The small town of Port Nolloth’s history is centred on what used to be called “nature’s bounty”, specifically the exploitation of seals, then copper and then diamonds. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Find: Small town monument”
The suburb I live in nestles up against commercial plantations on the edge of town. Pre the colonial era and the development of urban settlement, what is now plantation and suburbia was part of a mosaic of mistbelt forest and grassland. Continue reading “Mistbelt forests of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands”
In Port Nolloth, a small town on the north-western Diamond coast of South Africa, nature comes back most obviously in the form of the pale shifting sands of the dunes and desert. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Find: The sand of Port Nolloth”
Chorister Robin-chats are in permanent residence in our garden, but until now we have not known where they nest. Continue reading “The ongoing saga of the nesting Chorister Robin-chats”
This photo shows a mother goat with her new-born baby, having just given birth in the street outside the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in the small Eastern Cape town of Tarkastad. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Find: The presence of nature in small towns”
I noticed a decoratively marked black-and-white pollinator, studiously visiting flowers on our lavender bushes last week. I had not seen one of these unusually marked insects before, but guessed that it might be a solitary bee. Continue reading “Being there: The diversity of solitary bees”
Although I have featured this plant before, I thought its flowers decorative enough for another look. The African Dog Rose has elegantly showy flowers. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Find: African Dog Rose”
This Forest Canary didn’t seem to notice me sitting with my camera in a corner of the garden, and it approached really close, even drinking from the nearby birdbath before seeing me and flitting up into a tree. Continue reading “Wild and free canaries in the garden”
These tiny freesias pop up in unexpected places in the garden. In the wild they thrive in the shade in forests, woodlands or thickets. Continue reading “Weekly Photo Find: Woodland Freesia”
