turned unpleasant.

At the end of our stay, the rain and a heavy wind set in and we were quite glad to be moving on. Our next stop was Laingsburg and this time we had determined to drive via the Seweweekspoort, a route neither of us had ever transversed. 

Little did we know then that we would have to return to Cape Town via the plot because of my absentmindedness on the morning of our departure.