As it is easy to carry tucked into a pocket, having my phone with me allows me to be impulsive and experiment with photographing plants and creatures that catch my eye when I am out in the garden.
Continue reading “Phoning home: Lockdown nature photos on my phone”
Various lockdown permutations since March last year have affected when and where we could walk, but current restrictions allow walking and exercising outdoors so long as protocols are followed. Fortunately for us, we have an easily accessible area for outdoor walking as our suburb is skirted by a commercial plantation.
Continue reading “Lockdown walking in the woodland, or rather plantation”
In these dark days I found sombre solace in the quiet strength of woodland trees and the plants and fallen leaves of the understorey. It seemed fittingly subdued to shoot these photos in monochrome.
Continue reading “Finding solace in trees and woodland”
Today I remember the New Year’s Eve that we spent in remote Linyanti in Botswana’s Chobe National Park, as we anticipated the first year of this millennium. How different things are now.
Continue reading “On the eve of a New Year”
There was a time when we wished for solitary Christmases when we had to take our holidays over Christmas and we chose to be away in remote places. But of course this year, a solitary Christmas is thrust upon us. Not having a choice is a different matter, and for many of us it is distressing or at the very least disappointing not to be with family and friends over the festive season.
Continue reading “Remembering another solitary Christmas: Botswana, December 1999”
Despite its pretty spring flowers and its summer fruits, the horsewood is known more for the smell associated with its crushed leaves than for its attractive appearance. In South Africa it is commonly referred to by its Afrikaans name, perdepis, which literally means ‘horse piss’.
Continue reading “Horsewood: Slender tree of the forest margins”
Many flowers not only please the eye but brighten the mood – so this post features some mood brightening flowers. And there’s more! All of the featured flowers have attracted a visitor. Some of the visitors might be cheering and others less so, but they are all interesting. Guaranteed!
Continue reading “Encounters with flowers and their visitors”
We cannot necessarily put our finger on what makes patterns in nature so recognizable. In some natural phenomena we may see elements that are recurring, sometimes at different scales: repeating elements in shapes that are complex and irregular.
Continue reading “Patterns in nature: Fractals”
Some leisurely lurking around our garden pond in times past yielded some patterns pleasing to the eye and to the mind. In these troubled times and after the widespread damage from the fearsome hailstorm we experienced last week, for this post I settle for some undemanding peace and quiet.
Continue reading “Perceiving patterns at the pond”